I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 527: Death penalty starts, no upper limit

Reims, a province close to Paris.

Reims District Court.

Judge Fusne couldn't help but look exhausted when he heard the prosecutor's request for the defendant to be sentenced to death by beheading.

In the past, he only tried cases such as petty theft and damage to public property. This was the first time in his 20-year career as a judge that he had been responsible for a case like the one now involving hundreds of thousands of francs and in which the defendant would be sentenced to death.

To be honest, if he hadn't crammed for two nights before the trial, he wouldn't have been sure which law should apply to this case.

There is no way. There are too many cases concerning tax farmers recently. The High Court’s schedule is fully booked, so even the local courts have to accept major cases.

The defendant's lawyer immediately walked up to the podium and loudly refuted:

“Your Excellency the Attorney, my client, Mr. Poca, simply failed to strictly follow tax procedures and made errors in tax calculations. This is a completely economic case and he should not be sentenced so heavily!
“In fact, I think this case should be heard by the commercial court instead of the ordinary court.”

The prosecutor frowned and almost drove the lawyer off the podium. He raised a stack of documents in his hand and said in a cold voice:
"Lawyer Corentin, you are really good at twisting the facts!

"Poca imposed heavy fines on 1785 peasant families in Meition in 41, causing 18 of them to go bankrupt. In the process, more than 9 people in these peasant families died of hunger or disease. All this could have been avoided if they had still lived in their homes!
"In addition, in 1786, Pocard forged government tax documents and collected 300 francs of "industrial legacy tax" from Mr. Blanche and others, causing Blanche's workshop to go bankrupt and Blanche to commit suicide...

"In the same year, Boca ordered his men to beat Mr. Neige because of tax arrears. Five days later, Neige died..."

Lawyer Corentin said in a shrill voice:
"Objection! Mr. Inspector, first of all, every year people in Meitiang die of starvation and disease. Even if the nine people you mentioned had not been fined, they would probably not have survived.

"As for Blanche, it's even more ridiculous. How can you be sure that he didn't commit suicide because of a quarrel with someone or because he was just mentally ill?
"And the situation in the past day is also full of doubts..."

He talked nonstop for about half an hour, mainly trying to change the concept and make nonsense. Anyway, it all happened several years ago and a lot of evidence has long disappeared.

He had many ways to delay the trial of the case for a long time. If he could delay it until the tax farmer incident had passed, he might get a lighter sentence. He could even try to bribe the judge to get him acquitted.

He received 7 francs in lawyer fees from the Bocca family, so naturally he had to do his best to help him get rid of the crime.

The prosecutor was so angry at the lawyer's words that his face turned blue, but he had too little time to prepare for the case - he had to take charge of four cases involving tax farmers recently - and had no time to collect detailed evidence. The evidence he had in his hands was basically given to him by the tax bureau.

He argued for a while, and the lawyer named Corentin suddenly changed the subject:
"By the way, Mr. Prosecutor, the cases you mentioned today should be brought individually by the people involved or their families. I think it is unreasonable for you to file a public prosecution, based on..."

These lawyers always find new and interesting ways to manipulate the law.

"The families of those involved simply can't afford the cost of the lawsuit, and they don't even know how to sue!" the prosecutor said angrily, "Otherwise Poca would have been in jail long ago!"

"Your Honor, the prosecutor is threatening my client..."

Afterwards, the prosecution and the defense argued for more than two hours, and Judge Fusner slammed the gavel helplessly and announced the adjournment of the court.

He had a hunch that based on the lawyer's experience, the lawsuit would take at least half a year.

He returned to the lounge and was about to have a cup of coffee when a court employee knocked on the door with a middle-aged man who was well-dressed, had a shiny silky wig and looked very prestigious.

The middle-aged man motioned for the staff beside him to leave, and then said to the somewhat nervous Fusne:
"Nice to meet you, Judge Fusney. I am Cyprian, a special representative of the Royal Supreme Court. I need to ask you about some cases..."

An hour later, the Poca case resumed.

Lawyer Corentin continued to talk about this and that, but this time he had only said a few words when he heard the judge bang the gavel hard, interrupting him:
"Defense lawyer, please don't say anything that is irrelevant to the case."

"Yes, your honor."

