Preface
From ancient times to the present, honesty has always been the original intention of many officials, but many people can't resist the temptation and can't keep their original intention after they really become officials.
In the Qing Dynasty, there was such an official named Yan Botao, the Yan family has been honest and honest for several generations, and Yan Botao has also been educated to be a good and honest official since he was a child.
Yan Botao became an official when he grew up, and he was also a clean official at the beginning, but when he returned to his hometown after dismissal, he returned to his hometown with 3,000 followers.
Seeing his behavior, many people suspected that his previous incorruptibility was pretended, and some people felt that he had ruined the reputation of their Yan family for several generations as officials and incorruptible.
So, why did he change his temperament after his dismissal after receiving a good education since he was a child and was a good official in the eyes of the people when he was an official? Or is the image of incorruptibility always a disguise for him?
dismissed the officials, but returned to his hometown with a high-profile retinue of 3,000
In 1840, after Yan Botao was dismissed, he could only choose to return to his hometown. We often see in TV dramas that many officials have returned to their hometowns in misery after being dismissed.
I thought that Yan Botao would also be such a plot, but what I didn't expect was that it was very different, Yan Botao took three thousand followers with him when he left, and embarked on the road home, this kind of pomp is no different from returning to his hometown.
According to records, on the way back to his hometown, Yan Botao changed his previous incorruptible appearance, was extravagant and wasteful, and was very high-profile.
Those entourages who followed Yan Botao back to their hometowns ate and drank along the way, singing and singing night after night. So, where did Yan Botao get so much money to entertain these people?
During Yan Botao's official period, no one heard of him being corrupt and accepting bribes, and it was impossible for him to have so much money to invite so many entourages to dinner.
Later, after investigation, it was found that Yan Botao's expenses for eating and drinking during this trip were not paid by him, but embezzled the public funds of the county at that time for eating and drinking.
Therefore, on the way back to his hometown, Yan Botao would stop to eat and drink every time he passed through a county, and used his official position to eat and drink for nothing.
At that time, Yan Botao had to pass through a place called Zhangxian, which was originally a poor county and had no income, so when he heard about Yan Botao's behavior all the way, the county order of this county began to be afraid before Yan Botao arrived.
There is an old saying in the mainland called "what you are afraid of", the county commander of Zhangxian County just prayed that Yan Botao would not stop when he passed through his own county, and Yan Botao really came.
In the name of it, they are tired from rushing here, and they hope to be able to rest here, but the subtext is to rest here and at the same time, let the county magistrate of this county entertain their group.
But the county order of Zhangxian County did not welcome Yan Botao's arrival, his county was already poor, if he entertained Yan Botao and his party again, would he still be alive, and the people would not be alive?
But Yan Botao didn't care about these at all, he only knew that according to his identity and the forces behind him, as long as he wanted to stop, no one could refuse.
The fact is really like this, no matter how unwilling the county magistrate of Zhangxian is, he has to receive him, otherwise one day Yan Botao's forces will find him, it will be really troublesome.
In this way, Yan Botao stayed in Zhangxian County, and in order to prevent Yan Botao from wearing small shoes after his comeback again, the county magistrate also sent his own close official Zhang Jixin to receive him.
But this time the greeting was not to entertain them well, but to let Zhang Jixin find a way to let Yan Botao and his party leave here without stopping.
Zhang Jixin also felt very difficult when he received this task, after all, no one dared to blatantly refuse to entertain Yan Botao along the way, what should he do to avoid being embarrassed by both sides?
The next day, Zhang Jixin saw a group of people in the distance from a distance, Zhang Jixin thought that this was Yan Botao's team returning to his hometown!
Although I had heard of the strength of Yan Botao's homecoming team before, I was still shocked by the scene in front of me when I really saw it.
Zhang Jixin met Yan Botao in a proper manner after meeting him, and he didn't know how to mention the matter of the county order for a while.
Zhang Jixin thought for a long time before saying that he was afraid that Yan Botao and his party would stay for too long, resulting in the loss of luggage and belongings, but what he didn't expect was that Yan Botao ignored him, and only said that his wife was uncomfortable and needed to stop and rest.
