"Exile Ninguta, never recruit!"
In the TV series "The Legend of Zhen Huan", which can be called a "century-old brand", Yongzheng exiled the family of his old man Zhen Yuandao to Ningguta.
When Zhen Huan heard this, her face changed greatly, she cried bitterly, and then blackened, and since then she has embarked on the road of revenge.
This can't help but ask, what is Ninguta, and why does everyone feel worse than death when they hear "Ninguta"?
According to the map, Ningguta is located in Gucheng Village, Changting Town, Hailin, Mudanjiang City, Heilongjiang Province, on the mainland.
Today, it is as beautiful as a picturesque wonderland, and it is a famous winter tourist attraction and a mecca for Internet celebrities to check in "Snow Country".
More than 400 years ago, this was the residence of the Qing Dynasty general Ningguta, and it was also the site of the exile of criminals outside the Guanwai.
It is isolated, the environment is harsh, and the winter is even colder and the summer is even colder, and it is not an exaggeration to describe it as "purgatory on earth".
It can be said that the road to Ningguta is not at all easier than Huangquan Road.
Let's first talk about what "exile" is.
The Qing Dynasty formulated a penal system, with a total of five main punishments, which were flogging punishment, caning punishment, migration, exile, and death penalty according to the degree of punishment.
Criminals who committed the first two types only suffered a little flesh and skin, and compared to the latter three, that little pain was not enough at all.
The status of exile is slightly lower than that of the death penalty, but those who bear the responsibility for this crime suffer no less than the death penalty, and even more so.
The person who was sentenced to death went to the guillotine, his eyes were closed, his neck was wiped, and the pain was just for a moment.
Those who are sentenced to exile are collectively called "liuren", and once they wear the hat of "liuren", there is no guarantee except for temporarily saving their lives.
How far the exile should be exiled, the Qing Dynasty was also very particular, there were 4 levels, namely 2000 li, 2500 li, 3000 li, 4000 li.
The heavier the crime, the farther away the exile, 4,000 miles away is almost a barbaric land, that is, Ninguta.
As soon as the verdict is reached, the exile must leave within one month, and the law calls his act a solution.
First, the official sent two messengers to escort the migrants, called "Long Solution", passing through the prefecture and county on the way, and then the prefecture and county sent two more to assist, they were called "Short Solution".
Along the way, whether for long or short solutions, this is a tiring errand, but for the flow of people, it is like a "death game" to escape from death.
Qing Dynasty law clearly stipulated that displaced people had to walk 50 miles a day, but not less.
Take the distance between Beijing and Ninguta, for example, 3,000 miles apart, and the time limit for those people to reach their destination is only two months.
According to the modern era of developed transportation, 50 miles a day is only a stone's throw away, and it is very simple to complete the task.
Hundreds of years ago, people could only rely on their feet, and no matter how stormy or snowy the road was, they had to complete their daily targets.
50 miles is almost equal to 50,000 steps, you need to walk 50,000 steps a day, there are no rest days, you are always on the road, and the difficulty can be imagined.
With so much physical energy consumed every day, it is simply fanciful to supplement nutrition.
On the way, the food of the exiles was all distributed by the imperial court, and the amount of food was mainly based on the standards of the prisoners.
Each person is about 250 grams per day, and the amount of meals for minors is halved, which is still on the premise that the food can be divided into the hands of the flowers.
If on that day, the servants were also hungry, they often cut off their beards and shared the food of the exiles together.
The most terrible thing is that the 20-pound shackles must be worn around the neck of the flowing person, and they cannot take it off whether they eat or go to the toilet.
On weekdays, this is already very tormenting, the most afraid of rainy days, once the shackles are drenched in rain, it will become heavier, as if carrying dozens of pounds of iron on the body, carrying the weight forward.
If you step into the cliff, if you are not careful, you will fall directly off the cliff and end up dead without a corpse.
The servants did not care about the life or death of the flowing people at all, they cared more about whether the flowing people escaped or not than whether the flowing people could reach Ninguta alive.
After a few runs, there will be a few servants to replace them, so the servants will never be soft on the streamers.
What's more, even if the people in the barren mountains and mountains wanted to escape, they could not escape, and they were captured by the servants, beaten severely at best, and took their lives at worst.
Once someone dies, the other surviving people are happy, because someone dies, which proves that they can open meat today.
Therefore, those who can walk to Ninguta alive are already winners in life, and most of them have already died on the way.
