Yang Hua is crying all the time, and Wen Daolong crosses the five streams. I entrust my sad thoughts to the moon, hope to accompany you to the west of the Yelang.
It is difficult for anyone to associate this beautiful random feeling of Li Bai with the ancient criminal law. However, this poem is a description of the thoughts of friends who were exiled because of their crimes. The theme of exile can be said to be handy in ancient Chinese poetry, because the punishment of exile in remote places or banishment or relegation was too common in ancient times.
The audience who saw the Water Margin must have a deep memory of Wu Song's resistance to the two guards on the way to exile, so many people will have such doubts. On the way to exile, the roads are desolate and uninhabited. In such wild mountains, there is naturally no so-called law and order.
So as long as the prisoners are a little stronger and have a little martial arts, can they easily punish the imperial envoys who are in charge of holding prisoners and then escape, as Wu Song did?
or worse, he fled to an enemy country, changed his appearance and returned, and then became a spy responsible for providing domestic information.
| Being sent to exile is no less cruel than whipping and torture
It is often seen in some costume dramas and Gu Yan's novels that the emperor will grant amnesty to the whole country because of a great event that the royal family has recently celebrated. At this time, criminals who have already been sentenced to death in prison will be exempted from the death penalty and sent to the frontier instead, and banished to the army and so on.
Sometimes, even when trying serious criminals, officials will make such a trial, that is? Tattoos are sent to the frontier? This change sounds very kind. After all, people's lives are saved, and they just need to suffer some wind and rain on the road. However, the real situation may not be what we think.
In fact, the frontier in ancient times was very miserable. Generally, the Ministry of War arranged people to escort prisoners, and some prisoners died halfway before they even reached the frontier.
Even when we get to the frontier, it's deserted and empty, and we can't live at all. Some prisoners have more money at home, so they give some money to the soldiers who are in charge of escorting them. In this way, the soldiers will take care of the prisoners a little, send them to the frontier where the environment is not so bad, or put them in a populated place. Generally, if they don't receive the money, the soldiers will just find a savage place where nothing grows and put them down, and then they will leave them alone.
They don't worry that the prisoner will sneak back, because there is no water and food along the way, and it is a question whether they can survive, let alone run back. Not only that, the exiled prisoners can also carry out some basic projects in the frontier. Even if they are exhausted from work there, the court will not feel bad, because they are felons themselves.
has it been exposed to the sun for more than ten months? Journey? How many people can really stand the harsh words of those soldiers until the end of exile? Moreover, if there is such a fate, how many people can stand being treated as the lowest coolie? The so-called probation, such as exile and banishment, is not so much a welfare for those recidivists, but rather a kind of torture, because the pain of this punishment is long and persistent.
| The harsh external environmental conditions make defection illusory
Although the exile distribution is to escort prisoners to the designated destination, those soldiers will return the same way, and the temper and intelligence of those prisoners are still just a fog to the officers who newly took over their frontier. Moreover, the exile star was very widespread in ancient times, and almost one in ten criminals who were convicted by a piece of paper was sent to the frontier to serve as an army.
Therefore, there will be many criminals who arrive at the frontier at the same time, and the officers there may not remember the faces of so many people carelessly. If one or two of them escape in the chaos, who can guarantee it? However, like this? Defeat to the enemy? However, the phenomenon rarely happens, which is guaranteed by the harsh natural environment conditions in the frontier.
You know, the word frontier was defined widely in ancient times, because the map of China was not fully developed at that time, and all the prosperous areas were just a small part of the south of the Yangtze River and a piece of Central Plains. Except for these places, Xinjiang in the west, Hainan in the south, Mongolia in the north and Bohai in the east can all be called frontiers. In ancient times, which places were not as economically developed or as tourist and cultural attractions as they are now, they were called barbarian places. Because there was no sign of civilization, there was either nothing growing or a virgin forest.
under such circumstances, being sent there is enough to wear people's willpower. When you get there, put yourself in their shoes and think about it. Will you want to go back the same way again?
Moreover, the living environment in the frontier is not much better, where people have to do hard work every day, food, clothing, housing and transportation are not good, and countless people have stayed in the frontier forever, and their lives are still in danger, so there is no energy to think about defection. It is said that nature is the best place to temper people's will.
In ancient times, those who were able to overcome the harsh natural environment in the frontier were the real warriors. The imperial court was not worried that there would be people more powerful than those who could save their lives. The harsh natural environment was the best monitor of the imperial court.
the unpredictable relationship between countries provides another layer of protection
We might as well assume that if there really exists a kind of person with extraordinary willpower who was sent to the frontier because of misjudgment, and who happened to be strong, excellent in physical fitness and resourceful, able to endure the long-term harsh border environment, able to leave the frontier unnoticed, and able to penetrate the interior of the enemy court with his own personality charm and gain the authority of the enemy.
The relationship between countries is unpredictable, so complicated that it needs kings and officials to deal with it all their lives. If treason requires extremely careful thought and great courage, how many people have the insight and foresight to accurately judge the future development of the relationship between the two countries and make a decisive decision?
The relationship between countries always puts interests first, but how much effort does it take to cultivate and form such a big picture? The so-called monarch is unpredictable, and the emperor is the one who decides the future direction of the whole society. Those ordinary criminals have no chance to connect with the emperor, let alone be aware of their thoughts, and will not have the courage to defect.
In this way, although the punishment of exile is inhuman, it has been used in feudal society for thousands of years, and there has never been a case that a criminal defected to another country and betrayed his country, because every king knows how to use the law and govern people. As a king of a country, if he has no such judgment, he will be a king in vain.