Tang Dynasty Prison Administration

094: The Birth of a New Buddha

The next morning, early in the morning, there was a series of urgent knocks on the door.

Su Wen groggily got up, rubbed his eyes, and asked, "What is it?"

"Master, there's been a murder!"

Su Wen hurriedly threw off the covers, jumped up, quickly dressed, washed up, and ran to the door, asking, "Who is the deceased?"

Xu Ge said, "The deceased was Peng Yu, the Benevolent and Brave Captain responsible for patrolling the inner city!"

Su Wen hurriedly straightened his clothes and said, "Take me there!"

At this moment, Cui Lingyu's door was opened by a maid, and Cui Lingyu slowly walked out, bowed, and said, "Young Master Su, Young Master Xu, may I come along to take a look?"

Su Wen returned the greeting to Cui Lingyu, saying, "That's possible, but at murder scenes, the victims often die in gruesome ways, which might frighten you. In that case..."

Cui Lingyu smiled and said, "Lingyu is just curious. Besides, Lingyu is skilled in painting. If it can help Su Lang solve the case, wouldn't that be of great benefit!"

Su Wen nodded in agreement, "In that case, I'll trouble Lingyu!"

Cui Lingyu returned the greeting and followed behind Su Wen, with her maidservant close behind.

Before long, Su Wen, Xu Ge, Cui Lingyu, and Cui Lingyu's personal maid, Xiao Bi, arrived on the streets of Chang Le Fang in the inner city.

At this moment, constables and soldiers separated the crowd of onlookers. When Su Wen arrived at the scene, he found that Zhang Yi and Qin Zhan were already there, and the coroner had begun to examine the body.

After Su Wen arrived, everyone first bowed, and then Su Wen squatted down to examine the deceased.

Zhang Yi said, "The deceased was Peng Yu, a brave and valiant captain in our army. Yesterday, he was in charge of patrolling the eight wards of the inner city. There were eight soldiers accompanying him. At 1:15 AM, they encountered a horse galloping wildly in the street. Peng Yu ordered the soldiers to chase after the horse while he stayed behind. Unexpectedly, when the soldiers returned, they found that Peng Yu had been beheaded!"

Su Wen didn't speak, but squatted down and examined the body carefully. Peng Yu's head was on the ground to one side, while his body was lying on the street in the middle of the street, without moving at all.

It was as if he had been beheaded in an instant, so there were no signs on his body. Su Wen looked at the wound. The edges of the wound were stepped, as if multiple sharp blades had pierced his neck at the same time and rotated clockwise to cut off his head.

Su Wen examined the head carefully again, his expression completely calm, as if he himself had never expected to be beheaded so suddenly!

Su Wen stood up and looked at Zhang Yi, asking, "Where's that horse?"

Zhang Yi said, "The soldiers said that the horse turned the corner and suddenly disappeared!"

Upon hearing this, Xu Ge suddenly looked at Su Wen and said, "Master, illusion magic... could it be those people from Ningyue Pavilion?"

Su Wen didn't reply, but glanced at Xu Ge and said, "I don't know, but they are the most suspicious. Take some men to Ningyue Pavilion!"

Xu Ge responded and turned to lead several constables to Ningyue Pavilion!

Su Wen carefully examined the body at the scene. As the sun grew stronger, a huge Buddha statue suddenly appeared on the ground.

Upon seeing this, the onlookers knelt down one after another, while Su Wen frowned and squatted down to examine the marks on the portrait.

These paintings that appear out of thin air in sunlight are not difficult to create. You can use lemon juice, milk, or sugar water to draw on the ground or paper, and once they dry, they will become invisible. They will only become visible when the temperature rises or they are heated.

However, it's impossible for someone to paint such a large Buddha image on the street without anyone knowing.

Su Wen looked at Qin Zhan and Zhang Yi and asked, "Is this street usually crowded?"

Zhang Yi said, "This isn't a main street; it's not usually very crowded!"

