The speed at which hanging killed someone was actually very fast; it did not mechanically suffocate the victim to death.
Instead, it used the victim's body weight together with the hanging weight to yank apart the cervical vertebrae the moment the victim's feet lost support, killing them.
But if one said that was all there was to it, that would not be entirely accurate. At least for a very brief period after the cervical vertebrae were broken, the condemned could still hold on for a while.
He would feel no pain, only endless fear, and the gradually darkening world that had abandoned him!
After hanging in the air for a while—about seven or eight seconds—a not very loud but somehow stirring "Long Live the Federation" rang out, and the people began shouting the same slogan! The Duke hung there! Whenever the people waved their fists and roared out their truest feelings, the body swayed slightly, as if responding to their fury and repenting for his own crimes!
Once a Duke had been hanged, everyone from top to bottom felt relieved!
At that moment, no one said that taking another person's life was a crime, much less spouted the idiotic nonsense that only God had the right to decide another person's fate.
The entire Federation watched that corpse, venting all the resentment in their hearts!
The next day, unofficial civilian organizations across the country spontaneously held prayers and blessing ceremonies for the soldiers who had died in the war. People took to the streets, carrying frames containing black-and-white photographs.
They walked along the streets, through the parks, and across familiar urban districts, carrying the photographs with them as they traversed every inch of land where those people had once lived and loved! At five fifty-five in the evening, a large number