Chapter 1051: Trial

"Pedro, hello. I hope I haven't affected your other matters."

"Originally, I could have waited a while before calling you, but I am somewhat anxious. You know, Lapa's current situation and future development are not just Lapa's local affairs, but also relate to the deployment of the entire Xiang Yalan Alliance."

"We need to talk sincerely."

The tone of the President of the Republic of Jiede carried a kind of seriousness. This was indeed not a small matter, and it would cause a huge impact on all countries in the Xiang Yalan region.

Pedro caught his words and said, "I very much agree with your point of view, Mr. President."

"The current Xiang Yalan is at an important crossroads. If we choose a wrong direction, then we can only reach a wrong destination."

"Every choice needs to be doubly cautious. In terms of maintaining the interests of the Xiang Yalan Alliance, I will stand in the same camp as you."

Pedro's straightforward stance made the President feel some relief. "Very good, then I won't say those empty words that have no meaning with you."

"You need to select a President, or Prime Minister, as soon as possible—anyway, a supreme ruler of the country."

"This person must acknowledge as soon as possible that Lapa is still one of the member states of the Xiang Yalan Alliance, promise not to withdraw from the Xiang Yalan Alliance, and maintain a high degree of unity with the Xiang Yalan Alliance in military, economic, political, and cultural aspects."

"We need everyone to unite to ensure our sovereignty is independent and complete. I think this is also what you hope for, isn't it?"

He didn't directly say that the purpose of doing this was to oppose the Federation. However, he believed that Pedro must be able to read his meaning.

Pedro nodded and said, "Yes, I very much agree with these points of view."

"Very good. It seems we already have the possibility of talking more deeply. I know you have been very busy recently, and the formation of the new government will take up a lot of your energy."

"After the new government is formed, I will invite you to the Republic of Jiede for a state visit, and we can sit down and talk."

"Some things are not explained in detail on the phone. Only when we meet face-to-face can we explain them clearly."

Pedro didn't refuse and thanked the President of Jiede for the invitation. The other party would convey this news through the Xiang Yalan Alliance later, and he would just take the main officials of the new Lapa government over then.

This call didn't last long. The President of the Republic of Jiede promised that as long as the new government was established, they would support a portion of funds. At the same time, there was no need to worry about the issue of weapons and equipment, because they had already begun to solve it.

Including the production of bullets, the purchase of equipment had already been negotiated, and soon they would be able to be self-sufficient.

And he believed that Lapa could completely abandon Federation-standard weapons and use Jiede-standard weapons. They also planned to promote the weapons they designed themselves as Xiang Yalan Alliance-standard weapons.

Of course, saying these things now was somewhat too far away. The most critical thing right now was the public trial of Diego.

Originally, they planned to publicly try Diego four days later, but because a series of things changed, Pedro planned to advance it by two days.

The entire public trial would last for three days. On the day originally scheduled for his trial, it would be the execution day. No one objected.

Now they also realized the urgency and necessity of establishing the new Lapa government as soon as possible.

The next morning, when Pedro was handling some work, Luo Si entered his office.

This made Pedro have to temporarily stop the work in his hands and look at this "classmate," comrade-in-arms, and partner.

"You want to talk to me?" he asked.

Luo Si sat on the sofa very casually. He picked up a piece of fruit and took a bite—fresh, sweet, and full of moisture. It was very difficult to eat such fruit in winter. Only a very small number of orchards that provided supplies for high-ranking Lapa government officials had the ability to provide fresh fruit in winter. Facing Pedro's question, he answered very directly, "I want to talk to you."

"About the President issue."

Pedro frowned. "We have discussed this..."

Luo Si directly interrupted his words. "We need to have a President!"

Both of them looked at each other without avoiding. They stared at each other for more than ten seconds, and no one dodged the other's gaze.

"You have become different from the past, Luo Si."

Luo Si gave a "humph." "I just became not so simple, Pedro."

"A country will certainly have a President, or an Emperor. This is also an inevitable result."

"We overthrew the rule of the Lavila family. We have the opportunity, and we also have the prestige to sit in this position."

"I know, you might feel that I want it. I can let you be first, and then it will be me..."

Pedro suddenly opened his mouth to interrupt his words. "Enough!" Because the voice was too loud, Luo Si even shook slightly.

"What have you treated the President, this country, and the new government we are going to establish as?"

"Your personal toy?"

"You want to do whatever you want?"

"Luo Si, we overthrew the rule of the Lavila family, not to create another, or even several new Lavila families!"

"This country doesn't belong to you, nor does it belong to me. It belongs to the people!"

Luo Si's face became very ugly. "So, what do you want to say?"

Pedro pursed his lips. "Election, democratic decision, fairness, and justice."

