What is history: it is the echo of the past to the future, the reflection of the future on the past. - Hugo
One of the signs of the decline of any feudal unified dynasty is the collapse of the bureaucracy and corruption. In the last years of Qianlong, the corruption of the Qing Dynasty spread throughout the body like "cancer cells", but what was even more frightening was that the brain of the Body of the Qing Dynasty, the Qianlong Emperor, did not fully understand this.
Objectively speaking, in the first 40 years of Qianlong's reign, the officials of the Qing Dynasty were still relatively clear. Inheriting the achievements of the Yongzheng Emperor's thirteen years of severe anti-corruption, coupled with the qianlong emperor's strong enterprising spirit and "no sand in his eyes" anti-corruption determination in his youth, the Qing Dynasty officials ruled the Qingming Dynasty and achieved results that were rare in the feudal dynasty, which was the basis for the Qianlong Emperor to push the "Prosperous Era of Kangqian" to the peak. However, forty-five years after Qianlong, the level of official rule of the Qing Dynasty fell off a cliff, and by the time of Qianjia, the Qing Dynasty was even on the verge of "death".
Why, then, was the corruption problem of the Qing Dynasty so serious in the last years of Qianlong? The main problem was the Qianlong Emperor himself.
Due to the centralized ruling nature of the feudal dynasty, the emperor must become the only brain that governs the actions of the emperor, and the entire bureaucratic system is the nervous system governed by the brain. In his later years, the Qianlong Emperor, because he was satisfied, began to relax himself, and his desire for material enjoyment increased day by day, becoming an indispensable part of the daily life of the Qianlong Emperor.
In order to meet the growing demand for material desires, the Qianlong Emperor's favorite courtier, the ten thousand-year-old Hezhenhe Lord, invented the most notorious system of the Qing Dynasty, the "Silver of Guilt" system. The system, in short, is that officials who make mistakes can be exempted from a certain degree of punishment by handing in fines.
This part of the fine income did not need to go through the household department and was directly collected into the emperor's private treasury. The implementation of this system obviously satisfies the emperor personally and corrupts the imperial program, but the whole dynasty is happy to do so. It is precisely under the "brain" that the "nerves" of the body will immediately perceive and multiply the needs of the brain, and enjoy and laziness even more. While the brain and nerves are enjoying, they are actually draining their body's efforts a little bit. In a few years, he squeezed the originally strong body and squeezed the ground into bones.
Could it be that there were so many "nerves" in the Qing Dynasty that none of them fed back to the "brain" the signal of the deteriorating health of the "body"? You don't have to say that there is such an honest and loyal minister, his name is Yin Zhuangtu. Fifty-five years after Qianlong, Yin Zhuangtu reported on the fold that the whole country had suffered serious financial deficits due to the "silver for discussion of crimes" system, and should be banned immediately.
The old emperor's first reaction when he saw this letter was to disapprove. He believed that the whole empire, under its own conscientious rule, did not dare to say that there was no problem, but there was a "general financial crisis" and did not believe anything. Despite this, the old emperor still tried his best to maintain his demeanor, replying to Yin Zhuangtu: "Since Zhuangtu played for this purpose, he must have seen and heard it, and now he is really playing it." It still gave Yin Zhuangtu the opportunity to speak further.
If Yin Zhuangtu is an "old fritter" who understands the unspoken rules of the officialdom, he should be able to read a little disharmony from the emperor's reply; if Yin Zhuangtu is good at drilling camps, he can get some information from the emperor's close subjects through his relationship. However, Yin Zhuangtu, who was "one by one", still answered the emperor's question honestly. Yin Zhuangtu reported that these situations were what he saw and heard on the way back and forth to his hometown in Yunnan, and "half of the merchants sighed." However, due to the haste of the road and the fact that he did not have the right to investigate, he could not find the magistrates to check them one by one.
Finally, Yin Zhuangtu also said that if the emperor did not believe, he could send a reliable Manchurian minister to go with me to the local investigation, believing that once he investigated, it would be revealed.
