"Wenzheng" was hailed as the most beautiful of the courtiers, and the ceiling of the title was the goal of the ministers' lifelong struggle.
In the final Manchu Qing Dynasty, a total of eight ministers, Tang Bin, Liu Tongxun, Zhu Jue, Cao Zhenyong, Du Shoutian, Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzao, and Sun Jianai, received the title of "Wenzheng" after their deaths. Among them are Liu Tongxun, Zeng Guofan and other people worthy of the name, there are Tang Bin decent people, there are Zhu Jue, Du Shoutian, Li Hongzao, Sun Jianai and other imperial masters, and of course, there are cao Zhenyong and other unworthy of the name of the parallel goods.
Emperor Daoguang of the Qing Dynasty ascended the throne in the 25th year of Jiaqing (1820) and was the first emperor in the history of the Qing Dynasty to inherit the throne as the eldest son of a concubine.
Daoguang is considered a good emperor, but unfortunately his qualifications are too poor, he is cautious and has mediocre ability, stinginess and short-sightedness; if placed in the Chengping period, he would be a good emperor who kept his way, but unfortunately, in the turning period of national decline, Daoguang's ability was not enough to support the crisis, and the late Qing Dynasty gradually fell.
Due to the daoguang emperor's personality and vision, he trusted Cao Zhenyong and Mu Zhang'a, who were cautious but focused on the overall situation, and in his thirty years of imperial career, the first half was Cao Zhenyong and the second half was Mu Zhang'a, and these two big treasures were not the materials of the pillars.
Cao Zhenyong was born in 1755, a native of Shexian County, Anhui Province, and after the official eunuch, he entered the priesthood in the forty-sixth year of Qianlong (1781), selected Shu Jishi, and after the dispersal of the museum, he was appointed as the editor of the Hanlin Academy. The Qianlong Emperor considered him to be the son of Shangshu Cao Wenquan (曹文埴), and he was promoted to a waiter and a scholar. Since then, he has been in a prosperous and prosperous life.
During the Jiaqing Dynasty, Cao Zhenyong first held the posts of Shao Zhan Shi and Tong Zheng Envoy, and then successively served as a cabinet scholar, a servant of the Ministry of Works, and a waiter of the Ministry of Works; in the eleventh year of Jiaqing (1806), he was promoted to Shangshu of the Ministry of Works and became a high-ranking official at the ministerial level. Later, because of his merits in writing the Records of Emperor Gaozong of the Qing Dynasty, he was transferred to hubu shangshu with the title of prince shaobao, and was promoted from an assistant university scholar to a scholar of Tirenge University, and entered the cabinet.
In the first year of Daoguang (1821), Cao Zhenyong became the prince of Cao Zhenyong,jin prince Taifu, a scholar of Wuyingdian University, and the chief military chancellor, and became a confidant of the Daoguang Emperor. The Draft History of the Qing Dynasty lists 150 records:
Emperor Xuanzong was still frugal and frugal, and Zhenyong was cautious and cautious, and he obeyed the grammar and was most trusted.
Unfortunately, the Daoguang Emperor entrusted him with two major crimes that directly affected the political arena of the late Qing Dynasty for decades, and the poison was widespread.
The Daoguang Emperor first ascended the throne and was bent on rectifying the rule of officials, but he was very talented, without the diligence of his ancestor Yongzheng Emperor, the military plane was not strong, and he could not finish watching a large number of folds every day, let alone ruling, which was quite sad.
Cao Zhenyong then offered a plan to poison the hereafter. His advice said: At present, the world is at peace, the people live and work in peace and contentment, and the ministers and workers pick faults, point out shortcomings, and often make alarmist remarks, which is nothing more than to win reputation. If they are suddenly punished, they will be put on a hat that refuses to accept advice. After that, the emperor does not have to look at the Chinese and foreign chapters one by one, but only chooses the smallest detail of the mistake in the sonata and condemns it, then the subordinates will be shocked by His Majesty's Saint Ming, and they will not dare to say more arbitrarily.
The Daoguang Emperor obeyed him, and in the future chapters, if there was a very small mistake, even a single typo, he would severely reprimand and demote him, causing shock at home and abroad, and everyone would endanger themselves, and no longer dared to speak indiscriminately; everyone could only say some auspicious words, and "the fierce disaster did not dare to be reported", and even when the Taiping Rebellion arose later, the DPRK and China hid from each other and did not dare to tell the emperor.
