Chapter 23: Executions
From the short narration of the restaurant guys, Wu Neng also generally understood what had happened in King Kawa City in recent days.
The man went into the back kitchen and beckoned the meal, it was noon, and although the sky had changed in the city, the number of diners who came to the restaurant was still quite impressive.
Wu Neng exhaled, wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead, and fanned himself with his hands while paying attention to the sound of the diners talking to each other.
However, the conversation of the diners in the tavern is quite cautious, and no one wants to cause trouble for themselves at this juncture, where there is no village in front and no restaurant behind.
Of course, when talking about some household or business matters that can be used as topics, the tone of the crowd becomes exaggerated again.
"Ah, Doro. What are you going to do with that batch of fruit at home? ”
A middle-aged man's rough voice came into Wu Neng's ears.
A tall and thin middle-aged man sitting across from him looked around, and then said hatefully: "What else can I do, we can't let them rot there, after all, we don't have the means of preservation that only those big chambers of commerce from the Holy Country have." But fortunately, I still have some money to spare, so I'll see if I can pickle some of it into preserved fruit when the time comes, so I can collect some money back. ”
The middle-aged man who spoke roughly shook his head disapprovingly and said, "Then you might as well let them all rot." ”
The tall and thin middle-aged man named Doro sighed lightly, he lowered his voice, and said, "Tell me, what do those hillbillies in the west think, isn't it good to be an honest grass king after entering the city?" It's only been a few days, and I've come out with a whole moth. If we look at all the foreign chambers of commerce, how can we do business? ”
The middle-aged man who spoke roughly snorted and said, "Anyway, our shops selling wood and fruits are quite good, but the really miserable ones are those merchants in the rubber grove business in the north, I heard that their shops have been taken over by those hillbillies." ”
There was a third middle-aged man sitting next to the two middle-aged men, his face was expressionless, he looked taciturn, and he hadn't spoken before, and only after Doro's words were finished, he opened his mouth to take over the conversation, "If only the bachelor was still here." ”
The two companions looked around nervously, and Doro rebuked in a low voice: "Tubalala, can you be quiet, I don't have a problem if you want to cause trouble for yourself, but don't draw the fire on the two of us." ”
The middle-aged man named Tubalala did not continue, he let out a heavy breath from his nostrils, and then took a sip of the fruit wine in front of him.
Wu Neng was a martial artist after all, and he listened to the conversation of the three of them, and he always felt that the voice of this middle-aged man named Tubalala sounded a little familiar.
Most of the people in the restaurant are some shop owners and small vendors, and after listening carefully, Wu Neng found that the topics discussed by the diners were basically the same. From their conversations, Wu Neng also captured an important piece of information: the new government of Kawa seems to have temporarily frozen the activities of foreign chambers of commerce in the Wangcheng area.
This made Wu Neng feel a little anxious and frustrated, he originally planned to establish some relations with the foreign chamber of commerce in the royal city after the situation stabilized, so that the group could leave here smoothly after recovering from their injuries, but now it seems that things have taken a new turn.
Soon, the restaurant guy brought up the pile of sweet potatoes, and Wu Neng also felt hungry, so he ate it in a big gulp.
When the sweet potatoes on the plate were left at the bottom, a sudden commotion came into the small living room of the small restaurant.
After a while, a young man with a strip of white cloth wrapped around his left arm, but who did not look like a soldier, poked his head in, glanced briefly at the diners in the restaurant, then cleared his throat and shouted: "Neighbors, tyrannical and blood-stained Egand, the bandit whom you once called a bachelor or a king, will be executed in public this afternoon!" The gallows have already been set up at the Okemari Field, so if you wish, you can go to the Kemari Market after eating! ”
When he had said this, the young man took his head back and sent the message elsewhere.
The inside of the small restaurant was like a boiling kettle, and it boiled all at once.
A few vendors stopped chatting and pouring bitter water, and they quickly stood up, threw down the money for the meal, and went out happily. The more wealthy merchants, who had the most ugly faces before, had even more gloomy faces, and the merchant named Tubalala even held the wooden fork in his hand with a creaky sound.
