Chapter 8 Section 2 The Storm of the Thirteen Years of Qianlong

Perhaps it was because his father had been in power for exactly 13 years, so Qianlong had ominous expectations for the number 13 when he ascended the throne.He said: "From the very beginning of my reign, when I tasted the intention until the thirteenth year, the country must have something unexpected, which is not expected." ("Records of Emperor Gaozong of the Qing Dynasty") History is such a coincidence sometimes.Qianlong's strange premonition came true.This year, Qianlong encountered two "big unsatisfactory" things. One was when the Jinchuan War was at its most difficult, and the Qing government lost face in the face of the small stubborn enemy Qing army; The queen died.

On the surface, the emperor's daily life was still normal, and it seemed that the death of the empress did not affect the operation of the Qing Empire.In fact, throughout the ages, almost no queen's funeral has caused such a major change in the country. In Emperor Qianlong's view, the only way to effectively express his grief was to hold a grand funeral for the queen, so that he could be worthy of the queen's status in his heart. However, the death of the empress has a completely different meaning to the emperor and to others, and it is difficult for others to empathize with the emperor's grief.For the ministers in the court, the empress' funeral meant nothing more than a routine completion of the funeral etiquette, and for the ministers from all over the country, it was nothing more than writing a memorial to the emperor to express their grief.This has been a rule in the country for more than a hundred years, and no one expected that this incident would turn into a disaster in the official circles of the country.

A lazy bureaucracy has repeatedly made half-hearted mistakes in the funeral process.One month after the empress's death, the emperor read the empress's book made by the Hanlin Academy, and found that in the Manchu translation, the word "imperial concubine" was accidentally translated into "first empress". This small mistake made the emperor furious , ordered that Acton, Minister of the Ministry of Punishment, who managed the Hanlin Academy, be handed over to the Ministry of Punishment for punishment.Seeing the emperor's fury, the Ministry of Punishment speculated on the emperor's psychology and sentenced him to a prisoner who was hanged.Unexpectedly, the furious emperor thought that the sentence was not severe enough, and even thought that the officials of the Ministry of Punishment had sheltered Yuan Shangshu, so he dismissed all the officials of the Ministry of Punishment, and sentenced Acton to be a prisoner and be executed in autumn.When the news came out, officials across the country were shocked.

However, everyone's shock has just begun.The emperor, in the grief of losing his spouse, picks his nose and eyes at everything.In May, because the emperor thought that the queen's book treasures were not well-made, "very crude" and not worthy of the queen's dignity, the whole Ministry of Industry was accused.And because the table used for the ceremony was not clean enough, all the main officials of Guanglu Temple were demoted.Because there was a small mistake in etiquette when the posthumous queen was named, the Minister of Rites was also downgraded. Things are far from over.To clean up braided hair, the head will be shaved once every ten and a half months.According to the old customs of the Manchus, officials could not shave their hair within one hundred days after the funeral of the emperor or empress, to show that they were concentrating on grief and not caring about their appearance.However, this is just an unwritten custom, which is not recorded in the Daqing Huidian. After the founding of the country, some Manchu officials are not very clear about it.More than ten years ago, when Emperor Yongzheng died, many officials shaved their hair within a hundred days, and the court did not hold them accountable.Therefore, during the funeral of the queen, many people also shaved their heads.After the emperor found out, he was furious, thinking that this proved that the officials were "disrespectful" to the late queen and had no sorrow in their hearts;At the beginning, he wanted to execute all the officials who shaved their heads. Finally, after in-depth investigation, he found that there were too many people who shaved their heads, and they had almost every province, so they had to be sentenced lightly.However, he couldn't tolerate the fact that a first-rank official like Zhou Xuejian, governor of the Jiangnan River, shaved his head.In a fit of rage, he ordered Zhou Xuejian and another governor of Huguang, Sai Leng'e, who violated the regulations to shave their heads, to commit suicide, and the governors of Hunan and Hubei were dismissed for this reason.

