It was dawning and the curfew in Mianyuan County had just been lifted. Countless people poured onto the streets and gathered outside the county government office.
Here, there are not only residents from the county, but also people from various towns and villages. There are even some travel-weary people with luggage on their backs who have come from other surrounding prefectures and counties.
They all came to see the public trial.
In fact, for many people in Mianyuan County, public trials are nothing unusual.
In the past, when the Demon Suppression Department was hunting down monsters, every time they caught a big evil spirit with serious crimes, they would hold a public trial so that the people could complain and take revenge.
It's just that today's public trial is different from those in the past.
This is a trial held by the county government, the Demon Suppression Division, and the City God's Temple. It can be regarded as an alternative version of the three-division trial.
The Chenghuang Temple in Mianyuan County has been rumored to be very efficacious in recent times.
However, no matter how effective it is, people have not really seen the appearance of the city god, civil and military judges, black and white impermanence and other evil spirits.
In today's public trial, the participation of the City God's Temple does not mean that the City God, the civil and military judges, black and white, impermanence and other ghosts and ghosts will also appear in attendance?
It is precisely because of such curiosity and speculation that people work tirelessly and risk their lives to come from all over the country to see this unique public trial and to see if they can really see the City God and his wife.
You all are evil spirits.
At this moment, a trumpet sound came from the Yamen.
A group of police officers escorted the arrested members of the Red and White Gang out of the Yamen.
Seeing the crowds outside, these detectives involuntarily straightened their backs, trying hard to look more energetic.
At this moment, outside the Yamen, a large open space has been cleared by the Yamen servants, and three tables have been set up.
The members of the Red and White Gang were escorted to the open space facing the table by the police, and then ordered to kneel down.
Some of them were arrested and immediately knelt down as soon as they drank.
Some people want to be heroes, imitate the heroes and heroes that storytellers talk about, and would rather die than surrender, and even want to shout a few times, "Eighteen years later, I will be a hero again."
But it was a pity that the police officers did not give them such a chance. They covered their mouths with something and then kicked them hard in the hips, knocking them to the ground.
The onlookers applauded.
Especially for people in Mianyuan County, even if they themselves have not been bullied by the Red and White Gang, some of their relatives, friends, and neighbors have been harmed by them. They all hate them very much. When they see the police kicking them over, they all hate them.
I find it enjoyable.
To say it was bad, there is only one point: the kicks were too few, and a few more kicks should have been added.
In the crowd, a storyteller saw the intentions of those people and immediately taunted: "You rogues can pretend to be heroes? If you don't take a look at yourself, what is it about you that makes you a hero?"
After all the members of the Red and White Gang knelt down, a sound of whips sounded, and the government servants standing around the open space all hit the ground with water and fire sticks and shouted loudly:
"quiet!"
"mighty!"
The people watching immediately became quiet.
Even the members of the Red and White Gang were frightened by such a formation and stopped struggling and shouting.
An Mutong, who was wearing the official uniform of the magistrate, accompanied by the chief clerk and the clerk, strode out of the county government office, saluted the people who were watching, and sat in the middle.
He is the presiding judge in today's public trial.
Qin Shaoyou, wearing a Baihu official uniform and a waist knife, walked out of the Demon Suppression Department with Zhu Xiucai and Monk Ma.
Those members of the Red and White Gang who were kneeling on the ground would feel horrified and break out in cold sweat just by being glanced at by Qin Shaoyou.
After Qin Shaoyou and An Mutong greeted each other, they also gave a fist to the people around them, and then sat down on the right side.
The people watching around, as well as the members of the Red and White Gang kneeling on the open ground, all turned their attention to the empty space on the left at this moment, wondering in their hearts, will the City God really show up?
In the midst of all the attention, a dark wind blew outside the county government office.
The Yin Feng fell on the left side, manifesting Cai Guizhong wearing the official uniform of the City God.
Behind him, there is also a judge Wu with an angry beard and a golden sword in his hand, as well as the highly recognizable black and white Wuchang wearing a high hat, one black and one white.
As soon as these people from the Chenghuang Temple appeared, the scene fell into chaos.
Although countless people were looking forward to them before they appeared, when they actually appeared, these people only felt panic and fear in their hearts.
Just like the good dragon Ye Gong.
I don’t know who took the lead. People watching the excitement fell to their knees one after another, or exclaimed tremblingly, or screamed in their hearts:
"Master City God, Master City God is really here!"