When saying these words, Pedro indeed thought so, but Luo Si couldn't help but laugh—that kind of mockery.

"You know better than anyone how high your prestige is in their hearts right now, so you knew from the very beginning that as long as it is an election, it will certainly be you, and it can only be you!"

"I just said that I am willing to let you have the position of the first President, but what you want is everything!"

"You say I want to create a new Lavila family?"

"No, I see it is you. You want to become the next Diego!"

As he said this, Luo Si stood up and walked toward the outside without looking back. "You had better consider clearly, Pedro. Overthrowing Diego is not your credit alone; there are also the credits of others!"

"If you cannot give us an explanation."

"Then I, we, might as well give you an explanation!"

Looking at Luo Si's departing back, and the threatening words he said, Pedro only felt a headache.

He actually anticipated that these things would happen from the very beginning, but he didn't expect it to be so fast.

There was almost no room for buffering. Diego had just been overthrown, and internal contradictions began to erupt. He couldn't help but light a cigarette. Nicotine might be able to soothe the anxious mood he had now.

He was now thinking about who the "we" Luo Si mentioned actually was.

After more than a year of civil war, this country had finally stabilized. It couldn't be that just after seeing a glimmer of hope, a new civil war would destroy everything here again! At this time, he had no heart to continue working. He leaned back on the chair and began to think about countermeasures.

Another day passed. From the morning, the radio broadcast that they were going to publicly try Diego in Zhuolan. Anyone who hoped to participate could go to the designated location to watch this public trial.

From eight o'clock, the area outside the venue for the public trial of Diego was already crowded with citizens from Zhuolan, as well as some people who had come over from the Concession. They also came here to watch this public trial.

The theme of the public trial was set from the very beginning. From some of Diego's atrocities, his cruelty to the masses, his cowardice to the Federation people, and his corruption, bribery, and treason—some things that had already happened and were known to people were selected to pick those that could stir up people's angry emotions.

As one of the public trial personnel, Pedro also attended the public trial site. He sat on the main trial seat. When the public trial finally ended, he would be the one to make the final pronouncement and rule on Diego's final outcome.

Originally, they planned to hire some lawyers to do this, but the lawyers they invited all refused. There was no way; they could only arrange for people themselves to try him.

Accompanied by the start of the interrogation, the entire public trial site was very quiet, and almost no too many sounds could be heard.

The public prosecutor stood beside Diego and began to read the first charge—cruelty.

The prosecutor stood beside Diego and began to read the first charge—cruelty.

Lanse was also listening, through a radio.

He listened for a while and then shook his head. Among the criminal evidence regarding "cruelty" read by the public prosecutor, only a few might have solid evidence. More were collected from other channels—some things that might be hearsay.

For example, the public prosecutor said that the Lavila family once killed tens of thousands of people in order to occupy a piece of land.

Hu'an was beside Lanse. Lanse looked at him. "Is this true?"

Hu'an was now performing more and more maturely. Although he was not old and was still a raw youth, he had already begun to radiate a special temperament that only adults possessed.

Sheriff was a position that exercised people very much. He could persist and do well, and the effort he paid was not a little bit.

He shook his head. "This is just a rumor. In fact, that piece of land had belonged to the Lavila family since the beginning of its birth."

"I have heard another version. It was a group of people who farmed this piece of land. The Lavila family didn't charge them any fees at the beginning."

"Later, after a period of time, I don't know what happened, but the Lavila family intended to take back this land, but they refused, and a confrontation occurred."

"Some people were injured, and some people died, but it wasn't as exaggerated as they said. Others were driven out, that's all."

The Lavila family possessed large tracts of land. These lands were just left there. They would rent some land to ordinary people to farm or do other things, and then charge them a small amount of fees, or simply not charge them.

And this piece of land wasn't Diego's; it was a member of the Lavila family's, and it had nothing to do with Diego at all.

Regardless of what the dispute was later, at least on this issue, the Lavila family was still reasonable.

After Lanse heard Hu'an's explanation, he nodded. He could see that Pedro was very impatient now, and he wasn't a local, and the people he brought were also not locals.

In a short time, they couldn't collect much real information and evidence about the Lavila family's atrocities at all, so they could only take a portion from hearsay rumors and forcibly impose them on him, considering them his actions.

After the public prosecutor finished saying these things, he asked Diego, "Do you admit to these charges and crimes I stated?"

The Pedro who had become more emaciated was somewhat strange. His physical condition actually didn't look very good.

From the moment he was imprisoned by the butler, he hadn't eaten his fill. Coupled with anxiety, psychological other emotional influences, he had always been in a very bad physical state, constantly losing weight.

And he now had some white hair, very obvious.

Extreme weight loss made him look much older than his real age. The loose skin piled up some wrinkles. Perhaps this could explain why some people suddenly looked much older.

