Chapter 767 – Verdict

When Ji Xin concluded his statement, Xu Ke declared the trial session closed. What followed was an hour-long exegesis of the law—a document the Law Society had labored over for several nights, striving for maximum accessibility. Xu Ke walked the audience through the facts of the case, the applicable statutes, and the rationale binding them together. For a Tribunal conducting its first trial under modern judicial procedures, interpreting the law for the public was not merely helpful but essential.

To everyone's surprise, the legal explanation proved far from tedious. The spectators were fascinated. Having witnessed the trial unfold, many hungered to understand why the Australians did things this way. Xu Ke's measured discourse satisfied that curiosity. Most grasped only half of what he said, but even that partial understanding gave them a preliminary foothold in the architecture of modern justice.

When the explanation concluded, the clerk's voice rang out: "All rise!"

"The verdict will now be announced!"

Xu Ke stood, raised his gavel, and brought it down with a single decisive crack.

"The defendant is found guilty of destroying a military marriage!"

A collective gasp rolled through the gallery, followed by a rising murmur.

"In the name of the House of Elders and the People," Xu Ke continued, "the defendant is sentenced to seven years of hard labor and one year of supervision!"

Supervision meant that upon release, the convict would be required to wear specific markings on their clothing, enabling constant monitoring. It was a condition laden with restrictions—and deep humiliation.

The gallery erupted. The severity of the sentence shocked everyone. Under Ming judicial practice, prison terms were rare. For a case involving adultery, custom dictated a few dozen strokes for the adulterer and another few for the adulteress, all in the name of "correcting morals." Had the guilty parties been paraded about in cangues, the crowd would have been delighted. No one expected the Australians to invent something called "destruction of a military marriage" and impose a penalty this heavy.

Everyone knew what Australian "hard labor" meant: it meant falling into the hands of Fu Youdi. That place had become synonymous with terror in Lingao. Few believed the unlucky adulterer would ever emerge from the labor camp alive.

That dallying with a soldier's wife could lead to such an end baffled everyone. The Australians truly thought differently. In seventeenth-century eyes, Chinese and foreign alike, soldiering was a profession for scum—the dregs of society. No one considered a soldier's wife being bedded to be a matter of consequence.

With another crack of Xu Ke's gavel, the first trial conducted under the new procedural law concluded. The audience rose as the judge departed first. Then, guided by police, the crowd slowly dispersed. As the gallery emptied and rows of vacant benches emerged, two figures remained seated, watching the exodus. Only when the hall stood nearly deserted did they rise. The leader was a middle-aged man dressed with opulent dignity—clearly a person of status from the Great Ming. Accompanying him was a younger man. Together they walked toward the exit, the youth occasionally shifting aside benches left askew in the aisle.

At the door, several men in short jackets immediately approached and escorted them to a waiting carriage.

Li Luoyou closed his eyes to rest. Gu Baocheng opened a beverage case stored in the carriage, retrieved a small thermos, poured a cup of tea, and handed it to his uncle.

Li Luoyou took a sip. Excellent Wuyi tea from Fujian. He had not visited in a few months, and Australian amenities had improved yet again—previously they offered hot water, but the tea leaves had been coarse and low quality.

The carriage shuddered slightly and began to move. The Mongolian horse was neither strong nor swift, but its gait was smooth. On Lingao's leveled roads, the ride felt steady. After two cups of tea, Li Luoyou caught his breath. Sitting on a hard wooden bench for over two hours had been exhausting, and the room had been crowded. Had the weather not been mild and the ventilation good, he might not have lasted.

Attending the trial at East Gate Market had been Gu Baocheng's suggestion. The scandal had become a hot topic on Lingao's streets, thanks to vigorous promotion by the Propaganda Department. News had naturally reached Qionghai House, Li Luoyou's residence in Lingao. Li Luoyou maintained a keen interest in the Australian judicial system—during his last visit, he had noted similarities between Australian law and the laws of the Europeans. When he heard that a case was to be publicly tried under "Australian-Song Law," his interest spiked. He instructed Gu Baocheng to collect all relevant newspaper materials for him to study.

Li Luoyou had arrived from Macau over ten days earlier, charged with the mission of rescuing the remnants of He Rubin's forces. Because the House of Elders needed to convene and discuss how to handle the Ming troops trapped in Qiongshan, Li Luoyou had been left waiting in boredom at Qionghai House. Occasionally Liu San or other elders he knew came to chat, but mostly he passed the time reading Lingao newspapers and books collected by Gu Baocheng.