Su Wen looked at Qin Zhan and said, "Post notices with a reward and ask if anyone has drawn anything on this street!"

Qin Zhan bowed and replied, "Yes!"

Su Wen frowned and said in a low voice, "I knew Yi Tian would take the initiative, but I didn't expect him to act so quickly. It seems that Shen Qiushui and Lu Yao had already informed Yi Tian before they made their move yesterday!"

Su Wen looked at Zhang Yi and said, "Zhang Yi, I order you to immediately investigate where Shen Qiushui and Lu Yao went yesterday. Thoroughly investigate those places; Yi Tian must be hiding in the areas they visited!"

Zhang Yi responded, "Yes!"

Su Wendao said, "Take the body back to the government office first!"

......

Back in the government office, Cui Lingyu said, "Su Lang, yesterday I heard Father say that the mastermind would launch an attack, and now it seems that's true. However, the speed is a bit too fast. Such a rapid pace of action means that the real culprit is in Dunhuang County!"

Su Wen nodded.

Cui Lingyu continued, "What you arranged just now was good, but Su Lang seems to have forgotten one thing!"

Su Wen looked at Cui Lingyu and said, "Please tell me, Lingyu!"

Cui Lingyu said, "Master Su, we should send out constables to secretly monitor all the Buddhist temples in Dunhuang County. The Buddha statue that appeared on the ground just now, and yesterday I heard Master Su say about the ten major sins of Buddhism, then the real culprit behind it must be a Buddhist. In my opinion, I deduce that he wants to use the name of Buddha to frighten the people of Dunhuang County and create panic, so that he can achieve his goal!"

Upon hearing this, Su Wen found it reasonable and quickly bowed to Cui Lingyu, saying, "Lingyu's words are true. I suspect the murderer also wants to incite panic among the people of Dunhuang County, but I still don't know what his purpose is in doing so?"

Cui Lingyu stepped forward and said, "Yesterday I heard you say that Shen Qiushui and Lu Yao are both Tibetans. Buddhism is extremely prosperous in Tibet. I'm afraid all of this is a Tibetan conspiracy. If Su Lang really doesn't know, then we need to prepare for the worst. If we assume that the Tibetans will invade Dunhuang County, then we should take precautions!"

Upon hearing Cui Lingyu's words, Su Wen immediately realized they made sense.

Following Cui Lingyu's advice, he hurriedly arranged for officers to monitor the major Buddhist temples in Dunhuang County, and ordered spies to start searching the various intersections between Tibet and Dunhuang County. If there was any unusual activity, they were to return and report immediately!

At this moment, Su Wen took out the slip of paper covered with Arabic numerals from his pocket and handed it to Cui Lingyu, saying, "Lingyu, this is something I found among the golden Buddha statues that the Tibetan envoy gave to the former governor. I wonder if you recognize it?"

After saying that, Su Wen handed the note to Cui Lingyu.

Cui Lingyu took the slip of paper, opened it, and said, "Su Lang, this is Indian script. They call this vertical line '1,' which is the character Indians use for counting, just like our '壹'!"

Upon hearing this, Su Wen frowned and asked, "You know him?"

Cui Lingyu replied, "Of course, I have been well-versed in history books and the Four Books and Five Classics since I was a child. My father once ordered several envoys from various Western Regions countries to teach them their writing and language!"

"This Indian script was introduced by the Buddhist community during the Han Dynasty, but not many people learned it, so it did not become popular. After the Zhenguan era, Buddhism flourished, and in fact, many people in aristocratic families already knew this Indian script. It was fine for counting, but the script was easy to change. For example, the numbers 2, 3, 7, and 9 could be easily modified, such as changing 2 to 3, 3 to 8, 7 to 9, and 9 to 8."

"Therefore, the imperial court dared not use this script, otherwise, if it were modified, it would cause serious problems. However, Empress Wu Zetian once ordered people to use this number together with our script, which reduced many errors!"