The reason why Salmon Island is so terrifying among the people is not because it is frightened by murderers here, nor because of excessive labor, which causes death from overwork, but more because Salmon Island is not large and there are many prisoners, and the supply of food, vegetables, water and other sources is tight, and the guards on the island basically have to find some reason to execute a large number of prisoners every year. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

Because the felons who were assassinated on Salmon Island were mainly those who could have been sentenced to death and received a lenient sentence, it was easy to find a reason to be executed.

As for why the supply of Salmon Island has been insufficient, this matter has to start with the ration system of the Great Song Dynasty for these stabbing prisoners on Salmon Island.

There is a battalion of troops stationed on Salmon Island, and there is a Shamen Village, which is responsible for supervising the prisoners in this prison camp. At the age of Zhenzong Tianxi, these Xiang troops were promoted to the forbidden army. The forbidden army of this battalion was provided with rations from the imperial court.

But the prison rations of the convicts who were stabbed on Salmon Island often went unfounded.

Because the Great Song Dynasty did not provide rations to these stabbing criminals, it was supplied by more than 100 island households on Shamen Island. These islanders handed over the taxes that should have been handed over to the imperial court to Shamen Zhai on the spot to provide rations for these criminals.

Originally, this system was still good! These more than 100 households on Salmon Island are exempt from the trek to Dengzhou to pay taxes, after all, they have to take a sea boat to Dengzhou, and it is not safe to have high winds and waves; And the imperial court also saved the trouble of transporting rations to Salmon Island, which was the best of both worlds.

However, at the time of the formulation of this system, the number of prisoners entering the island was small, and according to the situation on the island, the number of prisoners in the trial court was set at 300, which means that the number of convicts in the prison camp on Salmon Island should not exceed 300. At that time, this system of support was naturally reasonable.

However, it was not due to the fact that the trial court and the local government did not communicate well, or they simply forgot the quota of 300 people, anyway, more and more prisoners were sent to this Salmon Island by the local government, and the actual number of prisoners assigned to Salmon Island increased exponentially compared to the quota of 300 people, which was much higher than the quota of 300 people.

More than 100 islanders can supply the rations of 300 criminals, and they can't get any more. Besides, the taxes they pay are also fixed, and they will not pay more.

Therefore, the rations offset by the taxes of the islanders of Salmon Island naturally could not provide the rations of the large number of convicts, and as a result, a large number of prisoners naturally starved to death.

Naturally, some officials of the Great Song Dynasty have discovered this matter, and many officials have written to the emperor many times to ask the emperor to solve it, but it is very strange that in the Great Song Dynasty, which has always been known as close to the people, it has repeatedly ignored this Shamen Island, and the shortage of rations on this Shamen Island has never really been solved until now.

In the third year of Zhenzong's Dazhong auspicious charm, after the officials who inspected Shamen Island returned to Beijing, they reported to Emperor Zhenzong that there was a shortage of rations on Shamen Island, and a large number of prisoners who were assassinated were starved to death, and asked the emperor for permission to ration some coarse grains and omnivorous food to the criminals on Shamen Island.

This was a perfectly legitimate request, but it was opposed by the Privy Councillor Ma Zhijie, who argued that there was no precedent for the exiled prisoners to be rationed by the central government, and that this example could not be broken. This time, Song Zhenzong still showed mercy and issued an edict: "Shamen Island will give rations to the people." This means that according to the number of criminals on Salmon Island, the imperial court provides rations.

Perhaps the emperor's edict was only valid in that year, and could not solve the problem of food rations for the criminals for a long time, but Lu Nanjin, the third year of the official family Jing You, reported to the present day that the prisoners on Salmon Island were making trouble due to famine, and asked for "one liter of rations for the sinners on Salmon Island." ”

But this time, the current official only issued an edict to strictly prevent criminal prisoners from making trouble, but did not agree to Lu Nanjin's request.

I don't know why, today's officials, who have always claimed to be benevolent and close to the people, have chosen to deal with the situation in the prison camp on Salmon Island indifferently! I don't know if it's because today's officials think that most of these Shamen Islands are outlaws and don't deserve sympathy.

If the imperial court does not allocate food, and it is difficult for the islanders of Salmon Island to provide more rations, the consequences can be imagined???

???? The prison camps on Salmon Island were not enough rations and supplies, so the garrisons on these islands had to find an excuse to execute many criminals in order to save rations. "There are many people on Shamen Island, and the guards take care of the goods and kill them." The owner of this Shamen Village is really an existence that can decide life and death in one word on Shamen Island.

Of course, the assassins on Salmon Island are not all outlaws who do all kinds of evil, but also some officials and so on.

