Chapter 117 Wheel Tracks, Footprints, and Horse Hoof Prints (Part )
Along the official road from Yongchang County to Luoyang, the area near the crime scene was temporarily surrounded by the yamen runners under Zeng Tai.

Some passers-by on this road saw the situation and wanted to come closer to see what was going on, but they were driven away.

There were a few people who insisted on watching the fun and watched from a distance.

Di Renjie changed into casual clothes and took Zeng Tai to the carriage that was stuck in the mud on the side of the road.

He first checked the driver's body, and then went into the carriage to check the situation.

There were no signs of a fight inside the carriage, but when the murderer used the driver's blood to paint, a lot of blood was spilled inside the carriage, which, combined with the strange bleeding eagle, looked very creepy.

Di Renjie touched the bloodstains with his fingers, shook his head, and left the car.

Zeng Tai quickly asked: "Master, did you find anything?"

Di Renjie did not answer directly, but lowered his head to examine the footprints, horse hoof prints and wheel tracks on the ground, obviously thinking deeply.

The horse hoof prints and wheel ruts are parallel, extending from the official road to the farmland.

The footprints seemed to appear out of thin air, scattered around the horse hoof prints and the carriage. The footprints were very deep, and each step formed a small pit filled with rainwater.

"Where is the body of the other deceased?" Di Renjie suddenly asked.

Zeng Tai hurriedly said, "Oh, I know my mentor's habit of solving cases, so I ordered the guards to strictly protect the scene. The body is still where the crime occurred, and no one dared to move it without permission."

Seeing Zeng Tai's progress, Di Renjie smiled with some satisfaction: "You did a good job. Let's go and take a look."

The two men headed for the official road, and the county magistrate and yamen runners followed behind them.

Di Renjie quickly stopped them: "Stop here and don't walk around, so as not to confuse the original footprints at the crime scene."

The county magistrate and the bailiffs looked at each other, not knowing whether they should obey the order.

Zeng Tai saw this and coughed: "This is also what I mean. You just wait here."

So Di Renjie and Zeng Tai carefully followed the horse hoof prints all the way to a farmland, where the body of the deceased lay in front of a tombstone at the edge of the field.

Di Renjie noticed that next to the horseshoe prints under his feet, there were two other footprints, one deep and one shallow.

The shallow footprints extended from the official road to the body, while the deep footprints suddenly appeared next to the horse's hooves, and there were only a few of them.

Zeng Tai took out a document from the county magistrate and interrupted Di Renjie's thoughts: "Master, this is the identity document found on the deceased."

Di Renjie took it quickly, only to see that the cover of the document had been soaked beyond recognition by the rain.

When I opened the document, some of the handwriting was blurred, but I could still vaguely make out a line of words: "Jiang Xiaolang, born in the 18th year of Kaihuang in the Sui Dynasty, from Jiangjiazhuang, Henan County."

Di Renjie closed the document, then bent over to examine Jiang Xiaolang's body, pulled aside his sleeves and checked his skin.

"Teacher, what have you found?" Zeng Tai asked again.

Di Renjie asked in return: "Have you read this document? Don't you find anything strange about it?"

Zeng Tai shook his head: "I am a dull student, please enlighten me, Master."

Di Renjie said quietly, "The document says that the deceased was born in the 18th year of Kaihuang in the Sui Dynasty, and now it is the 2nd year of Chang'an. That means he is more than a hundred years old."

A muffled thunder rolled across the sky, making a loud rumbling sound.

Zeng Tai's hair stood on end and he shuddered with fear: "How is this possible? This... Judging from the dead man's skin, he was a young man."

Di Renjie nodded slightly. "The deceased was no more than 40 years old. Normally, the court would grant a few canes, honorary titles, and salaries to elders over 90. Last year, Henan County and Luoyang County were merged into Yongchang County. For an old man like this, your county should have a record."

Zeng Tai hesitated for a moment and said, "There are six people over 90 years old in Yongchang County, but I am sure that none of them is called Jiang Xiaolang. Could this document be forged?" Di Renjie shook his head, "It's hard to say now, but it can be confirmed that the deceased is definitely not Jiang Xiaolang. Let's go to the official road and take a look."

