In China's five-thousand-year culture, there have been many heroes and good men, but no matter how brave the warriors are, they will be afraid in the face of the harshest punishments. The punishment of inches is one of the most frightening tortures, and Shi Dakai, one of the leaders of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, was once subjected to death.
The punishment of the offender is a double torture of the body and mind, and it is an instinct for people to scream out when they feel pain. But Shi Dakai did not say a word when he was tortured, was he not afraid of pain? Of course not, just because Shi Da had been stuffed with walnuts in his mouth before he was tortured, and he couldn't shout if he wanted to.
Every change of dynasty in Chinese history has either been annexed by another powerful state or overthrown by an uprising of peasant classes that could not stand the tyranny of the rulers. There were rebel armies in almost every era, but very few of the last uprisings were successful.
The Taiping Rebellion was the largest uprising in the late Qing Dynasty, which broke out in 1850, and its outbreak was rapid and large-scale, but it still could not escape the fate of being suppressed. Although China at that time may have faced more serious external troubles than internal troubles, they were rebels for the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the ruling regime of China at that time.
Hong Xiuquan was the leader of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, and he claimed to be the Heavenly King, although he preached the equality of all people, but in essence it was nothing more than an authoritarian rule based on divine power. The kingdom of heaven emphasizes the combination of monarchy and divine power, and Hong Xiuquan packages himself as the recipient of God's will, which will help him strengthen his rule.
But the impact of the outbreak of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom on China was not only to add a history, it also brought progress to China or the Manchu Qing Dynasty at that time. On the one hand, it can be seen from the political programs promulgated by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, such as the "New Chapter of Senior Administration" and the "Heavenly Dynasty Tianmu System", that they did put forward some advanced ideas.
But unfortunately, these can only be regarded as beautiful fantasies after all, which are impossible for Chinese society at that time to achieve. Later facts also proved that they only proposed it, but did not really implement it.
The contribution to the country is reflected in the defense of foreign enemies. In the 1850s and 1860s, when foreign powers began to pry open the door of our country, the army under the decadent rule of the Qing Dynasty was even more vulnerable, and in the face of the aggression of the great powers, it could only retreat again and again. After the founding of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, it also shouldered the responsibility of resisting foreign invasions.
On the other hand, after the founding of the People's Republic of China, they actively developed foreign trade, which was in stark contrast to the Qing government's closed-door policy and promoted a temporary economic prosperity. Unfortunately, the leaders of the Kingdom of Heaven had not yet been able to truly overthrow the Qing Dynasty, and they first sank into the life of a drunken fan, which eventually led to the failure of the uprising.
Shi Dakai's family was not bad at birth, but in childhood, his father died of illness; the family had no top pillar and no financial resources, so slowly the family conditions became worse and worse. Later, Shi Dakai slowly grew into an adult, and the ancient people matured earlier than now, so the fourteen or fifteen-year-old Shi Dakai was already very good at making money.
Shi Dakai had done cattle herding and trading, and he had a certain economic acumen, so he made a lot of money by doing business; the family conditions became better again. On the way to do business, Shi Dakai began to walk the life of the jianghu and also met a variety of jianghu people. He joined the uprising in 1847 at the invitation of Hong Xiuquan.
Shi Dakai led his troops to participate in the Jintian Uprising, and was immediately awarded the title of "Wing King", and he officially became one of the leaders of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement. And Shi Dakai was not only a general who commanded the deployment, he was the vanguard of personally going to the battlefield to kill the enemy; because of his brave performance on the battlefield, he repeatedly inflicted heavy damage on the Qing army, so he also won the title of "Shi Dangdang".
As the early development of the Tianping Heavenly Kingdom Movement became more and more smooth, he was also affirmed by Hong Xiuquan and others; after the capital Tianjing, Shi Dakai was also arranged to stay behind to assist Yang Xiuqing. It was only at this time that the leaders of the Kingdom of Heaven already had a tendency to enjoy themselves.
Hong Xiuquan is even more beautiful in the harem, and the various princes cultivate mansions and select beautiful women, but Shi Dakai is always clean and self-righteous, and does not accompany them. Later, he went to Hukou and other places to fight with the imperial army, but this time the imperial court army was obviously stronger, because this was the Xiang army that Zeng Guofan painstakingly managed.
(3) To be punished by inches
Shi Dakai traveled through Hubei to Sichuan in 1862 to capture Chengdu and other places, but the Taiping Army, which was repairing at the Dadu River, encountered heavy rain that night, causing floods in the river to surge. For a while, it was impossible to forcibly cross the river, and the grain and grass would be exhausted day by day, so the helpless Shi Dakai had to surrender to the Qing army.
However, he hoped that his surrender would be exchanged for the peaceful integration of his troops, but the Qing army, after capturing Shi Dakai, rebelled and surrounded and killed all the Zhuang Ding stationed at Dashu Fort. Shi Dakai was immediately escorted to Chengdu for trial, but in fact, the trial was only a formality, and Shi Dakai must be guilty, and it was a major crime that would kill the head.
But in the courtroom, Shi Dakai showed an impassioned momentum, leaving the officials who tried him dumbfounded. However, Shi Dakai was a deflated existence for Zeng Guofan, and zeng guofan's proud Xiang army was attacked by Shi Dakai, and he was greatly humiliated for this. Therefore, when Shi Dakai was captured, Zeng Guofan would definitely not let him get better.
The death penalty is certain, and the specific method of death is, of course, to make Shi Dakai suffer as much as possible. One of the most torturous tortures is the punishment of inches, or the punishment of Ling Chi would be more familiar. The punishment of inches is to scrape away the flesh of a person with a knife, and the folk also call it a thousand knives.
The pain of this punishment is that it will make the prisoner feel the imminent death little by little, but with each cut, the pain will also increase a little. This kind of punishment requires the person who inflicted the punishment to have a very high degree of craftsmanship and a high degree of concentration, just like the doctor performing the operation, and if the torture is not careful, the prisoner may die early, and the execution will be punished.
And with a knife on the body knife to cut the flesh, the pain and torture is difficult for ordinary people to empathize with, and the average person will call out when he feels pain. Shi Dakai did not make a sound when he was tortured because he had a walnut stuffed in his mouth and could only make a whimpering sound in his throat, which was also a measure taken to not affect the torturer.
Ancient China was a society of power, and the consequence of one person's monopoly was social inequality, and the invention of these tortures was also the product of dictatorship. Whether it is the punishment of inches, the punishment of peeling the skin and pulling the grass, or the punishment of human torture, it is extremely cruel torture.
Although Shi Dakai has a very human will quality, he cannot escape death in the face of such harsh torture. However, later film and television works of art often easily shape some people with lofty ideals into the image of steel bodies. As a result, many people really feel that people can persist in the pain of suffering Ling Chi, but the truth is that they want to make a sound but cannot make a sound.