Following the reading of the general indictment, the 11 accused will be tried sequentially. Tu Peng himself, as the original city lord and the instigator and direct person in charge of a series of bloody crimes in Songhe City, was the first to be tried.

Prosecutions indicted him on charges against humanity, war crimes, and genocide.

Fifteen witnesses appeared in court to accuse Tu Peng of his crimes.

A half-grown child named Yin Yuhua stood on the witness stand. He was only about twelve years old, and he was born white and pleasing in appearance. There were more than 2,000 slaves in Tu Peng's private mansion at any time to serve him, and Yin Yuhua was not only one of them, but also the one closest to Tu Peng.

"Six hundred and twenty-two. The half-year-old child accurately reported this number on the witness stand, "Tu Peng himself personally killed 622 civilians. ”

Defense counsel immediately objected, questioning the accuracy of the figure 622. Calculating the time, Yin Yuhua was only six or seven years old when he first entered Tu Peng's Mansion, how could he remember everything accurately at such a young age.

Tu Peng himself roared even louder: "Xiao Huazi, I am not thin on you! Why did you perjury and slander me!"

He stood up and spoke loudly to the jury: "I, Tu Peng, as the city lord, have a busy business every day. Even if I have killed a few people with my own hands, how can I kill more than 600 people one by one, how can I have so much spare time!"

Tu Peng felt that anyone could accuse him in court, but only Xiao Huazi would not, this was the most loyal dog he had fed since he was a child.

The jury exchanged opinions. At this time, Yin Yuhua on the table said indifferently: "Your Excellency said that I counted wrongly? ”

After saying that, he took off his shirt, revealing the dense scars on his body.

Tu Peng, who was originally quite confident, suddenly contracted his pupils when he saw these scars. Years ago, he saw a six-year-old kid slash his chest with a dagger, and he was curious to ask why.

At that time, Yin Yuhua told Tu Peng that it was because he felt that he was not serving a good adult, and he was punishing himself to deepen his impression. Tu Peng was deeply gratified and felt that this child was a loyal servant, so he was favored in the next few years.

Now it seems that these scars have another purpose at all.

"I can't write, so I can only carve out their appearance with a knife so that I will never forget them. The twelve-year-old boy, whose voice was as low as a demon in hell, pointed to a scar on his heart, "This is my dad, you were unhappy that day, and you smashed his head with your hand."

This is Ah Wei, who is also six years old. When you were mopping the floor, you just got in the way of the adults, and you kicked it to death.

I don't know the name of this, I call her sister, and she often hugs me. That day, the adult had a breakthrough in his skills, and he was very happy, so he tried a punch on her. ”

Yin Yuhua counted one scar after another, how could he count wrongly, how could he forget. From time to time, there was a low crying sound at the trial scene, and Tu Peng sat down in a daze.

Of course, he couldn't remember how many ants he had crushed.

But those who were crushed to death were not ants, and there were always people who would write down this blood debt. It's just that who would have thought that a child who is only six years old can have such a stoic will.

"Don't count. Wu Bingyu, the defense lawyer, saw that the atmosphere of the trial was gradually not good, and the anger in the auditorium became more and more intense, so he immediately stood up to stop it, "We recognize the number 622." ”

Justice Meng Zhengchu knocked on the gavel: "Okay child, you can stop, your courage and faith are admirable." After today, tell the world the story behind each of your scars. But today, your mission is done. ”

Yin Yuhua looked up to the sky and closed his eyes, tears flowing.

Meng Haoran was one of the key witnesses. He was originally the secretary of the Matsukawa Cultivators' Organization, and he was deeply trusted. Later, he took the initiative to apply for transfer and carried out a wild treasure hunt for Songhe. During this period, Meng Haoran came into contact with Wei Kaicheng's Songhe Resistance and became one of the most important internal contacts of civilians in the Tu Peng group.

He has a large number of secrets of the Tu Peng Group.

Meng Haoran showed the jury several minutes of the meeting. Among them is a speech by Tu Peng at the meeting:

“...... The future world will inevitably belong to cultivators, and the extinction of mortals is a historical inevitability. Since this is the case with the Heavenly Dao, why don't we speed up the process......"

Speech at another regular meeting:

“...... According to Tianjing's report, the sewer area in the eastern part of the city is crowded with a large number of untouchables, causing damage to many sewerage facilities. Baiqiu, you've managed to clean up ...... recently."

These were originally internal conversations of the Tu Peng Group, and Fan Haoran faithfully recorded all this, and today it has become a testimony in court.

A practitioner named Tang Hong appeared in court and pointed out that in July of the second year of the Lingji Dynasty, he received a direct order from Tu Peng to hunt down and kill the civilians who had fled.

At that time, the civilians in the city could not bear the brutal rule of the Tupeng group, so they dug a tunnel to dig through the city wall and fled Songhe City in a swarm. Civilians would rather live with demons in the wild than in Matsukawa Castle.