He also dislikes his own children.When he found that the emperor's eldest son Yonghuang and the emperor's third son Yongzhang did not express enough grief at the empress's funeral, he immediately became furious and accused him, saying: "This big brother is at a loss because of filial piety and etiquette. There are many places." The third son of the emperor "is absolutely incapable of doing the way of the Son of Man."For this reason, he even publicly announced: "These two people must not inherit the great rule... Yi and others are so unfilial. I, as a father and son, cannot bear to kill Yi and others. Yi and others should know the grace of preservation and live in peace!" The ministers have learned from each other that he will never break his promise.

Because of this incident, Yonghuang and Yongzhang lost the chance to compete for the throne. Such bloody scolding to the two children showed that the emperor was in some kind of mental disorder.He hoped that everyone could understand his pain. He didn't understand that the sky was falling, why so many people remained peaceful? There were no less than a hundred officials who were punished during the Queen's funeral incident, ranging from bachelors, governors, ministers, governors to grassroots officials.Inexplicably, a huge destructive storm blew up in the officialdom.All the officials looked at the emperor with admiration: it turned out that in their minds, a gentle and refined, generous, benevolent, and self-controlled monarch had such a moody, capricious, cruel and indifferent side. It seemed that they were really dissatisfied with the emperor. understood.It seemed that this man was the son of Emperor Yongzheng after all, and he inherited Yongzheng's cruelty and ruthlessness.

Later generations looked back at history and found that the thirteenth year of Qianlong was a turning point in Qianlong's political life. "During the thirteenth and fourteenth years of Qianlong's reign, it was the first change in Gaozong's life. He changed from being fearful and cautious, and everything changed from lenient to life and death, and acting out of emotion." (Gao Yang's "Emperor of the Qing Dynasty") On the surface, this is a widower's mental disorder caused by widowhood.Psychologists say that people who are in the widowed period are most likely to have uncoordinated interpersonal relationships and often blame others for no reason.They hope that everyone can understand his pain, and they always feel that others don't care enough for him.When people don't understand or are bored, they experience strong mood swings.The emperor was in extreme grief, unable to control himself, and unrestrainedly released his inner rage and hatred, which caused such a situation.

But from another perspective, this storm is actually a general outbreak of the emperor's repressed years of dissatisfaction with the bureaucracy. At the beginning of his accession to the throne, Qianlong's political career went smoothly, and his lenient policy won "the joy of all the people, and the praises are like thunder." However, leniency inevitably has its drawbacks.The bureaucracy is deeply servile.As a whole, the character of this group is to "push the nose on the face" and "shame the face".The more lenient and polite you are to them, the less polite they are to you.From the harsh and serious Yongzheng period to the lenient and gentle Qianlong period, at first they were really happy and grateful, but as soon as they turned their faces, they began to revert to their old ways.Emperor Qianlong hoped that they would assist his "government of leniency" with hard work, but they quickly fell into slack.In many places, the so-called hard-working officials "just go to work on time, handle documents in a timely manner, leave work early, and go home to close the door and see no one." ("Notes on Living in the Qianlong Dynasty") As for the behavior of lazy officials, it is even more outrageous.From the first year of Qianlong (1736) to the eleventh year (1746), there were as many as 116 major robbery cases that could not be solved in Anhui Province, and most of the cases that had been solved were delayed without judgment.Qianlong said angrily: "It can be seen that the former officials of the frontier did not pay attention to handling them, resulting in so many backlogs. If they are so slack, when will the wind of robbery stop?" ("Records of Emperor Gaozong of the Qing Dynasty")

What's more serious is that the trend of corruption that was basically stopped during the Yongzheng period began to rise again.Around the sixth year of Qianlong (1741), Qianlong was shocked by corruption cases such as the embezzlement of taxes by the chief minister Sahalang, the embezzlement and bribery of the admiral Eshan, and the bribery and sale of raw children by Xuezheng Kaerqin. In March of the sixth year of Qianlong's reign, Shanxi governor Kaer Jishan reported corruption and lawlessness to his subordinate officials.The report letter stated that Shanxi chief envoy Sahalang "raised the tax rate when collecting money, food and taxes, and usually acted like a blessing, pampered his family and publicized the obscenities of the people."He also reported Xuezheng for "bribing and selling civil and military students, with obvious evidence of stolen goods, and buying married women as concubines. His reputation is ruined, his shame is shattered, and he is asked to be dismissed."

