Wei Zi escorted the prisoner.

Speaking of escorting prisoners, everyone must have seen Water Margin. There are many scenes of escorting prisoners in the Water Margin. For example, Lin Chong was stabbed in Cangzhou, and Song Wu was sent to Mengzhou, which is to escort prisoners who broke the law from one place to remote places such as the frontier as soldiers. On the way, in order to prevent prisoners from escaping, the government will send an official to escort prisoners to their destination. Usually, a prisoner is escorted by two officials, and the prisoner needs to wear a cangue and lock it all the time, although the officials don't need it.

The purpose of escort was extremely remote areas at that time, such as Cangzhou and Hainan, the exile places of network celebrities in Song Dynasty, Yungui area in Ming Dynasty and Ningguta in Qing Dynasty. These places have a characteristic, that is, they are remote and sparsely populated, and it takes months or even half a year to travel back and forth. In ancient times, transportation was extremely inconvenient. Without trains, planes and big ships, the journey is like "Tang Priest experienced eighty-one difficulties".

In the eyes of many people, this is really a hard job. It stands to reason that no one should want to do it, but the reality is just the opposite. In ancient times, escorting prisoners was actually a very popular thing, which could be regarded as a very fat job. Many officials will try to do it. Why? Because escorting prisoners is "very profitable"!

The ancient chief was actually a very hard job. Not to mention all kinds of manual labor in the yamen, he often risked his life to catch fugitives. The private affairs of the county grandfather often bother the chief executive, but the reward is not proportional to the labor paid. Repression belongs to the bottom of ancient yamen, and its income is extremely meager. The income of a few pence a day is only a few taels a year, so it is difficult to support the family. Therefore, for some favorable jobs, the official will naturally not refuse.

Although it takes a long way to escort prisoners, there are many benefits. For example, the most direct income is money. Look at the Water Margin, and you will know that many prisoners' families usually give the chief some rewards to make the prisoners suffer less, and bribe the chief who is in charge of the escort with money, so that the chief can be better to the prisoners along the way. Relatives of prisoners will give some benefits to the officials, or the prisoners themselves are rich, and they will give the officials some gold and silver items, which are usually more expensive than the officials in the yamen.

It will be more comfortable if you meet a prisoner with more money at home. In order to make the prisoners suffer less, some rich family members will even make a good trip for the prisoners, go out in a carriage instead of walking, stay in an inn, drink good wine, eat good food and meat, and the food is not good enough. This is equivalent to a free trip, much better than staying in the yamen.