Detective Sherlock Holmes

Yellowed Deed
During the Tiānshèng era of the Northern Song Dynasty, Jiang, the county magistrate of Renshou County in Sichuan, had just taken office when he received a land dispute case.

The plaintiff, Zhang, was a minor official in charge of collecting taxes. He sued his neighbor, Wang, for arbitrarily occupying 20 mu of his good farmland.

Wang defended himself: "That is not true. The 20 mu of land was left by my grandfather. Last year, Zhang came to my house to collect taxes and said that if I transferred the land into his name, I wouldn't have to pay taxes or perform corvée labor. I was worried about not being able to pay the taxes, so I agreed. At that time, we agreed in the deed that my land would be transferred to him, but in reality, the land still belonged to me."

Zhang said: "Ten years ago, Wang's family was in urgent need and voluntarily offered to sell me the 20 mu of land. There is a deed to prove it."

The magistrate took the deed and carefully examined it. This folded deed was written on white rice paper, which had yellowed, and the edges of the paper were quite worn, suggesting it was very old. The magistrate folded and unfolded the deed repeatedly.

Suddenly, his eyes lit up. He struck the gavel and shouted: "Audacious troublemaker, daring to forge a deed to deceive this county! Confess immediately!"

What flaw did the magistrate discover in the deed? The reward can be mentioned. As long as you answer reasonably, 1,111,111 gold coins are yours!