introduction
During the Daoguang years, a major incident occurred in which the Treasury and silver deficit occurred, which is also recorded in the "Draft History of the Qing Dynasty": "In the twenty-third year, the deficit of the Treasury occurred in two million, and the guanku and the chaku ministers were posthumously discussed. "Only after tracking down did I learn that this incident was poked out due to the uneven distribution of the loot by the Treasury soldiers."
During the Qing Dynasty, especially in the middle and late period, the treasury soldiers who entered and left the national treasury were a lowly but very enviable occupation. Is it because when you are a Treasury soldier, you can get the money in the treasury at will? Of course not, in fact, the Qing Dynasty had extremely strict preventive protection measures for the silver treasury. The highest person in charge of the treasury is the minister of treasury management, usually held by the household attendant. Under the Minister of Treasury is Guan Kulangzhong, and further down is the number of Kushu and the twelve people of Kubing, which is the official who handles the work related to the clerical work, and the Kubing here refers to the soldiers who are responsible for various trivial matters in the silver treasury.
▲Qing Dynasty silver vault scene restoration
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It is not an easy task to become a Treasury soldier, not only do you need a strong relationship, but you also have to spend money to go through the back door. And the cost was huge, requiring about five or six thousand taels of silver. This figure is an astronomical number for ordinary people in the Qing Dynasty. Why does it cost so much to be a small warehouse soldier? Of course because it is profitable.
Whether it is the treasurer or the treasury manager Langzhong, or the library book, they cannot directly enter the warehouse. Only The Treasury soldiers can enter the warehouse and have direct access to the silver in the inventory. For these Treasury soldiers, in order to prevent them from stealing Treasury silver, of course, there is also a set of strict measures. When entering the storeroom, the Treasury soldiers must take off their full body clothing. Then change into clothing specifically for work, take off your overalls before going out, and go naked for examination. The method of inspection is actually very simple: cross the bench naked, then slap your hands upwards and shout "come out" in your mouth. This series of actions was to show that the Treasury soldiers did not carry silver under their armpits, mouths, hands, and legs.
▲Old photos of Qing Dynasty Treasury soldiers
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However, most of the income of the Treasury soldiers did not come from Feng Lu, but still relied on the silver brought out of the silver treasury. It is said that the Ku soldiers generally have two methods, the first is "valley road hidden silver", the so-called "valley road" refers to the rectum. It's hard to bring things out of the storeroom, but it's not so strict to bring things in.
So the Kurmen would try to bring in some lard nets, and the Kurs would use the lard nets to roll up the silver ingots and stuff them into the rectum. It sounds like torture, but to achieve this, the Kubmen have undergone special practice, and it is said that they will also take a drug to relax the bones and make it easier to stuff the silver ingots. It is said that with this method, a Treasury soldier can carry about 80 taels of silver at a time.
▲Kuyin photo
There is a small room outside the warehouse, which is nominally used as a rest place for the Treasury soldiers, but in fact the Treasury soldiers will temporarily store the silver they have brought out here in the name of rest. However, this method has a time limit, generally silver can only be temporarily stored in the body for about half an hour, and this method is extremely harmful to the human body. Still, huge profits keep them hooked. The Qing Dynasty's Treasury soldiers had to be changed almost every three years, and the departed were all very rich. Therefore, whenever it comes to rotation, there are many people who want to compete to be Treasury soldiers.
In the winter, the Treasury soldiers have another way to carry silver out of the warehouse. This method is to use a teapot. Kubing put the silver ingots into the teapot and then added the water. Place it outdoors, soon even the water belt silver ingot will freeze, when you leave the warehouse, open the lid of the pot and pour it down, naturally you can't pour something.
▲ Officers and soldiers guarding Kuyin
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So did they steal all this silver brought out by the Ku soldiers? Of course, it is impossible, in fact, these tricks of the Treasury soldiers, whether it is the library book or the guan kulangzhong, or even the minister of the treasury, are as clear as a mirror in their hearts. The Treasury soldiers were able to bring out the silver, and to bring it out in large quantities without impunity, for only one reason—there were people above. Most of the silver brought out by the Treasury soldiers did not fall into their own pockets, but even so, the income of many middle- and low-level officials could not keep up with that of a Treasury soldier.
By the middle and late Qing Dynasty, the corruption of the Manchu Qing court became more and more obvious, and the amount of silver on the paper of the Qing Dynasty household became more and more false. The "Draft History of the Qing Dynasty" records that Huang Juezi once wrote about this: "When he was in charge of the imperial history, he inspected the silver treasury of the household department and tried to say that Ku Ding had lightly collected the disadvantages of losses. "In the twenty-third year of Daoguang (1843 AD), there were more than 10 million taels of silver in the accounts of the household department at that time. However, at that time, due to the uneven distribution of the loot among the Treasury soldiers, they informed each other, and the matter also spread to the Daoguang Emperor. The Daoguang Emperor was greatly shocked and asked Shangshu of the Punishment Department to go to the interrogation. As a result, the more than 10 million taels of silver on the books are actually only 1 million taels. As much as 9 million taels of silver disappeared, which was almost 1/4 of the annual income of the national treasury at that time.
▲ Daoguang Emperor stills
Was all the more than 9 million taels of silver stolen by the Treasury soldiers? That is not necessarily true, a lot of silver into the warehouse is only on paper, in fact, it has long been embezzled by officials. No matter how angry the Daoguang Emperor was, these deficits could not be fully compensated in the end, and only a few useless Treasury soldiers were captured.
epilogue
Han Feizi Yu Lao has a saying: The of a thousand zhangs collapses with the nest of ants. "The financial decline alone was not enough to bring down the Qing Dynasty. The deficit of treasury and the backwardness of the military are only appearances, and the decadent system that caused these events was really the main factor in the demise of the Qing Dynasty. Therefore, many historians in later generations believe that although the Qing Dynasty began to decline since the Daoguang Emperor, in fact, there were already signs in the late Qianlong period.
Resources:
Draft History of the Qing Dynasty
"Han Feizi Yu Lao"