Gu Baocheng had been in Lingao long enough to understand how the Australians operated. They revealed—or at least hinted at—many things through their newspapers. Reading the Lingao Times and locally printed books was the best window into their thinking.

Li Luoyou was intrigued by his nephew's insight. Of course, this wasn't profound wisdom—he himself regularly read the Capital Gazette back home, which revealed many of the Imperial Court's movements.

But the Lingao Times was far broader in content and livelier in form. Many of its formats were entirely new to him. Concerning this destruction-of-military-marriage case, for instance, the paper not only reported the cause and effect but also provided "background introductions" to "Australian-Song Law"—lengthy articles on the concept and practice of the offense. Li Luoyou read them carefully and soon realized the Australians intended to implement their own legal code across all of Lingao.

He was shocked.

Promulgating new laws was a hallmark of a new dynasty. Openly discussing Australian-Song Law in the newspapers was clearly preparation to raise their flag and secede. Li Luoyou felt a wave of desolation wash over him—it seemed Qiongzhou Prefecture would soon be lost to the Great Ming. Strangely, he felt quite calm about this reality, without the grief and indignation he had experienced upon hearing of Shenyang's fall. At least these people claimed descent from Huaxia. They did not treat the people like slaves or pigs, and they had done many practical things that benefited the locals. The common folk lived far better under Australian-Song rule than under the Manchus—even better than under the Great Ming, which showed its own people no mercy. Ming officials cared only for their own wealth and rank, indifferent to the people's lives or the nation's territory.

Now those same officials ruling the Great Ming had sent him here simply to reach an agreement that would paper over the disastrous defeat of a war they had rashly provoked. Whenever Li Luoyou dwelt on this, he despaired for the Court. He had heard the Emperor was diligent and sought to restore the dynasty's glory, but with such men as officials, even the founding Emperor Taizu reborn could hardly hope to achieve anything.

Seeing his uncle's intense interest in the case, Gu Baocheng had suggested they observe the trial in person. Li Luoyou had long harbored a strong interest in the Australian judicial system—during his previous tour of East Gate Market, he had noticed the parallels between Australian justice and European law. But his stay had been too short to witness an actual trial. Now, with such a significant case, he couldn't let the opportunity pass.

Li Luoyou's desire to attend the trial was naturally treated as a special case—he played a crucial role in the Planning Commission's upcoming plans. On instructions from the General Office, Ma Jia immediately produced two "reserved tickets" for them.

The entire trial felt both surprising and logical to him. He realized his earlier assessment had been correct: the Australian legal system bore deep influence from European legal traditions, including the form of interrogation. Yet they had innovated upon the European foundation. This "destruction of military marriage," for instance, struck him as something unheard of. He suspected even European law contained no such strange statute.

"The Australians are buying the soldiers' hearts," Gu Baocheng whispered once they were back in the carriage. "I fear their future ambitions are considerable."

"If they couldn't win hearts," Li Luoyou replied, "how could they have annihilated Commander He's entire army? Do you think it was just 'sharp firearms'?" He shook his head slowly. "If we speak of sharp firearms, aren't the firearms of the Guanning Army and the capital battalions sharp? Yet they are beaten by the Manchus until they dare not step beyond the city gates—crouching inside while watching the enemy kill and burn."

Gu Baocheng knew his uncle referred to the recent Manchu incursion. The news from the north was grim: the Manchus had plundered dozens of prefectures, seized countless riches, and abducted over a hundred thousand people.

In Gu Baocheng's view, the Australians surpassed the government not only in firearms and in winning hearts, but in many other respects as well. He dared not press the argument, however, and merely chimed in: "Uncle is right."

The carriage arrived at Qionghai House. The establishment occupied a fair amount of land, but the main building's footprint was modest and the frontage far from ostentatious. Unlike other merchants who strove to make their storefronts as grand as possible, Qionghai House presented a plain, traditional facade—three bays wide, styled like an old, long-established firm.

Qionghai House did conduct some retail business at the front, selling various mainland specialties. But this was not its main enterprise. Its core trade was in bulk goods. The firm imported the commodities the Australians needed from the mainland, especially Liaodong goods and items from beyond the Great Wall—particularly furs and hides. Horse, deer, and sheep hides were materials urgently needed by Lingao's industrial system. In addition, Qionghai House shipped and sold industrial raw materials such as raw lacquer, tung oil, and silk from Guangdong and other regions.

(End of Chapter)