Kangxi repaid the loans to these old ministers, because Kangxi knew that these old ministers were indeed capable of repaying these debts.
According to the three types of people who owed money analyzed by Wu Sidao for Yongzheng, these old people who interceded with Kangxi were the first type of people, and indeed they borrowed silver from the household department because of the compulsion of life.
The system of officials in the Qing Dynasty, Feng Lu, was completely copied from the Ming Dynasty, and this system was formed during the Zhu Yuanzhang period. In fact, as early as the Zhu Yuanzhang period, this system has already appeared his drawbacks, officials because of too little silver, it is difficult to maintain life, which made Zhu Yuanzhang massacre 150,000 corrupt officials before and after, but corruption is still rampant, in fact, Zhu Yuanzhang's biggest mistake is to overestimate human nature, and ignore the basic living needs of officials.
Although the Qing Dynasty continued the system of the Ming Dynasty, it also saw the drawbacks, so officials were allowed to borrow the user department and the treasury silver to maintain their livelihoods, which led to the officials borrowing money one after another, until the national treasury was empty, resulting in a weak situation in the country, and many of them exploited the loopholes in the policy, of course, it was also because of the reason that the Eight Brothers Yin Yu borrowed the treasury silver and silver indiscriminately in order to win people's hearts.
And Kangxi knew very well that these old people borrowed silver from the national treasury because of the compulsion of life.
Since these people dared to risk committing great disrespect and go to the Kangxi Emperor to cry and complain, first, they did have their difficulties, and indeed they had no money to pay back; second, the silver they borrowed was not diverted for other purposes, but all of them were used to subsidize their livelihood; third, they were loyal to Kangxi and to the imperial court, and they boasted that they had no shame, so they dared and were able to come to Kangxi.
The Kangxi Emperor, who has always been known for his "benevolence", was bound to be moved when he saw this, Kangxi knew their actual situation, and at this time Wei Dongting had just died, so the Kangxi Emperor was in a position of debt to these old ministers, especially for Wei Dongting, and was also in their practical difficulties, which helped these old ministers to return the money, but in fact, this was equivalent to the "debt transfer" method, exempting these old ministers from the silver two owed to the treasury.
In doing so, the Kangxi Emperor actually helped and supported Yongzheng's action of chasing arrears from the side.
At this time, there are not many people who still owe money, as the saying goes, "the law does not blame the public", if no one takes the initiative to stand up and pay back the arrears, resulting in a large gap between the actual repayment amount and the amount owed, it will make more people resist the repayment.
Therefore, Kangxi set these old ministers as a benchmark, let them pay back the arrears, and support Yongzheng's pursuit of the competition, so that other officials would feel nervous and quickly repay the arrears.
At the same time, Kangxi also sent two very obvious signals to Yongzheng in this way.
First of all, Kangxi used his own money to repay the old ministers, rather than directly ordering them to be forgiven, which shows Kangxi's determination to pursue the arrears of the household department, that is, no matter who it is, no matter how much it owes, it must pay back this money.
Secondly, Kangxi was also telling Yongzheng that what he should protect and what he wanted to protect had already been saved, and the remaining ones who had not yet repaid the arrears should use extreme and severe methods to force them to repay the loan.
It was just that at this time, Yongzheng's political means had not yet been cultivated to the point of home, and he did not understand this meaning of Kangxi.
In the end, the prince's plan of "limiting it to two years and repaying in installments" announced the failure of Yongzheng to chase the arrears of the household department.
Just when these old ministers came to the household with the silver tickets given by Kangxi to repay the loan, the prince stopped them and told everyone that it was Kangxi who repaid them, so that Kangxi's good intentions were completely blown away.
Subsequently, the prince put forward the plan of "limiting two years and repaying in installments", and the matter of chasing the arrears of the household department was also over.
In fact, the prince's plan was completely disrupted by the prince's plan, and the treasury at this time was still empty, completely without responding to the needs of the country, so Kangxi hoped that the debt would be recovered and replenished, but the prince's two-year installment repayment plan actually continued to maintain the status quo of the empty treasury, and the whole country still did not have any ability to deal with disasters and wars. At the same time, the prince also pit Yongzheng fiercely this time.
At this time, Kangxi must have been very disappointed in the prince's arrangement, but he had no choice but to agree to the prince's plan.