Chapter 113: Inspection of the Autumn Examination
August 21st, the tenth year of Guangde, was the last day of the first session of the Shuntian Prefecture Autumn Examination.
Although it was Sun Shaozong's first time to be an invigilator, he knew that this final sprint stage was when cheating would occur most frequently.
Therefore, even though he hadn't had a good night's sleep for four consecutive days, he still put on an energetic look and patrolled back and forth in the examination room.
"I passed, I passed the exam! Hahahaha... I'm a juren, I'm going to be an official! Hahahaha..."
Suddenly, a burst of crazy laughter came from not far away.
Sun Shaozong paused for a moment and waved behind him. Immediately, several soldiers ran towards the place where the sound came from. Soon, there was another sound of roaring and fighting.
"Let me go! How dare you be so disrespectful to me? I will report this to His Majesty. I will report..."
But soon, the commotion returned to silence, and then the soldiers were seen dragging an unconscious scholar out of the examination room like a dead dog.
"Old rules."
Sun Shaozong calmly ordered: "First, pour cold water on him twice, then slap him a few times to scare him. If he still won't wake up, tie him up in the shed to the west."
It has to be said that the pressure of the imperial examination is much greater than that of the college entrance examination. Coupled with the poor conditions in the examination room, it is not uncommon to drive one or two people crazy.
For someone like Fan Jin, who went crazy after passing the imperial examination and was able to wake up again, it can be considered a blessing from our ancestors.
In fact, there are many people who go crazy in the examination hall and stay there for the rest of their lives!
These are still due to their own psychological fragility. Those who failed the exam due to accidents are more easily stimulated.
For example, there were people who were caught in the fire, people who got dysentery after drinking raw water in the examination room, people who were buried under the sudden collapse of the examination room...
Yesterday I heard a Hanlin scholar from the South talking about how there were cases where people were suddenly bitten by poisonous snakes and insects while taking exams.
Because people were not allowed to leave the examination room, they could not get timely treatment and could only watch the poisoned candidates wailing and dying.
Anyway, it all comes down to one sentence: It's not easy to be a scholar!
But this is just their own feeling. If Sun Shaozong were to make an evaluation, these crappy literati are just despicable and pretentious - except for the suffering during exams, how are they not treated better than ordinary people in their daily lives?
Let’s not talk about anything else, let’s just talk about the refugees outside the city now. Anyone who has the status of a scholar can not only apply for additional relief from Shuntian Prefecture, but can also enter the city openly to find a job. Compared with other refugees, there is a world of difference!
Not to mention those wealthy families without children, who took the opportunity to select a son-in-law from the young scholars who As long as the son-in-law is handsome, they can become rich overnight in minutes!
Of course, there are also some gay men who, under the pretext of seeking marriage, are eyeing the chrysanthemums of the scholars...
Huh?
While thinking about these random things, Sun Shaozong suddenly stopped and fixed his eyes on a candidate in front of him on the left. After a while, he nodded with his chin and ordered, "Go up and search!"
Several soldiers were about to take action when they saw the candidate slide down the wooden board under his buttocks and fall to the ground. He then kowtowed and said, "Sir, please spare my life, sir, please spare my life!"
But the soldiers didn't care what he was shouting.
He pounced on him and stripped the scholar naked in no time. Sure enough, he found dozens of cheat sheets in the lining of his underwear!
"grown ups!"
The leading soldier gnashed his teeth and said, "I will go and gather to see which bastard dared to frame you!"
These soldiers were temporarily transferred from the patrol camp, and most of them were subordinates of the cheap big brother Sun Shaozu.
Now that such a mistake has been made, not to mention that he will not be able to explain it to Sun Shaozong, even when he returns to the military camp in the future, he will probably not be able to get away with anything good, so this soldier is so angry.
"It has nothing to do with the person in charge of the search."
Sun Shaozong shook his head and said, "This person is dressed in pure white, and even the wooden board he used has been wiped repeatedly. However, the collar of his underwear is covered with oil mud, which is completely contrary to his clean character. Moreover, the fabric used for this underwear is also much worse than that of the outer clothes..."
After a pause, he ordered again: "Go check the people guarding the toilets nearby to see if any of them are wearing underwear that doesn't match their status. If you find any, put them in a 30-jin shackle and drag them to the door to be displayed to the public!"
"Yes, sir!"
The soldiers took the order and left, and Sun Shaozong continued his inspection.
Seeing that the round was about to be completed, Sun Shaozong was preparing to go to the chief examiner to discuss the details of collecting the papers.
Suddenly, a gatekeeper came hurriedly, shouting, "Master! There's a murder in Wanping County, and now the county magistrate of Daxing County has come to ask for your advice."
A murder occurred in Wanping County, and the county magistrate of Daxing County came to seek advice?
This is quite strange to hear.
However, after a brief thought, Sun Shaozong guessed that it was most likely the "bloody" murderer who committed the crime.
Although according to the rules, no one was allowed to leave the examination room without permission during the Autumn Examination unless summoned by the emperor.
But it was still possible to have a few words with people outside through the gate under the supervision of the yamen runners, especially when it came to a serious murder case, and there was no need to worry about someone thinking something wrong.
So Sun Shaozong hurried to the front gate of the Imperial Examination Hall, but saw that in addition to Su Xingfang, the magistrate of Daxing County, there was also Jiang Laoqi, the head of the Wanping County constable squad.
As expected by Sun Shaozong, the purpose of these two people's visit was exactly about the "blood letter " case!
After listening to Sun Shaozong's analysis that day, the whole Daxing County cast a wide net on August 20th to capture the murderer, but in the end, nothing was found.
At that time, Wang Qian also complained that Sun Shaozong's analysis was complete nonsense.
Unexpectedly, early this morning, someone found Lin Zongmao, a patrol constable in Wanping County, murdered in the alley outside his home. The words "Shen Duan" were written in blood on his chest, and he was also killed by a single knife piercing his heart.
Logically speaking, Wanping County should be responsible for this case.
However, Wanping County Magistrate Xu Huaizhi argued that Daxing County had already filed a case for this and that the two cases should be handled together to make it easier to find the murderer.
Moreover, two people died in Daxing County, while only one died in Wanping. Naturally, Daxing County should be the main focus, with Wanping County as the auxiliary.
Therefore, there was a strange scene where the Daxing County Magistrate took the Wanping Constable to investigate a case.
"After our initial investigation, there should be no connection between the three victims."
Su Xingfang smiled bitterly through the doorway and said, "Plus, we didn't find any useful clues at the scene, so we really have no way to investigate. In order to avoid more deaths, we have no choice but to trouble you again, sir."
Indeed, the most feared thing when investigating a case is this kind of perverted random murder case!
Especially in ancient times when science was not well developed, it was even more difficult to find the murderer.
However, generally speaking, planned serial random murders like this often have an internal connection beneath the seemingly illogical appearance.
As for this case...
Sun Shaozong went over the general circumstances of the case in his mind, and suddenly asked Jiang Laoqi, "Captain Jiang, I wonder what the public opinion of this deceased street patrol detective is like?"
