During the Qianlong period, there was an incident that made people feel strange, and even the city of Beijing at that time could be described as a sensation. The funerals that could be attended by hundreds of officials of the Manchu Dynasty were either important courtiers of the imperial court or high-powered, royal princes, but no one in the palace died. The results of the inspection were unbelievable to everyone, and the deceased was just a stonemason in the capital at that time.
This is extremely unbelievable in the class society of the feudal dynasty with dignity and inferiority, and it is difficult to imagine that under such a huge alien gap, what kind of identity can this ordinary citizen hide that can make the hundred officials bend over and bend their knees? Therefore, after the completion of the matter, it also made the Qianlong Emperor Long Yan furious, and immediately issued a holy decree, strict investigation and strict rectification.
I. The "Poor Stonemasons" of Beijing
Yu Junbi is actually just an ordinary person without identity in Beijing, and an outstanding stonemason in Beijing is even jokingly called "poor stonemason" by many people, but his "poor" is not simple. During Yu Junbi's tenure, he took over large-scale royal projects, gathering all kinds of skilled craftsmen who could directly communicate with the officials of the Ministry of Works.
In fact, in successive countries, the imperial court for the construction of imperial family gardens is not a minority, after the Qing, the development of the three dynasties of Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong gradually made the Manchu Qing political economy gradually reach its peak, the national treasury is full, the surplus is rich. This led to an increase in the number of projects built by heavy industry, giving Yu Junbi more opportunities to intervene.
The construction of the royal garden requires the dispatch of ministers to verify and explore, and then to draw funds through the appropriations of the ministry of households, and finally the ministers select specific craftsmen to build, Yu Junbi should know that he is in the list of undertakers.
Successively, various officials involved in the construction, such as the Ministry of Households, the Ministry of Works, and the Ministry of internal affairs, were redundant and redundant, and among the silver requirements for the budget of the upper statement, they usually exceeded 70%, and the excess part was filled with private pockets. Among them, the Ministry of the Interior is in charge of the daily needs of the entire royal family, and the transfer of money is handled by the Ministry of the Interior without supervision, which makes the officials more corrupt.
The huge appropriation of each construction of the imperial court, coupled with Yu Junbi's half-life in line with the Ministry of Works, almost participated in all the construction of the project, and the accumulation of his family property and wealth is said to be more than one million taels, which is the reason why this "poor stonemason" is not simple.
Second, the poor stonemason after his death
Although Yu Junbi's family is rich, it is a pity that he has no heirs to accompany him, but he has accepted a righteous son and a righteous daughter to make up for the most regrettable defects in his life. Because there are too many "children", after his death, the huge amount of property left behind is the meat residue in front of everyone, and all kinds of relatives and neighbors are coveting this wealth that can make them worry about food and clothing.
Before Yu Junbi's death, because the royal construction had to go through various departments, so he had been in contact with all kinds of high-ranking officials with heavy powers for many years, and he could walk under many familiar faces, which was the main reason for his mixed upheaval and stated that Quehe was the main reason.
Among the many people, a righteous son named Xu Bingyi stood out among the righteous sons and daughters and relatives. His uniqueness lies in the fact that he used the survival chain of years of interaction with Yu Junbi to seize assets, and the prelude to the funeral of Yu Junbi by hundreds of officials was also slowly opened.
Xu Bingyi was an extremely intelligent person, and used his connections to find Xu Wangyou, who was a high-ranking and powerful person at that time, who was a cabinet scholar and ceremonial attendant in the middle of the dynasty, which was also the most powerful official in Xu Bingyi's many relationship chains. After Xu Wangyou learned of his affairs, he attended Yu Junbi's funeral for reasons of interest.
Not only that, Xu Bingyi entrusted Xu Wang You to invite the military officials of the imperial Chinese to come to participate in the condolences, and at first the hundred officials were not ashamed, believing that this person was at most a royal craftsman, where could he undertake the funeral ceremony of the hundred officials. But Xu Wangyou's words hit the heart of the people: Whoever mourns will get one thousand two, two products will get eight hundred, and five products will get five hundred! As soon as these words came out, the court was overjoyed.
The hundred officials of the Wen and Wu Dynasties came to mourn, making Yu Junbi's funeral look extremely grand, and Xu Bingyi was also secretly rejoicing, because the invited imperial court officials arrived as many as possible, which made the righteous sons and daughters who competed with him extremely jealous, and at the same time full of doubts about the hidden forces behind them. The children and relatives were under pressure and angry with him, and thus completely lost the right to compete for property.
After the funeral, everyone left, and Xu Bingyi naturally took Yu Junbi's inheritance into his own pocket, which was extremely impressive for him, and for the ministers of the DPRK and China, they were also extremely happy, and did a thing to push the boat along the water. But the funeral of a stonemason is so magnificent that it has spread wantonly in the streets and alleys of beijing.
Third, the end of condolences
The Qianlong Emperor, after hearing the reason for the incident, became angry and ordered Eshan to go to the strict investigation. Eshan was a close confidant of the emperor with great prestige in the court, and having gained this trust, he immediately went to check it. However, he did not know that as early as after his appointment, he had already caused the wind to leak out and spread rapidly among the hundred officials.
The crowd was well aware of Eshan's actions, and before he came to Yu Junbi's home to check it, they withdrew or directly destroyed the prayer post of the day. After a moment of panic, the ministers thought that they were all right, but Eshan found the transaction records in Yu Junbi's home, and through various visits, investigated the time of the ministers' activities and the arrangement of the events, and he put the evidence on the table one by one.
Qianlong looked at the kneeling minister of the DPRK and was extremely disappointed in his heart, and a group of people with prominent official positions actually coveted gold, silver, and money to bow to a stonemason, which was really detrimental to the dignity of the court. But after all, there are a wide range of people involved, because the world still needs to employ people to work together, Qianlong also had to be hastily dropped, and the outside world is only called: The emperor is vast.
After thoroughly investigating this matter, Eshan received high praise from Qianlong and gave him various honors, during which time Qianlong also hoped that the hundred officials would take this as a warning and forge ahead toward eshan's upright, decisive, and loyal work attitude.
4. Summary
Everything was not qianlong's wish, and in the months after Yu Junbi's incident, a list of impeachment fell to Qianlong's case. The impeachment was directed at Eshan, and the song indicates that Eshan had accepted a bribe of silver in the funeral case of Yu Junbi, and for the Qianlong Emperor, this impeachment form was unbelievable to him, but after investigation and Eshan's personal confession, this fact was undeniablely determined.
Since then, Qianlong was devastated and gave death to Eshan, and the matter finally came to an end. In fact, Yu Junbi's death caused hundreds of officials to come to mourn, and the actual purpose of the courtiers was obvious, for money and assets, but this Manchu Dynasty civil and military strike to participate in the funeral was actually inseparable from Qianlong.
On the one hand, Qianlong's tolerance for corrupt officials also affected the atmosphere of the DPRK, especially the generosity of Hezhen, and directly stimulated other courtiers and officials. Most people's hearts are oriented toward the behavior attitude of "being an official for money", not just because of a storm caused by Yu Junbi's case.