Soon after, Zhao Zhi Xian with several police officers accompanied Liu Dazhu all the way to Chen Dacheng’s home with a fast horse.
“My lord, this is the dossier of Chen Erlang’s wife murder case, please take a look.”Governor Zhao presented the dossier he was carrying to Zhu Pingan with both hands.
While Zhu Pingan was flipping through the dossier, Governor Zhao said from the sidelines, “My lord, I have also carefully reviewed the dossier of Chen Erlang’s case, the dossier’s human evidence, physical evidence, documentary evidence, and Chen Erlang’s confession form a complete chain of evidence, and I have also gone through the courtroom to arraign Chen Erlang once, and Chen Erlang has also admitted to killing his wife in person.”
Chen Dacheng couldn’t help but get agitated when he heard Governor Zhao’s words, and said indignantly, “Your Honour, please forgive me for not agreeing. My brother was beaten into confessing, my brother is a weak scholar, my parents did not spare a finger, that can eat the big torture waiting ah, was beaten half dead, can only condescend to confess.”
Zhao Zhixian spread his hands, helplessly said, “Chen patriarch, undeniable the former governor interrogation case with torture, but I arraigned Chen Erlang, but did not use torture, right, after the courtroom once asked, he personally admitted it.”
“Your Excellency, my brother, he was scared of being beaten, last time he was beaten half to death, if he didn’t admit it, he was tortured, and he was beaten until he admitted it; when you interrogated him in the courtroom, he was afraid of being tortured again, so he had to admit it in a condescending manner.”Chen Dacheng red a pair of eyes, tone can not help some choking said, “my brother poor ah, last time I went to the prison to see him, in the past the suave scholar, are almost no personal appearance ……”
“Patriarch Chen, be at ease.”
Zhu Pingan pacified Chen Dacheng and beckoned to Zhi Xian Zhao, “Zhi Xian Zhao lend a hand.”
Zhu Pingan pulled Governor Zhao to the side and said in a low voice, “Governor Zhao, this is a major event where human lives are at stake, so we have to be careful. Once it is made clear, there will be no more chance to correct it. As a husband, who would bear to kill his wife because of a sentence of ‘incompetence, going out all the time and also failing to pass the Xiu Cai exam’; after killing his wife, why did he throw away the head, which is also too out of the ordinary, and ……”
Zhu Pingan pointed out the doubts of the case one by one to Zhao Zhixian, and then said with a serious face, “Therefore, please also ask Zhao Zhixian to join me and reexamine this case. If there is indeed a mistake in this case, Zhi Xian Zhao will not lose the merit of re-trying the case; if there is indeed no mistake in this case, then the original judgement will be upheld and there will be no disadvantage.”
Governor Zhao heard this and could not help but ponder.
Zhu Pingan pulls him together to reiterate this case, is indeed for his own good, his own participation in the retrial, if Chen Erlang wife murder case overturned, then not only he has no fault, but also to retrial of credit; if Chen Erlang wife murder case upheld, then at most it is just a little bit of time, there is no adverse effect on himself.
On the contrary, if Zhu Pingan does not pull himself to participate in the retrial, but he alone retrial of the case, if Chen Erlang wife murder case overturned, although the conviction of the former county magistrate, but this case is now under his control, he also mentioned the trial, if the case is overturned, he is also no less than negligence of the crime of inadvertence.
Moreover, Zhu Pingan has a high official position, he took the lead to reopen the case, even if there is a problem in the future, there is also a big official Zhu Pingan to bear.
Thinking of this, Zhao Zhi Xian then nodded heavily, arching his hand and said: “Alright, then listen to your honour, if your honour wants to re-try the case, then I will accompany your honour to re-try and thoroughly investigate the case, and if you need me to do anything, I will definitely do my best to cooperate.”
“Many thanks to Governor Zhao for his support.”Zhu Pingan arched his hand in thanks, with the cooperation of Governor Zhao, a governor who was familiar with the local customs, re-trying this case would have a lot of convenience and would save a lot of energy and time.
“Your Excellency has flattered my humble servant. Your Excellency inviting my official to participate in the retrial is taking care of my official, and I have to thank Your Excellency for that.”Governor Zhao waved his hands and thanked Zhu Pingan, then added, “It’s just that, after all, a year has passed since this case, the scene of the pro-discovery has long since been destroyed, the victim has been buried, the body has decayed, and a lot of other first-hand information no longer exists, so it would be difficult to re-try to investigate the case thoroughly again now.”
Zhu Pingan said with a calm, confident face, “Some of the evidence has been destroyed, but there is some evidence that cannot be destroyed in any way. Although it is not easy, the truth cannot be covered up after all.”
“I don’t know where Your Excellency is going to start investigating.”Governor Zhao asked.
“Start by investigating from the victim’s head.”Zhu Pingan said without hesitation, this was the biggest and most prominent doubt in the case according to Zhu Pingan, all the other doubts were highly subjective, only this one was objective, and at the moment it was the only one that could be discerned by checking the case.
“What?Checking from the victim’s head?!”Zhao Zhi Xian heard, immediately surprised open mouth, puzzled said, “adults, the victim’s head since the crime has not been found, according to Chen Er Lang confessed to abandon the woods, the former governor widely dispatched servants, and even a reward for the outside world, searched for more than ten days, the entire woods were turned upside down, have not found the victim’s head. I have also sent people to search the woods, but also did not find anything. Perhaps they have long since been buried in the belly of wild dogs and wolves, how else can this be investigated?”
Governor Zhao thought that a year had already passed, and that he had not been able to find the victim’s head even after the massive search at the time of the crime, and that time had changed, so it was even more unlikely that he would be able to find the victim’s head now.
Zhao did not wait for Zhu Pingan to answer, and then continued, “Moreover, even if the victim’s head was found, it would only further prove that Chen Erlang killed his wife.”
Governor Zhao politely reminded Zhu Pingan that the idea of investigating from the victim’s head was wrong and in the wrong direction.
When Zhu Pingan heard this, he could not help but shake his head and smile slightly, Zhi Xian Zhao was actually caught in an inertia mindset.
“Ta-Jen Zhao, finding the chief, but not from the woods where Chen Er Lang confessed. And finding the head is not proof that Chen Erlang killed the recipient, but rather the opposite, the result might subvert the entire case.”
Zhu Pingan slowly said, his voice was not loud, but in Zhao Zhi Xian’s ears it was no less than a thunderbolt.
“Ah?Not from the woods where Chen Erlang confessed, then where to start? Finding the head is not proving that Chen Er Lang killed his wife, but reversing the whole case?This, this, this where to start ah ……”
Zhao Zhi Xian was as if he was struck by lightning, he stayed there like a log, his mind was at a loss, his eyes were full of question marks, he felt that he could not keep up with Zhu Ping An at all, I could understand every word in Lord Zhu’s words, but how could I not understand Lord Zhu’s words at all.
Standing in Zhao magistrate’s point of view, Zhu Pingan’s thinking is like a gazelle hanging from the corner, no trace, he can’t keep up with it, not only can’t keep up with it, can’t even see it, no way to keep up with it.
If you don’t check from the forest where Chen Erlang confessed, then the sky is huge, where to start?Also, find the head, why will subvert the whole case?!
It was as if there were ten thousand reasons in Zhao Zhi Xian’s mind.
