On June 18, 1956, Prince Heishanbao personally delivered the closing statement in the "Huaxia Technology v. Shanghu Group Case" at the First Circuit Court of Donghai.
This caused a sensation in the entire imperial judicial community.
This legendary genius who changed and improved several imperial legal codes has been away from the judicial world for a long time and is creating a new legend on another path. Unexpectedly, he will have a moment of comeback.
According to media reports, the courtroom was in a state of complete boiling over, and the jurors' preference for His Royal Highness the Prince of Montenegro caused serious protests from the defendant's legal team.
Before the jury reached a verdict, the defense's legal team asked the judge to declare the trial a null and void because the jurors stood up to salute Prince Montenegro when he stood up to make his closing statement.
The presiding judge was an old Western man who ruthlessly rejected the defendant's request on the grounds that due to His Royal Highness the Prince of Black Mountain Castle's status, there was nothing wrong with the civilian jurors standing up to salute him. In addition, according to imperial law, His Royal Highness the Prince, as the lord of a principality, had the right to be exempted from criminal prosecution, just like His Majesty the King. It was just that the Empire had not had a Prince ruling a piece of territory for a long time, but this ancient law had not been abolished. Therefore, when such an important royal member appeared in court and served as a legal defense party, it was a victory for the judiciary in itself.
Obviously, the actions of the defendant's legal team had the opposite effect and caused greater resentment among the jury.
The jury's ruling in favor of Huaxia Technology was not unexpected to most people, but all media outlets were shocked by the headlines that indicated the amount of compensation and punitive fines the jury had awarded, which totaled 120 million yuan.
However, some media revealed that the defendant's lawyers all walked out of the court with smiles on their faces.
According to analysis by legal experts, the Ueto Foundation's legal team is the powerful Reed & Smith Law Firm. In fact, when it comes to economic cases involving foundation-level bargaining, Reed & Smith Law Firm is renowned and second to none in the empire. Obviously, these elite lawyers would know the serious consequences of angering the jury before the jury's verdict.
Therefore, their series of actions are just a strategy. Whether it is the jury standing up to salute the plaintiff's lawyer or the super amount of compensation awarded, it will become their best reason for appeal.
In fact, the next day, the Ueto Foundation's legal team filed an appeal, requesting the Court of Appeal to declare the trial invalid, and thereby obtained a 30-day suspension of the execution of the judgment.
Of course, due to the huge amount of money involved in the case, the Ueto Group needs to pay a suspension of execution deposit of up to 30 million to the Court of Appeal.
There are reports that the Ueto Group is very dissatisfied with this, as it seems that the fundraising progress is very slow.
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A few days after his birthday, Lu Ming appeared in Naishan City, under Yoshida's jurisdiction.
Naishan is a small city with a population of tens of thousands, but its urban area is very large because in the southwest of the city is the Naishan Forest, one of the largest forest areas in Japan, which covers an area of more than 5,000 square kilometers.
However, today, Naishan Forest Farm, as collateral for compensation for "Governor Zhang's" personal roll, has been sold to Zhengdong Group by "Governor Zhang" himself.
Naishan Forest Farm also became a forest farm owned by Zhengdong Forestry Company.
Lu Ming was walking in the forest farm at this time. The translator accompanying him was Takeuchi Mihui, the wife of the city's mayor Takeuchi Yoichi. She was a petite and beautiful young woman who wore traditional kimono. She had studied at Kyoto University and her family was also a famous local family.
Yoichi Takeuchi was also present, and although he spoke fluent Chinese, he recommended his wife to be Representative Lu's temporary interpreter.
He even nodded and bowed, and even bowed down to his buttocks. He was originally a handsome man, but under the flattery, he became an ugly person.
Of course, to the locals and his subordinates, he is a very scary existence.
Most of the trees in Zhengdong Forest Farm are beech trees, many of which are over 100 years old and are excellent materials for making furniture and musical instruments.
