Winters abolished corporal punishments, because he believed preserving the labor abilities of the criminals was better than rendering them disabled.
And at that moment, on Revodan Square, the public trial was the first implementation of the Military Code.
One by one, soldiers who had looted amidst chaos confessed and faced the law. Their granted lands were taken away, and they were sentenced to death.
However, since there had been no written military law explicitly stating "looting equals death penalty" during the chaos of the battle at Hammer Fort,
Their sentences were reduced by one degree, to the loss of granted lands and five years of hard labor.
Most deserters did not plead guilty, insisting they were not soldiers; but when soldiers from their same unit testified, their sophistry became meaningless.
Deserters had no room for a reduced sentence: they were hanged.