Yongzheng was a very accomplished monarch in ancient China, who led the Qing Dynasty to its peak during his reign and also played a very important role in the transition of the "Prosperous Era of Kangqian".
As the ultimate winner of the "Nine Sons and Concubines", the Yongzheng Emperor was undoubtedly a wise and cautious man, and he always maintained a high degree of vigilance against his courtiers. However, for a person, he was able to fully trust and give it importance, so that this person was known as the "first favorite of the Yongzheng Dynasty", and this person was Li Wei.
As a favored minister of the Yongzheng Emperor, Li Wei could be described as a smooth sailing and a spring breeze during the Yongzheng period. The Yongzheng Emperor, who had always attached importance to power and did not easily delegate power, made Li Wei the governor and became a feudal official.
After the Qianlong Emperor succeeded to the throne, although he did not fully trust Li Wei like Yongzheng, he also had great respect for him, gave him four regiments of dragon supplements, and sent imperial doctors to diagnose and treat him when he was seriously ill.
So, as the first favorite of the Yongzheng Dynasty, how strong was his power?
On the first day of the first lunar month in the 27th year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1688), the Li family in Tongshan, Jiangnan, which is now Feng County, Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, not only ushered in the New Year, but also welcomed the newborn Li Wei. The Li family was considered a great family in the local area, so even if Li Wei did not succeed in his studies, he was able to be awarded the title of Wailang by donating officials in the fifty-sixth year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1717), and soon after entering the dynasty as a soldier wailang for two years, he was renamed Hubu Langzhong, and gradually entered the career.
Although Li Wei was not well educated, he was very talented, and when the Yongzheng Emperor had not yet succeeded to the throne, he had already noticed his achievements during his tenure, so after succeeding to the throne, he directly made him a direct subordinate to the Yi Sect, and soon changed his position to Yunnan Yanyi Dao. The so-called "Yanyi Dao" was a kind of official who managed the salt transport, and soon Li Wei was promoted to the position of envoy of the official Residence From Erpin and took charge of the financial affairs of the province. After the well-organized administration of Yunnan, Li Wei was transferred to the richer Zhejiang as an inspector.
In the second year of his appointment as inspector, Li Wei concurrently served as two envoys to Zhejiang, and a year later, the Yongzheng Emperor saw that Li Wei had achieved outstanding political achievements, so he again "appointed the governor of Zhejiang and managed the affairs of the inspectors." "
At this point, Li Wei can be said to have all the power in Zhejiang, and not only economic affairs are under his control, but also military and political affairs are also decided by him. During his several years as a feudal governor in Zhejiang, Li Wei severely cracked down on illegal salt, adding a lot of financial revenue to the government, and in response to the threat from the sea, he built the Zhejiang Haitang.
In the sixth year of Yongzheng (1728), in view of the rampant banditry in the Jiangnan area and the lack of local officials' ability to arrest thieves, the Yongzheng Emperor ordered that "the seven provinces and five prefectures of Su and Song be ordered to be pirated, and the guards and leaders will be restrained." "
As a result, Li Wei led the entire Jiangnan region to suppress bandits and thieves, and he overtly inspected and secretly visited and reported the Liangjiang officials who were harboring suspects, and finally successfully eliminated Zhang Yunru, who used the mentality of the former Ming remnants to deceive the public, and consolidated the Qing Dynasty's rule in Jiangnan, known in history as the "Jiangnan Case".
After the case ended, from the Yongzheng Emperor down to the people, they all admired Li Wei's ability, and he also gained a large number of "fans" in Zhejiang, and even many years later, the Qianlong Emperor toured the south, and also saw the statues of Li Wei and his wives and concubines in the flower temple of the West Lake. However, the Qianlong Emperor, who had always wanted face very much, was very displeased, and said that "Li Wei looked up to the emperor's cousin, was willful and arrogant, and was initially unjust and pure subject." The name of the temple is very strange! "Ordered the demolition of the statue for the sake of it.
Although the authenticity of this story is doubtful, it is enough to see Li Wei's position in the minds of the people of Zhejiang.
Therefore, if we want to talk about Li Wei's power, then the support of the people is an important part of it. In short, after making a major contribution in Zhejiang, Li Wei was crowned by the Yongzheng Emperor as Bingbu Shangshu in the seventh year of Yongzheng (1729), and in the Qing Dynasty, the local governor added the official title of Bingbu Shangshu, which represented the official residence from Yipin and the status was very prominent, however, Li Wei did not have time to rejoice, and then learned the bad news of his mother's death.
Li Wei, who had just been promoted, was originally a saint in Jingmian, but after the loss of his mother, he had to return to his post to keep filial piety, and in order to comfort him, the Yongzheng Emperor gave him the honorary position of prince and young fu. In the tenth year of Yongzheng (1732), Li Wei's period of filial piety ended, and the Yongzheng Emperor was very pleased to "summon the Shangshu of the Punishment Department, appoint the viceroy directly subordinate to him, and order the viceroy to be subordinate and subject to moderation." This time, Li Wei could directly govern the direct subordinates at the feet of Tianzi, which showed the trust and importance of the Yongzheng Emperor to him.
In the second year of his term of office, Li Wei bluntly reported that the infantry commander Orqi was disturbing the people, which made the Yongzheng Emperor very pleased, but because of the long-term hard work, the Yongzheng Emperor died a few years later, and the new king succeeded to the throne and changed the Yuan Qianlong. The Qianlong Emperor loved culture and respected the literati, and was not too interested in people like Li Wei, who were not highly educated, so Although Li Wei was still "high", he no longer had "weight". In the third year of Qianlong (1738), the fifty-one-year-old Li Wei died of illness at home, and the Qianlong Emperor gave him the nickname "Minda", that is, Cong Min Lianda.
In Yunnan, he developed remote lands in an orderly manner; in Zhejiang, he won the love of the people with his outstanding political achievements; in Zhili, he attacked the nobility and won the praise of the people. Therefore, Li Wei's greatest power is to support his people. Of course, in addition, the power given to him by the Yongzheng Emperor to seal the territory was also a very important force.