If the Qianlong Emperor at this time was still the ambitious prince of his youth, he would certainly make an effective and reasonable response to the problems that Yin Zhuangtu had responded to in accordance with the principle of preventing microaggressions. However, the elderly Qianlong Emperor was already a dimwitted monarch immersed in overconfidence. In the face of Yin Zhuangtu's truthful feedback, the Qianlong Emperor actually trembled with anger and gave instructions next to the fold: "It seems that in this world, the people are overwhelmed." "This means that in the prosperous era of the Qing Dynasty, can there still be things that the people do not talk about!?" At this time, the Qianlong Emperor's blind self-confidence had reached its peak.
To this end, the old emperor issued a long edict. It is intended to show how diligently they are, how diligent they are and love the people, and how the people love and support themselves. It is intended to criticize insinuately and frame him for his poor political performance.
After such an operation, the old emperor still felt that he could not be convincing and could not block everyone's mouth. Therefore, the old emperor did not hesitate to reduce his stature, decided to make a bet with this honest man Yin Zhuangtu, and according to Yin Zhuangtu's request, he sent a manchurian close minister to the local inspection to see if the granary and finance of the Qing Dynasty were a mess. This unprecedented gambling game of the Qing Dynasty began.
Although the situation reported by Yin Zhuangtu is true, and even the real situation is worse than what Yin Zhuangtu reported, the actual result of the gamble is that Yin Zhuangtu is defeated, and the defeat is gray-headed and dirty, "convinced". Why is this ending? Because this gamble is simply played under extremely unfair rules.
First of all, before Yin Zhuangtu and others set off, the emperor had already informed the whole country of the departure time and walking route of the "inspection team". The implication is to make the relevant places prepare early. The magistrate who received the notice immediately took action and began to counterfeit. In fact, their means of counterfeiting are very common, that is, they put wooden boards on the bottom of the granary to create the illusion that the granary reserves are sufficient. If the inspection team is absolutely careful, it will not be difficult to find flaws, but this can only be a hypothesis.
Secondly, the Manchurian courtier sent by the Qianlong Emperor to inspect this time was Hubu Shilang Qingcheng. The reason why Qingcheng was chosen was mainly because Qingcheng was one of the wings of Hezhen. It is conceivable that Qingcheng would not do such a stupid thing as wielding a sword from the palace no matter what.
In addition, in order to vent his anger, the Qianlong Emperor specially decreed that yin Zhuangtu was self-requested and had nothing to do with this inspection, so he paid for all the expenses of his journey. Qing became Chincha, and all expenses were handled according to tolerances.
As for the results of the audit along the way, I don't think I need to say more.
Being targeted in this way, even if Yin Zhuangtu was Yumu's head, he could understand the emperor's true intentions. Therefore, everywhere he went along the way, Yin Zhuangtu wrote a detailed report on admitting his mistakes and repenting of his sins, asking the emperor to deal with himself as soon as possible, so as to free up time and resources to do things more beneficial to the country.
After receiving the inspection result report and Yin Zhuangtu's letter of repentance, the Qianlong Emperor was extremely pleased, and he once again proved to the world how great his ruling achievements were and how superb his skills in taming people were. Of course, the good image still had to be maintained to the end, and on the issue of how to deal with Yin Zhuangtu, the emperor finally turned a blind eye, only to depose Yin Zhuangtu from his official position, let him pack up his things and roll out of the capital, and return to his hometown in Yunnan to serve the old mother.
This was the final fate of this honest man who told the truth in the Qianlong Dynasty.
We might as well go back and sum up the profound lessons of this incident. In the last years of Qianlong, in the general environment of the government and the public, the honest man Yin Zhuangtu was indeed called a "strange flower". However, it was this "strange flower" that gave the Qianlong Emperor one last chance to correct his biggest ruling mistake.
If, at this time, the Qianlong Emperor could be a little more humble and lower the standard of maintaining his own face a little, it was not that he had no chance to reverse the decline of the Qing Dynasty. Unfortunately, the Qianlong Emperor, in his conceit, missed the last opportunity given by history.
The glory of the Qing Dynasty is really qianlong, and the defeat is also Qianlong!