Chapter 109
Chapter 109
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 109
Chapter Title: Hanyang Great Fire (7)
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Some wise soul on the internet once evaluated the death penalty like this.
"Even if the death penalty is never carried out, its mere existence deters budding criminals as the maximum sentence in court."
I agree with him.
Even if it's never actually executed, the death penalty definitely makes those rotten bastards—hell-bent on committing crimes—think twice before resorting to murder or theft.
Of course, there's no telling how much deterrent effect it had on these arsonist scum who'd been rounded up...
But watching the guy dragged out ahead of them get properly worked over would surely change their minds a great deal.
A massive scream erupted from the mouth of the bastard whose tourniquet I'd ordered tightened.
"Aaaargh!"
The last traces of smugness vanished from the arsonists' faces the moment they heard that.
Even beasts tremble in fear at the slaughterhouse, knowing their end is near. These scumbags, worse than animals, finally seemed to grasp their own dire straits upon seeing their comrade tortured.
Of course, that didn't mean I had any intention of forgiving their crimes or showing mercy.
"Tighten the tourniquet more. Twist it until his bones are grinding bare!"
"Yes, Magistrate!"
"Don't kill him—just torture him right up to the brink of death. Make them regret ever being born, make them resent the fact that they're still alive!"
If there had been even a shred of mitigating circumstances, I wouldn't have gone this far.
But there wasn't a single one.
So what choice did they leave me? They had to die as miserably and painfully as possible.
That was their one chance to give their worthless lives even a sliver of value.
Become living exhibits of cruel punishment, showing the people of Hanyang firsthand what happens when you set fire to intact homes.
This would have a solid crime-prevention effect.
The guy whose tourniquet I had tightened passed out.
His shinbone was exposed, and a pool of blood had formed beneath his leg.
"Splash cold water on him right now and wake him up!"
"Yes, sir!"
Once we doused him, he came to.
"Sp-spare me... No, please just kill me. I was wrong, I swear I won't do it again. Please, please, just kill me quick."
"Why would I kill you quickly and let you off easy?"
I really admire Japan's death penalty system.
Personally, I think Korea should import it.
In Japan, they carry out hangings at a time the condemned "completely unexpected."
They lock the prisoner away for as little as two or three years, or as long as ten or more, just letting time drag on.
Then, the moment the bastard starts thinking, "No executions so far, guess I'm safe," that's when they spring it on him.
Because the victims they murdered met their ends just as suddenly and unexpectedly.
Making the four condemned feel that exact same terror—what a brilliant method.
I'll make these bastards taste a fear as close as possible to what the fire victims endured.
'Realize the weight of your sins.'
"You lot probably started the blaze for a single sack of rice or bolt of silk. Because of that, countless people burned to death. Their bodies charred black, moaning 'please kill me'—it was pure hell. They were innocent, yet suffered that agony in death. For you sinners, whose crimes tower like mountains, to escape that pain and die easy... wouldn't that be the height of injustice?"
Doing this won't bring back the dead.
Yeah, if we're being precise, this is just me venting my rage.
But for the bereaved who lost family in the fire and the disaster victims who lost their homes, this would be immense consolation.
Knowing those bastards didn't go easy would lighten hearts considerably.
"Hey! Bring several millstones at once, and washboards too—the kind used for laundry! Make this criminal kneel on the washboard and stack millstones on his legs!"
The tools I'd ordered were promptly delivered from the Royal Guard barracks.
We forced the butcher—his shinbone already protruding—to kneel on the washboard with his arms bound.
Millstones were soon piled atop his legs.
The crunch of his shinbone, thigh bones, and pelvis shattering echoed through the barracks, mingled with his screams.
Blood poured from his body like a river beneath the washboard.
He lost consciousness midway again, so we splashed water to revive him.
After cycles of screams and blackouts, half a sichin—an hour—had slipped by.
"Hold. Now I'm curious if you're finally ready to talk properly. Who else plotted this with you scum?"
