On the sixth day of October in the 11th year of Xianfeng (1861), a heavyweight prisoner was ushered in at the entrance of the Caishikou in the west market of the capital.
Saying that he is a heavyweight, on the one hand, this prisoner is obese, far surpassing other emaciated prisoners, and on the other hand, this prisoner's status is high, after all, a few days ago he was the head of the ministers appointed by Emperor Xianfeng of Daxing, but in just a few days, he was reduced to a prisoner.
Listen to politics
Not only that, but he is also the sixth son of Prince Zheng Wu Ergonga, a proper member of the royal family.
The royal family was beheaded at the entrance of the vegetable market, which was the first time in the Qing Dynasty in 200 years, and it attracted countless people to watch.
When the prisoner cart passed through the streets of Luomashi, a group of children kept cheering: "Sushun also has today!" ”
It turned out that this prisoner was the famous Su Shun.
Because Su Shun had offended too many people before, many people took the opportunity to pick up the rubble and throw it at him, but Su Shun didn't care, and scolded the Queen Mother of the Two Palaces and Prince Gong along the way.
When it was time for the execution, Su Shun insisted on not kneeling, and the angry prisoner Rui Prince Renshou and the right attendant of the criminal department ordered the executioner to break his legs with a large iron handle, forcing him to kneel, and then beheading.
And Su Shun became the only member of the royal family to be beheaded in the three hundred years of the Qing Dynasty, to be honest, even if someone rebelled, there was no such end, which shows how much he is hated.
Later generations said that it was because Su Shun offended Cixi too hard that he had such an encounter, but Cixi alone could not bring down Su Shun and other eight ministers, in other words, there were more people who wanted Su Shun to die.
Ma Jingtao's version of Su Shun
So the question is, what did Su Shun do?
As mentioned earlier, Su Shun is a member of the line of Prince Zheng, the king of the iron hat, and the ancestor is Nurhachi's younger brother Shuerhaqi, and in this generation, the title is inherited by his elder brother Duanhua, and he can only find another way.
Since the mother is just a concubine, according to the regulations, the son of the prince's concubine can be named a third-class auxiliary general, but he needs to be at a certain age to be able to take the examination.
When he was fighting on the streets of the capital, Su Shun witnessed the decay and decline of the children of the Eight Banners, and at the same time had different opinions and opinions on the current situation, but at this time he was just a guard, and his words were light, and he was useless to the country, so he could only bury these thoughts in his heart.
In the sixteenth year of Daoguang (1836), Su Shun reached the age of twenty and obtained the title of third-class auxiliary general through the examination, but he never entered the core of power until Xianfeng succeeded to the throne.
As soon as Xianfeng ascended the throne, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement broke out, which made Xianfeng anxious.
Emperor Xianfeng
Xianfeng has always trusted and relied on his teacher Du Shoutian, but with the death of Du Shoutian, Xianfeng felt that there was no one around, although there was his uncle Huijun Wang Mianyu and Prince Gong Yi by his side, but Mianyu was greedy and afraid of things, and Yi Yi was suspicious of Xianfeng and could not be reused, so he could only rely on Prince Yi Zaiyuan and Prince Zheng Duanhua.
It's a pity that Zaiyuan and Duanhua are also people who don't have much talent and courage, and in order to deal with Xianfeng, they recommended Su Shun, who has a lot of views on the government.
In this way, Su Shun entered Xianfeng's eyes, and when Xianfeng was played, Su Shun knew everything and said everything, which made Xianfeng's eyes light up.
After all, the Manchu Dynasty is civil and military, and now they will only observe words and feelings, or see the wind and rudder, so that Xianfeng will not be interested in the slightest.
What's even more rare is that Su Shun has a lot of insight into the affairs of the imperial court, and so far, Su Shun has soared into the sky and become Xianfeng's henchman.
When Su Shun came to power, he began to implement a completely different policy strategy from the past, that is, to reuse Hanchen.
The Qing Dynasty was a dynasty established by the Manchus, and naturally respected the Manchus, but in order to win over the Han bureaucrats, there was also a place for the Han people in the six departments, but there was a huge gap in the status of the two sides.
