Seeing that Yang Qiuchi had stopped, he kept instructing the village Min Zhuang to carry the Grand Master chair and follow Suli behind him. He quickly asked Min Zhuang to put the Grand Master under a shade of a tree to rest.

Yang Qiuchi sat in the Taishi chair, waving the folding fan, thinking about what to do, and recalled the situation of the iron chain carefully, and always felt that he had missed something.

What is it? Yang Qiuchi looked at the thin iron chains tied around the dog's neck in the small yard in front of him, and suddenly felt aroused in his heart and told Suri to take down the iron chains tied up for himself.

The family was afraid of the officials and had already hid in the room. Surry was standing at the door of the yard and asked them to quickly remove the iron chain of the dog.

The family then quickly left the room. Knowing that the master had an order, he was panicked and wanted to take the dog chain. Suri was scolding: "Do you want to let the dog out? If you hurt the master, how many heads do you have? Why don't you still take the dog into the room and then take the chain!"

Zhuang Jiahan was an old man in his fifties. He was so scared that his whole body was trembling. After hearing Su Lizheng's scolding, he became even more panicked. He repeatedly agreed and locked the dog in the room. Then he took the iron chain of the dog, and then he knelt forward and handed the iron chain to Yang Qiuchi with both hands.

Yang Qiuchi took it and looked at it carefully, and said to the old man: "Did you always do this when you bought the iron chain from the blacksmith shop?"

The old man trembled and replied, "Reply...Report... It's all like this."

Yang Qiuchi touched both ends of the iron chain, which were two complete oblong iron rings. Immediately recalled that the end of the thin iron chain tied to the neck of the corpse was an oval iron ring that was only a complete one, with more than half remaining, and it was almost cut off from the top.

At that time, Yang Qiuchi didn't pay attention. He thought that it would be like buying a rope. You should cut it off as long as you want. Therefore, it is normal to have cut-off marks at one end. However, judging from the iron chains with dogs I just checked, this is not the case. It seems that this kind of iron chain has a fixed length and is made of fixed specifications of the iron wall. It is specially used for dogs.

Since the iron chains on the dog are of fixed specifications, the iron rings on both ends should be complete, why is one end of the thin iron chain on the neck of the deceased cut off? Could it be that someone cut off the iron chain on the dog to tie up the stones that sink the corpse?

Yang Qiuchi immediately instructed Suri to take the constables to the whole village to check if there were any iron chains that were tied to dogs or other similar iron chains for other purposes that were cut off. If so, control the face immediately and extract the iron chains.

Suri quickly agreed and took the constable and went to search carefully from house to house.

Song Qu'er asked, "Brother, have you discovered something?"

"That's right. When I recall the iron chain on the neck of the dead corpse, it seemed that the iron chains tied to the dogs in this village seemed to be made by blacksmiths to tie the dogs, so one end of the iron chain would not be cut off. If we can find the other end of the broken iron chain and follow the clues and use this as a clue, we may be able to find the murderer who killed Li Hanbao. The murderer who tied stones with the cut iron chains to sink the corpse. Moreover, the murderer is probably the person with another iron chain, at least it has something to do with him."

"That's great!" Song Yuner clapped her hands and said with a smile. "I had no idea when I was investigating the body. I thought to myself, I don't know where to start with me if I want to solve this case. My brother is so powerful. He will know where the criminal is after counting his fingers!"

"What do you care about? Do you think I am a fortune teller?" Yang Qiuchi smiled.

Shuang'er wiped the fragrant sweat from her forehead and said, "Yes, I always hear others say that our master is so powerful in solving cases. I have never really seen it before. Today I opened my eyes! I caught the criminal in just a while later."

Master Jin also shook his folding fan and echoed: "Yes, Dongweng is the youngest and most talented among the masters I have ever been with. Since Dongweng was still a young man... I admire him very much."

Master Jin is Yang Qiuchi's aide, born as a scholar, has fame and reputation, but is not comparable to Chang Fu and other followers. Yang Qiuchi smiled and bowed and said a few politely: "It's too early to solve the case, but I just found a little clue to make some bold speculations, which may not be accurate."

After talking for a while, Suli was bringing the constables to come with a dozen men and women, some old and young. He came to Yang Qiuchi and knelt down. Suli held seven or eight iron chains in his hand and bowed to Yang Qiuchi: "Sir, the young and several officials searched the families with such thin iron chains one by one in the village, and found the seven or eight iron chains, all of which were cut off, and all of them came."

Yang Qiuchi nodded and connected the iron chains one by one to observe the broken hole carefully. Although he forgot that his strength was very good, he could not remember what the broken hole of the dead neck looked like. It seemed that he could only take it back for careful comparison. Fortunately, there was a strap tied to each iron chain, with the name of the owner of the household on it, so as to find out who the suspect was. Suli was really careful in doing things.

