Lu Feikui and Yi Junzuo, general managers of Zhonghua Bookstore, knew that the anger of the people was difficult to commit and did not want to fight the lawsuit, so they asked people to mediate everywhere, hoping to make the big matter small and save face.
Zhonghua Bookstore invited Xue Dubi, a barrister and a barrister who had served as vice minister of justice and minister of the interior, to mediate. He knew that Ruan Mubo was a key figure in the situation, and he approached Ruan Mubo and proposed four conditions for settlement: First, the Zhonghua Bookstore immediately stopped publishing "Gossip Yangzhou"; second, apologized to the people of Yangzhou's seven counties; third, in the form of gifting books, compensated Yangzhou people for reputation losses of 2,000 yuan; and fourth, Yangzhou revoked the lawsuit. However, Ruan Mubo refused to agree, on the grounds that "the people in Yangzhou, Shanghai, are serious in their affairs and cannot decide without the consent of all walks of life in the seven counties to which Yangzhou belongs; before the Yi case was resolved, the Zhonghua Bookstore asked for mediation and resolutely refused." This gave Xue Dubi a big nail.
The mediator invited by Yi Junzuo is Hong Lanyou. Hong Lanyou is one of the Three Central Committees of Yangzhou (Wang Bailing, Hong Lanyou, and Ye Xiufeng), former secretary of the Central Organization Department and director of the Judicial Yuan's Judges' Training Institute. Hong Lanyou was indeed willing to contribute to Yi Junzuo. He and Lu Xiaobo went to Yangzhou several times to intercede with Dai Tianqiu and hoped to mediate, but they were all rejected by Dai Tianqiu and Guo Jianren. As a result, hopes of mediation were dashed, and only a court decision awaited.
The day before the opening of the Jiangsu District Court, the "Yangzhou Investigation and Investigation Group" held a mobilization meeting at the Yangzhou Chamber of Commerce. In the early morning of the next day, the "Yangzhou Research Group" gathered. Each of them wears the red label of "Yangzhou Yituan" on his chest. The regimental commander Guo Jianren held a short-pole white pennant with five big characters written on the flag: "Yangzhou Yituan". They crossed the river by boat, and many reporters and people had gathered on the Docks of Zhenjiang to greet them. The elderly of the Yangzhou Hometown Association held wine, women delivered tea, private cars and hundreds of rickshaws picked up and dropped off members of the delegation for free, and the warm scene brought tears to people's eyes. Because there were many people from Yangzhou, there were many people from Zhenjiang to greet them, more people came to observe the news, and the courtroom was overcrowded and had almost no place to stand. Fearing that something would happen, the court had to temporarily dispatch additional bailiffs, and also sent a telegram to the special service battalion of the Security Service to send more armed soldiers to help maintain order. The plaintiffs included Guo Jianren and Dai Tianqiu, while the defendants had Yi Junzuo, Lu Feikui and defense lawyers. The two sides set up a position, ready for a battle of words and words, and a contest.
After the trial, Guo Jianren stated the gist of the lawsuit and severely condemned Yi Junzuo's behavior of scandalizing Yangzhou's terroir and insulting the personality of Yangzhou people. Finally, she said: "Yi Junzuo's deliberate slander and harm to the people have been clearly revealed. At present, the women of Yangzhou are discriminated against by their families, those who have women cannot marry, teachers cannot be, and even in the future, all women will be unemployed and have no place to rely on, and the future is unimaginable. Entrusted by the women of the seven counties under Yangzhou, I knew that I had a heavy responsibility, and asked the court to rescue the lives and survival of the women belonging to Yangzhou, and severely punished Yi Junzuo and others according to law, so as to make the people indignant. After Guo Jianren's statement, Yi Junzuo said weakly: "I wrote the book "Gossip Yangzhou", which is purely goodwill, only to describe the nature of life, which is different from deliberately slandering others. Moreover, the sale of this book has now been suspended, and it is hoped that the Yangzhou people will understand, and also ask the court to investigate and declare the defendant innocent. Lu Feikui, general manager of Zhonghua Bookstore, said wittily: "I am the general manager of Zhonghua Bookstore, and I only have all administrative authority, editing and reviewing manuscripts, and another person is responsible." Now that the person in charge has come to court, the court can answer the question if it needs to be questioned. ”
President Zhou Baochu knew that the situation behind the scenes of this case was complicated, and neither side could afford to offend. And there are many onlookers, the atmosphere is tense, if the two sides continue to argue, I am afraid of trouble. So he set a purpose: take it slowly and drag it out. After the plaintiff and defendant made statements, the judge neither questioned the editor nor let the lawyers of both sides speak, and quickly announced: "The facts of this case are complicated, the trial is rescheduled, and the court is withdrawn!" ”
Zhou Baochu wanted to be perfunctory, but the yangzhou people did not agree. As soon as he announced his retirement from the court, the Yangzhou Investigation Group and the crowd in the auditorium immediately rioted. Some shouted, "Imprison Yi Junzuo!" Some shouted, "Kill this little bastard!" "The bailiffs were afraid of chaos, so they rushed forward to dissuade them, and the more they persuaded, the more chaotic they became. When Zhou Baochu saw that the situation was very serious, he hurriedly and secretly signaled to take the defendant Yi Junzuo out of the back door, and he also hid in the lounge. As a result, people gathered in the court courtyard and continued to demand that Yi Junzuo be severely punished, and quarreled with the bailiffs. Dai Tianqiu, a barrister in Yangzhou, felt that if the emotions of the masses could not be controlled and they made excessive actions, things would be difficult to clean up. So he found Zhou Baochu and said, "Yi Junzuo may not be detained and handed over to bail; he must severely punish the judicial police who reprimanded the plaintiff and the people who were watching the crowd to ease the situation." Zhou Baochu knew that the anger of the people was difficult to offend, and since the Yangzhou side had made these demands, they could be satisfied to calm the people. Therefore, he announced that Yi Junzuo was under residential surveillance, and ostensibly severely criticized the judicial police. In this way, the first trial of the "Gossip Yangzhou" case ended in a noisy scolding.