But nowadays they are roughly cut down and mainly transported to Xianquan to support its construction. Some are burned into charcoal and then transported there, while some are directly transported. In addition, a lime kiln has been built locally. It happens that there is limestone in Naishan, and the cut down trees are also used to burn lime, and most of it is also transported to Xianquan.
Whether it was felling trees or burning lime in a lime kiln, all of these jobs were done by free laborers from the Yoshida Corps' prisoner-of-war camps.
The day after Prime Minister Ashikaga made his statement, Yoshida's army counterattacked but was completely defeated.
More than 10,000 soldiers were taken as prisoners of war.
Naturally, they were not treated the same way as prisoners of war in the Northern Territory War.
They were all put into prisoner-of-war camps and became coolies of the Zhengdong Company.
In fact, the principality is not short of labor nowadays. Tens of thousands of workers from the Northern Territory have migrated to Xianquan to work in labor-intensive Central Plains enterprises such as garment factories. The Central Plains factories in Xianquan basically do not employ local people, although the salaries of Black Mountain workers are much higher than those of local workers.
However, outside of Xianquan, Zhongzhou capital basically comes to plunder rather than invest and build, and is more engaged in trade, dumping the products of Xianquan and the Principality into markets across Japan in exchange for various resources and primary agricultural and fishery products.
The Zhengdong Forest Farm gives us a glimpse of the whole situation. Those who do the work are all free Japanese prisoners of war. They actually eat grass and produce milk.
During the period of management by the Okuetsu people, Yoshida prisoners of war caused trouble several times and even rioted.
But after being handed over to the management of Zhengdong Company, they became obedient instead, and most of the prisoners of war were very obedient and well-behaved.
They believed that it was the Central Asians from the Principality of Montenegro who defeated them, not the Austrian Vietnamese.
Indeed, in the battle with Yoshida's army, the Principality not only sent fighter jets for support, but the Black Sparrow Unit also directly participated in the battle. Their powerful combat capability made Yoshida's army terrified.
Therefore, the prisoners of war of Yoshida's army felt that they were respected because they were managed by the Central Continent people of the Black Mountain Principality and enslaved by the strong men who truly defeated them.
The prisoners of war who were working along the way all bowed respectfully when they saw Lu Ming and his party.
However, Lu Ming knew that these were only temporary appearances. No one wanted to be a free slave forever, especially when they saw no hope. They would become desperate, and desperate people would do anything.
Especially for Yoshida Territory, the force that resists Okuetsu and Nakasu people is not small.
The new lord of Yoshida Territory, Yoshida Abe, was a very greedy character with a very bad character, so although he was an important figure in the Yoshida family, he was always marginalized and even nearly went to jail, but his bloody tactics were very effective in suppressing the rebels.
Including local governors appointed by Yoshida in various places, in fact, you can get an idea of what this group is like by looking at Takeuchi Yoichi.
But now they can only rely on them. The Okuyue people have never thought of persuading the Yoshida people to stand on their side. That is simply impossible.
Therefore, the management of Yoshida Territory adopted a high-pressure white terror rule, and most of the local officials used were corrupt and cruel.
In the short term, of course, there are benefits. Basically, the resistance forces cannot cause any waves at all nowadays.
But in fact, the countryside full of complaints will be the best refuge for resistance.
Moreover, once a war broke out between the Ashikaga regime and the Yamamoto regime, the resistance of Yoshida's domain would be like a spark that could start a prairie fire.
It is true that these more than 10,000 prisoners of war from Yoshida's army are a good labor force, but they may also be a huge threat in the future.
Thinking about it, Lu Ming slowly walked into the office in the administrative building of the forest farm.
Important officials from the city, including Takeuchi Yoichi, followed in and stood still in an orderly manner.
In fact, Lu Ming’s current identity is merely the consul of the Principality’s Consulate in Naishan, which is located in the administrative building outside the entrance to the forest farm wall.