Corentin tried to negotiate with the prosecutor from a different angle, but was quickly stopped by the judge:

"Defense attorney, your speculation cannot be used as evidence in court. If you do this again, I will warn you."

The prosecutor was immediately overjoyed and began to take the initiative.

With the obvious help of the judge, he soon made Corentin sweat profusely and was defeated step by step.

At 4 p.m., Judge Fusner symbolically sought the opinions of several court assistants, slammed the gavel hard, and said loudly:
“This court officially declares that Boca has illegally levied taxes, committed murder, fraud, and forged official documents…

"The charges are proven. This court, based on the Edict of Dorne and the Edict of Cernance...

"Sentence to be behead Jacques-Etoile de Pocca of Touraine."

The people of Corentin were dumbfounded. How could this be a verdict?

Although I was at a disadvantage during the court debate, there were still many points in the case that could be used to argue, and the judge made the verdict in less than a day!

He hurriedly whispered to comfort the pale-faced Poca:
"Don't worry. There are many points that can be used to appeal this case. After all, a lot of evidence is gone. I will submit an application to the Court of Appeal tomorrow."

Judge Fusner let out a long sigh. Just now, the big shot from the Supreme Court came to remind him that in all the recent cases involving tax farmers, as long as the facts of the case were clear, there was no need to pay too much attention to the details of the evidence and the verdict should be made as soon as possible.

At this rate, he would probably be able to finish reviewing the thick stack of tax farmers' cases in more than half a month.

He had originally planned to spend half a year to handle these cases.

At the entrance of the court, a bailiff heard the verdict and immediately slipped out excitedly, regardless of violating the rules. He shouted anxiously to the people waiting outside for the result:
"Beheading! It's beheading!"

The crowd suddenly burst into cheers like waves:

"Great, that damn Poca is finally going to hell!"

"Long live Judge Fusner!"

"Thank God, the wicked have finally been punished!"

It can be said that almost no one in Reims did not hate the tax farmers. Even if they were not ruined by the tax farmers, it was common to be charged a few more sous in taxes or to be beaten by the tax collectors when they demanded payment.

Now, how could they not be overjoyed when they learned that the tax farmer had been sentenced to death?
Lawyer Corentin waited until dusk before cautiously walking out of the Reims District Court - he was well aware of how bad the reputation of tax farmers was.

However, as soon as he walked out of the door, something hit his face.

He subconsciously reached out to touch it, and immediately his hand became sticky. At the same time, a foul smell filled his nose, causing him to vomit violently.

More than a dozen people rushed out from the surroundings, apparently having been waiting for him. They cursed and threw more "unknown objects" at him.

The men chased after Corentin for two more streets before leaving until his servant helped him get into the carriage.

Leonor, Blanche and Nage’s families, who were involved in the case, did not receive the news until the next day. They had no time to wait for the trial results at the local court. They were all too stressed out by their heavy lives to rest for a moment. The culprit who caused all this will soon pay for his crime. …

To Corentin's great surprise, the French judicial system suddenly became incredibly efficient.

He appealed for Poca, but the appeal was rejected by the Court of Appeal after just one day, on the grounds that the evidence was clear and the verdict was reasonable.

He had no choice but to appeal again to the Supreme Court of Reims. This time he waited for two days before the court announced that it would uphold the original verdict and make a final ruling, ending his idea of ​​continuing to appeal to the Supreme Court.

Soon after, the execution date was set - ten days later.

He naturally didn't know that all this was the result of the Crown Prince asking the Supreme Court to supervise the courts in various places. Even when several senior officials of the Supreme Court suggested that he should be cautious about this matter, Joseph did not hesitate to replace the assistant chief judge of the Supreme Court, who was also the second in command.

Joseph did not want to interfere with the judiciary, although intervention was fine in a royal society. However, the cases of these tax farmers were actually very clear, and there were basically no unjust cases among those who were hanged, so there was no need to waste time and judicial resources on this.

Moreover, these tax farmers are all very wealthy, and the longer the lawsuit drags on, the more they will think of various means to exonerate themselves.

Just as Corentin was reviewing the trial process over and over again and began to doubt his professional ability, he heard good news that restored his confidence:

All recent cases concerning tax farmers have been tried very quickly, and his case is even considered slow. Some cases were even decided in the morning and the High Court announced the final verdict in the afternoon.

