1840Indian rebirth

The trial was held in the square on the second day, and all the prisoners were brought to watch. Of course, many Sleeping Bears and Chiricahuas also came to watch.

For almost everyone, this is an unheard-of scenario.

As the chief of the trinity of legislation, administration, and justice, Ma Shao has already established laws and simple judicial procedures, but this is the first time he has held such a large-scale trial.

Amidst the murmurs of the crowd, a total of nine people were bound and tied to the center of the square.

More than twenty sleeping bear warriors surrounded them with long knives in hand, saying nothing. As "bailiffs", they were all carefully selected for their outstanding height, which added a more serious atmosphere to the trial.

The nine tied people were naturally the prisoners to be tried. They were the chiefs and war chiefs of the five tribes, as well as the traitor Fang Lian.

There were originally eleven people, but two of them died on the battlefield yesterday.

Most of the nine people looked pale. Although they had no concept of trial, they could still feel the chilling atmosphere.

When the Sleeping Bears saw them, they all expressed contempt: "These guys who overestimate their capabilities actually want to challenge the Apaches!"

"On the battlefield yesterday, their number was almost twice that of ours, but they were beaten like weeds under the feet of a herd of buffaloes!"

"Today is their day of death. I think I should bring something over and throw it on this person's head——"

"Quiet!" the soldiers maintaining order shouted.

In addition to those standing next to the prisoners, there were more than 200 soldiers and militiamen near the square, especially around the prisoners, all standing upright with muskets in their hands.

People became quiet one after another.

At the same time, the horse whistle also came out of the chief's hall and walked straight to the square, followed by the high priest Rainy Day and the oak chief.

The horse whistle sat on the judge's seat, and the trial officially began.

He first looked at Fang Lian, read out a series of his charges, and then asked: "Fang Lian, do you plead guilty to the charges I just mentioned?"

As he spoke, he motioned to the soldier beside Fang Lian, who immediately took out the rag that was stuffed in Fang Lian's mouth so that he could speak.

"I swear I'm going to make you—" Fang Lian cursed directly, but before he could finish his words, a rag was stuffed into his mouth again.

Ma Shao nodded calmly: "The prisoner voluntarily gave up the opportunity to plead his case."

Then he continued: "Fang Lian committed the four crimes of treason, splitting the tribe, insulting the chief, and provoking internal war among the aborigines... The facts are clear and the evidence is conclusive. I declare that the traitor Fang Lian will be sentenced to death by firing squad and will be executed immediately!"

"

"Woo——" Fang's face was filled with tears and his eyes were wide open with anger, but he was speechless.

Ma Shao continued to judge other prisoners.

Except for the square face, the remaining few people are pure war criminals. Three of them are die-hard elements and will naturally be sentenced to death.

Until it's the owl's turn to be judged.

"Owl, you listened to the rumors spread by Fang Fang, provoked internal war among the aboriginal people, and destroyed the unity of the aboriginal people. Do you plead guilty?" Ma Shao looked directly at the owl.

The owl knelt on the ground, lowered his head, and said in a slightly trembling voice: "I plead guilty, I repent... I should not have impulsively invaded the Sleeping Bear. The indigenous people should unite as one, instead of attacking each other as a way to destroy the indigenous people.

United sinners, I am willing to accept any punishment!"

The horse whistle paid attention to people's reactions.

Most of the Sleeping Bear people's reaction to the owl's remarks was disdain and contempt. In their opinion, the owl said this just because he was afraid of death and wanted to win some sympathy, which was indeed the case.

When the captured Comanches heard this, they reacted with confusion and anger.

The charge of "provoking internal war among the aboriginal people" was stated many times by Ma Shao, and someone translated it to the prisoners throughout the process.

At first they didn't think so, but when they saw their chief confessing his crime, they couldn't help but have some vague self-doubts in their hearts: Could it be that what I was participating in was really an unjust war?

Of course, they were more angry and aggrieved. Seeing the humble gesture of the owl kneeling on the ground and confessing his crime, the Comanche warriors felt as if they had been betrayed.

Under the surveillance of sleeping bear soldiers around them, the prisoners did not dare to talk much, but their attitude was still not difficult to detect.

This seems to have a certain effect, Mashao thought.

He looked at the owl who confessed, nodded, and continued: "Considering your attitude of pleading guilty and that you were deceived by others, your punishment can be reduced. Therefore, I declare that the owl will be exempted from the death penalty and sentenced to ten years of hard labor.

"

Although the two had communicated last night, Owl couldn't help but breathed a sigh of relief when he heard these words.

When the four people in front were sentenced to death in succession, he was upset for a while, thinking that he was still going to die.

Fortunately, he finally escaped death and was spared the death penalty.

Without the threat of death, the owl's tense focus suddenly relaxed, allowing him to finally turn his head and look at the Comanche captives not far away.

From the eyes of the tribesmen, he knew that he was probably no longer respected.

The following prisoners did the same thing. They confessed their crimes straightforwardly, were forgiven, and were only sentenced to ten years of hard labor.

The so-called ten years of hard labor naturally refers to compulsory work such as cultivating farmland and building buildings. It does not really last ten years and is paid to a certain extent.

Of course, the Indians did not know this clearly. In their psychological expectation, labor was slavery, just like what white people did to black people or what Comanches did to Utahns.

After the trial was over, the soldiers began to execute the four death row prisoners. No casual onlookers were allowed, at least children under the age of twelve were not allowed to watch.

Only the prisoners were brought over to watch, so that they could know the fate of the die-hards.

Fortunately for the four death row prisoners, their execution method was not the most common hanging in this era, but shooting.

But unfortunately, the horse whistle also designed a unique process to enhance the deterrence of the execution-shooting in random order.

He asked the four prisoners to kneel on the ground in a row, with an executioner standing behind each, pointing the gun at the back of their heads, and then shot them one by one in random order.

There is no doubt that in this era before lethal injection, shooting directly in the back of the head was a quite civilized execution method.

It only takes one bullet to kill instantly.

But this random sequence of executions still caused the psychology of the four death row inmates to almost collapse, no, three to be precise.

The first person to be shot did not have time to linger in fear for long, as the lead bullet quickly ended his life.

The last three were not so lucky. They knew that they were bound to die, but they could not determine which gunshot they would fall to. Each gunshot was a huge psychological torture.

People's love and obsession with their own lives is so strong. In the last few minutes of their lives, they have dried up all the cold sweat and even urine. If there was no rag stuffed in their mouths, I don't know what they would have said.

sound.