After Kangxi's death, he was given the title of "Emperor Ren", and his "benevolence" was well-deserved, and during his reign of sixty-one years, he was free of money and grain, prudent in criminal law, and indeed a rare benevolent monarch in history. However, Kangxi's "benevolence" also has its limitations, that is, it is too kind to officials.
The Kangxi Dynasty's restraint on officials can be said to be the most relaxed in the Qing Dynasty, so it also gave rise to many corrupt and perverted laws, and the Kangxi Emperor often turned a blind eye, as long as he did not touch the political bottom line, a few reprimands would be finished. In the Kangxi Dynasty, there was a very shocking economic case - Wang Gangming's copper purchase case.
Wang Gangming was not an official of the imperial court, strictly speaking, an imperial merchant, and he undertook more than 3.58 million catties of brass needed to mint money in households every year. In the 15 years from the 40th to the 54th year of the Kangxi Dynasty, Wang Gangming was supposed to give it to the Ministry of Internal Affairs to save more than 2.56 million taels of silver according to the regulations, but he only paid more than 1.86 million taels and owed more than 700,000 taels.
You must know that the silver of the Ministry of Internal Affairs is the emperor's small treasury, and Wang Gangming ate the leopard's guts and dared to take the emperor's silver. And not only that, Wang Gangming also owes more than 13.9 million catties of brass to the Ministry of Delivery, which is equivalent to more than 2.09 million silver at a regular price of one dollar and five cents per kilogram.
Wang Gangming's case of selling copper should be regarded as the largest economic crime case during the Kangxi dynasty. In fact, the biggest case, according to three. First, Wang Gangming owes more than 13.9 million catties of brass, which is more than three times the amount of 3.6 million catties of copper needed by the Imperial Court Coinage Bureau a year, that is, there is no copper to mint money for more than three years, and if the Money Minting Bureau does not try to urgently purchase these coppers, it will stop the furnace for more than three years, and it will mint nearly 2 billion yuan less copper coins.
The second is the debt to the household department, such a large deficit of silver two, in the Kangxi period, is also the first place. The third is a more serious, worse, more undeserved, and even more daring crime, that Wang Gangming dared to owe the emperor more than 700,000 taels of silver saved, and let the emperor take out more than 2 million taels of silver to repay the debts of the household department.
You know, the money owed to the emperor is a great sin. According to the Qing system, the grain village of the imperial village owes the imperial grain one stone and the whip of the head of the village two whips; the zhuangding of the ginseng is owed one or two ginseng, the whip is ten, the two or two ginseng are owed, the whip is one hundred, and the shackles are forty days. Wang Gangming dared to owe the emperor more than 700,000 taels, and he should be sentenced to capital punishment, or even beheaded.
However, the result of the handling of this case is unimaginable, this kind of unforgivable crime that can be regarded as equal to the most heinous crimes, the Kangxi Emperor actually fell from light, and it was too light to be edged. Not only did he not put Wang Gangming in a heavenly prison, behead him at a chosen date, and did not have any family property, but he also greatly reduced the amount of silver he should repay, and repeatedly allowed Wang Gangming to let him open mines and buy horses under the pretext of repaying debts, and did not pay back the arrears.
From Wang Gangming's case, it can be reflected that the Kangxi Emperor was "Emperor Xia", and the word "Emperor Xia" mentioned here is not to scold the Kangxi Emperor, but to use the word "昏" as a verb, which means that the Kangxi Emperor fainted, which is used as the meaning of Li LingZhi Dim.
Since Wang Gangming had committed such a heinous crime, he should have ordered him to be beheaded, and since he had no family property, how could he still make an extremely erroneous decision of exonerating himself and not guilty and repaying the debts owed by his household on his behalf? The only explanation for this is that Wang Gangming was once the Kangxi Emperor, handing over a huge amount of tribute silver to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and exerting great efforts for the emperor to accumulate mountains of internal funds. Because of this, the Kangxi Emperor was able to make Ling Zhi faint, and he actually played the role of a corrupt official who ate kickbacks and demanded money to save money and was greedy and perverted the law.
In addition, from this case, it can also be seen that the university scholars, Tobe Shoshu and others are also mediocre courtiers. Here, in particular, we should talk about Zhao Shenqiao, the shangshu of the Household Department, and this time Wang Gangming owes more than 13.9 million kilograms of copper, equivalent to more than 2 million taels of silver, which was exposed by Zhao Shenqiao.
Zhao Shenqiao, a two-ranking jinshi, successively served as a county magistrate, an envoy, an inspector, and a household shangshu, and was familiar with the law, investigating and handling major cases many times, and his "honesty and fortitude" were known all over the dynasty. Of course, he knew the gravity and heinous nature of the case, and he should have known that it should be tried as a grave crime that could not be forgiven, and that the sentence should be re-sentenced according to the law. However, this time, he only suggested that merchants stop doing copper and restore the old system of buying copper through taxes and customs, without mentioning severe punishment for Wang Gangming.
The other university scholars and Jiuqing were also like Zhao Shenqiao, and none of the ministers stood up to express their opinions on handling the matter. It can be seen that the power of the Kangxi Emperor's accumulation of internal servants is really incomparably powerful, and it has shocked the cabinet ministers and the Nine Secretaries one by one, making them degenerate into mediocre subjects.
Speaking of Wang Gangming, the Kangxi Emperor paid back most of the money he owed and only asked him to take out 230,000 taels. However, this money was not taken out until the first year of Yongzheng. This is by no means that he has no money, but he drags on and does not pay it back, and what is even more incomprehensible is that Wang Gangming actually took out three thousand taels of silver in the fifty-fourth year of Kangxi and donated a three-pin top to wear, and the Kangxi Emperor actually approved it.