A.D. 1781, the forty-sixth year of Qianlong, Beijing, the Forbidden City and the Heshen Mansion
On a cold winter day in the 46th year of Qianlong, the Forbidden City in the morning was shrouded in a faint layer of mist, through which the sun cast a warm light.
He Shen, the powerful minister who covered the sky with one hand, was reading the twists and turns of the affairs of the DPRK and China in his magnificent mansion. Despite the cold spring, He Shen's heart is warm, and his power and wealth are the envy of countless people in the capital.
But He Shen knew that all his achievements were based on maintaining a delicate relationship with Emperor Qianlong. Secretly accumulating wealth under the emperor's nose was an exciting and dangerous game for him.
The beauty he shows to the outside world is just a cover-up, and the real secret is hidden in his cunning and witty heart.
On this day, an ambitious petty official came to visit He Shen in an attempt to get a good job by bribing him. He brought with him a letter enclosed in a heavy gold package, which seemed ordinary, but it contained a mystery.
He Shen didn't accept it directly, he smiled and said to the petty official: "Gold and silver treasures are certainly attractive, but the emperor Shengming, as a minister, has a special status, and if such a move is revealed, it will undoubtedly be self-defeating. ”
He Shen came up with an ingenious plan that he had worked up day and night: "Latent Alchemy". He asked the petty officer to turn the gold to ashes and hide the ash powder in a delicate landscape painting.
The landscapes in the paintings are not only lifelike, but more importantly, each one contains the amount of gold dust in subtle differences. The petty official only needs to dedicate this painting to He Shen, and no matter how shrewd outsiders are, it is difficult for them to discover the secret from the surface.
So, at a banquet not long after, the petty official presented the landscape picture dipped in gold and gray powder to He Shen in the name of giving him a famous painting.
In order to hide his eyes, He Shen hung it in a prominent position in the hall of the mansion, but in fact, he had secretly recovered the gold and turned it into a more secret asset.
This latent alchemy was so ingenious and stealthy that even Emperor Qianlong could hardly detect it. In this way, the act of accepting bribes was carried out blatantly and unconsciously under the emperor's nose.
He Shen went one step further, and he began to keep the treasures sent from all over the world hidden in mysteries, a piece of jade hidden in money, and a roll of silk contained precious stones.
He elevated his bribes to the level of art, and the way he hid them was so vivid that it was difficult for even the emperor's ministers to reach his secrets.
Although the emperor often sent eunuchs to order searches, each time nothing was found. He Shen's secret was not revealed until his death, and the shadow of his corruption covered every corner of the court, but it followed him like a shadow, and no one could find his shape.
Emperor Qianlong was full of doubts about Heshen but helpless, until Heshen's death, today and night, people have never been able to solve Heshen's money game, not only his glory story in the court, but also his secret power and greed.
And Heshen's latent alchemy, as a symbol of his wisdom, is more like another satire of that era. In the deep shadows of the Forbidden City, the eternal past of power and desire is told.
He Shen was finally executed by Emperor Qianlong for corruption, and his latent alchemy could not be hidden for a lifetime. But in any case, this ingenious method of receiving gifts and his seemingly bright power game have been talked about by later generations and have become one of the eternal issues in the history of the Qing Dynasty.