According to the agreement reached between the Principality and Prime Minister Ashikaga, consulates were set up in the capitals of the four principalities. In addition, due to the existence of the Naishan Forest Farm and the prisoner-of-war camp, a consulate was also set up in Naishan.
According to the treaty, the consuls of these five consulates are political, economic and military advisers who work closely with local officials, but they have no right to interfere in the internal affairs of the local government. In fact, the latter item was proposed by Lu Ming on his own initiative.
Judging from Prime Minister Ashikaga's current situation, he naturally understands what he and the Montenegrins need from each other.
The more this happened, the more Lu Ming paid attention to maintaining the independence of Prime Minister Ashikaga's regime in the formal agreement.
Otherwise, there may be big problems in the future and the benefactor may become an enemy.
Lu Jun was originally assigned to solve the assassination case of Governor Zhang. After reaching an agreement with Prime Minister Yamamoto Yu, his duties as the plenipotentiary representative were completed. After being unemployed for a period of time, he was appointed as the consul of the Naishan Consulate.
Although the Naishan Consulate is located in the small town of Naishan, there is no doubt that Takeuchi Yoichi and others also know that among the five consulates, the Naishan Consulate may be the most important in the eyes of the Montenegrin people. Therefore, the representative Lu, who is said to be the younger brother of the Prince of Montenegrin Castle, will serve as consul.
Indeed, Yoshida Castle does not have an airport, but some of the prisoners of war are being used to build a military airport near the Naishan forest farm. Moreover, a Central Plains armed force is also stationed in the forest farm. Although it is necessary for the management of the prisoner-of-war camp, the excellence of the weapons and equipment of this armed force is astonishing.
"Yesterday, Prime Minister Ashikaga just reached a consensus with the Principality that Naishan City will be subject to special management and strive to build a model city where the people of Yoshida can live and work in peace and contentment. Well, you should see the official letter soon."
Lu Ming's words stunned Takeuchi Yoichi and others.
Lu Ming added: "This model city will first strengthen the independence of the judiciary from the perspective of governance. Therefore, foreign judges will be hired in the short term. I am not very talented, so I will temporarily serve as the chief judge of the Naishan Court. However, I am not very familiar with the local statutory laws..."
Before Lu Ming could finish his modest words, Takeuchi Yoichi had already taken the lead and everyone applauded enthusiastically.
"That's great, it's great that Representative Lu can come!"
"We are honored to have Representative Lu as our Chief Justice!"
Everyone looked excited.
Lu Ming smiled, "Don't worry, I won't actually try the case, and I don't have the time to take care of it. It's just that the original judge is only responsible to me now, and has nothing to do with you."
Everyone felt relieved, and the horses continued to run and the dances continued as usual, but the original judge's status had become higher, so he would probably have to give a larger share.
Lu Ming added: "Also, in the future, the Naishan Court will set up an appellate court to manage appeal cases in the entire Yoshida area. In addition to transferring from outside, if you have any suitable judicial personnel, you can also recommend them to me."
In fact, he didn't care at all about how the Yoshida territory developed or how the judiciary was, but with an appeals court in his hands, it was like holding the pulse of the Yoshida territory. It would be much more convenient for him to act there. He was truly the emperor in secret. However, the local officials were not aware of this for the time being.
This model will not be extended to other regions to avoid causing dissatisfaction from former Prime Minister Ashikaga.
However, the principality has vital interests in Yoshida Territory, not only the forest resources, but also 1% of the annual tax revenue must be paid to the relatives of "Governor Zhang".
Yoshida Territory became a deserted place. The Yamamoto regime regarded it as a discarded pawn and signed random agreements to stabilize the Principality of Montenegro.
The senior officials of the Ashikaga regime did not regard the Yoshida domain as a real territory, and they appointed local officials to impose heavy taxes and suppress the people with iron fists.
We also need to intervene to safeguard the interests of the principality here.