When it comes to corrupt officials, especially the famous ones in history, He yan is definitely the first recommended by everyone. With only 20 years of political career, He yan accumulated property equivalent to the 15 years of fiscal revenue of the Qing government. Therefore, after Jiaqing came to power, it was the top priority to kill Hezhen. Because of this incident, the Jiaqing Emperor was able to establish his own small treasury. The wealth was so great that the emperor could envy it, which was enough to prove how serious the corruption of Hezhen was.
However, compared to another big corrupt official in history, He Yan can only be regarded as a small greed. Who is this man? His name is Wang Yi. In the four famous works of the mainland, "Water Margin", two traitors are mentioned, namely Gao Li and Cai Jing. And the giant greedy Wang Yi to talk about today was also one of the "Six Thieves of the Northern Song Dynasty" at that time, and it was as notorious as Cai Jing and Tong Guan. Next, let's look at how Wang Yi is greedy.
Wang Yi (王黼), originally known as Wang Fu (王甫), changed his name to Wang Fu (王黼) because his name was the same as that of a eunuch in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Wang Yi has a good eloquence from a young age, his brain is alive, although he does not have much knowledge, but his mouth is like oil, and he can say anything very smoothly, so that people can't find fault. During the Chongning period of the Song Dynasty, Wang Yi took the exam and passed the Jinshi examination, and at that time he served as the Commander of Xiangzhou and joined the army, and his job was to compile a book called "Nine Domains Tuzhi". Along with him was another colleague, He Zhi, who was in charge of the compilation work. He Zhi saw that Wang Yi was eloquent and talented, so he recommended Wang Yi to his father He Zhizhong.
With the help of He Zhizhong's recommendation, Wang Yi was able to rise step by step, and became Fu Baolang and Zuo Sizhi in the dynasty. Seeing that he already had a certain amount of real power, Wang Yi thought of trying to engage in official speculation. He saw that although Cai Jing was far away in Hangzhou, he was still favored by Emperor Huizong of Song, and in order to cater to Emperor Huizong of Song, he played to the emperor and greatly praised Cai Jing's political achievements in Yangzhou. He also discovered that the chancellor Zhang Shangying was alienated by Emperor Huizong of Song, so he took the lead in attacking Zhang Shangying in the middle of the dynasty. What is even more excessive, because Cai Jing and He Zhizhong are at odds, Wang Yi even fabricated 20 charges against his benefactor, just to please Cai Jing.
Although Wang Yi's slander against He Zhizhong did not confuse Emperor Huizong of Song in the end, his behavior of taking sides was still recognized by Cai Jing. After Cai Jing came to power, Wang Yi was promoted as he wished. Relying on his own faceless style, in just two years, Wang Yi jumped from a school scribe to a royal history. However, due to his close contact with Cai Jing's political enemy Zheng Juzhong, Wang Yi was later retaliated against by Cai Jing. It can be seen that "officialdom is like a battlefield" is true, and dogs bite dogs is not uncommon.
Later, Cai Jing resigned from the government and left the political arena. On the one hand, Wang Yi made superficial articles that conformed to the people's will, and openly opposed the various measures that Cai Jing had previously formulated, while on the other hand, he searched for gold, silver, and jade, and formed a party for personal gain. They even fabricated charges, slandered other officials, and exiled them to remote places, all in order to take other people's wives and concubines. In order to facilitate himself, Wang Yi also suggested to the emperor that the Ying Feng Bureau be established, with himself as the leader. Since all the money in the country is the reserve of the Ying Feng Bureau, in fact, it is equivalent to the national money can be used by him at will. In order to curry favor with Wang Yi, officials from all over the world looked for rare and precious treasures to pay tribute to Wang Yi. After the Wang Yi incident, Emperor Huizong of Song found that the treasure in his hand was only one-tenth of that of Wang Yi's mansion.
In addition to the Ying Feng Bureau, Wang Yi also set up economic care rooms in many places on the front line to be responsible for border affairs. He once ordered people to count the local population, collect taxes according to the number of people, and finally received 62 million taels of silver. In order to further please Emperor Huizong of Song, Wang Yi even bought five or six empty cities to pretend that he had won the battle in order to report victory to the emperor. Emperor Huizong of Song believed that it was true, thinking that the front line had been successful and successful, and was very happy, and also praised Wang Yi greatly. Even Wang Yi's carriages and horses, as well as the honor guards accompanying him, were raised to the same rank as the prince.
In order to show off the prosperity of the Song Dynasty, every time the Jurchen emissaries came to the capital of the country at that time, Wang Yi would greet them with delicious food and fun, and they would be extremely luxurious. It was precisely because of seeing the prosperity of Bieliang that Jurchen began to want to invade the Northern Song Dynasty. At that time, the social atmosphere of the entire Northern Song Dynasty was like this, and the DPRK and China were all such "talents", how could they not perish? When jin soldiers entered the capital, before the imperial court gave orders, Wang Yi ran away with his family. When Emperor Qinzong of Song saw what he was doing, he immediately demoted him and sent someone to raid his home. Just happened to meet Kaifeng Yin Nieshan, who had a vendetta against him, to take charge of this matter, and he deserved to have this robbery, Nie Shan took advantage of the case and sent someone to cut off his head.
There are many corrupt officials in history, and the discussion of corruption can be said to be unprecedented, and his fate is always a warning to future generations.