Fang Yun's face was stern, not at all as kind as usual, and his eyes even had a chill that went deep into the bone marrow.
"Yes, I already know that. But..." Fang Yun said as he flipped through the documents in front of him, "According to what we know at the county government, was Wang Xiaocui bought by your Diao family from someone else?"
Diao Nengchen hurriedly said, "This is nonsense. Wang Xiaocui is my wife, married in a formal ceremony. The village chief is my witness and the village elders are witnesses. According to ancient etiquette, this is a formal marriage."
"Since it's a formal marriage, have the woman's family been present?"
"We invited the girl's family, but none of them came, and we had no choice," said Diao Nengchen.
"Someone, call the woman's family to the court!"
Six or seven people walked into the main hall. A woman was crying loudly, and the other men looked at Diao Nengchen and others with flames of hatred in their eyes.
A middle-aged man in his forties clasped his fists to Fang Yunyi, with a look of grief on his face, and said, "Fang Xusheng, please help me! My daughter Xiao Cui was just out of town to play with friends, but she was kidnapped by human traffickers. We searched all over Mizhou but couldn't find her. Not long ago, the police told us that Xiao Cui was in Changxi Village. My husband and I went there, but we were kicked out without even seeing Xiao Cui. An old man told us that we must not go to Changxi Village again, or we might be beaten to death, so we have been trying to find her, but we are a civilian family, so where can we find her? We can only wait for news from the county government at home..."
The man had been trying hard to hold back his tears, but in the end, the tears flowed silently. He not only cried because of his daughter's death, but also because of his own incompetence.
How can an ordinary person fight against such a powerful enemy
“If I had known, I wouldn’t have let Xiao Cui go out of the city…” The woman cried even harder.
Fang Yun said with a smile: "Aunt, don't say such things. You are not wrong, and Xiao Cui is not wrong either. The ones who are wrong are the traffickers and the local officials! Since Xiao Cui's parents believe that Xiao Cui was abducted and forced into marriage, then I hereby declare..."
Fang Yun's expression suddenly changed. He slammed the gavel and looked at Diao Nengchen, saying, "Diao Nengchen, a villager of Changxi Village, bought abducted women, fined 300 taels of silver and sentenced to one year in prison. He forced the common people Wang Xiaocui to be his wife, sentenced to three years in prison. He repeatedly raped the mob Wang Xiaocui, the circumstances are serious. The consequences are bad, the crimes are compounded, and he shall be executed immediately!"
After Fang Yun announced the verdict, the whole room fell silent. No matter whether it was the Legalist aides sitting near Fang Yun or the yamen runners standing not far away, no matter whether it was Diao Nengchen's family or Wang Xiaocui's family, no matter whether it was the officials outside or the witnesses, none of them could understand this strange verdict.
Even Tang Hanlin from the Criminal Hall was stunned.
Fang Yun's trial of this case was much shorter than the previous ones. After going to court, he only looked through the case files and listened to the testimonies of both parties before making a sudden and direct judgment. This was a bit rash, and the final judgment was unprecedented!
Human traffickers are caught every year in all human countries, but the laws of each country in Shengyuan Continent are different. Some countries, like ancient China, impose capital punishment on human traffickers. They kill them once caught, but some countries do not kill them, but only sentence them to heavy penalties.
Jingguo is one of the countries that does not kill human traffickers, let alone people who buy women.
However, Ning'an County is a pilot area of the Criminal Court, and Fang Yun has the right to execute first and report later. As long as the Criminal Court and the three judicial departments do not object in the end, his judgment will be valid and can be cited by other officials as a sentencing standard.
“You dog official! You dog official! You take human life lightly! You dog official…” Diao’s mother rushed towards Fang Yun like a madman, walked around the table, and stretched out her hand to scratch Fang Yun’s face.