More than sixty patrol teams of cultivators received Tu Peng's direct order to follow and kill these fleeing civilians, and the vast mountains and fields outside Songhe City were full of corpses.

Because the civilians scattered and fled, the practitioners had to be broken into pieces. Tang Hong found a group of fleeing civilians in a small nameless lotus pond. Under every emerald green lotus leaf, there is a frightened and desperate figure, how can this be concealed from the perception of the cultivator.

When Tang Hong was about to make a move, he found that one of the civilians was his Chinese teacher in middle school. He relented for a moment, did not move or make a noise, but told the teacher the route to the sea.

This was a life-or-death escape, and Tang Hong's Chinese teacher died halfway through. But out of more than a hundred people, three eventually managed to escape to the coast. They have lived until now.

The Qingbei Trial Investigation Committee found the three men in Binhai, and they came forward to prove that Tang Hong had indeed spared the civilians that night.

For this reason, the prosecution found that Tang Hong had made a moral choice in the crime and was therefore exempt from prosecution.

Another witness who was exempted from prosecution surprised when he testified in court: Zou Gui, the executioner of Songhe City. When he appeared on the witness stand, the residents of Matsukawa in the auditorium cursed. Meng Zhengchu had to open his mouth to maintain order.

Zou Guisheng's five big and three thick are with a bald head and a fierce face. He was an executioner, and none of the civilians who fell into his hands survived.

The spirals that stretched for miles on both sides of the gate, and the corpses pierced on them, were concocted by him.

Moreover, this person is best to brag about the sharp sword in his hand on weekdays, and a large number of captured members of the Resistance were cut off by him on the pretext of testing the sword before they had time to be burned at the stake.

The civilians feared him like a tiger, and the resistance groups hated him to the core. Originally, he should have sat in the defendant's seat, but the three punishment decisions issued by Rui Qing became Zou Gui's life-saving card.

At the beginning, Tu Peng hoped that a ten-mile stake could be erected outside the gate of Songhe City to deter restless civilians. But because most of the captured civilians were directly beheaded by Zou Gui, this goal could not be achieved for a long time.

Rui Qing questioned Zou Gui about this matter, and Zou Gui only said that his hands itched when he saw untouchables, and he couldn't help but want to cut people. Rui Qing made a few punishment decisions, and after punishing Zou Gui for a few months, the matter was over.

It wasn't until today standing on the witness stand that Zou Gui had the courage to tell the truth to everyone:

"If I don't do it, they'll die too, and I'll die. But if I cut off their heads, they will at least die a happy death, and they will not suffer any sin. ”

But standing in this solemn courtroom, facing the anger of the residents of Songhe, Zou Gui did not have any confidence.

"I ...... It was indeed guilty, perhaps, I could have saved a few people, but I didn't do it......"

Speaking of which, Zou Gui was full of remorse. There were several chances that he might have been able to let a few people go, but he didn't dare try. His hands were covered in blood, which could not be washed off no matter what.

"You are not guilty. ”

Meng Zhengchu's solemn and peaceful voice came from the judgment seat:

"The law is not strong, and it is difficult for people.

The law never requires anyone to stand up to evil when they know they are invincible. Life fears death, that's the law of nature.

But the law requires everyone to have a bottom line, and when they can make a choice, choose conscience and morality.

It is often said that no snowflake is innocent in an avalanche. This view is rejected by the Tribunal.

The court believes that whether it is innocent or not depends on whether the snowflake has a chance to choose.

Zou Gui, when you chose good thoughts during the avalanche, you saved tens of thousands of victims from extreme suffering, and you wisely preserved yourself, which is commendable.

If every snowflake in Songhe were like you, it wouldn't have caused today's tragedy.

The Court is of the view that you are not guilty, that no one should resent you, and that you need not resent yourself. ”

Zou Gui was in tears, and he bowed deeply to the judge and withdrew.

The invective in the auditorium also turned silent. Everyone at the trial scene, including everyone listening outside, was carefully recalling every word that Justice Meng Zhengchu said.

Thousands of miles away, in the council hall of Wang'an City, hundreds of practitioners sat around the radio and listened to the voices coming from the seaside. At first, it was lively and gossipy, but now it is silent.

City Lord Wu Chen sighed, he looked at the falling snow outside the window, and ordered: "Qian Yang, you take people around the city to see if the civilians have enough winter clothes." ”

Qian Yang got up to take the order.

In another city, the lord of the city ordered that all the frozen meat stored in the warehouse be removed.

"Today is the winter solstice. He said, "Let's have a dumpling meal together in the whole city!"

The whole city cheered.

The same thing is happening all over the land of China.

In front of the Pingchun Fortress, in the camp tent of the Xinshihui army, the coach Lu Sixian recruited his deputy.

"Give the order to go down and prepare to withdraw the troops. ”

"This ......," the deputy hesitated, "the president's order ......"

"Let's go back and talk about it. Lu Sixian looked at the radio station that was still playing, as well as the generals in the camp with obscure faces, and said in a deep voice, "Morality is no longer on our side. ”