The most inhumane thing is that the exile system does not pay attention to "one person does what everyone should do", and adopts a joint sitting system, as long as one person commits a crime, the whole family is exiled together.
Men can also comfort themselves and carry one step at a time, and the servants consider that when they reach Ninguta, men will be very useful and will be polite to them.
Women are not so well treated, along the way, not only psychologically, but also physically sinful.
The Qing Dynasty also advocated the beauty of the "three-inch golden lotus", women have been wrapped in small feet since childhood, originally married, no matter how tired they are, they are only doing housework, where they need to walk 50 miles every day.
Once exiled, the woman had to step on her slender little feet and hurry up to follow the procession.
In this case, the woman escaped the pursuit of death by chance, and it was difficult to escape the clutches of the servants.
When they saw a woman who was slightly more good-looking and had a good figure, the servants would move their minds and directly violate them on the spot.
Young, underdeveloped girls simply cannot withstand the torment of servitude and often die under them.
In order to make their faces shine, the servants will also use a little trick to provoke the relationship between women, so that they can actively compete to "serve" them in order to eat a bite of meat.
For this reason, three or five women often fight hard, ostensibly wanting to gain the "grace" of servitude alone, but in fact they are just to fill their stomachs and survive.
Officials and dignitaries with status and status could not bear the humiliation of their wives and children, so they had to spend some money to make a dot up and down, or find a "scapegoat" to replace the vacancy, so that their wives and children were saved from this calamity.
Wu Zhaoqian, who was born in a family of eunuchs, was exiled together as a family, but thanks to the facilitation of his family and the continuous mediation of friends, Wu Zhaoqian won the opportunity to serve his sentence alone.
Those who are exiled are often not guilty of any major crime, but more of the reasons that make people "cry and laugh".
In November of the 14th year of Shunzhi, as soon as the results of the Jiangnan Township Examination were released, someone went up to the list, and participated in the official examination and Fang Zhangcheng, a person who was a member of the main examination, "The joint sect is well-qualified, but it is taking the opportunity to cause trouble."
That is, they both have the same surname, may be the same clan brothers, and there is a possibility of fraud.
Cheating in the exam, this is the taboo of the Shunzhi Emperor, and coincidentally, before this, there were also people who went through the back door of the Shun Tianxiang Exam.
New hatred and old hatred are mixed together, Shunzhi plans to take the opportunity to kill the chickens and monkeys, he decides to add an additional retest, and he personally proposes and checks the check.
And if you fail the retest, it's not as simple as falling off the list.
During the retest, each lifter was shackled and beside him stood two samurai, carrying swords and staring intently at the lifter to answer.
It can be said that this test is not only intelligence, but also anti-pressure, unfortunately, Wu Zhaoqian is stuck in the anti-stress level.
On the same day, Wu Zhaoqian was so frightened that he couldn't get off the pen, and finally had no choice but to hand over the white roll.
In the end, the examiner, the official Judah, and 18 other invigilators were sentenced to death, and all family property was confiscated.
Fang Zhangcheng, Wu Zhaoqian and eight other losers, along with their families, were assigned to Ningguta.
Fang Gongqian was burdened by his son Fang Zhangcheng, dragged his sixty-year-old body, and staggered onto the road of exile.
And in this exam alone, hundreds of people were exiled, and some people were exiled just because they had a good personal relationship with Fang Zhangcheng.
In the end, it turned out that Fang Yu and Fang Zhangcheng were not of the same lineage, that is, they simply had the same surname, but after all, they were the Son of Heaven, and they could only make mistakes.
It is fortunate to have reached Ninguta alive, but this does not mean that the suffering is over, and this is when the suffering officially begins.
When they arrived at Ninguta, the people of Liumen had two destinations: one was to be an errand, and the other was to be a slave.
When errands are subdivided into ordinary criminals and official prisoners, most of those who can be assigned such errands are people with backgrounds.
Ninguta has a vast land, and the emperor set up many official estates there, which are almost a "big family", and they usually need to farm and graze cattle.
And ordinary prisoners are responsible for the work of official villages, although the name "errand" sounds better, but the work is not light.
There are 10 people in each village, one Zhuangtou, and the remaining nine are Zhuangding, who listen to the Zhuangtou to do their work.
Even if you work hard, there is still no hope for this kind of day, because no matter how much you do, it all belongs to the officials.
At the end of the year, ordinary prisoners must hand in 12 stone grain, 300 bundles of hay, 100 kilograms of pork, 100 kilograms of charcoal, 300 kilograms of lime, and 100 bunches of reeds.