Moreover, in these cases, the death penalty rate is as high as 70%!

Those who were not sentenced to death were generally sentenced to decades of imprisonment, with only a few being sentenced to exile or short-term imprisonment.

There is not a single innocent person!

The tax bureau arrests people with a clear goal in mind, and tax farmers who have not committed any wrongdoing will not be brought to court.

In the morning, Corentin had breakfast and walked out of a hotel in the Saint-Germain district of Paris. He didn't dare to live in Reims recently, fearing that the angry people would kill him sooner or later. Although he made 7 francs, if he were to go back a few days ago, he would never dare to take Boca's case again.

"Read the newspaper, read the newspaper!" a newsboy shouted from across the street. "News and Image, there is a joint trial of the thugs who violently attacked the tax collector. You can read the verdict for 1 sou and 5 deniers!"

Corentin raised his hand to call the newsboy, paid for a newspaper, and immediately saw the news when he opened it - a total of 571 thugs who participated in attacking tax officials or violently obstructed tax officials from arresting suspects were all sentenced to death! Most of them were former tax collectors, that is, the subordinates of tax farmers.

At the same time, the news also mentioned that since there were a small number of nobles among the 571 people, in order to facilitate the uniformity of the trial results, the Paris Supreme Court sentenced them all to death by beheading, and rejected the appeal on the same day.

Like Poca, these more than 5 people were executed starting ten days later.

……

Southern suburbs of Paris.

In Ford's villa, more than a dozen tax farmers all looked gloomy and kept their heads down in silence.

They had naturally already known that a large number of tax farmers and their subordinates had been arrested and quickly sentenced to death.

This shows that their attempt to get the Queen through the Count of Artois and the Countess of Berninac has failed, and the government has begun to take action to deal with them.

After a while, a fat tax farmer said:

I didn't expect Brian to be so ruthless this time. Is he trying to kill us completely?"

Ford rolled his eyes at him and scolded:

"This is simply not something Brian can do. The entire judicial system has been mobilized!"

HP nodded:

"It seems that this is the intention of the royal family."

Borore gritted his teeth and said:

"I've said it before. At that time, we should have allocated some money to support the High Court in its fight against the royal family! But you misers all disagreed."

"What's the point of saying this now?" Baron Morrel said, "The people from the tax bureau are watching me all day long. If this continues, the fire will burn us sooner or later!"

Since these tax farmers usually stay behind the scenes, the tax farming business is handed over to agents, and even the tax farming negotiation is done by a noble. In addition, they paid a lot of hush money, so far, the tax bureau has no solid evidence to arrest them.

However, tax farming involves a huge sum of money amounting to hundreds of millions of francs, and the whereabouts of the debts cannot be completely hidden. Moreover, they will summon lower-level tax farmers from time to time to issue instructions, so as long as they investigate, the tax bureau will definitely find them.

Hope motioned for everyone to be quiet, and said calmly:

"Don't worry, everyone. We have already completed the arrangements for the caravan and Marseille Port, and will send someone to negotiate with the royal family later.

"The royal family has gained enough benefits by arresting so many people this time. They should stop while they are ahead. Otherwise, if there are problems with trade and Mediterranean ports, there will be a lot of riots in France soon."

Morrel curled his lips and muttered:

"I hope your solution works. But I have decided to give up my funds in France and go to England for a while."

Goldmid and several other tax farmers immediately expressed the same idea.

……

Champagne, a province in east-central France.

Gérald Bonnet handed a contract to the owner of the Marlière estate and said with a smile:

“You will not regret your decision today.

"In addition to giving you the most favorable purchase price, we will also provide you with property insurance - as long as the purchase amount exceeds 5 francs.

“In the future, if something unexpected happens to the goods, such as the wine going sour before it’s sold, the insurance company will compensate you for it without having to return the goods to you.”

Bonne was the second in charge of the new caravan established by the French Trade Union in the Champagne region.

He was just a small businessman before, and although his business was not big, decades of hard work had made his business skills very sophisticated.

When he saw that the Trade Union offered an annual salary of 1500 francs to recruit caravan managers, he signed up without hesitation. His family's small business only earned about 1 francs a year, and he had to take risks.

(End of this chapter)