As soon as you see the 2 words of "corrupt officials", everyone absolutely hates them, throughout the ages, whether chinese or foreign, corrupt officials and corrupt officials have never been broken, to say that China's "top ten corrupt officials in history", He Yan absolutely ranked first, how much money did He Yan embezzle in the end? The people at that time said this- "He yan fell, Jiaqing was full."
At that time, the Qianlong Emperor only left a few million taels of silver for his son Jiaqing, which can be described as an empty treasury, but He yan had money, and Jiaqing copied he yan's home that year and got more than a billion taels of silver, which was more than the money saved by the 3 emperors of "Kang Yongqian".
Officials are greedy for money, and everyone can still figure out the reasons, but have you ever seen the emperor greedy for money? The emperor I want to talk about today is particularly fond of accumulating wealth, and when he gets the money, he does not spend it indiscriminately, and he is very picky, and once he saw that Aichen was too incorruptible, he actually took the initiative to say to him: Aiqing, how much you are greedy. Who the hell is he?
Li Shi (李), born in 742, was the eldest son of Emperor Li Yu of the Tang Dynasty and the 9th emperor of the Tang Dynasty (except Wu Zetian and Emperor Wu of Tang). When Li Shi was 14 years old, the Anshi Rebellion broke out, and he and other members of the royal family fled all the way, suffering from war and the pain of their homeland, and experienced these things, which made Li Shi firmly establish his ambition to maintain national tranquility.
In 763, the Anshi Rebellion was put down, and because Li Shinian participated in the final decisive battle with the Anshi rebels and made meritorious contributions, he was given the title of Shang Shu Ling and was made crown prince the following year. In 779, Emperor Daizong died of illness, and at the age of 38, Li Shi ascended the throne and became Emperor Dezong of Tang.
Because Li Shi had suffered from war and chaos since he was a child, he immediately carried out reforms as soon as he ascended to the throne, he made good use of civil and military officials, strictly forbade eunuchs to interfere in politics, and made it clear to the world: Shannan loquat and Jiangnan citrus were only allowed to pay tribute once a year for enjoying the Zong temple, and the rest of the tribute was stopped; the southern local tribute to slaves, wine, bronze mirrors, and musk was abolished; it was forbidden to pay tribute to rare and exotic beasts, and they were free, and so on, which could be called a model of a thrifty emperor of the Qingming Dynasty.
Emperors' birthdays were usually particularly exaggerated and extravagant, but Li Shi was not, he refused to give him gifts from various regions, and if anyone insisted on offering gifts, he would sell them to be used as taxes for that region. Such an emperor, which people do not love?
However, Li Shi's "excessive force" and efforts to cut the domain caused the dissatisfaction of many Jiedushi envoys, and they formed a rebel army to overthrow Li Shi's rule, and they elected Zhu Zhu as the leader, which is known as the change of Jingyuan. At that time, he and the Tang general Li Huaiguang came to an internal and external alliance, and li Shicang fled.
Later, Zhu Zhu was killed by his subordinates, Zhu Tao fell ill and died, Li Huaiguang's soldiers were defeated and hanged, Tang Dezong Li Shi returned to the capital, after experiencing the days of starvation in exile, Li Shi suddenly changed, he felt that the "money" thing was too important, he began to appoint eunuchs as commanders of the forbidden army, and also collected wealth everywhere, demanding continuous tribute from the localities, and openly sent people to various places to ask for money! People call it "proclamation".
At that time, eunuchs ran to buy things, bought the people's goods at a low price, and even bartered for things. Exchanging things worth 100 yuan for 1,000 yuan of things for the people, forcibly taking and plundering, the people are miserable.
During this period, Li Shi's side had a minister known for his honesty, called Lu Yan, who was a very upright person, he was the only one who had been dissuading Li Shi when he wantonly amassed wealth, and Li Shi trusted and liked him very much.
On the way, they were separated once, Tang Dezong Li Shi actually cried, ordered whoever found Lu Zhen, he would be rewarded with 1,000 gold, Li Shi was a famous "door-cutting" emperor, it was rare to be able to do this for a minister. Later, Lu Yan found it himself, and Li Shi happily rushed forward to grab him.
Watching the original Qingming emperor become bad step by step, Lu Yan was very anxious, he asked for advice again and again, Li Shi was tired of listening, and even said: "Ai Qing, it is better that you are greedy" Yun Yun, Lu Yan refused, some people with hearts took advantage of the void and framed Lu Zhen, and Li Shi, who was angry, listened to the rumors and actually wanted to kill Lu Zhen.
However, the counselor Yang Cheng and others tried their best to defend Lu Zhen, and only then did they save Lu Zhen's life, and Lu Zhen was heartbroken and began to close the door, which was 10 years.
In 805, Li Shi died, and the crown prince Li Shu took the throne, and he immediately issued an edict to summon Lu Zhen back. While the edict was still on the road, the 52-year-old Lu Yan had died at home and was later given the title of "Xuan" (宣).
References: New Book of Tang, Zizhi Tongjian