Before she could get close, Fang Yun used his literary power to block her, then slammed the gavel and said, "Quickly arrest this person! Not only did he roar in court, he also trafficked in people and intended to attack this county. This is a serious crime! He must be a vicious person, and he must not be sentenced lightly just because of his old age! Put this old woman in jail, keep her under strict supervision, and try her separately!"
The yamen runners on both sides rushed over and grabbed Diao's mother.
Diao's mother immediately started to throw a tantrum, shouting, "I'm not going to live any longer! I'm not going to live any longer! I'm going to crash to death here, I don't believe the saints are blind, I don't believe that there are no laws in this human race! Don't stop me, I'm going to crash to death in the Ning'an County Office!"
Fang Yun suddenly said, "Let go, let her hit you!"
The two bailiffs hesitated for a moment and then let go of his hands.
Diao's mother was stunned, and so were the others present. Is this the county magistrate
"Good! Good! Good! I didn't expect that Ning'an County would produce such a wicked official! I'm going to bang my head against the pillar and die in front of you all!" The shrewd mother suddenly rushed towards the red pillar in the main hall, slammed into it with a bang, then fell to the ground and never spoke again.
Everyone in the Diao family rushed forward and cried loudly.
Fang Yun was unmoved, because he saw that Diao's mother paused for a moment at the moment of collision, and the collision was not very severe.
"Come here, take this man out for treatment, and then put him in jail! Anyone who obstructs will be driven away with a stick!"
"Yes!" Many yamen runners rushed over and drove away the people from the Diao family.
Afterwards, two yamen runners each grabbed one of Diao's mother's wrists and dragged her out. These experienced yamen runners knew very well what the county magistrate meant by "drag her out".
The shrewd mother closed her eyes, gritted her teeth, and was dragged out without saying a word.
"You dog official! Give me back my mother's life, or I'll fight you!" Diao Nengchen shouted loudly, but did not dare to move forward.
"Someone, come here, this man is roaring in the court and trying to attack me. Drag him out and give him forty lashes!" Fang Yun threw down a warrant.
The bailiffs immediately rushed forward, took Diao Nengchen out of the hall, stripped him of his pants, and beat him severely with sticks.
Snap… Snap… Snap…
The yamen runners used all their strength to beat Diao Nengchen with the sticks after only 20 strokes. They then replaced them with new sticks and broke Diao Nengchen's bones, causing him to faint.
The other members of the Diao family had never seen such a brutal official before. They were so frightened that they dared not say a word and knelt on the ground trembling.
Wang Xiaocui's family was extremely excited and gnashed their teeth, regretting that they didn't beat her enough.
Tang Hanlin stepped into the main hall, bowed to Fang Yun, and said, "Fang Xusheng, I have something to ask you."
"Just say it." Fang Yun looked at Tang Hanlin. He was stationed in Ning'an City and had helped him many times, but as a Hanlin in the Criminal Hall, it was his duty to stand up at this time. Fang Yun did not blame him.
"Why is there a sentence for purchasing women? This is unprecedented in Shengyuan Continent."
Fang Yun said: "People who buy people should know that human trafficking is a crime. They should know that the law does not allow forced buying of people. Since they have done it, they must bear legal responsibility. Moreover, buying and selling are equally guilty, which can effectively reduce human trafficking."
Tang Hanlin said, "I see. County Magistrate Fang is right, but the matter will be decided by the Criminal Court. As for the final death penalty, is it up for discussion?"
Fang Yun pointed at Diao Nengchen outside and asked, "Hasn't he raped women many times? According to the law, shouldn't he be sentenced to death for such a crime?" Wucuo Novel Network does not skip words.
Tang Hanlin was speechless, and even everyone present felt that Fang Yun’s words were irrefutable.
It was not until this time that everyone realized that all the trafficked women had been abused and raped. Those who raped others would be sentenced to heavy penalties or even death. How could those who bought women be punished even more heinous without being sentenced to death
Those people not only bought others, but were also a group of serial rapists!
Many people have never thought of such a simple truth before.