Emperor Qianlong was very angry after reading this report letter.He said: "Since I came to the throne, I have trusted all the ministers, sympathized with the hard work of the officials, increased the salary, generously given the honesty, and the kindness can be described as generous. I think that the ministers and workers in the world will naturally be grateful for their efforts, and they will do their duty faithfully, and there will be no corruption. Corruption violates the laws of the country. Unexpectedly, there are Shanxi chief minister Saharang and Xuezheng Kaerqin who are so filthy and so filthy, it is beyond my dreams. I treat the world with sincerity, and these people dare to With the mess so far, how can you actually regard me as an incompetent and deceitful master?"

Corruption cases of officials continue to occur, which has also implicated the huge fiscal deficits of local governments, many of which are caused by officials' embezzlement and embezzlement.Qianlong concluded: "I think there have been more and more deficit cases in recent years...the reason is that their officials in charge tend to be lenient when they see me handling things, so they think it is appropriate to relax." Under the "leniency principle", social security has also deteriorated.Yongzheng implemented severe punishment laws and strictly investigated illegal salt, and those who smuggled illegal salt were often punished with serious crimes.When Qianlong took office, he showed mercy and allowed the common people to traffic in a small amount of salt.He issued an order saying: "Poor men and women, old and young, who carry less than 40 catties of salt, shall not be held accountable." ", Large-scale salt trafficking, each carrying no more than 40 catties, however, could not stand the crowd, dozens of hundreds of people gathered together, trafficked tens of thousands of catties at a time, seriously affected the salt monopoly.Qianlong sighed and said: "Since I came to the throne, I have always cared about my father's love for the people... For example, in the case of private salt, I wanted to relax the ban a little bit to help those poor people. However, so many traitors took the opportunity Taking advantage of the loopholes, openly violating the salt monopoly, without fear. It seems that the treacherous and stubborn people will not allow me to practice leniency!" Various factors pushed Qianlong to gradually reflect on his "government of leniency".In the fifth year of Qianlong, he wrote such a poem: When studying Yu Zhixue, I admire gentlemen and Confucians. Poetry also respects Li Du, and Wen Yizong Han Su. It must be practiced, and the holy words are not false. That is to say, if you hold the handle now, don't you admire Tang Yu. It is difficult to know how to do it, and it is empty words. Tailor poems to the right, and the common people will warn me for a few days. ("The First Collection of Imperial Poems") That is to say, when he was in school, he studied the well-regulated Confucianism, believed in the thoughts of saints, and had to put them into practice.When I became an emperor, I originally wanted to learn from Yao and Shun, but after a period of practice, I realized the difficulties in the world, and realized that a considerable part of Confucian ideals are just "empty words". After several years of struggling in high-end politics, he finally grasped the true meaning of the operation of autocratic power: in autocratic politics, the emperor alone is the "master", and all other subjects are "guests".It is impossible to entrust guests to manage the family well.It is a manifestation of political immaturity to place hopes on the sense of responsibility and honor of officials and expect the monarch and ministers to govern together.He reviewed the reigns of the Kang, Yong, and Qian dynasties, and concluded: "From this point of view, for decades, the country has relied on our three generations of emperors to preside over it with one-man efforts and carefully grasp power, so that the country's politics has been running on track. .Or if you encounter a mediocre lord whose spiritual power cannot rule the country, then the country will inevitably fall into chaos." For more than ten years since he came to the throne, Emperor Qianlong has given lower and lower ratings to the bureaucracy as a whole.He determined that, taken as a whole, the underlying motivations for the actions of officials were selfish.He once said: "The ministers who tend to inherit and be cautious are mostly out of selfishness." They have no fixed opinions when they encounter problems, and they only know how to make superficial articles to cater to the