Wu Neng no longer had the heart to continue eating, he was not a person who could restrain himself from joining in the fun, after hurriedly picking up a few mouthfuls of sweet potatoes, he also threw the meal money on the table, picked up the pile of sweet potatoes packed by the guys and left the restaurant.
Kawa City was not big, and soon Wu Neng saw the makeshift rough gallows outside the Dakeju field.
Wu Neng's skills are naturally more flexible than ordinary people, but Rao is like this, and it took him some effort to squeeze into the crowd in the front row. There are too many people, as long as they don't have a job to complete in a hurry, the people in Kawa City basically come to see the excitement.
Wu Neng finally squeezed into a suitable position, he wiped the beads of sweat on his forehead, raised his head to look at the execution table, and finally saw the scene above.
The execution platform in the Keju field was not the high platform that Wu Neng imagined. The execution table in Keju is just an open space with gallows.
The rebels erected twelve sticks around the gallows, and then strung them with hemp rope to form a small area of execution.
The gallows were placed in the center of the execution area, and some members of the rebels, who appeared to be officers, stood on the north side of the execution area, silently watching the row of people kneeling on the south side of the execution area by the soldiers' shoulders.
There were seven men and one woman kneeling on the ground, all of them were wearing brocade robes and gorgeous clothes, and they even wore jewelry on their faces and bodies, which looked quite noble.
The one kneeling on the far left of the eight made Wu Neng almost open his mouth in shock. The prisoner was dressed in a crooked, wrinkled, dusty gold-encrusted robe, and his face was fierce and fat, the same former Kawa King Egan, whom he had seen last time he had come to Kava!
The people around them were also talking, although everyone knew that the country had changed, but when they saw the once high and untouchable king like a lost dog at this time, everyone's faces still had a look of disbelief on their faces.
In the midst of the noise, the rebels on the north side, who looked like officers, finally moved, and a medium-sized officer who had been standing in the middle of the line stepped out.
The rebel officer who came forward was mediocre in appearance, with the brown skin peculiar to the rainforest people, probably due to the fact that he had experienced a lot of wind and sun, his skin looked darker than his colleagues, and Wu Neng could not look at the bones, so he could not directly judge the age of the officer.
The officer's voice was so powerful that everyone in the vicinity could hear him, even though there was a lot of people near the execution area.
Wu Neng was shocked again, and after he looked at it carefully, he was finally convinced. This officer is actually a monk of the martial arts realm like him, so it is no wonder that he can suppress the voices of the surrounding people.
"Hello compatriots." The officer greeted the crowd present, "I am the leader of the Righteous Banner Officers' League, and at the same time the leader of the Revolutionary Army, my name is Chapas. ”
Wu Neng's eyebrows couldn't help but arch upward, he didn't expect the seagull leading this storm to be so unimpressive.
"The country of Kawa has now returned to peace and tranquility, the chains of the tyrant have been smashed, and a new life has arrived! But before we can start breathing fresh air, we need to sweep away the old rancid garbage and the stale air it produces! ”
"You all know what we're here for today. That's right, it's to judge the tyrant and his henchmen, and make those who have blood on their hands and deserve it to pay! ”
After a brief speech, Chappas glanced disdainfully at the kneeling nobles in front of him, and said to the soldiers guarding them, "Begin." ”
One of the captains nodded, and he walked over to the stocky man kneeling on the far right.
There was a crisp "snap", and the captain slapped the man who had collapsed to the ground in the face, and then spat again. The captain's face showed a happy expression of revenge, and then he stretched out his hand and lifted the fat chicken that was trembling in front of him like an eagle.
"No...... No...... Please, please, let me go! I have money, I have money, I can give you whatever you want! I still have a wife, two daughters, four concubines, and many maids at home, all of whom can be given to you, and I can give them to you! Spare me, please let me go! I don't want to die! I can give you whatever you want! The stocky man in the brocade robe struggled and cried. He begged for mercy and struggled, but his fat arms could not break free from the captain's seemingly emaciated but extremely powerful arms.
