What is history: it is the echo of the past to the future, the reflection of the future on the past. - Hugo
"According to my will, send someone to the frontier", in the TV can often hear such a sentence, generally people who have committed major crimes, will be assigned to the frontier, "Water Margin" Lin Chong is also considered to be distributed to the frontier, so why did the ancient people not put the heavy criminals to death on the spot, and the unnecessary move to send them to the frontier, is the ancient people stupid? Ancients: We are not stupid.
After a criminal commits a major crime, he will be sentenced after the evidence is conclusive and tried, some will be sentenced to death, and some will be exiled to the frontier. And the one who carried out the exile frontier mission was the military department of the six departments. The places arranged by the military department for felons are deserted and unsuitable for people's lives. The road was extremely difficult, and many exiled people could not survive the road to die.
Some people have good conditions in their homes and will bribe these escort soldiers, so that they will get some care. Even if they can survive to reach their destination, the harsh environment on the frontier is another test, in addition to the harsh environment, the lack of materials and food is not a problem, if the prisoners can not find food and water on their own, they must starve to death.
The reason these prisoners were not sentenced to death was because the killing of heads was much more painful than the exile of the frontier, and the exile of the frontier would be tortured to the end and die in pain. After death, due to the long distance, there was not even a person who collected the corpse, and could only be abandoned in the wilderness, and finally eaten by wild animals. So we can see on television that those who have been sentenced to exile on the frontier are instantly heartbroken, because they are very desperate.
In addition to these, the imperial court also had a purpose, the number of Han chinese in the frontier areas was small. For example, in ancient Guizhou, Yunnan, it was a gathering place for ethnic minorities. In ancient times, the south was called a barbaric land by the imperial court, because those people did not obey the administration, and generally selected some people from the time to assist the officials in handling things, but there was no guarantee for the Han people to be too small.
By exiling prisoners to these places, there will be more and more Han Chinese, and they can be slowly assimilated. It can also be used for border defense construction, such as the construction of the Great Wall during the Qin Dynasty. When free labor is used, even if they die, the court does not have to be distressed, because they are the ones who are going to be executed for the most heinous crimes. At the same time, the wise monarch believes that it is not a good way to manage the country by killing the head, and the general murderous king will be called a tyrant, sparing these people's lives and sending them to the frontier can show the benevolence of the emperor.
Ancient Chinese management methods thought of all aspects, ancient people are not stupid, on the contrary, they are extremely clever. Due to the limitations of the times, it may seem a little backward to modern people. In fact, we think that we are advanced, and people will feel backward when they look at modern times a hundred years later.