The arbitrary execution of criminals by the garrison of Salmon Island has also caused some trouble. A lawsuit caused by the indiscriminate killing of prisoners by officials in Shamen Village during the Tianxi period also went all the way to Emperor Zhenzong.

During the Tianxu period, the author Lang Gao was assassinated on Shamen Island for his crimes, and Dong Yu, the guard of Shamen Village, did not know what motive he used to find trouble and killed Gao Gao's life. One year, Emperor Zhenzong granted amnesty to the world, and according to HD's crimes, he should be pardoned, but the Gao family waited for a long time to return to his hometown.

So HD's family went through twists and turns, and inquired that HD had been killed in Shamen Village. The eldest son of HD was determined to avenge his father's grievances, went to the capital to complain after hardships, and went to the Dali Courtyard to beat the drum and shout grievances.

After all, this Gao Gao is a civil official, and this case alarmed Song Zhenzong and ordered to investigate the matter. But because HD and the parties concerned are dead, and it is too simple to destroy the corpse here on Salmon Island, just throw it into the sea, and you won't find anything. Therefore, the eldest son of Gao Gao sued Dong Yu, the inmate of Shamenzhai Prison, for the crime of favoritism and homicide, and the case was finally closed.

In the end, Song Zhenzong had to issue an edict in order to appease all parties: "Shamenzhai prison shall not kill the person unreasonably in private affairs, and the envoys of the five islands shall be appointed to regularly observe it, and the offender will be reset for his crime." "Use empty words to appease the victims' families.

But Salmon Island hangs lonely overseas, after all, the emperor is far away, and the emperor can't manage it if he wants to! Besides, the food ration problem on Salmon Island has never been resolved, so the torture and killing of prisoners has been happening all the time.

In addition, hundreds or thousands of prisoners in the prison camp on Shamen Island were crammed into prisons, and the conditions in the cells were extremely poor, and there were no medical conditions at all, and infectious diseases spread, causing a large number of prisoners to die, and some of them were even thrown alive into the sea before they could breathe. This is also the reason why it is difficult for most of the criminals who are assassinated on Salmon Island to leave Salmon Island alive.

Of course, there have been officials who have heard of this situation and called for a strict ban on prison officials to "kill prisoners in vain." ”

However, in the harsh environment of severe food shortage and no medical treatment, the prisoners on Salmon Island could only brutally interpret the rule of the law of the jungle, throwing the sick and weak prisoners into the sea, no matter how many prisoners were transferred, the prisoners on the island could only remain within 300 people, otherwise the people on the island would not be able to survive.

It can be seen that the Great Song Dynasty spread that the assassination of Salmon Island is equivalent to entering the Ghost Gate Pass, which is really not an empty word. Therefore, in "Water Margin", when the governor of Jeju heard that Liang Zhongshu sent to urge the case to solve the case threatened to "ask the prime minister to go to Salmon Island", he was so frightened that his soul was not possessed, and it was really not a lie.

Because of the harsh living conditions on this Shamen Island, there are very few people who are born and leaved, and it is surprising that the people of the Great Song Dynasty have heard about this Shamen Island.

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Of course, the criminals who assassinated Salmon Island were not willing to be killed in such a treacherous living environment. Some of them stole the islanders, some rebelled against the prison officials, and there were even several cases of a very small number of prisoners cooperating with each other to steal a very well-guarded raft and escape from Salmon Island.

It is said that the well-known story of "Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea, Each Showing Their Magical Powers" was compiled by some literati in the Great Song Dynasty in the name of the gods such as Tiegui Li and Zhang Guolao based on the fact that the criminals on Shamen Island had fled victoriously.

In order to prevent the criminals on Shamen Island from escaping, in the third year of Qingli, the current official family agreed to set up a swordfish village according to the request of Guo Zhigao, the governor of Dengzhou, and stationed a battalion of swordfish sailors of the "rapid reaction force" of the Song Dynasty. The sailors of this swordfish village are not only in the swordfish village, but also have ordinary swordfish boats and swordfish sailors stationed on Salmon Island for a long time.

The establishment of this swordfish village is one thing to prevent the Khitan from attacking and harassing the sea, which prevents the prisoners of Salmon Island from escaping, which is also an important aspect.

Of course, for these situations on Salmon Island, it is as strong as those ministers in the DPRK and China who have not been able to completely solve them, and Zhong Hao, a small official, is naturally powerless, and he can only sympathize with the miserable situation of those assassins on Salmon Island in his heart.

