Chapter 316 Night Trial
As night fell, the platform was brightly lit, with lanterns and several large bonfires nearby.
This time it's a proper class format, not just hiding to listen in.
The temporary stage was set up with tables and chairs, and the desks were fully equipped with writing brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones.
The girls sat neatly in rows, most of them wearing veils provided by the academy.
In Yuan Hongqu's opinion, since women have already been allowed to go out and study, and the academy is secretly promoting gender equality, this veil should no longer be worn.
However, it is really difficult to change these centuries-old intellectual traditions in just a few short years.
Moreover, she cannot force students not to wear veils; she can only change them gradually through subtle influence.
One-third of the students present were no longer wearing veils.
The original Hongqu and the academy's teachers sat on the side, able to keep an eye on the stage and observe the students' listening.
This is not simply about having them come to observe and learn from the trial; it's about them seriously observing and learning, not only "listening to the lecture" but also taking notes.
The students all heard it: the dean said it would be on the exam.
Therefore, when listening to the county magistrate's trial, if there is anything you don't understand, feel free to write it down.
After the trial concludes, the questions will be handed over to the county magistrate so that he can provide unified answers.
The county magistrate was under immense pressure, and to make matters worse, Ye Mengnan, the law teacher from the girls' academy, was making sarcastic remarks.
"You're just a lowly eighth-rank official. You must be incredibly lucky to be teaching these students. You should know that besides our school's professional teachers, the lowest-ranking officials who teach our academy students are at least second-rank officials. Last time, a fourth-rank official from the Court of State Ceremonial wanted to teach the students a foreign language, but we didn't even bother with him."
The county magistrate stumbled and almost fell onto the platform.
His fat jiggled as he thought to himself, "I don't want this honor either. Most of these students' families have official connections. If I say even a single wrong word during the trial, and these students take it home and learn it, that would be the real problem!"
"How about you preside over the trial today, Lord Ye?" the magistrate said cautiously, wiping the sweat from his face.
Ye Mengnan's main job is a law teacher at the academy, and her secondary job is a female official who assists the Dali Temple and the Jingzhao Yin in handling cases. Many cases involving women still require such a female official for convenience.
Although it was just a side job, she held the position of a fourth-rank female official for the sake of convenience.
Ye Mengnan's lips twitched slightly, thinking to himself that this county magistrate was truly useless, but he said aloud,
"This is Magistrate Sun's place. It would be presumptuous of me to presume to handle this case. Magistrate Sun, please don't waste any more time. Our students are waiting to attend class! Each class is only half an hour long, and we have two classes scheduled for tonight, covering two cases. Time is very tight. Magistrate Sun, please come in!"
Magistrate Sun had never experienced anything like this before. In all his years of experience as an official, he had tried at least eighty or a hundred cases, big and small, but he had never been forced to go to court to hear a case.
The surroundings were as bright as day. The county magistrate sat nervously in the makeshift courtroom. Only when he saw the familiar layout did he feel a little more at ease.
The entire village of Yujiapu, young and old, was brought here. They were guarded by the Imperial Guards and other personnel, as there were too few people from the county government to keep an eye on them.
The Imperial Guards searched the homes of Yu Jiapu Village Chief and Yu Zhaoyuan thoroughly, uncovering a considerable amount of evidence of their crimes.
They even found several women and children in the backyard of the village chief's house who hadn't yet been resold.
The journey from Yujiapu to the county town passes through a post station. After the four cases are heard tonight, the Imperial Guards will help escort all the criminals from Yujiapu to the county jail. The abducted women and children will wait for their families to come and pick them up inside the county jail.
Magistrate Sun opened the case file, and the first case was about trafficking in women and children.
With a slam of the gavel, the criminal was brought into the temporary courtroom.
Magistrate Sun looked at the men he had brought, then glanced suspiciously at his advisor beside him, and asked in a low voice,
"How come you brought the wrong person on the first try? Did you verify their identity?"
The woman below the hall wore patched clothes, her face was kind, and her eyes were clear. She looked like any other ordinary old woman, and you would never guess that she had once trafficked fifteen children and nine adult women.
Magistrate Sun even felt that the old woman looked somewhat familiar, like the old woman he met on the street buying vegetables one morning, or the old woman cooking wontons at the wonton stall when he bought wontons on the street one day...
"Master, it's her. There's no mistake. Although the Yu family is united, the Imperial Guards arrived suddenly this time and arrested the whole village. In order to lessen their own guilt, they all rushed to confess. This old woman Wu was implicated the most times..." the clerk said in a low voice.
Magistrate Sun looked at Granny Wu again and still wondered how such an ordinary-looking, honest old woman could possibly have trafficked so many people.
"Could it be that they conspired beforehand, so that if they were arrested by the authorities, they would pin all the blame on one person to ensure the safety of the others?"
“Magistrate Sun, a case cannot be judged based on your conjecture; it depends on solid evidence,” Ye Mengnan couldn’t help but say. “Besides, if she were an ordinary old woman, would she be so calm when she sees an official? When you go to the villages for inspections and encounter old women of that age, would you be the same?”
Magistrate Sun subconsciously shook his head, only to realize with surprise that this old woman Wu was not only very calm, but even dared to look him in the eye.
His eyes held an air of nonchalance.
Magistrate Sun flipped through the case file; the ink on it was fresh, clearly indicating it had just been written.
It clearly records the process of Wu Pozi's arrest, as well as Wu Pozi's identification by the villagers of Yujiapu.
Among the people rescued today, three said that they were with Grandma Wu until the end, and then they lost consciousness. When they woke up, they were in a dark and gloomy room.
This old woman Wu was very vigilant; if the Imperial Guards hadn't arrived in time, she would have already packed her bags and fled.
Later, he even mingled among the abducted people, claiming to be a servant of a woman who had been abducted, but fortunately, he was quickly exposed.
Magistrate Sun quickly glanced through it and at least got a general idea of what was going on.
"Is the person before you the Wu family of Yujiapu?" With a slam of the gavel, Magistrate Sun officially began the trial.
"Old woman Wu is a villager from Yujiapu Village, Qiuyu County."
When Wu spoke, her voice was neither too loud nor too soft, neither hurried nor impatient, which made people feel close to her.
"Today, multiple people have identified you as someone who abducted respectable women and children. The number of cases you have committed is numerous. Do you plead guilty?"
"The old woman doesn't acknowledge it."
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