There were many great heroes in the ancient Chinese dynasties, who called the wind and rain in the court, and the emperors relied on them to control the court. There are many ministers with such achievements, and one thing they have in common is that they are very greedy. There was a big corrupt official in the Qing Dynasty, that is, He yan, who had coveted countless rare treasures during the decades of Qianlong's reign, and Qianlong did not dispose of him.
Qianlong was the oldest emperor of the Qing Dynasty, so his son was also forced to be a puppet of his father for many years, so after Qianlong's death, Jiaqing soon wanted to seize power, and Jiaqing's first step was to raid hezhen's home. It took fifteen years for Jiaqing to use up Heyan's property, but it was also at this time that Jiaqing realized why Qianlong had told him not to deal with Hezhen.
1. Corrupt officials and officials
Friends who have seen the iron tooth copper tooth Ji Xiaolan must be very familiar with the role of Hezhen, which successfully portrayed the role of Hezhen, a big corrupt official. The reason why He Yan was able to become such a corrupt official was because he was very highly valued during the Qianlong period, not only holding important positions such as the head of the cabinet at that time, so his role in the court could not be replaced.
It is precisely because his officials are getting bigger and bigger, and Qianlong trusts him more and more, so his desires are constantly expanding. Originally, as the first assistant of the Cabinet of the Qing Dynasty, his natural income would not be too bad, but he would never be satisfied with this, so he used his position to begin to use his power for personal gain, form a party for personal gain, and accumulate a large amount of money by buying and selling officials.
And buying and selling officials is only a small part of his business map, he is also involved in a lot of business fields, opened a lot of shops in the capital, in addition, there are many subordinates who need to seduce him, often send him some valuable treasures. In this way, he was involved in all aspects, so he also became the richest official in the Qianlong period.
Later, Qianlong gradually learned about Hezhen's corruption, because Hezhen became more and more bold, and did not take Qianlong in his eyes, and Qianlong did not punish Qianlong after he knew. Although Qianlong and Jiaqing both knew that Heyan was corrupt, no one knew how much money Hezhen had embezzled. Especially in the late Qianlong period, He Yan was even more rich, and his family was richer than the national treasury.
Qianlong was the longest-lived emperor of the Qing Dynasty, he lived longer than his sons, and in the end, because he did not want to exceed Kangxi's reign year, he took the initiative to take the throne and became the Emperor Taishang, allowing Jiaqing to succeed to the throne. But in fact, the power was still Qianlong, at this time Jiaqing and Qianlong gradually became suspicious, Jiaqing also began to cultivate his own henchmen, at this time only Hezhen was still standing by Qianlong's side.
Second, He Yan was raided
He Yan was particularly obedient to Qianlong, so Qianlong always turned a blind eye to He Yan, especially in the late Qianlong period, Qianlong needed He Yan to stabilize the court in order to hold the power in his own hands, so he told Jiaqing not to move He Yan. At this time, Qianlong, who was the Emperor Taishang, still had a certain weight in his speech, and Jiaqing could only listen to Qianlong's words.
However, once Qianlong died, Jiaqing would definitely take Hezhen to open the knife in order to consolidate his position, and sure enough, fifteen days after Qianlong's death, Jiaqing ordered he to be executed and confiscated Hezhen's family property. Jiaqing was already dissatisfied with Hezhen, and Qianlong also told him not to move Hezhen, so after Qianlong's death, Jiaqing was the first to rectify Hezhen.
Jiaqing knew that He yan was corrupt, but he did not expect that he was greedy for so much money, and after raiding the house, he was surprised by his family's property, at that time, the property of the He yan family was more than the entire national treasury, and all his property added up to a total of more than 800 million yuan. This is simply an astronomical number, even an emperor in Jiaqing has never seen so much money.
During Qianlong's reign, he went to Jiangnan many times, and each time he went down to Jiangnan, there would be a high pomp, so it also made the national treasury clumsy. However, Qianlong especially liked to go down to Jiangnan and wanted to see different Jiangnan women from the palace, so every time the treasury was empty, Qianlong would borrow money from officials and Yan, so the rest of the money left by Qianlong was still left after qianlong was often helped, which was really rich and invincible.
After Jiaqing finished copying Hezhen's home, he collected all the 800 million taels of gold back into the national treasury, originally thinking that this money would allow the Qing Dynasty to live a peaceful life, but he did not expect that these money from Hezhen would be spent by Jiaqing within fifteen years. There was enough money to support the national treasury, but Jiaqing would often be nervous about lack of money during his reign.
3. After he died
Before Jiaqing, Kangxi Yongzheng Qianlong was counted as a generation of Ming jun, and during their reign, at least the people did not worry about eating and wearing, and Yongzheng left Qianlong a lot of property. However, when it came to Jiaqing, the treasury was often empty, and even the raiders and the yan were difficult to solve the urgent need, which was mainly related to the anti-Qing movement.
After Jiaqing ascended to the throne, the court was very unstable, and after the execution of Hezhen, it was a very turbulent event for the imperial court. Therefore, at this time, a wave of opposition to the Qing Dynasty rose up in the folk, including many uprisings like the White Lotus Sect and the Tianli Sect. Jiaqing, on the other hand, had to go to great lengths to suppress these activities, which in turn required a lot of money.
After Jiaqing first came to power, he spent a lot of silver because of the suppression of many uprisings, and in some places because the war lasted for a long time, which also consumed the property of the national treasury even more. Jiaqing itself was not too much of a problem, but the problems accumulated by the previous emperors broke out during the Jiaqing years. If Jiaqing does not give death and death, I am afraid that Hezhen will still be able to support the emptiness of the national treasury.
Qianlong had previously told Jiaqing not to dispose of Hezhen at will, but after Qianlong's death, Jiaqing was anxious to consolidate his position and forgot Qianlong's words. If he didn't dispose of Hezhen, the cash cow of Heyan would definitely help him deal with the anti-Qing movement, and at this time Jiaqing remembered the benefits of Hezhen.
summary
Jiaqing was an upright emperor, and when he knew that Hezhen was corrupt and had embezzled so much, he made up his mind to rectify the corrupt atmosphere in the court. Because if such corruption is not dealt with, other officials will follow suit. This would cause corruption in the entire imperial court, but because Jiaqing handled it too quickly, it was not handled too well.
Although Jiaqing had the courage to change such a bad trend, he did not think of a longer-term direction, and qianlong naturally had other reasons for keeping Hezhen. After He yan's death, Jiaqing seemed to be a little weak in the face of their respective expenditures, and the 800 million taels left by Hezhen were naturally not enough for more than ten years.