Some officials looked at Fang Yun and suddenly realized that what Fang Xusheng saw was far beyond the limits of what ordinary people could see, as if it had penetrated time and space.
Tang Hanlin sighed and said, "But the human race has never had such a precedent before."
"There was no you and me in the human race before!" Fang Yun said.
Tang Hanlin admitted that if one looks at people like Diao Nengchen who buy women from another perspective, one will find that the crimes of these people are almost as serious as those of human traffickers!
Tang Hanlin said helplessly: "Fang Xusheng, such a heavy sentence does make sense. But don't forget that if these people are sentenced to death, once they do these things, they will kill those women to prevent leaks, which may endanger more people."
Fang Yun said: "Everyone knows that Yun Country does not have the death penalty, so the ratio of murderers per million people in Yun Country is more than ten times that of other countries! And Wu Country, which has stricter laws, has a much lower ratio of murderers per million people than Yun Country because of the large number of death penalties. Is what I said true?"
"It's indeed true." Tang Hanlin said helplessly.
"I also heard a survey saying that for the same crime, if it is not punishable by death, many people would hesitate to do it, but if it is punishable by death, most would not do it. Is this true?"
"It is indeed true." Tang Hanlin said.
"I believe that as long as there is the threat and deterrence of the death penalty, the number of people buying people will decrease significantly. Without buyers, the number of people trafficking people will also decrease significantly. Of course, this crime cannot be officially promulgated until everyone knows about it. In order to avoid people being killed for human trafficking, the heavy punishment must be fully implemented after it is officially promulgated."
"But... why can't we use more gentle means?" Tang Hanlin said.
Fang Yun suddenly ignored Tang Hanlin and looked at the sky in the distance outside the door.
"I have also asked myself whether I can use more gentle and reasonable means to stop the human race from killing each other. In fact, this is already very gentle, because the means I used to stop the monsters are a hundred times more cruel than this! The monsters will not give us that much time to deal with these conflicts gently, and I don't have that much time to waste on these scum who hold the human race back. They can afford it, but the human race can't!"
Tang Hanlin looked at Fang Yun and was speechless for a long time.
A member of the Diao family suddenly shouted, "It's not that we want to buy people, it's that we simply can't find wives. If we don't force them to buy, how can we have children? How can we reproduce the human race?"
Fang Yun said: "You have needs, you have desires, but no matter what, you should not hurt others to satisfy your needs!"
"We were forced to do this. We had no choice! If we all had it, we wouldn't do this."
Fang Yun looked at the Diao family member indifferently and said slowly: "There was once a man who lost both arms when he was born. After his parents left Liangjie Mountain, they entrusted him to a relative's house. Later, his parents completely lost contact. His relatives were very poor. Providing him with food was the limit. Beyond that, they could not help him. Such a poor person, let alone marrying a wife, couldn't even hold a pen. He was a thousand times and ten thousand times more miserable than you, but he didn't buy a wife, nor did he hurt others."
Fang Yun took a deep breath and continued, "He listened to other people's classes outside the school. He wrote by biting a branch with his teeth and pinching a branch with his toes. Even though he became a Hanlin, all his teeth were crooked and his toes were twisted. The contempt and ridicule he faced never stopped. The torment and pain in his heart never stopped. Everything he endured was far more than you. According to your logic, he could kill everyone in the world!"
"But he didn't. Not only did he not harm innocent people, but before he died, he even asked me to protect the people of the world on his behalf. Let me protect you on his behalf!"
"He is an exception, but I want to tell you that small crimes can be forgiven, but the reason why you commit big crimes is not because of your family, not because of your environment, not because of how miserable you are, but because you are beasts! You are scum! Because a real person, even if he is a thousand times or ten thousand times more miserable than you, will not hurt others!"
"The human race that Peng Zouzhao asked me to protect does not include beasts like you!"
After Fang Yun finished speaking, he paused for a moment and said with great force: "All private soldiers, all soldiers, get ready immediately and follow me out of the city!"
(To be continued…)