Fangzhou Xier, starting with failing the art exam

"What are you afraid of!"

The complaining businessman took a sip of his drink, lowered his voice, but his resentment remained.

"We pay our taxes on time and haven't done anything immoral! But these days, doing business is getting harder and harder!"

"In the past, if you slipped some gold coins to Lord Otto's steward, any kind of permit would be easy to obtain. But now?"

"Those people are completely unyielding, they're all as hard as stone. Want to pull some strings? No way!"

"Who says it isn't?"

“But then again…” his companion changed the subject, “the orders for my textile factories have indeed doubled this month.”

"The disciplinary squad... oh no, they're called the guards now."

"They ordered a large quantity of new military uniforms."

"Also, the newly opened schools need to have uniforms."

“These are all real business deals.”

"That's true..." The businessman's expression softened somewhat.

"I heard that His Excellency Richter's Chamber of Commerce has already secured contracts for the supply of some materials for the newly planned canal project."

"That's a huge order!"

So, stop complaining.

"Times have changed, and the ways to make money must change as well."

"As long as we don't cross the red lines drawn by Lord Lacey, the good days are yet to come!"

The conversation gradually shifted to how to adapt to the new policies and find new business opportunities.

Egbert turned his attention away in disappointment.

He found complaints, but the root of these complaints did not come from oppression and exploitation, but from the loss of old privileges.

Their discontent stems from the fact that they can no longer easily reap exorbitant profits through bribery and monopolies as they once did.

Even these disgruntled businessmen acknowledge that enormous business opportunities still exist under the new order.

This was not the shadow he was looking for at all.

Just as he was about to give up, finish his drink, and go back to sleep, the conversation of several workers at the next table caught his attention.

"That bastard is going to the special court tomorrow!"

"Serves him right! When that guy was a foreman under Otto, how much blood did he have on his hands!"

"They withheld wages, forced sick workers to go down the mine, and even cut corners on safety supports in order to meet the deadline!"

"I heard that it was his shoddy workmanship that caused the collapse of Well No. 5, which killed seven people!"

"Otto's guards covered it up at the time, he got away scot-free, and even received a large bonus!"

"What goes around comes around! Now it's our time! I'm going to see how he'll be judged tomorrow!"

Special Court!

Egbert's spirits were lifted.

This is exactly what he's been looking for!

He was certain that the so-called special court was nothing more than a tool Lacey used to purge dissidents and intimidate the public.

That would be a savage and bloody spectacle, a mob's frenzy.

He wanted to witness and record this most real and ugly scene with his own eyes.

……

The next morning, Egbert arrived at the town square.

A platform has been erected in the square, with only a table and a few chairs placed on it.

A Workers' Party flag hangs behind the platform.

Hundreds of people, mostly workers, had gathered below the stage, their faces showing a mixture of expectation and anger.

Egbert squeezed into the crowd, observing coldly.

The trial begins.

A middle-aged man with a resolute face, wearing a judge's robe, walked onto the stage.

He was a veteran lawyer who was persecuted during Otto's era for sympathizing with the workers' movement, and has now been appointed as the chief judge of the special court.

The defendant was a burly man named Cash, who was brought in by two guards.

His face was deathly pale, his legs were weak, and he had lost all his former ferocity.

The judge struck the gavel, the sound amplified through a simple Originium megaphone, echoing throughout the square:

"Today, the People's Special Court will hold a public hearing on the case of Kash, the former foreman of the No. 3 work area of ​​the Blackstone Mine!"

There were no lawyers, no defense.

The trial was conducted in a very simple and brutal manner.

Victims or those with knowledge of the crime, as well as a jury representing workers, can go directly to the jury to file charges.

The first person to walk onto the stage was a man with a missing arm.

He pointed at Cash, his voice trembling: "It's him!"

"Three years ago, my hand got caught in the crusher because he removed the safety guard to save money!"

"I became disabled, but he turned around and accused me of operational error, kicking me out of the mine!"

The second person to come up on stage was a thin woman. She was holding a memorial tablet and sobbing uncontrollably: "My husband... died in the collapse of Well No. 5!"

