Why didn't the condemned man who was sent home by Li Shimin for the New Year just run away?

Li Shimin launched the change of Xuanwu Gate, stepped on his brother's blood and shouldered the reputation of unfilial, and ascended the throne that made countless people crazy.

There is no doubt that Li Shimin is in a wrong position, but there is no doubt that he is a good emperor.

If Li Zhen became the emperor, the history of the Tang Dynasty would be completely rewritten. Perhaps there would be no only Wu Zetian in history, and perhaps there would be one less prosperous time-the rule of Zhenguan.

Li Shimin became emperor, creating a prosperous era.

This has led to the historical evaluation of Li Shimin is not low, if summed up in one sentence, that is, the merits are greater than the demerits. After all, the throne has turned around, and who can be emperor is not important to the people. What is important is that they can live a good life.

Obviously, the flourishing age initiated by Li Shimin brought peace to people at that time.

Perhaps Li Shimin also deeply felt that if he didn't make some achievements, he would shine in history, and in order to make himself more popular, Li Shimin did a lot of good things.

As Bai Juyi sang in "Seven Virtues Dance":

3,000 women were released from the palace and 400 people on death row returned to prison.

This is a summary of two things that Li Shimin won the hearts of the people. The former said that Li Shimin released the palace maids, set them free and let them find their own happiness.

The latter means that Li Shimin will send 390 condemned prisoners home to visit their relatives and wait until they come back in autumn. As a result, all these people came back the next year, and no one escaped.

Why didn't these prisoners take the opportunity to escape? Instead, they obediently went back to die. What happened? Are these prisoners not afraid of death, or is Li Shimin's majesty too high for them to go back? What happened to these prisoners at last?

Let's watch together.

Li Shimin: Poor prisoners. Let them go home before they are beheaded. After Li Shimin succeeded to the throne, he attached great importance to criminal cases throughout the country, especially beheading cases, which must be examined in person before execution. It is precisely because of this caution that there were not many death row inmates during Li Shimin's reign. An emperor who is busy with everything can do this and be called a wise monarch.

In 630 AD, it was the fourth year that Li Shimin became emperor. This year, only 29 prisoners were sentenced to death. Two years later, at the end of the sixth year of Zhenguan, there were 390 such prisoners (another 290 in historical data). Of course, this does not mean that the law and order in the Tang Dynasty became worse, and even 390 prisoners were very humble at that time.

When Li Shimin personally tried and examined these cases, he also personally visited the prisoners in prison. Li Shimin was very sad, because the prisoners' eyes showed despair, which was so pitiful compared with the excitement of people outside preparing for the New Year.

These prisoners were scheduled to be beheaded after the following autumn, and their time in the world was only a few months. No matter how heinous they had done before, Li Shimin decided to let them go home before being beheaded, but only if they died automatically before being beheaded.

Minister: Your Majesty, you must not do this. These people probably won't come back. Before Li Shimin prepared this imperial edict, many ministers immediately opposed it, because these prisoners were evil people. Letting them go home is undoubtedly putting these people back into society. Whether it can cause riots or not, these people will definitely take the opportunity to escape and try to get them back. It takes a lot of effort.

Li Shimin was able to shrug off after hearing this. After all, he has already opened his mouth, so there is no reason to take it back. So he ignored the minister's objection and asked officials to register these prisoners one by one and then let them go home.

Time flies, and in a blink of an eye, the day agreed with these prisoners is coming. At that time, many people thought that few prisoners would come back. After all, they will be questioned when they come back. If they hide, they may live longer, so they are all waiting for the jokes of Li See Shimin.

As a result, to everyone's surprise, all these prisoners came back on the appointed day, but none of them escaped. Li Shimin felt very moved, of course, very proud, so he opened his mouth again and gave all the prisoners who should have asked to be cut.

Perhaps these prisoners never imagined that they had already put things behind them and ended up free. They bowed their heads and thanked them and shouted that Li Shimin was a wise king.

Prisoner: We don't want to go back, but we have to. Why did these prisoners go back to die? No one escaped. This thing is incredible everywhere. After all, everything is insignificant in the face of death. Before being taken into custody, these prisoners must have made unforgivable mistakes. It is unrealistic to expect them to be highly conscious.

But they did go back. Otherwise, Zi Tong Zhi Jian, Xin Tang Shu, Old Tang Shu or Bai Juyi's Qi De Dance will not record this matter. So what is hidden behind it?

Regardless of Li Shimin's good intentions, we just said that there was no possibility for the prisoners to hide at that time.

In the Tang Dynasty, although it was not like this, all the information of a person could be transferred by entering an ID card, the household registration system at that time was quite perfect. In addition, monks can't run out of the temple, go through customs, and married people with children can't hide in the mountains and forests.

Moreover, although these prisoners were put back home, they were inevitably under surveillance. After all, with the developed post station system in the Tang Dynasty, it is easy to send the information of these prisoners back to the local government and let them closely monitor their whereabouts, so these prisoners dare not go back at all.

Of course, there is another possibility, that is, Li Shimin wants to show the world. When he sent these prisoners home, he may have made an agreement with them to forgive them as long as they are willing to come back on time. If they don't come back, they will be punished by Jiuzu.

In this way, prisoners who know that they will not be executed will certainly go back to "lead to death" on time. Ouyang Xiu in the Northern Song Dynasty also clearly pointed out that this was a political scam and a transaction between Li Shimin and prisoners. As a result, Li Shimin gained a good reputation and the prisoners were pardoned. This is really a win-win situation.

Ouyang Xiu's assertion is also very possible, because it was not long before Li Shimin acceded to the throne, and people still remember his brother's accession to the throne. Li Shimin wants to buy people's hearts by releasing prisoners, and then improve his image in the eyes of ordinary people.

It can be said that Li Shimin did succeed. Even though his motives were impure, even though it might just be a performance, these prisoners returned on time and were pardoned by Li Shimin, which became a much-told story at that time. After this incident, Li Shimin's "benevolence" was deeply rooted in the hearts of the people and loved by the people.

What do you think of this?

References: Zi Tong Zhi Jian, Old Tang Shu, New Tang Shu, Imprisonment Theory, etc.

(The picture in this article comes from the Internet. If there is any infringement, please contact to delete it. )

end