Chapter 59: The Truth

  Huiyi did not expect him to be so cunning, and let out a cry of surprise. The long sword in her hand flew out, knocking two swords away, but one slipped through the net and shot towards Xiao Jia Ding's chest!

  Xiao Jia Ding shouted loudly on horseback, turned sideways and lifted his foot, using the "Yellow Dog Urine" move, and the flying knife flew past him.

  Huī Yí was just about to cry out in alarm, but saw Xiao Jia Ding dodge in time, although his posture was very awkward, it was effective, and only then did she feel at ease. She had already seen Hong Shan flying towards the dark place to escape, she coldly snorted, raised her hand and threw out two iron lotus flowers, hitting Hong Shan's legs, who let out a pained cry as he fell into the grass thicket.

  Hui Yi flew away like a great roc, reached out and grabbed Hong Shan, pulled him back, and threw him heavily to the ground. Dai Bu Tou rushed up and pressed him down, binding him with two thumb-thick iron chains.

  Huī Yí came before Xiao Jiāo Dǐng and said: "Are you alright?"

  "It's okay! I'm so lucky! That was close, luckily I reacted quickly or else it would have been a disaster."

  Huiyi smiled slightly and looked at him curiously: "Yes, judging from your movements just now, you shouldn't have learned any martial arts, but your reaction is almost the same as that of a top-notch expert, which is strange."

  Xiao Jia Ding thought to himself, fortunately, he had the benefit of his transmigration and variation, which made his reactions much stronger. He said: "Your martial arts skills are really good, if it weren't for you, I'm afraid today would have been troublesome."

  He examined the two wounded captives, whose injuries were severe but not life-threatening, and had already taken medicine. Only then did he feel at ease, ordering that Hongshan and others be brought out of the village, finding a secluded grove, tying Hongshan to a tree, and beginning the interrogation.

  Xiao Jiading said: "We were ordered to come and capture you, but you dared to resist arrest. This is a serious crime. However, for you, it's no longer necessary to use this crime to deal with you, because you have already committed an even more heinous crime - intentional murder!"

  Hong Shan snorted and said: "Don't spout nonsense! Who did I kill?"

  "Xiao Jia Ding said: "You deliberately blocked the road outside Huangyan Village with trees, and then took advantage of Jin Lao San's servants moving the trees to hijack Jin Lao San, take him to the Liuhe Duanzui Cliff and kill him, and then throw him into the Liuhe River pretending he jumped into the river. Am I right?"

  Hong Shan's whole body was tense, his face stern and his voice low as he said: "You, what evidence do you have?"

  "Evidence? I don't know if Liu Xiangzheng's words count as evidence or not?"

  "What have you done with Master?"

  "Your Liu Lao Ye has already been caught by us! If he hadn't confessed, how would we have known about your murder of Jin Lao San? Will you confess voluntarily or do you need to be coerced with torture? You choose yourself!"

  Hong Shan was terrified when he heard Xiao Jia Ding's detailed account, his eyes rolling incessantly. If Liu Xiang Zheng hadn't confessed, would they have blackmailed them? But if Liu Xiang Zheng hadn't confessed, how did they know the details so clearly now?

  Seeing Hong Shan like this, Xiao Jia Ding stabbed him in the heart again and coldly said: "There's another thing you might not know. Your master had an affair with Zhao Shi from Huang Yan Village, who murdered her nephew, and they were caught red-handed tonight. When we interrogated him about his crimes, he already confessed to ordering you to kill Jin Lao San and his wife to silence them. What you wanted to silence was actually their private affair! Isn't that right? To be honest, we're clear about all your crimes. Now, asking for your confession is just a matter of seeing your attitude. Are you going to confess or not? This is my last time asking you. If you don't confess, I'll use torture!"

  Hongshan heard Xiang Ding say this most secretive thing, really thought that Liu Xiangzheng had already confessed everything, and resistance was no longer useful, so he softened up and said: "I confess!"

  Hong Shan told the whole story, roughly as Xiao Jiading had expected: Liu Xiangzheng discovered that his sister-in-law was having an affair with Jin Lao San and paraded them through the streets, beating them. He also planned to drown them in a pond, but unexpectedly, his sister-in-law revealed that she knew about his own affair with Zhao Shi. It turned out that she had learned this from Dongzi, a young servant who was having an affair with her. Liu Xiangzheng pretended to forgive them and took them back home, but secretly found the servant and ordered Hong Shan to behead him. He then buried the body in the garden and told outsiders that the servant had eloped with someone.

  Then, he personally took Hong Shan and a personal attendant named Xiao Pingzi, the three of them hid outside Huangyan Village, using the method of blocking the road with trees to divert Jin Lao San's entourage, then hijacked him, all the way to the edge of Liuhe River at Duanzui Cliff. Under Liu Xiangzheng's orders, Hong Shan chopped off Jin Lao San's neck with one palm, and Jin Lao San died on the spot. They threw the body into the Liuhe River below Duanzui Cliff, disguising it as a suicide.

  That little Pingzi was one of the servants who followed Liu Xiangzheng to meet Zhao privately this time, and has now been caught and is being held in Luocun Zheng.

  After returning, Liu Xiangzheng took Xiaopingzi and Shan Hong to an empty room, where he strangled his sister-in-law to death and disguised it as a hanging suicide.

