87: Justice is served on the public trial stand; the will of the people is the foundation of this monument.

Chapter Ninety: Justice Upheld on the Public Trial Stage, A Monument Forged by the People's Will

On the square of the Central Hub Base, people were jostling in the crowd.

Above the temporary trial stage hung a bright red Dawn Army flag. The golden wheat and rifle in the center of the flag—red alert: Iron-Devouring Zombie Tide

Season One: Steel Prairie Fire, Clearing the Sea of Corpses

Chapter Ninety: Justice Upheld on the Public Trial Stage, A Monument Forged by the People's Will

On the square of the Central Hub Base, people were jostling in the crowd.

Above the temporary trial stage hung a bright red Dawn Army flag. The golden wheat and rifle pattern in the center of the flag shone brilliantly in the sunlight. In the very center of the trial stage, three long tables were set up, where a Trial Panel composed of survivor representatives, military generals, and scientific researchers sat.

On the other side of the trial stage was the defendants' dock, enclosed by alloy railings. Wei Mingyuan and six other core leaders of the Changbai Mountain Underground Facility stood inside, their hands tied behind their backs. Their once-greasy faces were now covered in filth and fear; their former arrogance had vanished, leaving only a pathetic, shivering mess.

Tens of thousands of survivors gathered spontaneously in the square. Among them were civilians rescued from the Changbai Mountain facility, survivors who had lost loved ones in the apocalypse, and soldiers of the Dawn Army. Every face bore suppressed anger and expectation.

At exactly nine o'clock in the morning, the presiding judge struck the gavel and said in a deep voice, "The court is now in session! Bring in the defendants!"

The moment the gavel fell, the square instantly fell silent, leaving only the snapping sound of the military flag fluttering in the wind.

"First, read the defendants' crimes!"

The presiding judge picked up a thick dossier, his voice echoing powerfully over the square: "The defendants, Wei Mingyuan and others, at the beginning of the apocalyptic outbreak, used their positions to seize the permanent Changbai Mountain Underground Facility, abandoning hundreds of millions of compatriots in their panicked flight! Inside the facility, they monopolized ninety percent of the strategic supplies for their own luxury and pleasure, using Moutai to wash their hands and cigars to smoke meat, while ordinary civilians received only half a bowl of sour porridge a day to stave off hunger!"

"Even more heinous, they inflicted cruel persecution on those officers and soldiers who held justice in their hearts and requested to rescue their compatriots! Zhang Weiguo, a former regimental commander of a certain unit, was tied to a pillar and whipped for three days for rebuking them for forgetting their roots, eventually dying from his injuries. Three young soldiers were thrown into a Mutant cage and left without a trace for trying to smuggle grain to help civilians. Liu Fang, a female medic, was beaten to death and her body thrown into a garbage dump for giving a child an extra half a steamed bun..."

With every crime read, the waves of anger in the square rose higher. Those civilians who had escaped from the Changbai Mountain facility were even more overcome with grief, pointing at the people in the dock and screaming their accusations: "They are animals! My child starved to death because there was no food!" "My husband was beaten until his legs were broken just for saying a word of justice!"

Wei Mingyuan trembled all over, suddenly looked up, and shouted hysterically, "I was a high-ranking official before the apocalypse! You have no right to judge me! I have the highest authority documents in my hand!"

His shouting was met with sneers from the entire audience.

An old woman rescued from the facility was helped onto the witness stand. She tremblingly raised a cracked cane, pointed at Wei Mingyuan, and spoke with a hoarse but heart-wrenching voice: "Wei Mingyuan! Do you still remember? Three years ago, my son was a guard in the facility. He was beaten to death on your orders for secretly letting out three starving children! You called him a traitor, but he just wanted to save a few lives!"

Before the old woman's voice could fade, a young soldier also stepped forward. His left arm was empty, and a hideous scar ran across his face: "I was once a soldier at the Changbai Mountain facility! I saw with my own eyes that Wei Mingyuan actually ordered the slaughter of three breeding cows just to celebrate his dog's birthday! At that time, the civilians in the facility hadn't eaten a single grain of food for three days!"

Case after case, piece after piece of bloody testimony struck the hearts of Wei Mingyuan and the others like heavy hammers. Their faces grew paler, and their bodies shook like chaff, no longer able to utter a single word of rebuttal.

The presiding judge struck the gavel again, his gaze sweeping over the defendants' dock, and said solemnly, "Do the defendants have any objections?"

Wei Mingyuan slumped to the ground, his face ashen, muttering to himself, "I was wrong... I plead guilty..."

The other defendants also fell to their knees one after another, weeping and begging for mercy.

The survivors in the square showed no mercy. They waved their fists and shouted in unison, "Blood for blood!" "Shoot them!" "Give us justice!"

After a brief deliberation by the Trial Panel, the presiding judge stood up, held up a verdict, and his voice rang out across the entire square: "After deliberation by the Collegiate Bench, the judgment is as follows—"

"The defendants, Wei Mingyuan and others, are guilty of intentional homicide, abuse of power, and crimes against humanity. The facts are clear and the evidence is irrefutable! Sentenced to death, to be executed immediately!"

"All supplies from the Changbai Mountain Underground Facility are to be confiscated and used to support the construction of the Five Great Bases!"

The gavel fell, crisp and loud.

A deafening cheer erupted in the square. Survivors hugged each other and wept; in their tears were anger, sadness, and the relief of justice being served.

Wei Mingyuan and the others were led down from the trial stage, their faces filled only with despair.

The moment the gunshots rang out, the cheers in the square reached their peak.

Lin Zhou stood to one side of the trial stage, watching the scene before him, a flash of complex emotion in his eyes. He knew that this trial was not just to give the deceased an explanation, but also to give all survivors a belief—that on this land, justice might be delayed, but it will never be absent.

As the sun set, golden light flooded the square.

The survivors spontaneously sang the national anthem, their stirring voices echoing over the Central Hub Base and in everyone's hearts.

This trial, like a foundation stone, firmly established the roots of public support for Dawn City.

Lin Zhou's gaze had already turned toward the distance. He knew that the road to justice was still long. But as long as the people's hearts were aligned and they were united as one, no difficulty could stop their progress.