The Qianlong Emperor, the most blessed of the twelve emperors of the Qing Dynasty. On the one hand, the Qianlong Emperor's 60-year reign coincided with the peak of the Qing Dynasty's national strength; on the other hand, the Qianlong Emperor lived too long, he lived to be 89 years old. It should be known that the ancient emperor was short-lived, and it was a miracle that the Qianlong Emperor lived so long.
However, we find that after the thirteenth year of Qianlong (1748), his temperament changed greatly and he became very terrible. As early as the thirteenth year of Yongzheng's violent death, the Qianlong Emperor prophesied as soon as he succeeded to the throne: "From the thirteenth year of this dynasty, the country will have something to do, not something that is expected." "History is so strange that in the thirteenth year of Qianlong, two things happened that made the Qianlong Emperor very unhappy.
The first was that the Qing army was hindered in the Jinchuan War, which disgraced Daqing; the second thing, the Xiaoxian Empress Fuchashi died. What was worse was that on the night of the Chinese New Year's Eve of the previous year, the seventh son of the Qianlong Emperor, Yong Chun, suddenly died prematurely, and Yong Chun's birth mother was Fu Cha, who was the second son of the concubine, and the Qianlong Emperor intended to make him crown prince.
Chinese New Year's Eve lost his son, which is a sign of great evil. At the beginning of the thirteenth year of Qianlong, the Qianlong Emperor took Fuchashi on an eastern tour, and on March 11, Fucha died of illness on a ship returning to Beijing. His concubine, the favorite empress, died, and the Qianlong Emperor "went mad". The first to suffer were the Emperor's eldest son Yong Huang and the Emperor's third son Yong Zhang, who were not sad enough at the Empress's funeral.
The Qianlong Emperor Long Yan was furious and reprimanded the two men: "In the face of this important matter today, the eldest brother was at a loss, and he did not do much in filial piety and etiquette. After scolding the two men, the Qianlong Emperor directly announced: "These two people must not inherit the great unification... Yi Wait is so unfilial, with the love of father and son, he can't bear to kill Yi Wait, Yi Wait should know the grace of preservation, and live in peace! ”
Scolding the two young princes so badly shows that the Qianlong Emperor's psychology is in an abnormal state. The more the Qianlong Emperor spoke, the more angry he became, and as a result, he kicked the key part of the emperor's eldest son, Yong Huang, and maimed him, thus falling ill and dying two years later. At the same time, several ministers were also beaten to death at the scene.
It was also in this year that the Ouning Old Officials Zhaihui Uprising broke out in the Fujian region. The princes and ministers were not spared, not to mention the rebellious believers. The Qianlong Emperor decreed: "This case must be ... The root plant is extinct, so as not to suffer. Not only is the chief evil and must not slip through the net, but one or two of the remnants of the bandits remain, that is, like the locusts and grasshopper seeds, which are deeply harmed by the locality... The rest of the rebels, i.e., the many more people, also make the traitors fearful. ”
The courtiers never expected that the emperor's temperament would suddenly change drastically, and the entire Qing Empire would once fall into panic. In the years that followed, the Qianlong Emperor often tortured his subjects for various reasons. For example, in the eighteenth year of Qianlong (1753), the Yellow River broke through at Tongshan Mountain, and the Qianlong Emperor ordered gao bin and Zhang Shizai, the governor of the river, to deal with the matter, and this Gao Bin was also the father-in-law of the Qianlong Emperor.
Due to the poor work of the two men and the embezzlement of public funds by their subordinates, the river treatment could not be completed as scheduled. Gao Bin was over seventy years old at this time, and when he saw that the deployment was delayed, he was frightened and fainted. After Gao Bin woke up, he supervised the work on the river embankment day and night, and eventually died of exhaustion on the river embankment.
Reference: Notes on the Living Of the Qianlong Emperor