As long as the corrupt officials of the Qing Dynasty are mentioned, the first thing that comes to everyone's mind is definitely Hezhen. Indeed, during his tenure as an official, he used his own identity and the emperor's favor for himself, and he did not know how many lacking moral deeds he had done.
However, this immoral ghost is not without no benefits, although he is greedy, but he knows what kind of money can be greedy, and what kind of death can not be greedy. It was precisely because he was smart enough that the money that should not be moved was resolutely not moved, so Qianlong knew that he was a big moth, or he would not die.
Also during the Qianlong period, the Qing Dynasty also had a corruption case that caused Qianlong a headache. For the sake of this corruption case, Qianlong had no choice but to amend the state law twice. Who in the end was so bullish that he even asked Qianlong to revise the law for him?
Image: Stills of Qianlong's headache
Since Kangxi created a prosperous world, his sons and grandsons have continued to work hard, further strengthening the strength of the Qing Dynasty. After the country became stronger, those moths also began to stir. No emperor dared to guarantee that his country was all clean officials, as long as the circumstances were not serious.
However, just when Qianlong was extremely proud of the country he governed, Gansu broke out the "Gansu Maozhen Case". Speaking of which, the protagonist of the crime, Wang Qiwang, is only a small role, and the silver he embezzled is not very much.
The problem is that Wang Qi's lack of greed does not mean that the losses of the imperial court are not large.
At that time, the people involved in the case ranged from the governor to the small county order, and the total number of people was 113, and the total amount involved in the case reached more than 2.8 million taels of silver. The scope of this case can be said to be the most extensive since Qianlong took over.
Other officials embezzle only accept silver from lower-level officials, or secretly do illegal business. However, this case involved several major provinces such as Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Yunnan.
Image: Stills of the huge amount of silver involved
Under the leadership of Wang Qiwang, these local officials, in the name of disaster relief as a whole, converted the prison grain into silver and then embezzled it.
When Qianlong learned that such a big case had occurred in the country under his rule, he was astonished, he always thought that the country under his rule was prosperous, but he did not want such an unbelievable thing to happen.
As a key figure in the case, Wang Qiwang's family is the least short of money, and his father is Wang Shi, the inspector of Jiangnan. Wang Shi was a well-known Qing official in the dynasty, and he was also a very rich Qing official.
He felt that his son did not have much ability, and if he went to the scientific expedition, he would not necessarily succeed. Therefore, he simply paid for his son to donate an official.
It was precisely because of this operation of Wang Shi that Wang Qiwang directly became an official. In fact, Wang Qiwang's mind is still very flexible, and his father spent money to donate officials to him, and he tried to find a way to earn it back.
Photo: Stills of local officials listening to Wang's leadership
Since he was transferred to Gansu, he has engaged in "donating money to prison and taking out aid." At that time, the country's grain harvest was not ideal, and in order to solve the grain problem, the state exchanged grain donations for the qualification of invigilators.
Wang Qiwang went to this piece, he first converted the grain into silver, and directly auctioned the quota of prisoners. After he received the silver, he told the imperial court that the grain had been relieved.
Although Qianlong wanted to be a Ming Jun, he was far away in the capital, and Wang Qiwang was in Gansu, so far apart, no matter what Wang Qiwang did, the emperor did not know. Moreover, Wang Qiwang did not steal the embezzled silver alone, but divided most of it, leaving only one for himself.
It can be said that all the officials serving in Gansu were bound by his interests, and as for Wang Qiwang's subordinates, in order to get better resources, they would only continue to "honor" this adult, how could it be difficult for Wang Qiwang to do it?
Image: An official serving in Gansu is tied up with stills by Wang Qianwang with interests
All this was so perfect that the emperor not only did not know the abomination of Wang Qiwang, but instead promoted Wang Qiwang's official position to inspector. However, what was done always left a trace, and this matter was discovered by the emperor.
The reason why the Gansu case was discovered was not because it was reported, but because officials in the Zhejiang area were impeached for cheating. Shortly after the Zhejiang case, the emperor became suspicious of the news that there was no drought in Gansu.
After the emperor became suspicious, he immediately sent officials to interrogate Wang Qiwang, and only then did he know that this person was so bad. The reason why he valued Wang Qiwang so much was first because Wang Qiwang's father was a highly respected Qing official, and he felt that the descendants of Qing Guan should also be clean and honest.
Second, Wang Qiwang was also an official of the imperial court, and no matter what, he should be given the opportunity to show himself, but he did not want Wang Qiwang's boldness to be so big.
Photo: Stills of the corrupt official Wang Qiwang
The thinking of the officials is very funny, they think that their bloodline is very noble, but their sons are always unable to read. Because too many nobles were worried that their descendants would be squeezed out by other students, they came up with a policy of "donating prisons" during the Shunzhi period.
The more grain he donated, the more he could skip the ranks, and it was because his father donated a lot of grain that Wang Qiwang skipped the scientific expedition and directly became an official.
Unfortunately, this policy was very flawed when it was implemented, and officials and merchants felt that it was too troublesome to donate grain, so they simply converted it into silver, and as a result, the emperor's plan to exchange his qualifications as a prisoner for food reserves failed.
Moreover, if the official spends money to buy an official, he will earn more after becoming an official. Qianlong vaguely thought that something was wrong, so he canceled this system.
Image: Converted into silver stills
However, the direct cancellation is very unfavorable to Gansu, because Gansu is in drought all year round, and once the state has no grain reserves, there may be accidents at any time. As a result, officials in Gansu asked the emperor to restore the system of donations and prisons. After consultation, the emperor agreed that the Gansu region could continue to donate to prison.
However, the emperor also had the conditions, and could only use grain, not silver instead.
No one expected that after Wang Qi arrived in Gansu, he would have the courage to pull the entire Gansu officials to his own thief ship. Whether it is a good thing or a bad thing, everyone does it together, and everyone shares the good results together, and the bad ones share together.
In order to make their corrupt operations more convenient, Wang Qiwang also formulated a system in Gansu: all officials set up offices within their jurisdiction, and as soon as they encountered the need for money, they would immediately contact everyone to facilitate the delivery of money.
Photo: Stills of officials in Gansu dividing up silver
In this way, Wang Qiwang lived a leisurely life far away from the imperial city. After Wang Qiwang had served for half a year, he reported to the imperial court that nearly 20,000 people had donated to prison and received 800,000 stones of grain.
Two years later, Wang Qiwang reported again, and the number of people donating to prison rose to 150,000, and he received six million stones of grain. The emperor saw him as capable, so he promoted him to inspector.
According to the law of the time, anyone who embezzled one thousand taels was punishable by death. However, in this way, officials throughout Gansu had to be sentenced to death. To this end, Qianlong had no choice but to change one thousand to ten thousand.
Image: Stills of Wang Qiwang being beheaded
But he found that even so, most of the officials would have to die. He had no choice but to amend the law again, changing the 10,000 taels to 20,000 taels, and proposing that those who had received commendations from the imperial court could also be exempted from the death penalty.
Under Qianlong's repeated changes, only fifty-two people were finally sentenced to death.
Therefore, although Wang Qiwang did not embezzle much, he was implicated in a large number of people, and he had to let Qianlong revise the law twice!
Article author: Dahui
The entire graphic was produced by the team of the Big Cafe Say History Studio!