"Dal-soe from Pear Tree Valley near Namchon, Mirok, Bonno, Kaedung, Makgu..."
"Quite a list."
"Yes, sir..."
Combine Tourniquet Master and Millstone Therapist, and even a beast's maw finally utters truth.
I'd seen an online tale that even foreigners ignorant of Joseon speech could learn it fast via tourniquet...
Seemed it might hold water.
Deploy advanced interrogation tools, and results would be even better.
"Well, anyone else among them want to confess before ending up like this?"
"This is really all. No more besides those guys..."
I'm no Gungye, but I know when trash like this arsonist bastard starts spewing nonsense under pressure.
Yeah, keep going. I won't just sit idle.
"If you don't tell this magistrate everything truthfully, the next ones tortured will be your wives and kids."
The arsonists suddenly raised their voices in protest.
"We did the arson—why drag in unrelated family for torture? That's unreasonable!"
"You set Hanyang ablaze, putting the palace and ancestral shrine in peril. Over a thousand burned alive, a fifth of the city reduced to ash. If that's not treason, what is?"
At "treason," every arsonist's face drained white.
Now they finally realized they were truly screwed.
Not that I had any plans to spare them.
And for this case, I'd apply clan responsibility with vicious severity.
Their families were innocent save for picking bad husbands or fathers, but this time, even I couldn't hold it back.
'Torturing family feels a bit off to me.'
Getting beheaded for a relative's crime is unjust enough; adding torture crosses a line.
But using them as leverage? That's separate.
"If you don't want to watch your wives and kids endure every torment with your own wide-open eyes, spill it all now. Not a single thing hidden."
Whether they finally got it, they confessed everything smoothly afterward—no holds barred.
In the end, we rounded up every last one involved in the arson.
And every single one of them received the harshest of punishments.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Crowds gathered in Jongno Market.
For Joseon's people, always short on spectacles and fun, executions had long been treated as entertainment, with cheers erupting at a clean beheading.
But no one cheered now as the doomed met their fate for their crimes.
The suffering Hanyang's citizens had endured was far too great.
The official in charge of the executions recited the condemned's deathly crimes and the method of their demise before the assembled throng.
Then the arsonists' families—or rather, their wives and children—were dragged out first.
In the original history, only the male kin of the arsonists faced clan punishment by beheading for starting the fire. But with the blaze's scale ballooning catastrophically, and under the furious edict of Sejong and Taejong, the punishments expanded.
"Because of these arsonists, countless Hanyang residents lost family, reduced to watching their loved ones die amid tears. Thus, His Highness decreed they inflict the same agony on the arsonists. Behead their children first, then their wives."
Over a hundred arsonists, bound to burning stakes, were forced to watch their own families perish ahead of them.
"No! You can't do this!"
They screamed, but the beheadings were carried out in an instant.
The arsonists now personally experienced the torment of those who'd lost kin to the flames they ignited.
Not a soul in Hanyang pitied the condemned's suffering.
"Light the fire!"
Neither in Joseon nor Ming was burning at the stake a standard execution method.
Yet by unanimous accord of king and ministers alike—no mercy for these vermin—fire was decreed for them.
As flames roared and devoured flesh, the groans and screams reverberated through the market.
The crowd hurled stones at the wretches.
"My mother died because of you! Oh, Mother..."
"Save my little Makdong, you filthy dogs!"
Just as the flames had nearly finished them off, Mangnani and his crew stepped forward and abruptly doused the fires.
Hanyang's citizens stared in brief confusion before erupting in unanimous cheers.
"Long live! Long live His Highness for denying those dogs an easy death!"
"Tear their limbs asunder!"
"That's the way!"
It was Kim Dae-bung's idea: mere burning was too merciful. Let them taste the agony of fire firsthand, then—while still alive—quarter them to double the torment.
Following his notion, everyone from the arsonists who torched Hanyang to the opportunists plotting evil amid the chaos paid the ultimate price.