emperor.Emperor Qianlong's political principle was to combine leniency with strictness, but when it came to officials, it became either lenient or strict, without principle. Yu Kuan. I should be strict about things. If one or two things are strict, then all the ministers will compete with each other and become stricter." I don't ask the reason for the strictness. "One person has not changed his appearance. It’s not ancient, why is it here!” As he experienced more and more setbacks, Emperor Qianlong understood his father's choice more and more.He found that it wasn't that his father was unwilling to be lenient, but that the bureaucracy really didn't allow him to be lenient.He overestimated the character of the bureaucracy.After the high pressure of the Mongols in the Yuan Dynasty, the humiliation of the Emperor Taizu in the Ming Dynasty, and the massacre in the founding process of the Qing Dynasty, the quality and mentality of the Chinese bureaucracy have been greatly different from those of the scholars in the Tang and Song Dynasties. They have given up their personal dignity as a whole. Abandoning social ideals, he transformed into a profit-seeking "slave".Qianlong discovered that once he accurately positioned these "Mr. adults" who had read poetry and books as slaves, hung the title and wealth in front of them, tightened the rope at the same time, raised the whip, and used "law" and "skill" to "power" "To control them, everything will be solved. The political turmoil in the thirteenth year of Qianlong was indeed no accident. Qianlong had already given many warnings.As early as shortly after he came to the throne, he said: "If you look at me leniently and one member of my subordinates deceives me, all kinds of evils will come from me, and I will have to be strict in the future. I am afraid that it will not be the blessing of you and other officials and the people of the world." In the same year (1739), he also said: "Those who are aunts today, I will review them in the future." Qianlong had long been planning a major shock to the bureaucratic machinery, so that they would wake up from their confusion and realize that he was not a cowardly and mediocre lord.Today, the day finally came, and it came so unexpectedly.The emperor, who has always been tolerant and benevolent, suddenly changed his face and turned into a mad and angry lion.All of a sudden, the wind of terror blew up again in the Qing Empire. The few officials who lost their heads in the funeral of the queen were not all the unfortunate people in the thirteenth year of Qianlong. In April of the tenth year of Qianlong's reign (1745), Qingfu, governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi, and others reported that Tibetans in some local villages in Jinchuan, Sichuan robbed traveling merchants, and even robbed officers and soldiers of silver.Qianlong then sent troops to conquer. With the imperial decree, 20,000 troops gathered in northern Sichuan.Qianlong asked the generals to "eliminate the roots and plants as a once and for all solution" to completely destroy this bandit area that has been infested for many years. Unexpectedly, the progress of the war far exceeded Qianlong's expectations.The Qing army seriously lacked combat experience in high-altitude areas, and there were many unsatisfactory performances.Until the thirteenth year of Qianlong's reign, more than 200,000 soldiers were used, and 20 million taels of silver were consumed, but they still failed repeatedly.In the unlucky thirteenth year of Qianlong's reign, even shaving his head was a capital offense, not to mention defeating the army!Qingfu, Zhang Guangsi, and Neqin, the three military commanders before and after the Jinchuan War, were all doomed.It stands to reason that these three ministers were all meritorious ministers who won the trust of Emperor Qianlong in the past, especially Neqin, who was the nephew of Empress Kangxi and the chief military minister who was personally selected by Emperor Qianlong. the beneficiary".However, in the ominous thirteenth year of Qianlong's reign, Qianlong forgot all of these things. minions".Zhang Guangsi was executed.Neqin was given a "Ebilong knife" and wiped his neck in the Sichuan army.Qingfu was given a white practice and hanged himself. From the thirteenth year of Qianlong, Qianlong changed from Confucianism to law, put aside the mask of generosity and benevolence, abandoned the dream of "ruling the world with rites", and picked up the butcher knife and whip left by his father. Thirteen years before Qianlong, the emperor had always been lenient with the death row criminals across the country, and tried not to execute those who