The weather was particularly bad this morning, and the wind was bitterly cold.

Despite this, thousands of citizens of the imperial capital took to the streets to watch the last moments of the condemned prisoners.

In a square in Fort Midknight, the imperial capital, a temporary wooden platform made of cheap timber rises from the ground.

The reason why the workers braved the cold to build this thing was to better show the execution scene, so that everyone could see more clearly what would happen to the enemies of the Valstad Empire.

A brand-new guillotine is fixed upright in the center of a wooden elevated platform.

The diagonal knife made of stainless steel exudes a murderous aura that is even more awe-inspiring than today, shocking the viewer, and the thick hemp rope hanging from the knife swayed in the wind, constantly whipping the wooden frame on the side, making a clanging and disturbing sound.

It was a great invention based on the brains of the Elector of the Empire, Marquis Dali Einfurt.

When the Marquis was a boy, he watched a children's puppet show in the Grand Theatre of the city of Tagarvi. The boy was inspired when he saw a wooden machine in the play quickly cutting off the head of a puppet.

Many years later, because of persecution, he took his sister-in-law away from his homeland and followed his father's wish to come to the Duchy of Valstad, swearing allegiance to the ancient ethnic group with imperial blood, the Midknight family, joining the public army and becoming a professional soldier, and later he experienced the treason of Prince West.

At that time, the Duchy of Valstad was in a state of constant turmoil, with overcrowded prisons throughout the country, slow hangings were inefficient, and the need to execute large numbers of condemned prisoners was no longer enough, so the guillotine was created. (See Chapter 67 of this book for details.) ）

In the early stage of the application of this decapitation device, a series of problems were also encountered.

First of all, the chopper is easy to roll up the caries, and when Dalí, the inventor of the chopper, heard about this, he immediately gathered a team of craftsmen involved in the manufacture of this machine, and he proposed to upgrade the material of the knife to be increased, the cutting edge was changed to an inclined triangle, and he also made a series of other modifications on the drawings himself.

After more than a dozen upgrades, the most stable and classic model was finally born, the 1705 mass-produced guillotine, a truly efficient and ruthless killing machine.

In the Valstad Empire, the guillotine has succeeded in becoming a symbol, a kind of withdrawal of state coercion, it is a constant reminder that outlaws should not be rampant, and its birth has directly reduced the crime rate of the Valstad Peninsula to the lowest level in a thousand years, and its deterrent power is mediocre.

The designer, Dali Einfurt, who became the chief inventor of the empire in later years, was awarded the National Medal and the brains of the famous rifled rifle.

On this icy morning, the guillotine stands silently in the middle of the square.

The citizens of Fort Midknight looked up at it with awe, and the Templars were especially terrified of it, looking at the heavy sluice eyes as if they were looking at the death of the underworld, because it was said that the souls of those who had been executed by the guillotine could not go to the church, but could only fall into a burning hell.

The sun gradually rises and the bells are ringing.

"Boom...... "Boom ......" seven times in a row.

The warden in an army captain's uniform looked at his pocket watch: "It's seven o'clock, and there is no new order issued, so let's run the school according to the original plan."

He said to the three executioners beside him, "Let the killing begin." ”

The executioners in black leather hoods showed only a pair of eyes,

They were muscular, tall men, in their forties, carefully selected from among veterans who had fought on hellish battlefields and had absolutely excellent mental qualities.

Although this profession has been criticized for being too heavy, if the people learn that the executioner is shocked by the high annual salary, I am afraid that they will start to envy it.

The leading executioner began to breathe deeply, and the scorching exhalation formed a puff of smoke in the cold wind, and he rubbed a pair of rough hands back and forth, put on pigskin gloves, and said to the two colleagues:

"Brothers, get ready to work! There are a lot of people who want to be sent on the road this time, and today's gas is really fucking cold, so hurry up and finish the errand beautifully, and then go home and hug my wife and go to sleep. ”

The first spy was quickly brought to the high platform, and the man seemed to be numb from the cold, and his face was expressionless in the face of death.

One executioner knocked him down and buried his neck in a groove in the wood, while another pulled the rope, which drove the pulley smoothly, and the heavy knife fell, and the spy's head was cut off smoothly and fell into the barrel that had been prepared.

The third executioner grabbed the hair from the head, held it high, and showed it to the crowd, eliciting a burst of cheers: "Well done!" The crumbs of the Kingdom of Solan! This is the offense to our Valstarao! Long live the Emperor! ”

Amid the cheers, a father hugged a lovely blonde girl and pointed ahead, "Look, Lucy, this is the end of espionage!" The head is kicked around with a missing ball! ”

The girl timidly covered her eyes and said, "Dad, what ...... That looks like it hurts......"

The father burst out laughing: "Hahaha! It won't hurt, so fast the knife, it is estimated that the neck will be cold and you will not know anything. ”

Soon, a large basin of boiling water poured down, washing the blood off the wooden platform, and soon formed pink icicles under the platform, and another spy was brought up.

At the same time, in the inner court of the Golden Lake Palace, half a minute away.

Empress Sarantos Midknight was pacing back and forth in her office, and at the moment, her heart was in the midst of a fierce struggle.

Although she insisted that she didn't care about the life or death of her son Maxim, it was just a momentary anger after all.

In fact, the doting mother was reluctant to slap her son for months, and this time, her son's suicide threats kept her from sleeping, as evidenced by the dark circles around her one eye.

The emperor heard the sound of a bell in the distance and stopped abruptly.

"What time is it?" She asked the staff officer beside her.

"It's seven, Your Majesty."

"Well, here we go...... The first Spy should have been guillotined...... The woman was last in line...... It's still a long time before it's her turn. The Emperor muttered to himself.

She gently scraped the wallpaper with the sharp iron hook on her left arm, looking uneasy, and then turned her gaze to the captain of the palace guard: "Where is my son Maxim, and are your people still watching him?" ”

The captain of the guard leaned down and replied respectfully: "Your Majesty, I have sent two of the most capable royal attendants to infiltrate the team of servants beside the prince to monitor, and as far as the current information goes, His Majesty the prince is still staying in his own dormitory, but his mental state is a little sluggish. ”

"Well, that's good!" The emperor nodded: "Continue to monitor, let your people take a good look, and never let my son do anything stupid!" ”

As soon as the emperor finished speaking, a rush of footsteps came from a distance, and the guards outside the door raised their bayonets and shouted, "Bold! A mere servant dared to make a big noise in the inner court of Jinhu Palace! ”

A young man's voice looked anxious: "I want to see the captain of the palace guard!" ”

"Guards! Let him in! The Emperor in the office shouted.

"Yes, Your Majesty!" The guards pushed open the door, and a young man with a panicked look staggered in, nearly falling.

The man was wearing a servant's uniform, panting, and looked very anxious: "Great ...... Oh no, my lord...... His Majesty the Emperor...... Your Majesty! It's a big deal! ”

"What the hell is going on? Clear! The captain of the guard grabbed Young Rao by the shoulder and shook him vigorously to sober him up.

"We've been tricked! His Majesty Prince Maxim had his valet put on his own clothes and dine in the corner with his back to us, and by the time we found out the pretence, it was too late!

According to the personal valet, His Majesty the prince got up at four o'clock in the morning, put on the manservant's clothes, and had slipped out of the palace! ”

The captain of the guard said angrily: "A bunch of wine bags and rice bags! I can't do that! ”

The emperor panicked, and she shouted, "It's broken!

That kid must have gone to the execution ground! Fast! Send out cavalry to stop him! Don't let him do anything stupid! ”