How cruel is the ancient invention of punishment "sitting on the ice bench"? The pain is unbearable, and it is difficult to carry it for 3 minutes.
In ancient times, the cruel torture we are familiar with include car cracking, lingchi, palace punishment, ink punishment, cannon burning, peeling, waist beheading, etc., which are already cruel enough. But in addition to these more official punishments, ancient folk also have such as soaking pig cages, making people, rolling nail boards and other lynchings, familiar with the true and false have their own sayings, we will understand one of the punishments called "sitting on the ice bench" today.
Sitting on an ice stool, as the name suggests, is to move a stool with ice cubes on it, so that the prisoner can sit on it and feel the cold and bone-chilling experience, so as to achieve the purpose of punishment.
However, sitting on ice, we modern people may have done similar things, where is its horror? It can't be because the ice of ancient times was colder than it is now, and the ancients were more afraid of cold than we are, right?
In fact, sitting on the ice is only a part of the punishment of sitting on the ice bench, and the prisoners are stripped naked and grilled by the fire, so that they are red and sweaty.
First experienced the punishment of roasting by fire, and then took the prisoner who had just experienced the heat, sat on a stool with ice, and experienced the torture of the "double heaven of ice and fire" in the senses.
Prisoners who have experienced heat baking, and then sit on the bone-chilling ice torture device, their skin will even stick together with ice due to temperature differences, and the huge heat gap will even destroy people's consciousness and make people fall into a coma.
It is said that the cruelty of this punishment makes people faint directly after less than three minutes of experience, or when they hear that this punishment is to be used, they directly scare people into hurrying to cooperate with the interrogators, so as to achieve the purpose of escaping punishment.
Ice was so difficult to obtain in ancient times, why was it used for punishment?
As we all know, ice was not a common thing in ancient times, and ordinary people basically insulated themselves from ice except in winter, and only a few rich families with ice cellars could use it. So if the execution time is not winter, is it not possible to use the punishment of sitting on an ice bench?
In fact, ice-making technology, which was developed at the end of the Tang Dynasty, was developed by people, and the general process was to use the principle that saltpeter would absorb a lot of heat when dissolved in water, and turn water into ice.
In ancient times, when physical and chemical technology had not yet been fully mastered, the cost of saltpeter was obviously expensive, and not anyone could afford to use ice made of saltpeter, which was a high-consumption product.
In addition, there is another method of cellaring ice, that is, the emperor or the rich family sent people to dig the ice in the river in the winter and put it in the underground ice cellar specially used for storage, so as to meet the demand for anti-seasonal ice.
In many court dramas, we can see the ice cubes used by the emperor's concubines, which basically come from these two techniques. Obviously, the cost of obtaining ice in both technologies is expensive and unbearable for ordinary people.
Therefore, the punishment of sitting on the ice bench is mostly used for people with high authority and wealthy merchants, and what awaits ordinary people is a more cruel and low-cost punishment.
Such a cruel "sitting on the ice bench", what famous figures in history have experienced?
Su Wu, the protagonist of "Su Wu Shepherd", is said to have been treated by the Xiongnu with the punishment of sitting on an ice bench because of the change in the attitude of the Xiongnu towards the Han Dynasty, and the people of Su Wu's companions were difficult to bear and submitted to the Xiongnu, and Su Wu always adhered to his integrity.
The Huns of the Han Dynasty, probably located in the Siberia area of present-day Russia, have a higher latitude, cold temperatures all year round, and it is easy to obtain ice cubes most of the seasons, so even if they have not mastered the ice making technology, they can still have enough ice cubes to implement the punishment of sitting on the ice bench.
Once, there was a coup d'état in the Xiongnu, and Shan Yu's subordinates kidnapped Shan Yu's mother and defected to the Han Dynasty. The angry but helpless Huns had nothing to do about it and had to take revenge on the Han Chinese they had detained.
Su Wu did not understand the terrible point of sitting on the ice bench at first, and as the fire burned and icy, Su Wu's consciousness gradually became unconscious, but his unswerving and unruly integrity made the Xiongnu helpless.
The Xiongnu used the ice bench to easily disgrace the other Han people, but Su Wu was still not humble, and they repeatedly roasted and frozen Su Wu, and every change of torture deeply stung Su Wu's nerves.
In the end, the Huns had nothing to do and spared the strong Su Wu. It is also because of these various tribulations that the sentiment of "Suwu Sheep Shepherd's Day is not dishonored" has been passed down from generation to generation by our Chinese nation.
Later, in the dark and chaotic late Qing Republic of China, the punishment of sitting on an ice bench was "carried forward" by the reactionary military command and the Japanese invaders, and the reverse of history was started.
And this cruel punishment was also used against the red man Wan Molin around Du Yuesheng, which can be described as a dog biting a dog's mouth. It is conceivable that such cruel oppression made it impossible for these reactionaries to gain the hearts and minds of the people, and eventually went to the road of destruction.
Punishments such as "sitting on the ice bench" have never been "good medicine" to solve the problem of social crimes, but rather a "hotbed" that breeds violent law enforcement, releasing the "demons" in people's hearts that should be suppressed. Isn't the use of "sitting on an ice bench" to torture an unarmed person the self-righteous "advantage over me" of the torturer?