Of course, I can't help but sigh in my heart, don't sin easily. In the Great Song Dynasty, the magistrates liked to sentence people to exile at every turn, even if it was not exile to Salmon Island, even if they were exiled to other places, it was very miserable. Exile to the northwest and exile to Lingnan is better than exile to Salmon Island, but this is also a life of death, and it takes a lot of luck to live.

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Zhong Hao took Zhang Shisan and Liu Feng and followed Luo Jiu to the north island of Shamen Island.

Zhong Hao originally thought that the north island of Shamen Island was lonely overseas, and there was a ban on Dengzhou Port, so it was difficult for the merchants and people of the Great Song Dynasty to go to sea, coupled with pirate attacks, this island must be very depressed.

However, after landing on Salmon Island, I found that Salmon Island is full of pedestrians and businessmen today, and there are many simple restaurants and tea shops on this island, and these tea houses and wine shops are full of people in these days.

Although most of the pedestrians on this Shamen Island are dressed in shabby clothes, and the restaurants and tea shops are also low and narrow, this Shamen Island can still be called lively, and there is a different style and a special prosperous atmosphere in the chaotic atmosphere.

Zhong Hao thought that when these people came to the island, they often traded with those pirates or maritime merchants.

Zhong Hao's sea boat went around to a pier on the north island of Shamen Island and docked, and Luo Jiu led Zhong Hao and the three of them to land. This pier is the same pier where the pirates of Godtown Island docked.

Zhong Hao saw that all kinds of maritime merchants on the dock were pushing large carts and small cars, busy loading the goods unloaded from the sea boats, not only the Great Song maritime merchants, but also some people in strange costumes with accents he couldn't understand! According to Luo Jiu, most of them were Khitan maritime merchants, Goryeo maritime merchants, and some Japanese maritime merchants. Of course, calling them maritime merchants means that they are honestly bartering or selling goods for money on this Salmon Island, and it is difficult to say whether they are pirates or maritime merchants when they are at sea.

Zhong Hao saw that the goods of those maritime merchants from the pirate ships on Huangcheng Island were indeed diverse, in addition to various seafood such as sea cucumber and abalone, there were also many goods such as animal skins and ginseng.

Looking at the happy and busy appearance of the merchants, it seems that as Cui Hai said, if the officials and soldiers of the Great Song Dynasty really come to arrest these pirates, it is estimated that these merchants will also report to them. According to Luo Jiu, the goods of these pirates were not only strange goods, but also sold cheaply, so many merchants came to trade with them.

Luo Jiu led Zhong Hao to a small pirate leader he knew.

The little pirate leader was directing his subordinates to carry the goods, the man had a beard on his face, a tall and burly figure, Zhong Hao couldn't even tell his age, the tip of the man's nose was a little red with wine lees, and his face was full of meat, which was very fierce. Luo Jiulang greeted him loudly: "Leader He, at this time, a distant nephew of our chief Cui shopkeeper wants to come to your sea ship on Huangcheng Island to purchase some Liaodong ginseng, do you see that there are still high-quality Liaodong ginseng on the sea ship of Huangcheng Island?" ”

Zhong Hao came to inquire about some information, so naturally he couldn't reveal his official identity. Although these pirates and the government are now at peace for the time being, they are naturally still wary of the government, and Zhong Hao is naturally better off revealing the identity of the officials. It was Zhong Hao's identity as a distant nephew of Cui Hai who came to Shamen Island, and he was also a businessman, and this time he came to purchase Liaodong ginseng.

The pirate leader laughed and said, "Brother Luo is polite, the nephew of the shopkeeper Cui wants to buy Liaodong ginseng, can he still do it?!" Ergouzi and Zhuzi, the two of you take these brothers to pick out some high-quality Liaodong ginseng that has just been unloaded from our ship. ”

The two young men behind the pirate leader heard his command and immediately stepped forward and whispered in agreement. The two immediately led a few people to the cargo unloaded from several sea ships to pick Liaodong ginseng.

At that moment, Zhong Hao and his entourage of four people followed Ergouzi and Zhuzi to the place where the pirates of Huangcheng Island placed their goods to select Liaodong ginseng.

Zhong Hao noticed behind them that both of them were barefoot, holding their trouser legs, with clothes tied around their waists, exposing their broad shoulders and strong chests, their skin was dark and swarthy, faintly revealing copper coin-like lines, like rusty bronze, full of fierce air, and they looked like people who had been adrift on the sea all year round.

Zhong Hao came to the place where the unloaded goods were kept, and saw that there were already many merchants shopping. Either with cash or barter, they kept loading the traded seafood, ginseng, and furs into their own trucks and transporting them to their own loaded ships docked at the seashore.

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