The Garlic Ballads

traffic jam about a hundred yards east of the county office building. There I saw the prisoner Gao Ma shout from the top of an oxcart, ‘Down with corrupt officials! Down with bureaucrats!’ “
    “The witness is excused,” the presiding judge said. “Do you have anything to say to that, Gao Ma?”
    “I despise you people!” Gao Ma replied coldly.
    As the trial proceeded, Gao Yang’s knees began to knock and he grew lightheaded. When the presiding judge addressed him, he said, “Sir, I’ve already told everything. Please don’t ask me any more questions.”
    “This is a court of law, and you will behave accordingly,” the judge replied, releasing a spray of spittle. But soon even he seemed to weary of the questioning, which hardly varied, so he announced, “That’s all I have. Now we’ll hear final arguments by the prosecutor.”
    The prosecutor stood up, made some brief comments, then sat back down.
    “Now we’ll hear from the injured parties.”
    Three individuals whose hands were wrapped in gauze came forward.
    Blah blah blah, yak yak yak
, went the injured parties.
    “Do the defendants have anything to say?” the presiding judge asked.
    “Sir, my poor husband was killed. Altogether I lost him, two cows, and a wagon, and all Party Secretary Wang gave me was thirty-five hundred yuan. Sir, I’ve been victimized….” By the time she finished, Fourth Aunt was pounding the railing in front of her and wailing.
    The presiding judge frowned. “Defendant Fang née Wu, that has nothing to do with the case before us.”
    “Sir, you officials aren’t supposed to protect each other like that!” she complained.
    “Defendant Fang née Wu, you are out of order. Any more outbursts like that and I’ll hold you in contempt of court. The presiding judge was clearly irritated. “Defense counsel may now present its case.”
    Among the representatives for the defendants was a young military officer. Gao Yang had seen him before but couldn’t recall where.
    “I am an instructor in the Marxist-Leninist Teaching and Research Section at the Artillery Academy. In accordance with Section 3, Article 26 of the Criminal Code, I am entided to defend my father, defendant Zheng Changnian.”
    His statement breathed life into the proceedings. A buzzing echoed off of the domed ceiling. Even the prisoners looked around until they spotted the white-haired old man seated in the center dock.
    “Order in the court!” the presiding judge demanded.
    The spectators quieted down to hear what the young officer had to say.
    Looking straight at the presiding judge, he began, “Your Honor, before I begin my father’s defense, I request permission to make an opening statement related to the trial.”
    “Permission granted,” the presiding judge said.
    He turned to face the spectators, speaking with a passion that touched everyone who heard him. “Your Honors, ladies and gentlemen, the situation in our farming villages has changed drastically in the wake of the Party’s Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, including those here in Paradise County. The peasants are much better off than they were during the Cultural Revolution. This is obvious to everyone. But the benefits they enjoyed as a result of rural economic reforms are gradually disappearing.”
    “Please don’t stray too far from the subject,” the presiding judge broke in.
    “Thank you for reminding me, Your Honor. I’ll get right to the point. In recent years the peasants have been called upon to shoulder ever heavier burdens: fees, taxes, fines, and inflated prices for just about everything they need. No wonder you hear them talk about plucking the wild goose’s tail feathers as it flies by. Over the past couple of years these trends have gotten out of control, which is why, I believe, the Paradise County garlic incident should have come as no surprise.”
    The presiding judge glanced down at his wristwatch.
    “Not being able to sell their crops was the spark that ignited this explosive incident, but the root cause was the unenlightened policies of the Paradise County government!” the officer continued. “Before Liberation only about a dozen people were employed by the district government, and things worked fine. Now even a township government in charge of the affairs of a mere thirty thousand people employs more than sixty people! And when you add those in the communes it’s nearly a hundred, seventy percent of whose salaries are paid