Yan Botao said so, Zhang Jixin couldn't open his mouth directly to drive people away, not to mention that he was just a small sesame official, and he didn't dare to open his mouth to offend Yan Botao, although Yan Botao was dismissed at this time, but the forces behind him were also something he couldn't afford to provoke as a small official.
In this way, Yan Botao and his entourage stayed in Zhangxian County to rest, and Zhang Jixin could only entertain him with delicious food and drink, but the county order sent someone to tell Zhang Jixin not to forget what he had explained.
At this point, Zhang Jixin had to find a way to let Yan Botao and his party leave, but what he didn't expect was that Zhang Jixin came to the place where Yan Botao lived on this day, and Yan Botao took the lead in saying words of thanks, and said that he would repay this kindness in the future.
Zhang Jixin looked at Yan Botao, who was eating big fish and meat while saying words of thanks to herself, and she didn't know whether to believe it or not for a while.
What Zhang Jixin didn't know was that Yan Botao at this time was no longer the honest person in everyone's mouth, but a person who only knew how to lie and eat, drink and have fun.
In the end, Yan Botao and his entourage still left Zhangxian County, but during this period of time in Zhangxian County, the daily consumption of food and drink came from Zhangxian County's public funds, and according to the data, there were more than 400 tables of banquets alone, which shows the degree of extravagance.
After they left, Zhangxian's public funds had been emptied, even to the point of making ends meet, but they were still stupidly waiting for the day when Yan Botao would come back to help them.
All this happened after Yan Botao was dismissed, before Yan Botao has always had a reputation for being honest and honest, so why was he dismissed if he was honest and honest?
The reason why Yan Botao was dismissed
In fact, Yan Botao's dismissal was not because of corruption, but because he was dismissed after the defeat in the Battle of Xiamen.
Prior to this, Yan Botao was the governor of Yunnan, to be precise, Yan Botao's previous generations of Yan family members were all officials in the Yunnan-Guizhou area.
However, in the twentieth year of Daoguang, Yan Botao was promoted to the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, because Xiamen was facing the invasion of the British army at this time.
Therefore, Yan Botao immediately rushed from Yunnan to Fujian and Zhejiang after receiving the notice of his appointment, and after arriving, Yan Botao also carefully understood the local situation, and carefully planned and prepared for war.
Under Yan Botao's understanding, he found many problems, such as the shortage of soldiers and horses in the local area, and the war funds could not support such a war.
After understanding the situation, Yan Botao began to solve the problem, first of all, Yan Botao began to recruit talented people and began to recruit troops.
Although the previous governor also left him a lot of soldiers and horses, these soldiers and horses were not effectively trained and could not resist the British army at all, so they could only recruit troops as soon as possible.
According to historical records, after Yan Botao arrived in Fujian, he began this matter, and in a short period of time, he recruited 8,000 soldiers and horses to resist the enemy.
In addition to recruiting troops, Yan Botao began to raise military expenses, and only enough money as support could withstand the invasion of the British army.
Soon after, however, Emperor Daoguang issued a directive asking the governors of the provinces to reduce the salaries of the army and save money. However, in the face of Emperor Daoguang's order, Yan Botao turned a deaf ear.
In Yan Botao's view, once the army's expenses were reduced, the war would be a heavy loss, so he not only did not reduce the soldiers' salaries, but also increased a lot on the original basis.
After making these most basic preparations, Yan Botao began to lead his soldiers to build forts and fortifications. As we all know, forts were particularly important in ancient wars, so Yan Botao invested a lot of energy and money in building forts.
According to records, Yan Botao basically built forts in Xiamen, just to be able to withstand the attack of the British army. Unexpectedly, after the Qing army was replaced, the British army also changed people, and they conducted a special study on the terrain of Xiamen, so as to launch an attack on Xiamen at any time.
Yan Botao knew that this battle with the British army was inevitable, but he did not expect it to come so quickly, and in June 1941, the British army began to attack Xiamen.
According to records, the British army was very familiar with the deployment of Xiamen in this battle, and the first artillery was aimed at the forts built by Yan Botao, and not long after Yan Botao ordered a counterattack, our army could not resist.
Seeing that the British army was about to land on the shore, Yan Botao immediately led the team to retreat again and again, and finally Yan Botao retreated to Tong'an, and it was only at this time that Yan Botao received an order from Emperor Daoguang to recover Xiamen.