According to the records of the "Great Qing Huidian", the Yamen Hall of various ministries and institutes ordered the Manchurian palm seal, and it can be said that from the very beginning, the Qing Dynasty was dominated by Manchu officials, and it was impossible for Han officials to hold much power.
Even though Yongzheng reused many Hanchens, after Qianlong ascended the throne, he adhered to the idea of "Chongman" and returned to the era when Manchu officials were dominant.
If the Manchu officials are talented, it will be forgotten, but after two hundred years in the customs, the children of the Eight Banners are completely rotten, and the Eight Banners Army and the Green Battalion, which have been relying on them, have been defeated in front of the Taiping Army, and if they do not think about change, the Qing Dynasty will only lose faster.
Su Shun saw this very clearly, although he was a Manchurian, he believed that the era of heavy Manchu and Han suppression had passed, and now a change had to be made.
For this reason, after Su Shun took power, he vigorously promoted Hanchen and recruited many Han talents, such as Chen Fuen and Huang Zongyuan, and promoted Hanchen such as Zeng Guofan, Hu Linyi, Zuo Zongtang, and Guo Songtao, among them, Zuo Zongtang, who was almost killed, these people became the elite of the late Qing Dynasty political arena, and they also saw that Su Shun's vision of people was really accurate.
These people all became the elite of the late Qing political arena
But to promote the Han people, you have to give up a large number of positions of real power, Su Shun is so important to the Han, it will inevitably infringe on the interests of the Eight Banners magnates, and will inevitably oppose it vigorously, but Su Shun is under pressure to reuse, and it also makes a group of magnates stare dryly.
In addition to reusing Hanchen, Su Shun tried his best to suppress the banner people, believing that the banner people were all moths, and they were all unlearned and unskilled children, who could not succeed, but became a burden to the imperial court.
For this reason, Su Shun asked Xianfeng to reduce the salary of the banner people, reduce the preferential treatment policy of the banner people in the imperial court, and even allow the flag people to go out to fend for themselves, and even did not hesitate to pay out of their own pockets to run a school, set up a flag school, and let the children at the bottom of the banner people go to school to cultivate talents.
It's not that Su Shun hates the Manchurians, it's purely angry that they can't fight, after all, the Eight Banners have been in the customs for so many years, and the horseback archery skills have long been abandoned, and now they will only linger in the teahouse and walk the birds, doing nothing all day long, and Su Shun hates them for not being able to contribute to the country.
It's a pity that Xianfeng didn't dare to agree to this proposal, after all, the Eight Banners are the basic plate of his own rule, and he doesn't want his basic plate, can this throne still sit firmly?
But the Eight Banners still have to be beaten and beaten, since the flag people as a whole cannot be moved, then they can only rectify the officialdom, so as to crack down on these conservatives, to be honest, with the habits of officialdom today, Su Shun is a grasp of a quasi, the first thing to start is the scientific examination.
Scientific research fraud is not uncommon, and in the Xianfeng period, scientific research fraud has become a transmission point of interests, so that the public is not ashamed.
Fraud in scientific research is not uncommon
In this way, the scientific examination that originally selected officials made some ordinary children with real talents and real learning fail to make the list, but a group of uneducated and unskilled children were able to go to high school, and the officials who were selected in this way will form nepotism with each other and continue to be corrupt.
Because of this, the originally fair and just scientific expedition has lost the hearts of the people in front of the world's scholars.
In the eighth year of Xianfeng (1858), another year of the imperial examination, Su Shun was determined to reverse the corruption in the scientific field, and after Su Shun's investigation, he soon caught a fraudster.
This person's name is Pingling, he is full of white flags, and he is a person who loves to watch dramas but does not learn or have no skills, but he ranked seventh in the middle and high school of Shuntianfu Township, and there is obviously a shady scene.
After careful investigation, Su Shun found that the "ink scroll" written by Ping Ling himself had no logic at all, and he wrote it blindly, while the "Zhu Scroll" transcribed by professionals was first-class, and the two volumes did not match at all.
Vermilion rolls
With the in-depth investigation of the case, Ping Ling suddenly died violently in prison, and Zou Shilin, one of the invigilators, chose to voluntarily surrender.
But Su Shun insisted on continuing the investigation, and finally caught a lot of fraudulent exam papers, and finally involved a large number of officials, including the chief examiner Bai Ye this time.
