Chapter 118: [Holy Light and Destiny]

After a while, Ma Shao picked out a part of the report: "These dozen people will be severely punished. Those with good enough attitudes will be sent to labor camps and reformed according to the strictest standards. Those with bad attitudes will be shot."

These dozen or so people were just old shamans who were just occupying their positions and doing nothing. They were the first group he wanted to eliminate, so there was no reason for him to let them go.

The so-called most stringent labor reform standard is almost enough to exhaust people to death. Ma Shao hopes that these people can make up for the labor they have missed before they are too old to walk.

"For the rest of the people, verify the severity of their crimes. If they are indeed involved in Shikashou's rebellion plan, or spread rumors during this epidemic, they will be guilty of the same crime as the dozen people just now." He flipped through the review report again, "For those whose problems are not serious, they can be given verbal warnings or time punishment."

Time punishment is roughly the same as imprisonment, but unlike labor reform, time punishment can be used to buy freedom with money, and prisoners can deduct the time they were in prison by paying money.

The specific amount is mainly determined by the prisoner's income. Those whose time is valuable will be fined more, and those whose time is not valuable will be fined less - time is money.

For prisoners who are sentenced to time, Ma Shao not only allows them to buy their freedom with money, but even encourages them to do so through some detailed designs.

Because one of his most basic principles in managing the tribe is: the fewer idle people the better.

Locking up a prisoner, providing him with food and clothing, but not making him work, isn't this just creating idlers?

Therefore, except for death row prisoners, Ma Shao would try his best to start the punishment for any other prisoner by obtaining their labor.

Serious criminals must be forced to do labor, and minor criminals must be fined.

Of course, Ma Shao also gradually realized the disadvantage of this method - it is easy to get addicted.

Over the past six months, he had rapidly expanded the tribe's arable land by tens of thousands of acres by exploiting the labor of the captives. He had also built many houses, toilets and a complete circle of low city walls, all at a cost of less than 20,000 US dollars.

This almost free experience is addictive.

This even led Ma Shao to have this idea: Why not arrest more people and send them to labor camps?

It is probably not a good thing for a government to become dependent on the profits of labor reform and turn punishment into a business. This is probably an important reason why countries in later generations gradually abandoned the labor reform system.

Lu Shou was very tough and did not plead guilty, even in the face of his son's persuasion.

So naturally, only death awaits him.

A few days later, Ma Shao held a public trial in the square. Just like the trials of Duan Gong, Fang Lian and others, he announced different punishments for dozens of criminals.

"Lu Shou spread rumors during the epidemic and hindered prevention and control; tried to take advantage of the opportunity to instigate rebellion and split the tribe; attempted to kill in the parliament. The evidence for the above crimes is conclusive, but the criminal refuses to plead guilty and has no intention of repenting, so he shall be sentenced to execution by firing squad according to the law!" Ma Shao stood in the center of the square, wearing a mask and announced.

As the epidemic has not yet completely ended, the density of the audience has been limited, so there are not many people watching on the scene. In the past public trials, almost everyone in the city would come to watch, but this time there were only a few hundred people on the scene.

Despite this, as soon as Ma Shao finished speaking, there was a noisy condemnation from the crowd: "He actually hindered the prevention and control of the epidemic. This bastard should be fed to the wolves!"

"If these people were not here, there would be fewer people dying from the disease!"

"You deserve death for splitting the tribe!"

"Shameful traitor!"

"Deerhand, you traitor!"

People cursed, and some even picked up stones and dirt, and even took off their shoes and threw them at Lu Shou and others.

Listening to the crowd's curses, especially the repeated "traitor", Deer Hand's breathing became rapid, and his face turned red as if dripping blood. He wanted to argue something more, but he had no chance.

In public trials, Ma Shao would only give prisoners like him a symbolic opportunity to defend themselves, and the rest of the time they would be tied up and gagged.

"Traitor!" The curses continued.

Lu Shou could only listen to the curses of his tribesmen, unable to speak, and the blood kept rushing to his forehead.

