We often see various punishments on TV dramas, among which torture such as tiger stools and branding is more typical. However, these are only physical punishments, and what is even more terrible for human torture is spiritual destruction. Rather than physical torture, many prisoners fear exile more. Although exile does not quickly destroy people's bodies, it can cause people to suffer mental and physical torture for a long time, so that the accumulation of time is even more terrible, so many prisoners may announce their crimes as soon as they hear about exile, preferring to endure other punishments rather than be exiled.
According to the data, exile is a punishment that banishes criminals to remote areas for punishment. Its main function is to maintain social and ruling order by escorting convicted persons to deserted or remote places in the countryside in order to punish the perpetrators. The locations of exile are different but have commonalities, generally in particularly poor or remote places.
When these exiled prisoners reach their destinations, they often have to join the army or reclaim wasteland. Needless to say, these prisoners go to the battlefield to play the role of cannon fodder, and they are on the verge of death every day, and the cause of death of many prisoners is this. And the reclamation of wasteland will also make them suffer from labor day and night, making them miserable.
In the Qing Dynasty, some exiled prisoners even used to be slaves. For a normal person, exile means to live in barren land thousands of miles away, and because of the identity of the prisoner during the long journey, the living conditions must be very bad, and there are not a few people who die on the road, and even many people choose to commit suicide without suffering.
But unlike the prisoners, the servants liked the work of escorting prisoners, especially for the exile of female prisoners. However, it should be known that although the servants are very free compared to the shackled prisoners, even if there is no restriction on the weight, such a long journey is very hard for us now. Why were these servants so receptive to this chore? There are three more reasons for that.
First of all, when escorting prisoners, it is equivalent to being the boss yourself, after all, the emperor is far away, and he can do whatever he wants on the way to escort prisoners, no one can care, and he can rest if he wants. It is much easier to escort prisoners than to be driven all day in the government and not get any benefits.
Secondly, the benefits available to detain prisoners are not few. It is conceivable that these prisoners must have known in advance how miserable their future lives would be. Therefore, some rich people in the family will first bribe these servants and let them take more care of them on the way, so that the servants can earn extra money. Moreover, the families of female prisoners tend to give more money, after all, women's physical fitness is worse than that of men, so they need more care, so they prefer to escort female prisoners.
In the end, most of the people who could be convicted of exile were large families, who would not hesitate to pay for the comfort of the prisoners, and the servants responsible for escorting them could also receive these benefits at their own expense. Therefore, for the sake of money, they are naturally happy to take on this chore in the eyes of outsiders.