Bai Ye is a Mongolian from the Zhenglan Banner, and he is also a scholar of Wenyuan Pavilion and the Minister of Military Aircraft, and he is the same prime minister, he did not take bribes, but he turned a blind eye to these things for the sake of face, and as a result, he caused big trouble.
For Bai Ye, Xianfeng also wanted to dismiss him, but Su Shun refused, insisting on beheading Bai Ye, this is a banner man and a big man, this knife is not easy to play.
However, Su Shun insisted on demanding severe punishment, and finally confessed to beheading five officials, including Bai Ye, and more than 90 officials were implicated.
Although Su Shun's move was suspected of attacking political opponents, it allowed the Qing Dynasty to gain a lot of popular support, especially scholars from powerless and small landlord families.
Severely punish the fraud in scientific examinations, in their eyes, the emperor is still sage, and the Qing Dynasty can still be saved, which also makes the Qing Dynasty, which was discredited in the Opium War and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, gain a certain amount of popular support again.
But relying on scientific research to cheat and dignitaries is not happy, especially the elites of the Eight Banners.
They originally relied on scientific research fraud to send their uneducated children into the officialdom, and when these people enter the officialdom, they will inevitably be grateful to themselves, and then act as their own minions, killing multiple birds with one stone, but unfortunately this road was cut off by Su Shun.
But as soon as the scientific expedition fraud ended, Su Shun ignited another fire: the Hubu treasure money case.
Previously, in order to suppress the Taiping Army, Xianfeng ordered the establishment of a treasure banknote office and issued a large number of treasure banknotes to alleviate the money crisis.
Xianfeng treasure banknote
However, there are more and more places where money is being used, and the household departments inevitably begin to distribute money indiscriminately, so that prices are soaring and the people are miserable; at this time, officials and businessmen have taken the opportunity to collude, embezzle, embezzle, and refuse to accept and buy money, so as to make huge profits and transfer the evil consequences of soaring prices to the people.
Under the long-term indiscriminate issuance and collusion between officials and businessmen, the people have not even been able to eat a full meal with the money they make every day, and the indiscriminate issuance of treasure money has reached the point where it has to be solved.
Previously, the head of the household was Bai Ye, but now that Bai Ye is dead, Su Shun served as the head of the household department, determined to rectify the financial accumulation.
As soon as he arrived, he checked the accounts, which naturally could not be correct, and soon a fire broke out in the manuscript library of the household department, burning more than 200 houses, and almost all the records were destroyed, and there was no way to investigate.
I thought that Su Shun would give up, but Su Shun was determined to investigate thoroughly, whether it was a member of the household department or a merchant, or even a clan, they all did not let go, and arrested hundreds of people before and after, even the eunuch Meng Laixi of Prince Gong's Mansion was involved in the case, and Su Shun did not give Yi Tong any face, and Yi Yi had a grudge with Su Shun.
Kun-hsien
But Su Shun didn't care about it at all, but continued to take the Eight Banners powerful people, such as the patriarch of the Three Dynasties, Qiying.
Qi Ying was a signatory to the Treaty of Nanjing, so during the Second Opium War, Qi Ying was again sent to Guangzhou to negotiate with Britain and France.
But he didn't expect Britain and France to not give him face, Qiying planned to return to Beijing first, and then make considerations, Su Shun took the opportunity to criticize Qiying for escaping from the battle and delaying the military plane, and his behavior was the same as the general's abandonment of the city and fleeing, which was a capital crime.
But Yi Yi and other conservatives tried their best to protect Qiying and exonerated him everywhere, according to the usual practice, at most, he was just beheaded in prison, and he was released after a while.
However, Su Shun overrode public opinion and insisted that Qiying be executed.
Why is Su Shun determined to punish sin? On the one hand, Qiying grovels to foreigners, and Su Shun has long been unhappy with him.
On the other hand, since the opening of the Qing Dynasty, many officials are greedy for life and afraid of death, only seeking to save their lives and ignore the country, this kind of behavior has not been severely punished, but has lived a very nourishing life, resulting in the people behind being unscrupulous, anyway, they will not die, as long as they hug their thighs, and if this goes on like this, who will serve the country?
