Many people in the world know that there are six gentlemen at the end of the Qing Dynasty, but few people know that there are also six gentlemen at the end of the Qing Dynasty, compared with the six gentlemen of the Qing Dynasty, the suffering of the six gentlemen of the Ming Dynasty is much more tragic.
The six gentlemen of the Qing Dynasty were Tan Sitong, Kang Guangren, Lin Xu, Yang Shenxiu, Yang Rui, and Liu Guangdi; the six gentlemen of the Ming Dynasty were Yang Lian, Zuo Guangdou, Yuan Huazhong, Wei Dazhong, Zhou Chaorui, and Gu Dazhang, and these six were also known as the "Six Gentlemen of Donglin".
On June 28, the fifth year of the Apocalypse (1625), the six gentlemen of Donglin were taken to the Beizhen Fusi, and from this moment on, the six would face endless torture.
After ascending to the church, the six gentlemen were tortured with "full punishment", first putting shackles on each of them, and then putting heavy shackles on each of them, first beating them with a staff forty, then a hundred with a staff, followed by fifty sticks. Anyway, the six of them were all literati students, but they were beaten open, screamed bitterly, and fainted several times. Although most of the Donglin Party members were scholars, most of them were fierce people, and even though they were tortured all over the place, they refused to ask for forgiveness and confessions.
In the following days, several people were not sentenced for serious injuries, during which Time Yang Lian's evidence of guilt was confirmed and his home was raided. The nine-thousand-year-old Wei Zhongxian reprimanded the interrogators Xu Xianchun and Cui Yingyuan for being too lenient and too soft-hearted. For three consecutive days, Wei Zhongxian rebuked Xu and Cui in the name of the emperor's edict, demanding that they should not be soft on the six. In order to deter Xu and Cui, Wei Zhongxian lowered their official ranks by one level.
On July 13, the six were arraigned again, because their muscles were rotten and their bones and muscles were exposed, and Xu and Cui believed that if they tortured too much, they would only risk the lives of six people, so this interrogation only hit each person with thirty rods.
On July 17, Yang Lian and Zuo Guangdou were beaten with another thirty rods.
On July 19, Yang Lian, Zuo Guangdou, and Wei Dazhong were twice used to "full punishment", the three of them cried for days, and after passing out, they woke up with water and continued to use torture, and the three of them "stood up straight on two feet like dead dolls, and could not stretch and bend".
The next day, Yuan Huazhong, Zhou Chaorui, and Gu Dazhang were tortured with poison, and the skin and flesh that were only beaten fell down like rags.
On July 21, Yang Lian and Zuo Guangdou passively used their full sentences for the third time, and the other four were each given a cane. Only the hip muscles of the six people flew away, and the white bones loomed.
On July 24, Yang Lian, Zuo Guangdou, and Wei Dazhong were already like dead people, dragged to the hall like dead dogs, and once again used their full punishment. After the sentence, the three were dragged into different cells and detained, and all three were maimed that night.
Yang Lian and Zuo Guangdou were crushed by sandbags, and then they were killed by half a foot long iron nails through their ears. After death, the corpse was in prison, and it was not until five days later that the rotting smell was not smelled, and only then was the body wrapped in a reed mat and carried out. Shi Zhi and the two "maggots stained the ground and stinked all over the streets." ”
On July 30, when Wei Dazhong was collected by his family, the body was pitch black, swollen like a dead baby, and there was sap flowing out. The family could not lift it, and could only be contained in the coffin along with the filthy bedding that carried the corpse.
After the death of the three, Yuan Huazhong, Zhou Chaorui, and Gu Dazhang were sentenced again on the first day of August, the fourth day of August, the seventh day of August, and the ninth day of August.
After Yuan Huazhong and Zhou Chaorui's families went up and down and handed over the "dirty silver", the two were spared from punishment and were killed in prison on August 18 and August 28, respectively.
At this time, only one of the six gentlemen survived, Gu Dazhang, who had long been dying, but was still tortured many times to hand over the "dirty silver".
On the seventh day of the first month of September, the imperial court issued a decree that Gu Dazhang be sent to the Prison of the Punishment Department, and before leaving the Beizhen Fusi, the interrogator Xu Xianchun would be sentenced to him for the last time, and threatened that if he did not hand over the "dirty silver" as soon as possible, he would be sent back to the Beizhen Fusi for a large punishment ten days later.
On September 15, Gu Dazhang was afraid that he would be sent back to Beizhen Fusi again, so he hanged himself in the Prison of the Punishment Department.
After the death of the six gentlemen, the Punishment Department submitted a closing fold to Wei Zhongxian on September 20, and the folding letter stated that the six people should be "killed in the city".
Wei Zhongxian may have thought that it was not good to do so, so he did not allow it, but he still asked Xu Xianchun and Cui Yingyuan to pursue the six people to hide "dirty silver".
In the end, Liu Hu's family was separated from his wife and family, and his family was destroyed, what a tragic word!