Hong Shuzu in Song Jiaoren's Case——Concurrently Discussing the Retrial of Song Jiaoren's Case by Shang Xiaoming

Hong Shuzu, who was involved in Song Jiaoren's case, was a senior official in the Ministry of Interior. In the course of performing his duties, he colluded with Ying Kuicheng to take a large sum of money from the central government. Even in the name of the central government, especially by utilizing Yuan Shikai and Zhao Bingjun, Hong Shuzu encouraged Ying Kuicheng by means of secret letters and telegraphs to implement the action plan for the murder of Song Jiaoren. This directly contributed to the bloody murder of Song Jiaoren in Shanghai. As a result, he was derelict in his duties and perverted the law and even instigated the murder. However, Hong Shuzu and Ying Kuicheng, who had a unidirectional contact with Hong, did not appear at the scene of the murder. Wu Naiwen and others who appeared at the murder scene to command Wu Shiying to commit the murder had arranged in advance for Wang Afa, under the guise of an antique dealer, to report Ying Kuicheng. In the book"Retrial of Song Jiaoren's Case", Shang Xiaoming neglected the eyewitness testimony. Only through fragmented and contradictory data did he identify Hong Shuzu, who had a special relationship with Yuan Shikai, as being the sole prime culprit of Song Jiaoren's case. In fact, there is no tangible and complete evidence at the academic level, which therefore is inconclusive.