In the Qing Dynasty criminal law, exile was a more serious form of punishment. According to the Qing system, prisoners were generally sent out in the northeast and Xinjiang and other border areas. However, after these exiles arrived at the distribution area, they were not as hard as they thought, and their lives were still guaranteed.
According to the regulations, the dispatch of prisoners to Heilongjiang, Jilin, Xinjiang and other border areas should be distinguished according to their original status, and divided into two types: "poor" and "slave". Generally speaking, officials and persons above the age of mates are sent to pawns when they commit crimes; ordinary people are sent to pawns or enslaved when they commit crimes. Whether on a pawn or as a slave, they served in the frontiers, providing services or food supplies to the local garrison.
During the early Qing Dynasty and the exile to the northeast, the discipline of human offenders was still relatively relaxed. If you are an official or intellectual, or a businessman, or a medical practitioner, or a school, you generally choose the right profession according to your own strengths. For example, among the literati exiled to Ninguta, some were hired by local officers as tutors.
In addition, the exiled literati in the northeast of the early Qing Dynasty also inherited the tradition of Jiangnan literati association since the end of the Ming Dynasty, and in the bitter cold land, they formed several well-known literary societies with poetry friends, such as "Ice Heaven Poetry", "The Society of the Seven Sons" and so on. The activities of these cultural societies have greatly contributed to the development of local culture.
As for the treatment of ordinary people, it is much worse. Most of the criminals who migrated to the northeast were placed in official villages, post stations, and military barracks, and the government allocated land to them to cultivate and feed themselves. By the first year of Qianlong, there were 267 official villages in the northeast, with 3791 zhuang dings, and 69891 stones of grain handed over.
These people, who were on duty to the local soldiers, had no personal freedom to speak of, and they were organized to work for the government, all year round, without half a moment of idleness. If there is a military operation on the border, these people will also be charged with military troops and fight on the side.
After the Qianlong Dynasty unified Xinjiang, a large number of prisoners were sent to Xinjiang to serve as other messengers. These dispatched prisoners were dispatched by officials such as the Inspector of Gansu, General Ili, Urumqi Prefecture, and Kashgar Counselor General according to local conditions.
On the day of mating, all those who are on errands and slaves are taken over by the local government, the original text is checked, and the case is filed, the age, the place of origin, the year and month of the matching, whether there are family members sitting together, where they are sent on a mission, and so on. A waist tag is then issued with details such as the name and place of origin of the offender.
Whether it is sent to the northeast or Xinjiang, whether it is a pawn or a slave, there is a certain number of years. After reaching the prescribed time limit, their identity will be changed to ordinary people. At this time, the local government will re-issue the people's cards.
Officials who have been dispatched for crimes need to report to the general or the metropolitan government. The general, the metropolitan commander, and so on, must also arrange errands according to the seriousness of the crimes committed and according to the level of their original positions. Among them, some of the former prominent and prestigious abolitionists were assigned, and the generals and the generals were able to treat them with courtesy and arrange them properly. For example, when Hong Liangji, a scholar of Jiaqing Dynasty University, arrived, the local government allocated him an official villa and distributed many necessities of life.
It should be noted that there are also several levels of deportation. According to the Qing Dynasty Continuum Literature Examination, "The same exorcism, and the score, etc., there are those who have been planted in the land, there are messengers who are tortured, there are those who give armor to slaves, there are those who are pardoned and released, and there are those who are not allowed to be released for life." "For the dispatched prisoners sent to the Xinjiang region, whether they are errand boys or slaves, they can be divided according to the nature of their work, which can be divided into tun tian, shipping, copper, iron, and lead long errands.
According to the severity of the original crime, the offenders of Tun Tian are divided into two types: the soldiers who cultivate the land as slaves and those who inherit the seeds and share the land, of which those who are serious in the circumstances are given slaves, and those whose circumstances are light are made up for the shortage of cultivation, that is, they bear the seeds and share the land.
Prisoners who enslave officers and soldiers do not have a quota of rations, and they need to rely on their own soldiers to live, and are under the direct control of the soldiers, and the earthen houses where they live are also built by themselves. In the twenty-seventh year of Qianlong, the Qianlong Emperor issued a decree pointing out: "The only way to send prisoners to Ili and Urumqi is to be given the words "slaves" to the soldiers who cultivate the land, and when they have arrived at the repatriation center, they will be given to whom the soldiers will be given, and where they will be handled separately, has not been discussed before." Ili and other soldiers, if not the natives of Heilongjiang, set up a shift back, will return with their people? The Minister of Military Aircraft, together with the Ministry, has been informed in detail that a separate agreement will be made. ”
Later, after the agreement of the Minister of Military Aircraft, if the officers and men who cultivate the land as slaves are permanently rented, they will be permanently enslaved; if they are the officers and men of the Green Battalion, when they change shifts or withdraws, their slave offenders will also be exchanged and not allowed to take them away.
The deportees have only the right to use the land and other means of production, not ownership. Only after they serve the people can they get their own land. During the planting period, all the harvested grain must be handed over, except for a part of the rations. Ordinary deportees each cultivate twelve acres of land and pay more than six stones of grain per year.
In addition, a considerable number of demobilized prisoners were sent as shipwrights to iron and copper factories. In short, the Qing Dynasty's management of the dispatch of prisoners was relatively perfect, and in the process of frontier development, the Qing court achieved good results in the use of dispatched prisoners.