He Kun was a heavy courtier during the Qianlong period, and he was very favored by the Qianlong Emperor, but at the same time he was also an out-and-out traitor. He was also ranked among the Twenty Heroes of Pingtai in the Purple Light Pavilion, and Hekun's son also married the Ten Princesses of Qianlong. He is a high-ranking and powerful person, and he is a relative of the emperor and the state, and his status is extremely high, but he can be said to have done all the bad things. Once, when the imperial court was in charge of disaster relief, HeKun was in charge, and he sprinkled a lot of sand into the porridge, but the people were very happy.
He Kunsheng was born in the fifteenth year of Qianlong (1750), and when he was young, his parents died, and his life was very difficult. After failing the list, he became a lieutenant of light vehicles. He was highly valued by Qianlong when he became Qianlong's bodyguard, because he was very appreciated by Qianlong because of the management of Buku. His official promotion was relatively fast, and at the beginning he was as incorruptible as most young people who entered the official arena. Later, slowly, this high-ranking official who had been in the official field for a long time changed, and he began to be greedy for money, and Kun's money was not a small amount, even if it was not greedy, and he was often rewarded by Qianlong's favor.
But he felt that it was not enough, so he accepted bribes from hundreds of officials in a big way. He attacked the ministers who could not get along with him, and also created a system of silver for crimes. It is a system in which money is used to cover up crimes, and according to the circumstances of the crime committed by officials, a certain amount of money is used to reduce some criminal laws. The introduction of this policy can be said to make many corrupt officials happy, and the emperor is also very happy, and his pockets are bulging. However, what Qianlong did not expect was that he was not the only one who had the drum in his pocket, and there was also the one who managed this. With this policy, corrupt officials began to accumulate wealth more quickly, and the Qing Dynasty became more and more corrupt.
He used his power to try his best to collect money, and for a time he was rich enough to rival the country. All this stems from the fact that Hekun was very good at currying favor with the Qianlong Emperor, and Qianlong's early years were not bad, but after middle age, he began to do great feats. Qianlong held three banquets for thousands of people, this banquet was the emperor's banquet from the heavens down to the Capital to wish himself a happy birthday for the elderly, and most of the people who attended the banquet were old people, so it was named after it. Qianlong was held for the first time in the fifty years (1785), but because the old people waited for the emperor for too long, the dishes were cold and not very successful.
The second time was handed over to Hekun to hold. Although Hekun is corrupt, his brain is still quite good. He changed the original dish to hot pot, and everyone was very satisfied with the hot feast, and Qianlong felt that his face was very full, and he also appreciated Qianlong even more. His little cleverness was also reflected in a disaster relief, when the people were hit by natural disasters and the people had no food to eat. Qianlong sent Hekun to the disaster relief, and Hekun took the grain to the disaster-stricken areas.
After arriving, the officials cooked the porridge, but Hekun did not distribute it immediately, but chose to take a lot of sand and pour it into the porridge. When the people were about to get angry, Hekun said that this was to prevent some people from grabbing food from the victims, and the people who put sand pretending to be the victims would not want to eat. At first glance, the people really thought that Hekun was for their sake, and they were happy to praise Hekun and praise Qianlong.
But is Hekun really for the good of the people? In fact, it is not, the porridge with sand looks like a lot, and it is heavy to pick up. In fact, Hekun may have embezzled a lot of disaster relief silver in it, resulting in a reduction in the amount of grain, and he used this method to cover up. And does it taste really good with Kun? During the Qianlong period, when the Qing Dynasty was relatively wealthy, Qianlong could not even save a little disaster silver in this way, and in the later period, when there was no money, it was corrupt officials like Hekun who were greedy. Qianlong favored Hekun, but his son could not, and on the fifteenth day after Qianlong's death, the Jiaqing Emperor gave Hekun to commit suicide.
Reference: Draft History of the Qing Dynasty