The solution that Yan Botao could come up with at this moment was to ask the emperor for silver support, and at the same time began to constantly recruit troops, but he didn't dare to fight back for a while.
However, Yan Botao was lucky, after the British captured Xiamen, only a small number of troops were left to garrison, and the rest continued to go north, which gave Yan Botao a chance.
After the British army left, Yan Botao returned to Xiamen with the army, and it was the British army that automatically withdrew to give him this opportunity, but what he didn't expect was that Yan Botao shamelessly told Emperor Daoguang that he had recruited troops and killed them to scare the British army away, which can be described as opening his eyes and telling nonsense.
However, although Yan Botao was lucky to pick up Xiamen this time, he was still dismissed because of his previous failures, so he had all kinds of things on the way back to his hometown.
It stands to reason that the Yan family has been honest and honest for several generations, Yan Botao shouldn't do such a thing, how did he become like this step by step?
The Evolution of Honest Officials
Born in a bureaucratic family, Yan Botao was well influenced by his grandfather and father since he was a child, and he was even more upright in terms of conduct.
During the Jiaqing period, Yan Botao tried to enter the second class, and finally embarked on his own career, at this time Yan Botao was still a newcomer who had just entered the officialdom.
Once, Yan Botao went to visit his father Yan Zhu, but he didn't expect his father to take out his grandfather's official book and say to Yan Botao: "You have now entered the officialdom, and your future is unpredictable, but you must remember the guidelines of public officials." ”
After finishing speaking, Yan Botao's father handed him the rubbing, which recorded the standards and experiences of their officials for several generations.
Yan Botao solemnly took over this rubbing, and treasured this rubbing in his study, and took it out from time to time to take a look.
Not only that, in the second year of Daoguang, Yan Botao also wrote a long article about his experience from reading rubbing, and sent it to Zhang Aitao, the prefect of Chang'an, asking him to help him carve the inscription, so as to encourage himself and strive to be a good official.
What people never thought was that such a person would become a villain who lied and was selfish.
Someone once analyzed Yan Botao like this, maybe when he took over the rubbing, he also thought that he must be a parent official who is honest and honest for the people in this life.
When he asked someone to engrave the inscription, he also thought about using these words to motivate himself, so that he could go further and further on the road of being honest and honest.
It's just that he didn't expect that he still couldn't hold it in the face of the temptation of officialdom, and he still hesitated in the face of bribes from gold and silver treasures.
Maybe he struggled with this during this period, but later he couldn't resist this temptation, and since then he has embarked on the road of corruption, bribery, eating, drinking, and pleasure.
What Yan Botao did during the journey back to his hometown after his resignation shocked many people, but they did not expect that he would also embark on this road when he was born in a clean and honest bureaucratic family.
Even many people don't want to believe that Yan Botao is really such a person, so they will go to his heart's content to eat, drink and have fun, and blindly please him.
But how could a person who is truly an honest official be so high-profile on the way back to his hometown, how could he accept public funds to eat, drink and have fun, and accept some curry favor that he knew was bribery?
The world is a mixed place, and officialdom is a big dye vat, but in this big dye vat, some people can get out of the mud without staining, and some people can't keep their hearts.
epilogue
In Yan Botao's career as an official, the ambitions he began were real, and he had really done some things for the country and the people.
It's a pity that in the end, he still failed to keep his original intention, and his career as an official was stained, and the "public honesty theory" he once wrote became a joke.
Yan Botao could have been an honest and fair official for the rest of his life like his grandfather and father, but he was not able to withstand the temptation of officialdom, but he didn't expect that in the end, not only would his old age not be guaranteed, but even his Yan family's reputation for being honest and honest for generations would be ruined.
come from
[1] Yan Botao's "Red Hijab", Xu Tinghua, The Masses, 2017, 10
[2] Local Governors and the Opium War--A Discussion Centered on Yan Botao, Dai Xiang, Theory Monthly, No. 10, 2015
[3] The Struggle of the Military and Civilians in Haicheng in the Opium War, Du Xiaosong, Popular Literature and Art, 2021, Issue 02
[4] Yan Botao is ashamed to "say that the public is honest", Li Jikui, in the same boat, 2007, 05