After the first Opium War in 1840 opened the country's door that had been sealed for many years, many foreigners came to China for various purposes and reasons. They were curious about this magical Eastern Empire and were amazed at what had happened in the Qing Empire. What they saw, heard and recorded became the first-hand information for us to understand the real history of the late Qing Dynasty.
The late Qing Dynasty execution ground also became the target of foreigners' attention.
In 1851, the first year of Xianfeng, on July 30 of that year, a foreigner came to the murder site in Guangzhou and witnessed the whole process of executioners beheading prisoners.
The foreigner was named Midille and was then an interpreter at the British Consulate in Guangzhou. Mediller was an Englishman who first came to China in 1843 (daoguang twenty-three years) and served as an interpreter for the British consulate in China in Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Shanghai, and as a British consul in Shanghai and Ningbo. In addition to a brief leave of absence due to illness, he spent the rest of his life in China, and even died in China.
After many years of experience in China, Midi Le is very familiar with all aspects of the situation in China, so it has become a "China Pass". He once mediated the relations between Britain and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and his "Chinese and Its Rebellion" and "Miscellaneous Records on the Chinese Government and People and the Chinese Chinese" have become important historical materials for our study of china in the late Qing Dynasty.
Guangzhou's homicide site is located in the densely populated downtown of the southern suburbs. In his diary, Midille wrote: "The 33 criminals were forced to kneel in rows, their heads facing south, facing the direction in which we were standing. The first one, only about 4 and a half meters away from us. This was followed by a row of two people, followed by four or five people in each row. The last one, the 34th, was the first culprit, the leader of the gang, tied to a cross-shaped wooden frame. ”
Then the executioner appeared. The executioner, with his sleeve in his hand, stood next to the first inmate. He was physically strong, of medium stature, and looked energetic, and his appearance did not have the ferocity or brutality that people usually thought, but instead had a clear eyebrow and a brilliant spirit. He stood there, his eyes fixed on the nearest low-ranking military attaché who was in prison, and as soon as the latter gave the order to 'do it', he would suddenly step forward. ”
According to Midille's record, the executioner is not the fierce and evil look that everyone imagines, but "the eyebrows are clear and the eyes are clear, and the intelligence is exuded.".
When everything was ready, the prison officer gave an order: "Do! After receiving the order, the executioner shouted at the criminal: "Don't move! "Then the executioner raised the knife upwards, at the same height as his head, and his arms went down with all his might... In this way, the executioner cut off the heads of the prisoners one by one, "and the executioner quickly carried out his terrible work." He seemed a little excited, and after using it two or three times, he threw away a knife, grabbed a new knife that his assistant had prepared, and rushed to the next ghost under the knife. ”
According to Midille's estimation, the clear-eyed executioner cut off the heads of 33 prisoners in less than 3 minutes. [Data expansion: The first fierce general of the Taiping Army is not Shi Dakai, who kicked two executioners to death before being tortured]
There is no doubt that the scene of the execution of the prisoners was quite bloody. After the execution, Medille hurried away, stating in his diary: "No one wants to witness this scene, unless there is a very important special reason." [Data expansion: This person lost 500,000 yuan to Zhang Zuolin overnight, why not be angry and still full of spring breeze]
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