Am I really a traitor? He thought in panic.

Impossible, I did nothing wrong, I am not a traitor! He quickly put an end to his self-doubt.

Even at this moment, Shikate still didn't think he had done anything wrong.

He even continued to strengthen his own cognition, and finally went straight to a self-cognition similar to that of a martyr - my fellow tribesmen are ignorant and they cannot understand me.

He thought that what he was enduring now was not shame but tragedy, and what he was about to experience was not punishment but sacrifice.

With this self-hypnotic mentality, Shirashou successfully forgot the fear of death and became the only prisoner who did not suffer from incontinence.

A total of six people were sentenced to death, including Deer Hand, Vulture, and Black Horn. The execution method was still shooting from behind in random order. Death, shame, and the unknown brought unprecedented fear to several death row prisoners, and they all became incontinent on the spot, ending their lives in this extremely undignified way.

In addition to them, dozens of prisoners present were sentenced to labor reform. As for those who appeared in the review report but did not appear in the square, most of them were given lighter punishments.

Others were not punished or were only given a verbal warning.

"Teacher." Ma Shao said after a meeting.

"What's wrong?" Shi Ya rolled up the meeting minutes, put them in his arms, and asked casually.

Ma Shao looked at the teacher, and after a moment of silence, he smiled and said, "Nothing, take care of yourself."

In the end, he didn't mention this matter to Stone Crow.

In fact, he could probably guess the true situation of Stone Crow.

Stone Crow's beliefs and views are rather fragmented. He believes in both traditional shamanism and oracle religion, supports tribal change but is also on friendly terms with conservative old shamans, is superstitious but also talks a little about science. It is not

surprising for such a person to appear at a gathering of Deer Hand and the old shaman. You can probably just find an acquaintance to act as a go-between and call him over in the name of exorcism techniques.

This is not surprising at all, and may even be closer to the norm.

Just like what Ma Shao had seen in his previous life, some people both advocated the Red Road and were courteous to monks and Taoists. One minute they were discussing the ancient apes descending from trees, and the next minute they began to ponder how God created humans.

Logical consistency has never been a necessity, and patchwork and contradictions are common.

This is also the reason why Ma Shao did not continue to expand the review.

The three views of the vast majority of the tribesmen are not a self-consistent system. It can even be said that they are full of bugs and filled with a large number of irrelevant or even contradictory views. If they are examined endlessly and strictly, everyone will only be labeled a criminal.

Not only the tribesmen, but even Ma Shao's own values ​​and views have bugs. Although he doesn't know where the bug is, he knows there must be one.

So, Ma Shao finally realized that his goal should only be to eliminate the biggest pests and the most radical opponents.

He also successfully completed his goal.

The successful prevention and control of the epidemic has brought him sufficient legitimacy. His judgment is as unquestionable as the sun, and the troublesome insects disappear into thin air.

The ashes of the insects also further fertilized Ma Shao's authority, allowing it to continue to rise.

As this authority continued to rise, when the epidemic in Mianxiong City was completely over, people increasingly mentioned "holy light" instead of "great spirit".

The so-called holy light is, of course, a metaphorical name for the horse whistle, just like in many periods and countries, the word sun is also used as a synonym for the leader.

According to the teachings of the Oracle Church, this makes perfect sense. After all, as the supreme god who created the singularity, the Great Spirit is an existence beyond the universe. The sun, moon, and stars are no different from dust to Him. He has no human emotions at all and does not care about the prayers of mortals at all.

There is no point in praising such a transcendent being, and it is impossible to get any response.

The great chief, on the other hand, is a real human being, so naturally he is different.

The Apaches increasingly spoke of "holy light," while Americans increasingly spoke of "destiny."

As the situation between the United States and Mexico heats up, "Manifest Destiny" has emerged everywhere in the United States and has become the most popular term. This term can be seen in almost every newspaper.

Americans firmly believe that America is destiny and now is the time for God to give them the land.

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