He remembered it very clearly. Previously, when many middle-aged villagers from Chen Family Village were prosecuted, the spectator seats had been filled with middle-aged women, forcing Zhang Qingyuan and the others to watch the live broadcast in the courtyard. But this time, at the hearing for the Zhaojia Village case... not a single person came.

「Meanwhile.」

Zizhou.

A district court.

The First Criminal Trial Court.

BANG!

The gavel sounded.

After the courtroom rules were announced, the Judgment Chief continued, "Now, public prosecutor, please read the indictment and state the details of the case."

At the prosecutor’s bench, one of the prosecutors stood and solemnly read from the indictment, "On the 12th of this month, a malicious pumpkin-stealing incident occurred in Zhaojia Village, on the outskirts of Zizhou.

"The parties involved in this pumpkin-stealing incident were Hu Wenning, the contractor of the pumpkin patch, and numerous elderly residents of Zhaojia Village, led by Zhao Dezhu.

"After the incident, Hu Wenning first attempted to verbally persuade the elderly, but to no avail. She then called the police. Officers intervened, investigating and mediating, eventually persuading Zhao Dezhu and the others.

"However, Zhao Dezhu and the others later harbored intentions of revenge. Unresponsive to attempts at education, they once again stole pumpkins and, in addition, destroyed many of Hu Wenning’s pumpkins.

"Over the following days, Zhao Dezhu and his group returned daily, using carts, woven sacks, scissors, and other tools to steal pumpkins. This caused Hu Wenning immense financial losses, totaling over 50,000 yuan.

"After stealing the pumpkins, Zhao Dezhu and the others had their younger family members transport the pumpkins to town to sell them.

"After a case was filed at the local police station and those selling the pumpkins were lawfully apprehended, Zhao Dezhu and the others gathered a crowd outside the police station...

"This court contends that the actions of Zhao Dezhu and the other 113 elderly individuals violated multiple criminal laws. They are suspected of theft, robbery, destruction of others’ property, and creating disturbances. We request that Zhao Dezhu and the others be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment in accordance with the law.

"Furthermore, 65 people from Zhaojia Village, knowing the pumpkins were stolen goods, still illegally sold them. This violated criminal laws, and they are suspected of concealing and hiding criminal proceeds and the gains from such crimes. We request that these 65 individuals also be sentenced accordingly..."

For a full ten minutes, the public prosecutor enumerated all the charges against Zhao Dezhu and the others, concluding by providing sentencing recommendations to the court.

"Defendants, what do you have to say in response to the public prosecutor’s allegations?"

The Judgment Chief turned to look at Zhao Dezhu and the other defendants.

In this case, due to the large number of defendants, Zhao Dezhu and two others represented the rest, appearing in court to present their defense.

"This..."

From the defendants’ dock, Zhao Dezhu couldn’t help but glance at Zhang Wei and Wang Dachui beside him.

"Just say what you were told before."

Zhang Wei gave an encouraging look.

"The pumpkins do indeed belong to Hu Wenning, and yes, we took them," Zhao Dezhu said, taking a deep breath and proceeding with the defense as previously instructed. "However, at most, we committed theft, not robbery from Hu Wenning. As for those smashed pumpkins... they were accidentally damaged by individuals..."

This defense strategy had been devised by Zhang Wei.

The public prosecutor had accused them of four crimes: theft, robbery, destruction of others’ property, and creating disturbances.

The first three charges were all related to the theft of the pumpkins.

The crime of theft, if the circumstances were minor and the amount involved small, carried a sentence of less than three years’ fixed-term imprisonment. If the amount was substantial, the sentence would be three to ten years of fixed-term imprisonment.

As for robbery, the minimum sentence was three to ten years of fixed-term imprisonment. The act of robbery itself constituted this crime. If additional acts such as breaking into homes, robbery on public transportation, or causing serious injury during the robbery occurred, then the sentence would be ten years of fixed-term imprisonment or more.

Fortunately, they had taken the pumpkins from the patch, not from Hu Wenning’s home. Otherwise, their sentence would be more severe.

Then there was the charge of destroying others’ property. Following Zhang Wei’s instructions, Zhao Dezhu also sought to downplay this, arguing that the damage occurred accidentally during transport.

"Both parties have stated their positions," the Judgment Chief said. "To summarize, the point of contention is that the defendants believe their actions constituted only theft and creating disturbances, not robbery or intentional destruction of others’ property."

In the courtroom, the Judgment Chief spoke decisively, quickly summarizing the trial’s main focus.

"Next, we will proceed with the trial of Zhao Dezhu and the other 113 individuals suspected of theft, robbery, intentional destruction of property, and creating disturbances. Both parties, please focus on these key points as we proceed with litigation.

"Now we enter the stage of presenting evidence and cross-examination." 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

No sooner had these words been spoken than the public prosecutor stood up, presenting a series of evidentiary materials. This included surveillance footage, witness statements, body camera footage from local police officers, and eyewitness testimonies from the scene. The evidence was very comprehensive.

"This is surveillance footage from parts of Hu Wenning’s pumpkin patch, clearly showing Zhao Dezhu and others repeatedly entering the patch and committing theft.

"This footage is from the daytime. When Hu Wenning caught the elderly individuals stealing pumpkins, she recorded a video with her phone. It clearly shows Zhao Dezhu and the others forcibly taking pumpkins away, even in her presence.

"This is nighttime surveillance footage. It shows Zhao Dezhu, Zhao Wangquan, Zhao Tiange, and others arriving at the pumpkin patch armed with machetes and deliberately destroying pumpkins. The total damage amounted to 8,200 yuan."

The two public prosecutors stepped forward one by one, submitting the evidence they were responsible for and displaying it to the court. Each piece of evidence was legally valid and served to prove that the defendants’ actions had violated criminal law, constituting the four aforementioned charges.