Following the horse hoof prints and shallow footprints, Di Renjie and Zeng Tai led the yamen runners behind them to the official road.

Before they knew it, the two had reached the official road, and the shallow footprints began to appear from here.

Then Di Renjie took another look at the clear wheel tracks on the official road and suddenly asked, "Zeng Tai, when did you receive the report?"

Zeng Tai said without hesitation: "It was around Chenpai time. After receiving the report, the students immediately sent people to seal off this place."

Di Renjie smiled and said, "If that's the case, then the crime should have happened between the hours of Yin and Mao this morning."

"Oh? Why are you so sure?" Zeng Taiqi asked.

Di Renjie pointed to two clear wheel tracks on the ground and said, "It rained heavily last night, so there were few pedestrians. The two wheel tracks of the deceased's carriage are the clearest. This proves that no other vehicles passed by during the period between the crime and the time when someone reported the crime."

"If there were other vehicles passing by after the incident, the tracks of the deceased's carriage would have been covered by other tracks. But now it seems that the opposite is true. It was the tracks of the deceased's carriage that covered the tracks of other carriages."

Zeng Tai nodded: "That's the truth."

Di Renjie continued, "So, this official road leads directly to the capital of the gods, and it's very busy. When is there no traffic on the road?"

Zeng Tai thought for a moment and said, "After the gates of the Divine Capital were closed, there should be no vehicles on the road. The gates of the Divine Capital are closed at the end of the zodiac and opened at the end of the zodiac. No wonder my teacher said that the crime happened between the hours of the zodiac and the hours of the rabbit."

Di Renjie nodded: "Yes, that's the truth."

Zeng Tai nodded repeatedly, but suddenly, he shook his head again: "Hey, that's not right...it doesn't make sense at all?"

Di Renjie looked at Zeng Tai with a smile: "What doesn't make sense?"

"Since the city gates were already closed, why did the deceased rush to the capital? Even if he arrived, the city gates would not be open. Why would he travel in the rain at night? This doesn't make sense."

Di Renjie nodded repeatedly and said, "That's a very good question. What do you think?"

Zeng Tai pondered for a long time and shook his head: "Master, please don't embarrass me, just tell me directly."

Di Renjie smiled and said, "There may be two reasons for this. First, the deceased must have something very urgent to do to enter the capital. Second, the deceased has a way to open the gate of the capital."

Zeng Tai nodded and said, "That seems to make sense. Maybe the deceased calculated the time accurately and had something urgent to deal with, so he left early."

Seeing that Zeng Tai seemed to have misunderstood what he meant, Di Renjie shook his head and laughed, but did not correct him.

"Now I have a general understanding of what happened at the time of the crime." Di Renjie smiled.

"Oh? Please give me some advice, Master!" Zeng Tai smiled when he heard that there was hope of solving the case.

Di Renjie pointed to two rows of smaller hoof prints and said, "Look, the hoof prints in the middle of the two rows were left by the horse that drove the deceased's carriage. The other row of larger hoof prints were left by the horse that the murderer rode on."

Di Renjie checked the surveillance video: "The murderer chased after the driver on horseback and killed him with one blow. The action was very concise. It can be inferred that he used a long weapon."

"Then the person in the car heard the noise and lifted the curtain to check what was going on. He saw the driver's body and jumped out of the car in shock to escape..."

As Di Renjie spoke, he led Zeng Tai along the wheel tracks to the ridge of a farmland.

He pointed to the overturned soil beside the road and said, "This person's body fell here, and then he turned over and ran towards the field."

"Look, the deceased's footprints started from here and extended all the way to the tombstone, and the horse's hooves followed. This shows that the murderer rode a horse and chased the person relentlessly until he reached the tombstone and killed him."

Di Renjie pointed to the horseshoe prints that extended to the body of the deceased, and Zeng Tai nodded repeatedly.

(End of this chapter)