Chapas didn't look at the short and fat man who was struggling and rolling, he just looked at the people around him and said in a loud voice: "This person is the head of the Keju Guild under the command of the bandit leader Egan Dottentata, who has been kidnapping and kidnapping the poor from the country and selling them to the major Keju guilds in Kawa City. Fellow citizens of Kawa City, I hope that you can use your conscience to understand such a fact, that the joy you get in the Keju Tournament is based on the blood and tears of other compatriots! The so-called Keju General Guild is just a large slave trading gang, and the players in those guilds are no different from those beast fighting slaves who use blood to please the nobles in Gu Han Yuezhou? ”
After hearing this questioning tone of Chapas's voice, the surrounding discussion gradually became quieter.
Dotentata was escorted to the gallows by the captain, and his struggles and begs for mercy were to no avail, and two taller rebel soldiers stepped forward and hung him on the gallows.
The rebels had only a makeshift gallows that could be used, so they could not execute all the prisoners at the same time, but the process of waiting for death was far more terrible than death itself, and from the moment Dotentata was put on the gallows, only a little deeper anxiety and torture were left in the hearts of the remaining seven.
The noose tightened, and Dottenta was thrashing violently like a dying fish, but soon, the "fish" was quiet.
The other prisoners also cried, and some of them were even incontinent, and Wu Neng, who was standing in the front row, could already smell the stench coming from the richly dressed prisoners.
After confirming that Dotenta was dead, the rebel soldiers put the second prisoner on the gallows. The second prisoner was the only woman of the eight and the queen of Egan . Before sending the queen to the gallows, Chappas read out her guilt.
Wu Neng's heart was a little incredulous, he really couldn't believe that such a beautiful and petite woman could do such a heartbreaking thing as treating the children of poor families as sacrifices to the gods.
But the strange looks in the eyes of the people around him couldn't help but believe the accusations of the rebels against the queen, in this sultry weather, Wu Neng felt as if he was facing the cold wind of the middle of winter.
One by one, the prisoners were executed, and the last to be put on the gallows was Egan, the former king of the Kawa Kingdom.
Nearly a quarter of an hour had passed, and when Chapas had finally finished reading Egan's charge, he nodded to the soldiers who were escorting Egan, and they sent the former king to the gallows.
After the rope was put around his neck, Egan who had been dry in tears and numb suddenly burst out laughing, laughing and shouting hysterically: "Rebels and thieves, you rebels and thieves! ”
The surrounding soldiers frowned, and then continued their work in an orderly manner.
Egan continued to roar: "You will not succeed, you will come down with me sooner or later!" I have friends and friends in the Great Chamber of Commerce of the Holy Country! They will avenge me, the Miyun people will avenge me, the Bayun people will avenge me, and Great Wei will not tolerate you rebellious! Wait, the heavenly soldiers will crush your bones and burn your blood! ”
"You're all going to die, you're all going to die! ……”
The noose tightened, and soon Egan could only make a duck-like cry from his mouth, and his fat tongue grew longer and longer, until he finally lost his voice altogether.
A wizened young man struggled to cut through the crowd and rushed to the front, wearing a pair of patched keju shoes on his feet and a coarse cloth sleeveless top barely covering his body.
He wiped his eyes repeatedly, and when it was finally confirmed that Egan was dead, his tears were like a flood that had burst through the embankment, and he knelt directly in front of a rebel soldier.
With tears in his eyes, he raised his hands and shouted in a voice that had changed his tune: "Hooray, my lords! Hooray, Excellencies! Hooray, new CEOs! ”
The voice of the young man was like a fuse, completely detonating the pent-up emotions that had been suppressed in the hearts of many people present.
"Hooray! Banzai! ”
The voices of banzai from different mouths converged in the sky above Okemari and merged into a sea of cheers.