could not be executed.In the fall of the fourteenth year of Qianlong's court trial, the emperor, contrary to his previous practice, mercilessly organized a large number of executions, and all of them were executed immediately.Veteran criminals who have been granted probation many times in the past will also die.The fifteenth year (1750) and the sixteenth year (1751) of Qianlong coincided with the fortieth and sixtieth birthdays of Qianlong and the empress dowager. According to convention, all criminals with reprieve in these two years were not executed.However, Qianlong announced that corrupt and embezzled officials would not be executed, and that he would rather destroy the atmosphere of Daqing than put corrupt officials to death. For corrupt officials, he took up the old weapons used by Emperor Yongzheng and ordered them to fill their gaps. His requirements were even harsher than Yongzheng.In the twelfth year of Qianlong (1747), he stipulated that anyone who was sentenced to death with a reprieve due to embezzlement and misappropriation of public funds should use his own assets to make up for the shortfall.If the compensation cannot be made up, if the embezzler owes more than 1,000 taels, and if the embezzler exceeds 80 taels, he will be executed.This order killed many corrupt officials. He also dealt extremely harshly with incidents of popular resistance.In the thirteenth year of Qianlong's reign, the Laoguanzhai teaching case occurred in Fujian. Qianlong said: "This case must... be exterminated to avoid future troubles. Not only the first culprit must not slip through the net, but one or two remnants of the traitors will remain, just like locusts left behind." This species is deeply harmful to the local... The rest of the rebellious party, even if it kills more people, it also makes the traitors fear." In the 20th year of Qianlong (1755), there was a public riot in Chengdu. He instructed, "The obtained If you want to commit crimes and kill a few people as a warning, you don’t need to ask questions.” This added an obvious color of terror to his rule. He vigorously rectified military discipline.In view of the disadvantages of the Jinchuan War, Qianlong specially announced that all prisoners related to military affairs should be dealt with more severely, "a lot of excuses."All military officials who are timid before the battle are not allowed to keep their heads.The unfavorable progress of the Jinchuan War made Qianlong fully aware of the slackness of the Qing Dynasty's armed forces, so he tried to rectify it.In particular, he established a strong battalion in Xiangshan to train strong soldiers, and he often went to inspect and train. ("Records of Emperor Gaozong of the Qing Dynasty") From this year onwards, Qianlong returned to the old path of Yongzheng.From then on, the relationship between the monarch and his ministers in the Qianlong Dynasty became the relationship between a tricky and mean master and a servant who held his breath, or the relationship between a strict head teacher and a primary school student.The elementary school students below will get the teacher's chalk head on their foreheads if they make small movements.Killing and torturing ministers has increasingly become the main channel for Qianlong to vent his bad emotions.He frequently reprimanded the officials for "the benevolence of women's temples" and emphasized that "water is weak and easy to play". Both in terms of language style and way of thinking, they are all repetitions of Yongzheng's years.In practice, his severity surpassed that of Yongzheng. "The reason why his reputation is far better than that of Yongzheng is that, firstly, the image of tolerance and benevolence deliberately established in the early stage will not be immediately forgotten by people, and the other is that in the relationship between monarch and minister, he did not engage in conspiracy and deceit like Yongzheng did. Engaging in Shinto and setting up teachings made the subjects have a strong rebellious psychology." ("Research on the Governance Thoughts of the Three Emperors Kang, Yong, and Qian") After entering middle age, the emperor observed the ministers more and more carefully, criticized and warned more and more, and became more and more merciless.In the seventeenth year of Qianlong (1752), the emperor accused the ministers of other provinces because of the failure to handle the case of forged manuscripts, saying: "The habits of other provinces are often involved in hypocrisy." In December of the thirteenth year of Qianlong's reign, Chen Shiguan, a scholar of the university, bought a batch of fields in Shandong.Chen Shiguan was a veteran of