The official book is a formality, "reporting good news but not worrying", no one under the dynasty dares to tell the truth, and even becomes the golden rule of preserving the Lu position and stepping forward! This is all caused by Cao Zhenyong's crime of blocking the way of speech, which is actually the wrong way to the country, and it has been poisoned for decades, so that the late Qing Dynasty will die.
Cao Zhenyong is a mediocre talent, and a mediocre talent in a high position must be jealous of the ability of the sage and exclude the talent. Cao Zhenyong's method of squeezing out his colleagues was to expel them from their posts, or to release them from the outside world or to travel on business; in short, they took the people away, controlled the military aircraft themselves, and mastered the government and politics.
In the early years of Daoguang, Jiang Xiangping summoned the military aircraft department directly under the governor, and the emperor's favor was very favorable, and Cao Zhenyong was very jealous. At that time, the governor of Liangjiang, Qi Shan, was ordered to be demoted due to the unfavorable handling of the river and the transportation of water, and the Daoguang Emperor summoned the military aircraft minister to ask: "The two rivers are a heavy responsibility, and it is necessary to ask those who have been respected for a long time to seal the territory with them." So who is the one to be chosen? ”
Cao Zhenyong replied: "Looking at it as a subject, it seems that NaYan has become the most." The Emperor said, "The right mouth is full of troubles, how can he move?" Cao did not answer.
After a while, the emperor pointed at Jiang and said, "Ru is a long-term feudal territory, not Ru wu second person." It was then agreed that Jiang Xiangping would serve as Liangjiang.
After Jiang Xiangping came out, he said to the people: "Cao Zhenyong is clever and clever, and he does not say it in his own mind, but he can let the emperor say it himself." Obviously, he was squeezing me out to my face, but I couldn't say anything, it was terrible. ”
Jiang Xiangping refers to Jiang Youhua, a red banner man of the Han army, who moved from Fenghua, Zhejiang to Liaoyang in his ancestors, so he was also called Xiangping. After entering the military plane, the person who took over as his direct subordinate governor was Na Yancheng, and both of them were the most senior governors. Therefore, Cao Zhenyong first deliberately proposed a senior but impossible candidate, then Yancheng if he went to Liangjiang, directly subordinate to Gyeonggi and also had to choose people, so the emperor could not agree; therefore, the emperor could only consider Jiang Xiangping, who had just returned to Beijing and was also senior.
Cao Zhenyong also did not like Ruan Yuan, and one day the emperor accidentally asked: "Ruan Yuan has been supervising for thirty years, from Qingzhuang to Sheng Erpin, how fast." This is a rhetorical question, which is actually the recognition and affirmation of Ruan Yuan by the Daoguang Emperor.
And Cao replied: Because of the excellent learning. The Emperor asked: How do you know his knowledge?
Cao Xiangyun: Now that the Governor of Yungui is in office, Shang Ri is carving books and talking about articles every day. Di Moran soon recalled Ruan Yuannei to Beijing.
Cao Zhenyong had always speculated that the emperor was a heavy official, and he hated the abolition of government affairs by the feudal officials, so he used this to provoke the relationship between the monarch and the subject, and his heart was reprehensible. Although Ruan Yuan may not have abandoned government affairs, Cao emphasized that he carved books and talked about texts every day, leaving a bad impression on the Daoguang Emperor.
Cao Zhenyong was jealous of Xian's ability and excluded his colleagues, but he did not say a single bad word about his colleagues on the surface, but everything hit the emperor's weakness and aroused his concerns, which was really a living fossil of the wisdom of the Chinese officialdom.
Cao Zhenyong went through three dynasties, fifty-four years of career, a lifetime of official fortune, harmony and humility, "no disasters and no difficulties to the three dukes", it can be said that the Qing Dynasty is the most able to be an official.
The result of the cooperation between the Daoguang Emperor and Cao Zhenyong to dominate the world was to create an "era of mediocre talents", only mediocre talents could preserve the Lu throne, and the stalls left to future generations were also the sinking of mediocre.
In 1840, the Daoguang Emperor encountered the First Opium War, how could he handle the unprecedented changes in three thousand years? The talented Lin Zexu did not start well and end well, and the giant ship of Daqing finally sailed into the darkness.