Blue, Red and White Dark Abyss Cauldron

Chapter 513 Beheading in public display

When Jinglan and Xiaoying heard that they were going to eat copper pot venison made from a fawn under two years old, they felt sorry for it and were about to speak out to stop it when they suddenly heard the sound of gongs beating from the north end of the town, followed by the sound of people and horses hustling and shouting.

Soon, two more gong sounds were heard, and someone shouted loudly, "A slave has escaped and will be beheaded in public. Come and watch..." After a while, the sound of gongs was heard again, and the same sentence was repeated.

They kept knocking and shouting like this, and gradually arrived outside the restaurant where everyone was having dinner.

When Chu Xiaomu heard the sound of the gong, he immediately remembered the days when he was a slave in Jiaoshan. At that time, every morning before dawn and late at night when he was about to go to sleep, he would hear the same gong sound. For a moment, his head was dizzy, his palms were sweating, his heart was pounding, and his teeth were chattering.

Seeing that he looked strange, Jinglan reached out her hands and held his left hand without saying a word.

Chu Xiaomu stood up suddenly and said, "Let's go and take a look too!" The three of them looked at each other and had to follow him out of the restaurant.

On the main street of the market town, three horses of different colors were seen walking slowly on the bluestone floor. The first one was wearing silver-white plate armor, which was not much different from the one worn by You Ganzhan I had seen last night. He was also a silver lieutenant. Behind the silver lieutenant were two bronze-armored soldiers riding side by side. They might also be two bronze lieutenants. Chu Xiaomu could not tell them apart.

After the three horses passed, three lines of people followed. On both sides were more than 20 soldiers from Jinyang City holding spears, with their spears held high, like two rows of thin black fangs.

In the middle was a row of fifteen or sixteen ragged, unkempt slaves, some young and some old, the youngest looking no more than fifteen or sixteen, the oldest about fifty. These slaves were barefoot, with a pair of heavy iron chains locked around their ankles.

These people knew that they were doomed to die. They were listless and had empty eyes, as if their spirits had never existed in their bodies.

After the bronze-armored soldiers and the slaves came all kinds of people from Bailaji, men and women, old and young, some leaning on crutches, some holding children, and some leading big barking dogs...

Chu Xiaomu and the other three could not help but blend into the crowd, and were pushed forward by the crowd. Every time the gong was struck twice, his body almost trembled. This feeling was so strange that he even thought he was still in Jiaoshan, still the slave of Ding Ershe, the slave who was scolded and whipped by others.

The crowd grew larger and larger, gradually there were already hundreds of people. Chu Xiaomu's breathing became more and more rapid, and his steps became heavier and heavier.

Jinglan whispered, "Brother Xiaomu, let's go and stop watching."

Chu Xiaomu calmed down and said, "If a slave escapes, he will be beheaded in public. I want to see what the torture in Jinyang City looks like."

Soldiers from Jinyang City escorted a dozen slaves, beating gongs and shouting as they marched from north to south until they reached a wide dirt flatland at the southernmost end of Bailaji.

The east side of this dirt platform is leaning against a medium-sized black stone mountain. At the foot of the mountain, there is a wooden platform about two or three meters square, supported by huge trees as thick as thighs. There is some black and hard soil underneath.

The soldiers of Jinyang City escorted a dozen slaves to be beheaded to the high ground, and then made them stand in a row. The soldiers behind them raised their feet and kicked the slaves one by one until they fell to their knees. Two of them were very stubborn, and they stood firm no matter how the soldiers behind them kicked and kicked them.

The silver lieutenant walked forward and kicked the two slaves hard on the foot. Two crackling sounds were heard and the leg bones of the two slaves were broken. They lay on the ground and howled loudly.

When the people in Bailaji heard the screams of the slaves, they all became excited. Some whistled loudly, some laughed and shouted "It's great", some urged the soldiers to do something more exciting, and some suggested that the soldiers use some different ways of killing people, as they were tired of the previous tricks.

Even the children's faces were filled with curiosity and anticipation, and they didn't feel scared at all.

The silver lieutenant pulled out a piece of grey parchment from his body, unfolded it and began to read it in front of everyone. It turned out to be a list of the crimes of the dozen or so slaves.

The crowd watching below gradually quieted down, and Chu Xiaomu also heard the general situation. It turned out that these dozen slaves were from the same slave house. After two or three months of conspiracy, they defeated several supervisors who were in charge of the slave house and sneaked out. Fortunately, they were discovered by other supervisors, and the soldiers of Jinyang City also sent troops in time to hunt them down.

The dozen slaves escaped the three checkpoints set up on the main road of Jiaoshan Mountain, and were unable to pass until they reached the Ten-Arch Bridge to Jinyang City. However, they were very cunning and robbed a dozen civilians and traveling merchants passing by, snatching their official certificates in an attempt to sneak through.

Fortunately, the soldiers guarding the bridge had sharp eyes and noticed that there were a few things wrong with Ding Yuan's document, so they were able to catch them...

Chu Xiaomu asked Liu Zang, "Brother Liu, shouldn't the punishment for a runaway slave be slashing his hamstrings and lashing him fifty times? Why should these dozen people also be beheaded?"

Liu Zang shook his head and said, "During the years I was in Jiaoshan, I was indeed punished with fifty lashes and fifty tendons cut on my feet. As for when it changed, I don't know." He paused, as if he remembered something, and turned to ask Chu Xiaomu, "Second master, 'fifty lashes and fifty tendons cut on my feet' is a law specifically for the raw slaves on Jiaoshan. How...how did you know?" He thought to himself, if you hadn't mentioned it, I, who had been a raw slave for several years, would have almost forgotten it. How did you, a native of Qingyuan, hear it from?

Chu Xiaomu said: "I just heard it from outsiders, I don't know whether it is true or false."

Liu Zang nodded and thought to himself, you are a really strange person. You don’t look very old, so how come you know such things?

The silver lieutenant finally said: "The fifteen slaves led by Ma Changyong rebelled and fled the city. Their crimes are extremely serious. According to the laws of our Jinyang City, they will be beheaded and executed immediately! The people of our Jinyang City should take this as a warning and never commit the same crime again!"

After the Silver Captain finished speaking, he waved his hand, and fifteen men from Jinyang City stepped forward behind him. Each of them stood next to a living slave, then drew their swords and prepared to execute them.

Chu Xiaomu thought that he could easily deal with these thirty or fifty Jinyang City soldiers, so he gathered the Force in his palm, ready to jump in and save people at any time. Although he possessed peerless magical skills, his heart was still pounding at this time.

Seeing the Jinyang City soldiers holding their swords, ready to strike at the command, Chu Xiaomu suddenly felt someone grabbing his left arm. He heard Jinglan whisper, "Brother Xiaomu, you should focus on the important matter of Bicheng."