the three dynasties, and he was highly respected in the dynasties.He and the Confucian family in Qufu are in-laws. They bought land in Shandong in order to build another cave in Qufu so that their family power would last forever.Unexpectedly, this matter was discovered by Emperor Qianlong, who was very annoyed. Regardless of Chen's lifelong work for the Aixinjueluo family, he humiliated him and said: "He is originally from Zhejiang, but he bought private property in Shandong. Is it the work of a minister of the country to divide the Yu Run of the Kong family?" Chen Shiguan was dismissed immediately, and Qianlong also specially ordered: "Now that he is dismissed, he will be ordered to the governor of Shandong to not allow him to live in Shandong." The language and measures are so harsh. The bone is the same as its father. In the seventeenth year of Qianlong's reign, when he criticized the reconciliation of ambiguity in the officialdom, he evaluated all the current governors, and pointed out that now he has some understanding of the temperament and character of the main officials in the country, and he will not be deceived by them anymore.He said: "Recently, when the governor is doing things, there is a so-called secret key of harmony between the top and the bottom, which is good on both sides. It looks like it is brave to do things in order to win trust, but it is said that it has the power to turn things around and make subordinates Feelings. Yin Jishan (Governor of Liangjiang) used this technique, and Fang Guancheng (Governor of Zhili) and one or two of the governors followed suit. But Celeng (Governor of Sichuan), Kaer Jishan (Governor of Fujian and Zhejiang) ), Huang Tinggui still has his true colors. Ali Gun (Governor of Guangdong and Guangxi) is not here, and Shuo Se (Governor of Yunnan and Guizhou) is no longer able to... All the ministers have ingenuity and talent, and they will be matured in my chest. Is there anyone among the ministers who takes advantage of tricks?" In the thirty-fifth year of Qianlong (1770), when he reprimanded Gong Zhaolin, the governor of Guizhou, he actually mentioned his nickname in public: "It seems that Gong Zhaolin is a man, he should be his director, but he is rarely practical in doing things. , it’s because there is an iron mouth in the outside world.” Regardless of the official provincial rank of this senior official. Sometimes, Qianlong couldn't vent his anger even after scolding, so Qianlong simply used pranks to torture those disobedient people.In the eighteenth year of Qianlong (1753), the Yellow River broke through Tongshan, and the emperor ordered Gao Bin, the governor of the river, and Zhang Shizai to manage it.Gao Zhang failed to complete the task, and his subordinates Li Tun and Zhang Bin embezzled public funds, resulting in the failure of the river project.Emperor Qianlong was furious. He ordered Li Tun and Zhang Bin to be taken to the execution ground immediately to be executed. At the same time, because he hated the two ministers for their "gratitude and partiality", he ordered Gao Bin, the governor of Hedao, and Zhang Shizai to be tied up and taken to the execution ground together. .Qianlong specially ordered the execution officials to create the illusion that Gao Zhang and Zhang would also be beheaded.Gao Bin was the imperial concubine's father, Qianlong's father-in-law. He was over 70 years old at the time, seeing Li Zhang and others being executed first, he was so frightened that his heart and gallbladder were split, his whole body was paralyzed, and he fell to the ground.The imperial envoy in charge of supervising the beheading only said at this time that Gao Bin and Zhang Shizai were just accompanying the beheading, and in fact they were exempted from the death penalty, so they wanted to ask them for their answer.After the two woke up, as if they had been reborn after death, they immediately played, "The two of us regretted it too much. At this time, we have nothing else in our hearts except gratitude."Qianlong was very proud of his way of torturing ministers. He believed that this could not only serve as an example to others, but also have the effect of making them bow their heads and be grateful.Afterwards, Gao Bin really lived on the construction site day and night, supervising the work without taking a break for a moment, and died of exhaustion on the embankment. Because the emperor was aware of the details and knew the truth and hypocrisy, during the middle period of Qianlong's reign, the ministers did not dare to be cautious in their words and deeds, and obeyed orders, and the administration of officials was quite tidy for a while.