Every day, they worked non-stop until midnight from four o'clock in the morning, slept less, ate less, and barely served their stomachs with their daily meals.
In contrast, the treatment of official prisoners is too good. Official prisoners, as the name suggests, are prisoners who have been officials.
Most of these people were readers, and in order to be useful, they were often arranged to serve in post stations, mines and Yamen, write and write, and teach the children of the officers to read.
Every first and fifteenth day of the junior high school, officials and prisoners still have to go to the Yamen to report feedback, so as to show that they are conscientiously reforming themselves and their ideological consciousness is getting higher and higher.
Moreover, in the eyes of the locals, it is not to offend those who teach culture, which is a great disrespect for knowledge, so everyone especially respects official prisoners.
As soon as they saw the scholar passing by, those who were still riding horses would immediately dismount, bow to them, give way to them, and even bow down to them.
Being a slave is equivalent to selling your life to someone else, and having no personal freedom at all.
It is often said in film and television dramas, "Distribute Ninguta, and the armored people are slaves", which is the fate of the slave flower.
What is a "man in armor", that is, a guard of the side.
Most of the people on the side of Ninguta were foreign troops, and the emperor was worried that the surrender troops would "surrender without surrendering their hearts", and one day the army would rebel, so he would send them to Ninguta.
The beautiful name of garrisoning the frontier actually binds them more powerfully and prevents them from rebelling.
Serving as a slave to the armored man is equivalent to giving the armored man an outlet to vent his years of dissatisfaction with the imperial court on the flow of people.
Under the armored people, the lives of these people are not even comparable to a horse or a cow.
The armored people were regarded as "parents", and the outliers became outright slaves.
In the summer, the displaced people worked hard to raise the armored people to be extremely strong, but they themselves became more and more skinny, even inferior to firewood.
In winter, the armored people would also take them to hunt and hunt, and in addition to running errands for the "parents" and handing hunting tools, they also had to sacrifice themselves, use themselves as bait, and lure the beast out of the hole.
For the armored people, cattle are very precious, and they are used as bait, some of them are tyrannical, and the lives of people are not worth a few dollars, and it is appropriate to be used as bait.
Some female dependents are very good-looking, and in order to take them for themselves, the armored people often get rid of their husbands and parents, use them as tools to vent their desires, and humiliate them again and again.
In this way, under the armored people, the wandering people lived a life worse than death, calling every day undeserved, and calling the earth unworkable.
Once enslaved, they could not recover their freedom for life, and until they died, their descendants could not escape the fate of slavery.
So since they were in such pain, why didn't these slaves run away?
Of course, they will escape, because it is too cruel and inhumane, arousing the desire of the people to survive, and some people will take advantage of the siege to secretly escape.
But Ninguta is so desolate, no matter how to escape, you can only hide in the deep mountains and old forests, and live by clearing land to build land and digging ginseng.
Although they escaped and no longer had to be enslaved, this "independent life" was not good, and the sword of Damocles was always hanging over their heads.
From March to April, these people would go down the mountain to dig ginseng, and because the road was complicated, everyone could not remember the route, and often got lost in the mountains, and could not return until September or October.
It is already fortunate that they can return home in September and October, and some people either starve to death on the way, or are eaten by haunted beasts, and their bones are gone, and they will never return.
Those who are bold and not afraid of death will summon up the courage to take the opportunity to escape.
Those who do not dare to escape, sometimes they can't help but resist in person, and the consequences of bumping into "parents" are extremely tragic.
The armor man stipulated that all slaves who insulted their parents were hanged, and the slaves beat their parents and immediately made a decision, and all those who killed their parents were killed until death.
The Qing Law clearly states that all offenders who are exempt from death are put to death by the Lord and do not need to be punished.
In order to make the exiles feel at ease as slaves, warning them that if they resist, they will only be executed, and they will bear the consequences.
But even if they work hard and are willing to be slaves to the armored people, the criminals will not escape death in the face of the challenges of nature.
The environment in Ninguta is so harsh that it is extremely cold for two-thirds of the year.
From spring to late March, there is strong wind, dust and sand, lightning and thunder day and night;
In July, the temperature plummets, and sometimes birds fly down, and they are frozen to fly, which indicates that there will be a heavy frost in a few days;
In mid-August, it basically began to snow, and until September, the riverbed froze, and in October, the ground was icy, and the occasional sun could not be baked.