“The day before the accident, he told me that Cash forced them to dig in a nearly abandoned mine shaft because the supports there had long since rotted away!”

"He was killed by Cash!"

"He withheld our wages! He used the money to gamble!"

"I saw him whip a twelve-year-old child just because the child was too tired and dozed off!"

One by one, the workers stepped onto the stage, their tearful accusations echoing across the square.

The crowd's emotions were ignited, and angry roars rose and fell.

"Hang him!"

"Make him pay for his crimes in blood!"

Egbert gripped the notebook hidden in his sleeve, a surge of excitement coursing through him.

It's here! The scene he's been waiting for has finally arrived!

A trial by a mob, a lynching in the name of "the people"!

Cash collapsed to the ground, tears streaming down his face, pleading, "It wasn't me! It was all Lord Otto's orders!"

"I was just following orders! I was forced into it!"

He tried to justify himself using the logic of the old world.

However, this argument seems so weak and powerless here.

The judge looked at him coldly, his voice devoid of any emotion: "Acting under orders? Doesn't the overseer feel the pain when his whip strikes someone?"

"Didn't you pocket the gold coins you embezzled?"

"You are not an accomplice A, you are evil itself!"

The judge turned to the agitated crowd and gestured for them to quiet down.

"My fellow countrymen! I know your anger!"

"But we are not Otto, we are not those executioners who only know how to solve problems through slaughter!"

His words instantly silenced the noisy square.

“Hanging him would be too lenient.” The judge’s voice turned cold.

"Didn't he enjoy sending people down into the mines? Didn't he enjoy watching people struggle in despair?"

The judge struck the gavel and announced the verdict:

"In the name of the Special People's Court, I hereby declare that the criminal Kash is stripped of his official position and all his illegal gains!"

"He is sentenced to twenty years of labor reform at the No. 7 shaft of the Black Stone Mine!"

"He will be there, atoning for the sins he committed with his own hands!"

"Never reduce sentence, never be paroled!"

"Until he truly understands the meaning of the word 'people' through his sweat and labor!"

Upon hearing the verdict, the crowd was initially stunned, but then erupted into cheers even louder than when they had demanded his execution.

"Long live Lord Lacey!"

"Long live Lord Lacey!"

This is obviously more satisfying and more in line with their simple sense of justice.

Egbert's smile froze on his face.

The bloody carnival he had envisioned did not occur.

The trial process was objective and fair, with nothing to criticize.

Egbert, amidst the cheering crowd, felt lost once again.

How exactly should his report be written?

……

Holy Leitanian Empire: Chapter Sixty: Essenwild's Unusual Encounters (Part Five)

Egbert rented a room in a town hotel in Eisenwild.

After returning, he closed the door, leaned against the door panel, and slowly slid down to sit on the ground.

Outside the window, the cheers of the crowd celebrating the trial's victory could still be faintly heard.

He buried his face in his palms, his mind a jumbled mess.

One year, just one year.

That Lacey not only changed the face of a piece of land, but also subverted the thinking of everyone on that land.

Egbert witnessed the people's heartfelt support for Lacey and their praise for their new life.

How should he write this report?

Write it truthfully?

Tell Her Majesty that Vaser is becoming a bastion of the working class, an independent kingdom with a unified ideology, a tight organization, and rapidly developing productivity.

If he writes it like that, will his superiors, or even the two on the throne, believe it?

They might think he's been brainwashed, or even a traitor.

His career, and even his life, will come to an end.

So, you should lie?

As they planned, they fabricated a story that Lacey was tyrannical and oppressive, the people were living in misery, and the Vase territory was riddled with internal conflicts and could collapse at any moment.

No.

That's just fooling idiots.

He wasn't the only intelligence agent who came to the territory of Vaser; if any of the others had chosen to report the truth, he wouldn't have survived.

Moreover, he also had the most basic professional ethics as an intelligence officer.

After thinking it over and over, he stood up in frustration, walked to the table, and spread out a blank sheet of parchment.

The ink sloshed in the bottle, but his hand hesitated to fall.

Just then, a soft knock sounded on the door.