Because of weight loss, physical condition, skin condition.

However, his spirit looked like another appearance. He could no longer see much cowardice on him.

Fear was still there, but it was much better than before, and there was some mockery on his face.

Facing the public prosecutor's inquiry, he answered somewhat disdainfully, "If you think it is, then it is!"

"Now you are the victors. Whatever you want to say, that is what it is. Could it be that if I say it isn't, you can let me go?"

"Actually, we all know that what you care about is not what I did."

Diego's words made the public prosecutor couldn't help but turn to look at Pedro. Pedro cursed a few dirty words in his heart, and then held the microphone and asked, "You only need to answer whether you plead guilty or not guilty. You don't need to answer anything else."

Diego looked at Pedro from a distance of about forty or fifty meters. His eyes were actually somewhat blurred, and he couldn't see Pedro's appearance clearly.

Being in a high-sugar and high-pressure state for a long time, his body actually had problems long ago, but he didn't notice it himself.

For example, he was prone to dizziness, post-meal drowsiness, and blurred vision, as well as things like floaters.

He could only vaguely see a general outline and couldn't see the other party's specific appearance and eyes clearly, but he knew that was Pedro.

Diego stared at that blurred shadow for a while, as if he wanted to see clearly, but in the end, he gave up. "I don't plead guilty."

The crowd suddenly became somewhat noisy. Pedro and other trial personnel all felt somewhat inexplicable, but soon these noisy sounds were suppressed.

The public trial was still going on.

Just as Lanse said, there was too little solid evidence. Most were hearsay rumors, and there were even some charges and crimes they fabricated themselves. These things couldn't make people obey.

The public trial site in Pedro's ideals didn't appear.

People didn't excitedly wave their fists and accuse Diego and the Lavila family of crimes and sins together with them, and no one threw anything at Diego. People just watched this public trial somewhat unquietly.

They didn't have any deeper participation. They were purely bystanders in the true sense. They didn't have a bit of empathy, so naturally, they wouldn't produce any emotional resonance.

The public trial, which was originally planned to be interrogated for a whole day, ended hastily after three o'clock in the afternoon.

After returning, Pedro called the public prosecutor and some other people over. "The effect of today's public trial is very bad. If it is still like this tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, this public trial might be a joke."

"Arrange for some of our people to mix into the crowd of onlookers tomorrow. When necessary, let them stand out and accuse Diego in the capacity of victims."

"We must completely defeat Diego from the process, justice, and law. Only in this way can we obtain people's support, and executing him won't trigger consequences unfavorable to us."

If it were before, he might not do this. This is faking.

But now, he could only do this, because the current him is not a middle school teacher and doesn't need to teach knowledge and morality to others.

He is now a politician, and lying and performing are his professional work.

The public trial site on the second day was indeed much better. Some people began to cooperate with the public prosecutor's interrogation work and stood out to accuse Diego of doing some harmful things.

Perhaps it was because of the participation of these people, the atmosphere at the public trial site was a bit better, but that was only for one day.

Actually, this part of the improvement in the atmosphere all came from the emotional changes of those outsiders.

As for the locals? They actually didn't hate Diego very much, because there was no direct conflict of interest and relationship between Diego and them.

No matter what Diego did, it wouldn't cause any impact on the poor in the slums. Since there was no conflict of interest, they didn't have that kind of bone-deep hatred.

The entire public trial was like watching a movie to them, a performance. As pure spectators, they didn't have a bit of sense of substitution, so naturally, they wouldn't produce any emotional resonance.

On the third day, the last day of the public trial, Diego was already "full of crimes" at this time. He had many charges on him.

Like "murder," murdering civilians; "massacre," massacring a certain small ethnic group; "war crimes," launching a civil war, and so on.

It could be said that he was already guilty of heinous crimes, only missing the last step.

After the public prosecutor finished reading the last accusation, accusing Diego of causing over a million people to die in the famine through corruption of food and illegal sale of food, and that he should bear the sins of these million souls, the public trial site finally had some obvious emotional feedback.

After all, everyone was indeed hungry, and everyone was indeed unable to afford food. This was indeed Diego's fault.

Also at this time, a soldier bent over and ran to Pedro's side with an abnormal complexion, saying in a low voice, "Five Federation warships have appeared near the port. They haven't docked, and their gun barrels are pointing at the city..."

Pedro was startled. He almost subconsciously looked at Diego, thinking this was Diego's backup, but then felt it was impossible.

He first let the soldier leave, then proposed a request to temporarily rest and discuss, and then immediately dialed Lanse's phone.

"What are you, or the Federation, trying to do?!"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 1052 =====

"You, or rather the Federation, what are you trying to do?!"

(End of chapter)