So Qiying had to die, Xianfeng was helpless, and finally ordered Qiying to die.
Qi Ying is one of the high-ranking officials in the conservative faction, and he is the leader of the white flag in the Eight Banners, and even he was executed, and the Eight Banners magnates were completely shocked.
Yaoying
Qiying corrected the law, but Su Shun completely offended the Manchu elites, of course, not only the Manchus, but even the foreigners He was extremely tough, such as opposing the "Aihui Treaty".
Since the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the Russians have been eyeing the Northeast region and gradually encroaching on the Northeast region, and after the Opium War, it has intensified.
In the Xianfeng period, Muravyov, the governor of Siberia in evil Russia, took advantage of the opportunity of the Second Opium War launched by Britain and France to force the Heilongjiang general Yishan to sign the "Aihui Treaty", intending to occupy 600,000 square kilometers of land north of Heilongjiang.
Afterwards, Russia sent people to redraw the border, but Su Shun refused to give in, believing that Yishan was not qualified to sign the treaty on behalf of the Qing Dynasty, and the so-called "Aihun Treaty" was just a piece of waste paper, and even drove the Russian representative Ignatyev out of the capital.
The Treaty of Aihui ceded territory
It can be said that although Su Shun is in power, he has almost offended the Manchurian magnates and foreigners to death.
Did Su Shun do something wrong? Yes, everything he did was to change the various difficulties faced by Xianfeng, but the reform would inevitably offend everyone, especially the Manchu elites with vested interests, and forcefully rectify the Eight Banners, without knowing that they had completely pushed them down against their own side.
And Su Shun can rely on only Xianfeng, as well as the local Han officials, powerless and powerful small and medium-sized landlords, and the bottom Eight Banners, but these people don't even have the right to speak in the court, so he can only rely on Xianfeng, and everything he does is also for Xianfeng.
But Xianfeng can protect him for a while, but he can't save him for a lifetime, not to mention that Xianfeng is still short-lived.
Even though Xianfeng appointed him as the eighth minister of Gu Ming before his death, Xianfeng was afraid that Su Shun would become Dolgon, so he gave the seal of the empress dowager of the two palaces a check and balance, which gave careerists the opportunity to seize power, especially Yi Li, who was excluded from the auxiliary government.
To tell the truth, regardless of whether there is Cixi or not, the conservatives led by Yi Yi will inevitably seize power, after all, their power is too huge, and they are not willing to suffer their own interests, and the great powers are afraid of Su Shun's toughness, so they will inevitably support the conservatives' seizure of power.
Kun-hsien
What can Su Shun rely on? Far away from the water can not quench the thirst of the near Hanchen, in the land of Gyeonggi has neither military power nor allies, only a group of civil servants around him who have no military power, the fate can be imagined.
Su Shun died, and the Qing Dynasty's last chance to save itself was lost.
Truth be told, Su Shun was aware of the Manchu Dynasty's accumulated shortcomings after the First Opium War, and planned to take a top-down route to try to reform the decaying dynasty.
He was clearly aware that the bannermen had become a heavy burden on the imperial court, and advocated a reduction in the provision of support to the bannermen, advocated meritocracy in the appointment of officials, rather than worshipping the Manchu and suppressing the Han, and tried to reform economically and promote commercial development, such as the establishment of the General Taxation Department, after the Qing Dynasty's treasury improved greatly, and advocated toughness externally.
It can be said that Sushun's reform is a reform of the system, not a simple tinkering, which is far stronger than the Westernization Movement can adapt to the development of the times by buying some foreign guns, cannons and ironclad ships.
Westernization movement, but tinkering
But it's a pity, Sushun's tough reform will inevitably offend the huge conservatives, this is his helplessness, he wants to take this step, he will inevitably go to the opposite side with them, but he didn't expect that this day came so quickly, and the conservatives' counterattack was so strong.
After all, even if he is autocratic, but he is also the emperor's minion, the queen mother of the two palaces does not have to worry about her usurpation of the throne at all, but she has to worry that Yi Yi will usurp the throne, and the reasonable way is that the eight ministers and Yi Yi will check and balance each other, and the two palaces and the little emperor can sit on the throne.
But I didn't expect these two people who should have been wary of each other to come together, which is probably something that Su Shun didn't expect until he died.