1840 Indian Rebirth

Chapter 91 [Trial and Execution]

The next day's trial took place in the square, and all the captives were brought over to watch. Of course, many Sleeping Bears and Chiricahuas also came to watch.

For almost everyone, this is an unheard of scenario.

As the great chief who is a trinity of legislation, administration, and justice, Mashao has long established laws and simple judicial procedures, but it is the first time that such a large-scale trial has been held.

Amidst the bursts of discussion among the crowd, a total of nine people were bound and bound to the center of the square.

More than [-] Mianxiong warriors surrounded them with long knives in their hands, without saying a word.As "bailiffs", they were all selected after a while, and their height was outstanding, which added a more serious atmosphere to the trial.

The nine bound people were naturally the prisoners to be tried. They were the great chiefs and war chiefs of the five tribes, as well as the traitor Fanglian.

Originally there were eleven people, but two of them had already died on the battlefield yesterday.

Most of the nine people were pale. Although they didn't have the concept of trial, they could still feel the chilling atmosphere.

When the sleeping bears saw them, they all cast contempt on them: "These guys who are overconfident, actually want to challenge the Apaches!"

"Yesterday on the field, they outnumbered us almost twice, and they were beaten like weeds under the feet of a herd of buffaloes!"

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

"Silence!" shouted the soldiers maintaining order.

In addition to those standing beside 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 have quieted down.

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

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

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

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

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

Ma Shao nodded calmly: "The prisoner voluntarily gave up the opportunity to defend himself."

Immediately afterwards he said: "Fang Face committed the four crimes of treason, splitting the tribe, insulting the great chief, and instigating the internal war among the aborigines... The facts are clear and the evidence is conclusive. I declare that the traitor Fang Face will be sentenced to death by shooting and will be executed immediately! "

"Woo—" Fang's eyes were tearing apart, his eyes widened with anger, but he was speechless.

The horse sentry continued to try other prisoners.

Except for Square Face, the rest of them are all pure war criminals, and three of them are diehards, who will naturally end up with the death penalty.

Until the object of the trial is the owl's turn.

"Owl, you listened to the rumors spread by Fang Lian, provoked internal wars among the aborigines, and undermined the unity of the aborigines. Do you plead guilty?" Horse Whistle looked directly at the owl.

The owl knelt on the ground, lowered its head, and said in a slightly trembling voice: "I plead guilty, I repent... I shouldn't be impulsive and launch aggression against Sleeping Bear. The aborigines should be united instead of attacking each other as a way to destroy the aborigines. Sinners united, I am willing to accept any punishment!"

The horse whistle watched people's reactions.

For the owl's remarks, the Sleeping Bear's reaction was mostly disdain and contempt.In their view, what the owl said was nothing more than greed for life and fear of death, and wanted to win some sympathy, and it was true.

When the captured Comanche heard this, their reaction was confusion and anger.

The crime of "provoking internal war among the aborigines" has been stated many times, and someone has translated it to the prisoners throughout the process.

At first they didn't take it seriously, but seeing their great chief plead guilty, they couldn't help but have some vague self-doubt in their hearts: Am I really participating in an unjust war?
Of course, there is more anger and grievance. Seeing the humble gesture of the owl kneeling on the ground and pleading guilty, the Comanche fighters feel as if they have been betrayed.

Under the surveillance of the Sleeping Bear soldiers around, the captives did not dare to discuss much, but their attitude was not hard to detect.

This seems to have some effect, Ma Shao thought.

He looked at the pleading owl, nodded, and continued: "Considering your attitude of pleading guilty and that you were deceived by others, your punishment can be mitigated. Therefore, I announce that the owl's death sentence will be exempted, and the sentence will be changed to ten years of hard labor. "

Even though the two had communicated a long time ago last night, Owl couldn't help but heave a sigh of relief after hearing this sentence.

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

Fortunately, he finally escaped and was exempted from the death penalty.

Without the threat of death, the owl's tense attention was suddenly relaxed, which made him finally turn his head to look at the Comanche prisoners not far away.

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

The latter few prisoners were the same, they pleaded guilty without any hesitation, got forgiveness, and were only sentenced to ten years of hard labor.

The so-called ten-year servitude naturally refers to compulsory work such as cultivating farmland and building buildings. It will not really last ten years, and there will be a certain amount of remuneration.

Of course the Indians didn't know this, and in their psychological expectation, labor was slavery, just like what the whites did to the blacks or the Comanches did to the Utes.

After the trial was over, the soldiers began to execute the four condemned prisoners, and casual onlookers were not allowed, at least children under the age of 12 were not allowed to watch.

Only the captives were brought over to watch, so that they would know what would happen to the diehards.

Fortunately for the four condemned prisoners, they were executed not by hanging, the most common form of execution in this era, but by shooting.

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

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

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

All it takes is one bullet to kill instantly.

But this random sequence of executions still caused the psychological collapse of the four condemned prisoners, no, three to be precise.

The first man to be shot did not have time to linger in fear for long, the buckshot soon ended his life.

The latter three were not so lucky. They knew that they would die, but they were not sure how many shots they would fall under. Every shot was a huge psychological torture.

Man's love and obsession with his own life is so strong.In the last few minutes of their lives, they have shed all the cold sweat and even urine. If there is no rag stuffed in their mouths, I don't know what kind of noise they would make.

(End of this chapter)