In the early Northern Song Dynasty, around the time when Song Renzong was emperor, Haozhou had a new governor named Zheng. For the convenience of telling the story, let’s call him Zheng Fuyin.
Zheng Fuyin is an upright official, serious in his work, honest and upright. He is especially good at solving strange and mysterious cases. He can also solve cases even related to ghosts.
On this day, Zhengfu Yin Xiumu had nothing to do, so he went to the back hall to sit in meditation. Just as he was about to open the book, he heard a noise. Looking up, I saw a woman at the foot of the stairs. She seemed to be less than thirty years old and was very beautiful.
The woman looked at Zheng Fuyin, then began to cry, and bowed down to salute. She was very sad and seemed to have a grievance to say, but she didn't know whether it was because she was mute or because she had difficulties. She didn't speak or cry, but her face was filled with grievances.
Zheng Fuyin was so courageous that he thought it was a banshee. He got up and went to the house, took a mahogany stick and was about to beat the woman. When the woman saw it, she was startled and quickly knelt down and kowtowed, as if she was scared.
Zheng Fuyin shouted loudly and said, "Where are you from, woman? If you are an unprovoked brat, leave as soon as possible. If you are an unjust ghost who died in vain, transform and let me know!"
After the woman heard this, she immediately changed. It turned into a cloud of smoke, floating in the sky, and then returned to its original state.
"It seems that you are indeed an innocent soul. Since there is an injustice, then lead the way and let me see your true body, and then I can help you clear up the injustice." Zheng Fuyin put down the mahogany stick.
As soon as the woman heard this, she immediately went out and disappeared into smoke again. Zheng Fuyin was worried that he would not be able to catch up, so he asked his disciples to follow Yun Yan. The disciples followed the order and saw that Yunyan had arrived five or six miles away. After entering the post house, she disappeared. When the disciple saw it, he went back and told Zheng Fuyin.
After Zheng Fuyin learned about it, he went to the hotel in person and looked around for a long time, but found nothing strange. So, he asked someone to bring tools and started digging down to the place where the disciples described the clouds and smoke disappearing. He dug a few feet deep and found a body that had not yet rotted. It was the same as the previous woman, about twenty-six or seven years old, and was only wrapped in a mat.
Zheng Fuyin called his neighbors over and asked them what was going on and who this woman was. Those people shook their heads, not knowing what was going on and not recognizing the woman.
Zheng Fuyin thought for a while and asked someone to call Chen Shang, Tugong (the person who was responsible for burying corpses in ancient times), and asked him what was going on. Chen Shang looked at it and shook his head, saying that he didn't know.
Zheng Fuyin was very unhappy and said, "You are responsible for burying corpses. Now, there is a corpse here, but you say you don't know? I will give you five days to find out who this woman is and who killed her, and then come back and report to me. If you can do it well, you will be rewarded, otherwise you will not be lenient!"
Chen Shang thought to himself: "How can I know this?" However, he did not dare to say it to his face, so he could only complain in his heart, and then went home.
After returning home, his wife saw that he was unhappy and asked him what was going on. Chen Shang told his wife that Zheng Fuyin asked him to check the woman's body. He also said, "I don't know who this woman is. How can I check? Alas, the master also said that if I can't be found out, I will be severely punished. What can I do?"
But the wife smiled and said, "My lord, it's a trivial matter, so why worry about it?" ? I have a plan to help you. I heard the old man say that you just need to find someone who looks very similar to the deceased, get her drunk, and when she is drunk, let her sleep with the deceased. At the same time, the person's tongue is placed in the mouth of the deceased. It is said that this is to give the deceased a breath, and she can tell her own situation. When the time comes, just take notes and write them down. "
After hearing this, Chen Shang had no choice but to give it a try.
He found a prostitute who looked similar to that woman. The prostitute was courageous and greedy for money, so she followed Chen Shang to his house with the attitude of "at worst, she would get him drunk and play with her all night".
In the evening, Chen Shang tried his best to get the prostitute to drink, and the prostitute soon became drunk. So Chen Shang carried her to the woman's side, pulled out her tongue and put it into the woman's mouth. Afterwards, Chen Shang hid aside, holding a pen and paper, preparing to record.
After the third update, the woman really spoke.
It turns out that the woman is from Xizhou, her name is Guishan, and she has been an orphan since she was a child. When she was fifteen years old, she was bought by the old bustard because of her beauty, and she became a brothel girl from then on.
Ten years ago, Lin Fuyin, a native of Damingfu in Beijing, came to Haozhou to take office. I heard that there was a pretty girl named Guishan in the brothel, so I spent several hundred taels of silver to buy her as a concubine. Lin Fuyin loved her very much, but in doing so, he angered his first wife, Lin Fuyin's wife.
Madam has always wanted to get rid of her concubine, but she had no chance and could only wait.
A month later, Lin Fuyin went out on business. He had important things to do, and it was inconvenient to take his concubine with him, so he could only let her take care of himself. As a result, as soon as Lin Fuyin left, the wife called her concubine into the room, found an excuse to beat her, hit her with a stick, whipped her with a whip, and made her kneel down to slap her and wait.
In the end, the concubine was beaten to death by the madam and buried in the post.
Later, when Lin Fuyin's term expired, he was promoted to a senior official and took office directly. He didn't see his concubine, and he vaguely knew the situation, but he didn't explain it. In this way, Lin Fuyin took his wife, servants, maids, etc. and headed back to his house. This matter was slowly forgotten and no one knew about it.
After hearing this, Chen Shang recorded everything.
The next day, before dawn, Chen Shang moved the prostitute to another room, gave her more money, and let her go home. The prostitute was very happy, took the money and left.
Chen Shang bought a coffin, put the woman's body in it, placed it in the room, and sealed the door. Immediately, Chen Shang came to the government office, told Zheng Fuyin what happened last night, and took down all the records to show Zheng Fuyin.
Zheng Fuyin asked Chen Shang how he knew it, and Chen Shang told him all the methods his wife had taught him. Zheng Fuyin had no doubts and immediately summoned Lin Tidian's wife. She did not quibble and confessed directly. She said that her conscience had been burdened with guilt over the years and she had suffered enough condemnation. If she confessed earlier, it would be atonement.
This matter involved the official wife of an official of the current dynasty. Zheng Fuyin did not dare to take matters into his own hands, so he submitted a memorial to the emperor and made the matter clear.
Emperor Renzong was furious when he heard about it, and immediately summoned his ministers to discuss what to do about the matter. If it's not handled well, I'm afraid all the real wives in the world will bully the concubine.
Finally, the imperial edict came down, and Emperor Renzong made a decision.
Lin Tidian was originally an official of the imperial court, but he took advantage of his power to secretly take women from brothels as concubines (officials were not allowed to marry prostitutes at that time), which violated the law and should have been dismissed. However, considering Lin Tidian's meritorious service, he was demoted by two levels and fined three years' salary. His wife beat her concubine to death and should have been executed. However, considering that Gui Shan was originally a prostitute, she was given a lighter sentence and was sentenced to two thousand miles in prison.
As for Guishan, her grievances were redressed, and Zheng Fuyin also cleared her name and gave her a good burial.
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