Yang Qiuchi ordered Suli Zheng and Minzhuang to monitor these ten men and women, not to take the initiative, nor to leave the village. Then, he brought the seven or eight iron chains back to the Jiaguba Prefecture Yamen.

He first ordered a few constables to go to the cattle and sheep market to investigate the situation of the deceased Li Shiyin selling cattle the afternoon of the previous day and the exact time he left Bazhou City to see if there were any clues. If it was for money to kill, the murderer might have seen Li Shiyin with the money he earned from selling cattle in the cattle and sheep market, and wanted to kill people. He asked the constables to ask whether those who were doing business in the cattle and sheep market found that such people were following the deceased out of the city at that time, especially those with diamonds or thin iron chains.

After the arrangements were completed, he returned to the forensic room of the inner yamen. The work Yang Qiuchi had to do now was to find out whether the other section of the iron chain on the deceased's neck was among the seven or eight extracted iron chains.

The method to find the other half is very simple. This iron chain is cut off by the device from the part where one of the oval iron rings is close to the round head. First, the iron chain is connected with the broken end. The appearance of the person can re-synthesise it into a completed iron chain and then determine the other section.

Soon, another intercept was found, and after docking, it was able to synthesize into a complete iron ring. After comparison, the size and thickness were the same as other iron rings on the iron chain.

Yang Qiuchi picked up the iron chain and looked at the cloth strip on it. It said "Huo Shangsi". The iron chain on the neck of the deceased belonged to Huo Shangsi. Then Huo Xiaosi is suspected of committing a major crime in murder.

Not long after, the constables who went to the cattle and sheep market to investigate quickly found out the situation and came back. They reported that many people proved that Li Shiyin did sell cattle in the cattle and sheep market the afternoon before yesterday and got three thousand coins.

The constables also found the snack bar next to the cattle and sheep market where Li Shiyin was having supper. The owner proved that Li Shiyin had finished his meal at his shop around 2 o'clock the day before yesterday (5:30 pm) and went all the way out of the city. No one was found following him.

Yang Qiuchi slapped the folding fan, thinking that based on the autopsy, it was judged that the time for the deceased to die was about two days. It was proved that the owner of the snack shop wanted to match. From Bazhou City to this Liuli Village, it only took half an hour (about an hour). In this way, if the deceased was killed on the way back, the time of death should be between 5:30 and 6:30 pm.

Because there were lime particles in the silt at the bottom of the river found in the deceased's fingernails, it was likely that they were killed near the lime kiln near Liuli Village. This way, according to the time spent on the road, the time of the deceased was killed was between 6:00 and 6:30.

Unfortunately, autopsy cannot be performed, otherwise, a more accurate time of death can be judged based on the digestion level of the stomach content.

Then, Yang Qiuchi immediately returned to Liuli Village with his men.

On the way, Song Yuner asked in surprise: "You won't find the suspect so soon."

"Absolutely." Yang Qiuchi said confidently.

It took six miles and half an hour to arrive. Yang Qiuchi asked Suli to lead the way and came directly to Huo Xiaosi's family.

Huo Xiaosi and his family saw that they were bringing the magistrate and a large group of constables to their homes in the law. They were immediately panicked and knelt in the yard.

Min Zhuang didn't need to give instructions. He carried the Taishi chair and followed him all the time. When he saw him asking questions on the spot, he quickly placed the Taishi dry chair in this yard. However, there were no trees in the yard. Don't make the Guan Master burnt in the hot weather. What should I do? Fortunately, Shuang'er was prepared, so this time he specially brought a big sun umbrella and supported it on top of Yang Qiuchi's head.

It was so comfortable. Yang Qiuchi blinked at Shuang'er with satisfaction, then turned around and shouted: "Huo Shangsi!"

A middle-aged man knelt forward for two steps and replied in a trembling voice: "The villain is here."

Yang Qiuchi picked up the two iron chains that matched the broken tones and threw them in front of him: "Look carefully, these two iron chains are your home?"

Huo Xiaosi picked it up and nodded: "Yes, it's from the little man. There was a piece in this end that Suri was taking Xiang Jie's official from the little man's yard before. Then I realized that the iron chain was cut off at some point."

"Is that so? You don't know when the iron chains in your yard broke?" Yang Qiuchi sneered and asked immediately, "What are you doing with these iron chains?"

“It’s…it’s the land for leashing dogs.”

"Where is the dog?" Yang Qiuchi looked around, but could not see the dog's shadow.

"A few days ago... I died of illness... I still stayed in the yard and ignored it."

"No! Since you threw it into the yard without paying attention, why did this half of the iron chain hit Li Shiyin and Li Hanbao's neck again?"
Chapter completed!