  After the interrogation, Xiao Jiading immediately took Hong Shan back to Liu Xiangzheng's mansion, opened the door and identified himself, intending to search Liu Xiangzheng's residence.

  Xiao Jiading had already learned from Du Dali that Liu Xiangzheng was just a wealthy landowner who made his fortune through business, and this position of head of the village was bought with money. As long as it didn't involve high-ranking officials, no one would come to protect him, so Xiao Jiading felt confident, having also obtained full authorization from the magistrate of Kang County to investigate the case, he dared to order a search of Liu Xiangzheng's residence.

  At that time, Liu Xiangzheng was suddenly in a great mess. Fortunately, Dai Bao and his men were experienced in searching houses and immediately gathered all the people in Liu Xiangzheng's residence together. Under Luo Cunzheng's witness, according to Hong Shan's words, they dug up Fu Ban's corpse from the place where he said it was buried!

  Xiao Jiading immediately had the two coroners who followed him perform an autopsy, and found that the neck was broken, which was the cause of death, consistent with Hong Shan's description of the murder method!

  It's been busy until now, and the sky has slowly brightened up.

  Xiao Jiading immediately led the crowd to conduct an autopsy on Liu Xiangzheng's sister-in-law. Since it was winter and not much time had passed, most of the body had not decomposed. After the coroner examined the body, they found that the deceased had strangulation marks on her neck that were different from those caused by hanging, indicating that she was strangled to death before being hanged.

  At the moment, Yu made a draft of the contract and asked Liu Xiangzheng's family members who witnessed it to draw a picture on it as evidence.

  Xiao Jiading took the captured servants and escorted Hong Shan back to Huangyan Village. The other captured servants of Liu Xiangzheng were interrogated but found not to have participated in the murder or any other wrongdoing, so they were released.

  Back in Huangyan Village, Xiao Jiading did not go directly to interrogate Liu Xiangzheng. He still needed to perform an autopsy on Jin Lao San and obtain the final evidence.

  Jin Lao San's mother and other relatives have agreed to open the coffin for autopsy, which means that the case has been officially accepted by the government office for investigation. The Jin family is both happy and sad.

  The coffin was opened and the body was examined by a coroner, who confirmed that the deceased had also died from a broken neck. At the request of Xiao Jiading, an autopsy was performed on the body to examine the lungs and intestines, but no sand or aquatic plants were found, which is inconsistent with drowning and proves that the body entered the water after death, which is clearly recorded in the case file.

  The two coroners had never conducted such an autopsy before, and they found it very novel. They also found the results of Xiao Jia Ding's examination to be highly convincing. They were filled with reverence for this newcomer's extremely professional approach to autopsy.

  After the inquest was over, Xiao Jia Ding led everyone back to Luo Cun Zheng's residence.

  Luocun Zheng said he wanted to eat, Xiao Jiading said to do things first and then slowly eat, so he ordered to bring up Liu Xiangzheng's personal little servant Xiaopingzi for interrogation.

  This little Pingzi had never experienced such a scene, and was already scared to the point of wetting his pants. Now he was being interrogated again, and although the urine in his pants had dried, he now urinated again, wetting a large area. So when Xiao Jiading asked him, he told everything from start to finish.

  Xiao Pingzi handed over, Liu Xiangzheng hooked up with Zhao Shi after that, and often brought him and another young servant named Dongzi to ride horses to Huangyan Village to have an affair with Zhao Shi. Every time they came, it was at night, letting the two wait far away, and returning on horseback after the affair was over. Later, Dongzi somehow eloped with someone, and there was only one follower left.

  That day, he followed Liu Xiangzheng and Hong Shan to Huangyan Village. When they arrived at the village entrance, Liu Xiangzheng asked Hong Shan to go and gather information. After a short while, Hong Shan returned and said that someone was coming, but he didn't know who it was. Then, Hong Shan quickly cut down two large trees and laid them across the road. They then hid by the side of the road. Before long, a horse-drawn carriage came along, and three people got out to lift the trees. Hong Shan quietly climbed onto the carriage and quickly grabbed one of the men, who turned out to be Jin Laosan, the man who had been caught having an affair with Liu Lao's wife and paraded through the streets. They took Jin Laosan to the top of Lianhe Duanzui Cliff, where Liu Xiangzheng punched and kicked him before ordering his men to kill him. Hong Shan then chopped off Jin Laosan's head with one blow and threw his body into the river. He was terrified by what he had seen but didn't dare say anything.

  After returning, Liu Xiangzheng asked him to call his sister-in-law to an empty room. There were only Liu Xiangzheng and Shan Hong in the room. Liu Xiangzheng started strangling his sister-in-law's neck. His sister-in-law kicked and shouted wildly. Shan Hong was told to quickly close the door and guard outside, not letting anyone come in. After a while, the door opened, and he saw that Liu Xiangzheng's sister-in-law had been hanged from the beam.

  Xiao Jiading was now certain that the case against Liu Xiangzheng was airtight. There were at least two eyewitnesses who had testified to seeing him commit the murder, and their testimonies matched the evidence found during the autopsy. The case was essentially closed. As for whether or not Liu Xiangzheng would confess, it was no longer a major concern. According to Tang Dynasty law, a defendant had to confess in order to be convicted, but Xiao Jiading wasn't worried about this because he could use torture to extract a confession if necessary.

  He then ordered Liu Xiangzheng to be brought before him.