"The city god has appeared!"
"Oh my god, I see the impermanence of black and white. I... I'm not going to have my life taken away by them, right?"
"It turns out that the saying that there is a god at the top of your head is true... I won't dare to do bad things again in the future!"
Seeing this scene, Zhu Xiucai, who was standing behind Qin Shaoyou, couldn't help but whisper: "Fortunately, the old Taoist hasn't come back yet, otherwise he would be jealous to death again if he saw this scene."
Monk Ma nodded in agreement.
Qin Shaoyou did not participate in their discussion, but just murmured in his heart: "It's the fourteenth day of the first lunar month. I wonder if that brat Xue Xiaobao shaved his head? Last month, I should have asked Senior Brother Qiu to help me get some poisonous insects to make him lose his hair.
of."
Then he thought: "With the third sister and the master watching him, they shouldn't tell him to mess around, right?"
He was here to help support the public trial today, so he was in the mood to think wildly.
But now this chaotic scene is not a problem. Qin Shaoyou took a deep breath, expelled blood while moving his lips and tongue, and shouted: "Quiet!"
This command was like a thunderbolt exploding in everyone's ears, making them really regain their senses.
Then they discovered that what frightened them even more was actually yet to come...
As the public trial progressed, first living people came forward to expose the crimes of the Red and White Gang, and then Black and White Wuchang summoned ghosts one by one, asking them to tell how they were persecuted by the Red and White Gang.
Seeing the appearance of ghosts, some people are afraid, while others are extremely excited.
If the government officials hadn't stopped them, they would have rushed forward.
Because those ghosts who are feared by others are their beloved relatives and friends.
The successive accusations from living people and ghosts also convinced the Red and White Gang to commit multiple crimes such as provoking quarrels and provoking trouble, kidnapping and extortion, forcing girls into prostitution, digging graves to kill people, and colluding with cults. The onlookers even cursed and shouted for death.
An Mutong naturally complied with public opinion and sentenced these people from the Red and White Gang to death!
Cai Guizhong helped him add fuel to the fire and decreed that after death, these guilty people would be sentenced to the oil pan and the knife mountain until their sins were cleared.
It is impossible to be a good man again after eighteen years.
Even turning into a ghost to take revenge is out of the question.
At noon, the executioner from the county government came out with a ghost-headed knife and beheaded in public.
After dozens of heads were chopped off, the executioner's ghost-headed knife was also curled, and his mouth was numb from the spray of wine.
So much so that when the seven wolves of the Red and White Gang were killed in the end, they were not able to chop off their heads with one knife. They had to use two more swords to make the seven wolves endure torture again before they died.
Black and white, impermanent, ox-headed and horse-faced, and other ghosts and ghosts are standing by.
Every time the executioner chops off a prisoner's head, they will go up with the soul-detaining rope, arrest the prisoner's soul, and summon a pan of oil in front of the onlookers.
The boiling oil and blood in the pot mixed together, boiling and surging, like hell.
The imprisoned souls were thrown directly into the oil pan. They were blown up with a crackling sound, and the screams from the souls were even more horrifying.
Although everyone watching has heard that people who do bad things will go to hell after death and be punished by pans of oil, mountains of knives, and seas of blood.
But how could the things I heard about be as shocking as seeing them with my own eyes? How could they be unforgettable?
Many people were frightened by this scene, including thugs and gang members who had bullied ordinary people.
So on the next day, people began to go to the City God's Temple to repent, and then surrendered to the county government office. In order to get a chance for leniency, they even sacrificed their own blood to form an alliance, and the good brothers of Jinlan were sworn in.
The supply came out.
There are also some people who know that they have committed serious crimes and try to escape from Mianyuan County.
Escape to a place where there is no strict attack and no city god.
That way, you don't have to worry about being caught, and you don't have to worry about being caught and thrown into a frying pan by the ghosts and ghosts in the City God's Mansion after you die.
Unfortunately, they think of things too simply.
These people would often be stopped by ghost guards, night watchmen, police officers, and government officials before they left the confines of Mianyuan County, and they would be taken back to the county government for trial.
For a time, the reputations of An Mutong and Cai Guizhong skyrocketed in Mianyuan County and surrounding prefectures and counties.
And Qin Shaoyou also gained a lot of support from the people!