Most of the people who just came to Ninguta could not survive this extreme weather, and were frozen to death, and some of them were strong-willed, and they fell ill after coming over.
Wu Zhaoqian survived for 23 years in such an environment, from a personable teenager to a dusty and frosty man.
In the fourth year of Ninguta, the family was worried that Wu Zhaoqian was alone in Ninguta, and in case something went wrong, the incense of the Wu family would be broken.
Therefore, they paid for the servants, accommodated, and asked his wife Ge Caizhen to take care of Wu Zhaoqian in the past.
The following year, Wu Zhaoqian's son Wu Junchen was born in Ninguta and spent his childhood with him.
Wu Zhaoqian gave his son the nickname "Su Huan", hoping that he could be like the shepherd "Su Wu" in the wind and snow of the North Sea, return to his roots and return home alive.
So how long does it take to serve a prison sentence in Ninguta before returning home?
The Qing Dynasty stipulated that criminals sent to Ninguta would be examined on a 10-year cycle, and if they were rehabilitated, they would be allowed to return home.
And those who were sentenced to "never be allowed to enter the customs" had no other way but to die in Ninguta.
At that time, the biggest wish of those in Ninguta was to take a trip to "Joy Ridge".
Once exiled to Ninguta, the exiles had to cross the mountain customs and cross the first ridge "Miserable Ridge".
If you are lucky enough to be released, you will also pass through this ridge when you return home, and at this time it is also called "Joy Ridge".
Yiling has two names, which shows the different moods of people going back and forth to Ninguta.
People with identities went to Ninguta, as long as the number of lives is still there, there may be a way back.
And ordinary people have gone through many hardships to win the opportunity for the emperor's pardon and saved a life, but it does not mean that his descendants can go all the way.
After being exiled for more than three years, Fang Gongqian, mentioned above, obtained the emperor's permission to redeem his free body and leave Ninguta alive due to his meritorious work in building the city tower.
During the 50-year literary prison of Kangxi, Dai Mingshi was reported and directly sentenced to death.
The most absurd thing is that Dai Mingshi's previous poetry collection once quoted the works of Fang Xiaobiao, and Fang Xiaobiao was Fang Gongqian's son.
Fifty years ago, Fang Gongqian embarked on the road of exile, and fifty years later, his grandson's family repeated the mistakes of the past and exiled to Ninguta again, and the bad luck never stopped and continued.
And Fang Dengfeng was not as lucky as his grandfather Fang Gongqian after all, he and his sons were all buried in Ningguta, and only his grandson Fang Guancheng was left in the family.
Later, Fang Guan was diligent and diligent, and he secretly brought the bones of his grandfather Fang Dengfeng home and buried them in the ancestral grave.
Before his death, Fang Dengfeng always thought about entering the customs, but unfortunately it could not be realized, and his grandson Fang Guancheng has always been worried.
His grandfather's unfulfilled wish and his inability to return home, he vowed to help his grandfather.
Even if he only carried a corpse, he would take his grandfather and cross the "Joy Ridge" home.
The phrase "send criminals to Ninguta, never enter the customs", what cannot be entered is the pass, and what cannot be locked up is the obsession of returning home for generations.
And today's Ninguta has long lost the horror of the beginning, and now it is harmonious and full of life.
Those desperate heartaches and heart-wrenching whimpers were all covered in snow, washed away by time, leaving no trace.
The descendants stood on this land and looked at the Ningu Pagoda, not at the relics that had been dead for four hundred years, but at the lives that had lived for four hundred years.
Four hundred years ago, there were countless living beings, holding the wind and snow, walking on shackled feet, desperately walking in the direction of light.
Now, in this land, the descendants are singing and dancing, and the people are noisy, why not burn their own lives and guide them home many years ago?
-END-
Resources:
1. CCTV10|"Exile to Ninguta"
2. Zhao Haibo|"Research on Social Change in Ningguta Area of the Qing Dynasty"
3. Liu Xin|"The Exile System and Tragic Situation of the Ningguta Displaced People in the Qing Dynasty"
4. Bo Xiaoxia|"A Brief Analysis of the Exile System in Ancient China"
5. Nie Zuoping|"Ninggu Pagoda, the Land of Bitter Cold in the Qing Dynasty"
6. China National Human Geography|Mudanjiang-Ninggu Pagoda, an important town outside Serbia
Author: Xi Si
Edit: Willow Leaf Nagging
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