Li Hongzhang is mostly called ''Li Zhongtang''' by people, and because he is the second, he is also called ''Mr. Li Er'' in the folk. However, in the eyes of historians of all generations, Li Hongzhang still has many controversies. Zeng Guofan thought that he was very enthusiastic about his career, and in some people, he thought that he was a big ship, that is to say, the Qing government where Li Hongzhang belonged was only a shallow river, because the water was too shallow and the ship was very large, so he could not sail arbitrarily, so the Qing government had no way to let him use his talents.
Sun Yat-sen believed that since Li Hongzhang took control of the government, he had been doing his best to assist the Qing government and win a lot of rights for the Qing government, thus eliminating many drawbacks, and when encountering difficulties and obstacles, he never shirked his responsibilities and always tried his best to fight for the interests of the country. Jiang Tingdian even gave Li Hongzhang a very high evaluation, believing that he was "the greatest politician in China in the 19th century".
However, in the folk, the evaluation of Li Hongzhang is not so high, and there is a voice that Li Hongzhang is a corrupt prime minister.
So, why is there such a sound coming out? Everything has to start from Li Hongzhang's wealth, how rich is Li Hongzhang, how much property does he have? Maybe even he himself is not clear. At that time, the people always believed that Li Hongzhang's net worth should be more than 10 million, and the 10 million here was not RMB, it was silver. When Liang Qichao, as an insider, wrote a biography for Li Hongzhang, he helped Li Hongzhang calculate his net worth.
He once said that at the time of Li Hongzhang's death, his family property had exceeded 10 million taels of silver, and the personal wealth he left to his descendants also exceeded 10 million taels of silver, and another insider said that when Li Hongzhang died, he left about 40 million taels of silver to his descendants.
Liang Qichao's "Biography of Li Hongzhang" said that Li Hongzhang's multi-million gold industries, most of which were China Merchants Bureau, Telegraph Bureau, Trade and Commerce Bank, etc., had a very large number of shares, and after adding these things together, the amount of what the two people said was actually almost the same.
In the last years of the Qing Dynasty, there was a rumor among the people that Li Hongzhang was the richest of all the heroes of the Qing Dynasty, and he added together the welfare of his family, even comparable to the treasury of the United States. Whether it is true as the folk rumors, then historians need to investigate. No, the Li family's family property is so large that it can be said that half of Anhui is the Li family's territory, and the Li family also owns half of Shanghai's Huashan Road, so it can be seen that the Li family is very rich. However, if Li Hongzhang only relies on his own salary, it is naturally impossible to accumulate so much wealth.
So where did his vast fortune come from? Some people have suggested that when Li Hongzhang signed the treaty with Tsarist Russia, he had accepted bribes from the Russian side, which could be about three million rubles, but there is no tangible evidence for this matter. And if these acts are true, then Li Hongzhang will not only have a charge of accepting bribes, but also a crime of betraying the state. And if Li Hongzhang really has these behaviors, he still can't explain the source of his assets, because these assets still far exceed the amount of bribes. Another point that has to be admitted is that Li Hongzhang will definitely have a charge of a huge amount of assets of unknown origin.
In the courtroom, some officials have been dismissed, and we can often hear about this crime, but everyone will wonder why even the state has no way to detect their source of funds. In fact, it is not that the state has not been detected, but because these materials involve some information within the government, it is not convenient to be made public. This, then, also represents that from the side, officials have been using their power to step on the gray area to make money and seek their own selfish power. Power is nothing more than the satisfaction of officials' greedy desires, which also reminds us that it is a terrible thing to do without doing anything in its position.
Speaking of gray income, we can understand Li Hongzhang's source of funds. Li Hongzhang was first the organizer of the Huai Army, and then he shouldered the position of Beiyang Minister and other positions, with great power. During the foreign affairs movement, Li Hongzhang did not plan for himself to do shares, and with the continuous development of these government-private joint ventures, the shares held by Li Hongzhang in his hands naturally rose in the water.
Moreover, when accepting these bribes, everything will be handled by subordinates, and he only needs to sit and wait for the income, so how much income can these things bring? In fact, we only need to look at what enterprises they are to know, you are a logistics enterprise such as the Steamship Merchants Bureau, as well as a resource development enterprise such as the Kaiping Coal Mine, which is very money-making, and it is difficult to rely on these industries to make money.
In the final analysis, Li Hongzhang can have the opportunity to circle so much money, but also thanks to his power, power within the empire, has a very magical gold-sucking effect. Some people say that Li Hongzhang is actually not greedy for money, but his sons will always use his power to seek private interests, so the people naturally count these bills on his head. From here, we can also know that if you are in a high position, restraining people close to you has also become a compulsory subject, and it is very important to cherish feathers.
Most of the people's evaluation of Li Hongzhang is still pejorative, and there is a pair of very famous couplets, saying Li Hongzhang
''The prime minister Hefei is thin in the world, and the si nong is often familiar with the world's wilderness
In the couplet, the word Hefei refers to Li Hongzhang as a Native of Hefei and holds heavy power, and the prime minister Hefei is also a litigation field theorem.
Then in order to avoid such a situation, it is necessary to establish a sound supervision system, which has always been a very critical issue for the country.