Chapter 27 let the master not leave me

In order for the emperor to be inseparable from him, apart from taking the initiative to show a groveling look to gain the emperor's attention, he also needs to have clever means to capture the emperor's heart and make him inseparable from himself.This requires Heshen not only to be flattering and shameless, but also to have real ability to let the master dictate to you, to be at ease with the things entrusted to you, and thus to have a psychological dependence on you.Only in this way can the emperor be firmly controlled in his hands. Many honest people think that the reason why flatterers like He Shen won the trust of the emperor must be that the emperor was blinded.In fact, this is a prejudice.If He Shen is really mediocre, in front of Qianlong, who is known as a generation of famous emperors, and in the court full of talents, he has no chance to stand out at all, and it is impossible for him to rise to the top and exercise power arbitrarily.Just relying on flattery only makes the master think that you are loyal, but it cannot reflect your ability; only by showing your various abilities in front of the emperor can you be favored by the emperor.In order to prevent Qianlong from thinking that he is a mediocre man, Heshen cleverly catered to him and worked hard, and finally won Qianlong's favor.

There are many reasons why Qianlong especially favored Heshen, and this has always been a topic that people like to talk about: How did Qianlong value Heshen, who was young and had no achievements, so that he was promoted year after year?One of the important reasons is that Heshen has a set of extraordinary skills for making money, and he can try to satisfy Qianlong who is vain, face-loving, and good-looking. Qianlong in history was a wise emperor, but in the later period, he gradually began to like to pursue the royal style and luxurious scenes of a great country, but he still wanted to give the world an image of a wise emperor who was rigorous, diligent and thrifty, and loved the people like a son.This is a contradiction, but Heshen can always resolve this contradiction well, offering Qianlong many ways to raise money.Qianlong issued an order not to be extravagant, but He Shen encouraged officials at all levels and wealthy businessmen from all over the country to step up their efforts to donate tribute. This not only preserved the tall image of Emperor Qianlong as a clean and honest government, but also accumulated a lot of wealth for him to squander. Therefore, Qianlong became more and more complacent. .For a period of time, the Ministry of Internal Affairs was short of finances. Under He Shen's auspices, the Ministry of Internal Affairs turned from loss to profit in just one year, and the amount of silver in the treasury increased.So Qianlong was even more inseparable from Heshen, and gradually delegated power to him.In this way, He Shen is more confident in the court.

There are various ways of Heshen to collect money, the most important of which is Heshen's original criminal silver system: officials make mistakes, and they can pay different amounts of silver according to the degree of atonement to avoid punishment.Eighty-ninety percent of the huge amount of silver taels obtained by the crime-discussing silver system did not enter the national treasury, which provided Qianlong with funds for squandering.Heshen was equivalent to building a treasury for Qianlong. No wonder Qianlong trusted Heshen so much. In the early days of Qianlong's rule, the national power was strong, coupled with the huge family property left by Kangxi and Yongzheng, the treasury was also relatively abundant, but it could not withstand his unlimited squandering and wanton use of troops in his middle and old age.Seeing that the national treasury is becoming more and more difficult to support, in order to satisfy his great success and desire to whitewash the peace, Qianlong urgently needs a capable minister who can open up avenues for him to make money, and He Shen fills this gap in time.

At that time, officials from various ministries of the Qing government, down to the officials of the frontier, magistrates, county magistrates, as well as salt merchants, merchants, and ticket dealers, dedicated a large amount of money and rare treasures they collected to the emperor every year in order to obtain With greater fame, this phenomenon has even reached a crazy level.Especially on the birthdays of empress dowagers, empresses, and princes and princesses, the imperial court took the opportunity to plunder officials and businessmen at all levels, and officials and wealthy businessmen also enjoyed it, anyway, they didn't pay a penny.The face-saving Qianlong also issued decrees several times expressing his opposition to contributions. In fact, this was just a superficial article, and Qianlong's treasury did not fail to receive it secretly. This is really a great irony.Not only that, even envoys from neighboring countries such as North Korea, Annan, Ryukyu, Luzon, Myanmar, and the United Kingdom also paid tribute to a large number of treasures.

Heshen met Qianlong's need for luxurious enjoyment without much use of the treasury's inventory. Qianlong was of course very happy, and felt that Heshen was smart and capable, and he was his right-hand assistant, and he couldn't do without him for a moment.Of course, He Shen also took the opportunity to accumulate a huge amount of property for himself in the process.In fact, the money was neither obtained by these officials themselves, nor would they contribute their own property to the emperor.Instead of misappropriating a large amount of gold and silver from the treasury, they plundered from the people instead. Therefore, the living standards of the people actually declined amidst the prosperity of singing and dancing.

In addition, He Shen is also in charge of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Chongwenmen Tax Customs, and he has also exercised very strict control over this.In order to earn more and spend less, he has indeed used a lot of brains.We know that he is a stingy rich man who is very careful about his money.In order to increase his income, he almost went to the point of plucking wild goose.Chongwenmen Tax Customs, an important entrance to wealth that he mastered, was located between Santiao and Sitiao Hutongs in Chongwai Shangsan.During the Ming Dynasty, checkpoints were set up at the nine gates of the inner city of Beijing, and exorbitant taxes were collected from passing merchants, officials, and those who entered Beijing.In the Qing Dynasty, the taxation of the nine gates was changed to the unified taxation of the Chongwenmen, and several inspection tax gates were set up.The tax supervisory position of the Chongwenmen Tax Customs should be held by an official from the Ministry of Internal Affairs. However, in the Qianlong period, in order to show his importance to a certain minister, the emperor often appointed this rich and fat vacancy to his trusted minister.As Qianlong's favorite minister, He Shen naturally assumed this position.

According to Chen Kangqi's record in "Lang Qian Jiwen": The world's tax barriers are the most extravagant and violent of the Chongwenmen subordinates in the capital.According to the tax regulations, the baskets, brooms, shoes and socks, rice noodles, cloth, vegetables, melons and fruits, food and other items carried by small traders can enter the city tax-free. , but according to the correct.At that time, when the merchants and common people in the capital area entered the city, they all prepared two coins on the brim of their hats. When they passed the city gate, the tax collectors took it by themselves. There was no verbal communication between the two sides, which almost became an unspoken rule. There is a poem in "Yandu Miscellaneous Songs", which satirizes this phenomenon at that time: taxation is all over the nine families, and the power belongs to the eunuch temple;

The Chongwenmen tax office was not only responsible for collecting taxes, but also assumed other tasks, such as selling off the slaves and property of confiscated princes and ministers on behalf of the court.These are lucrative yamen, and they are fat vacancies directly under the control of the imperial court.It is precisely because of the considerable annual income of the Chongwenmen Tax Customs that Heshen, who regards wealth as his life, holds it firmly and has been unwilling to let go.After he resigned from the position of tax supervisor of Chongwenmen, he let his son Fengshen Yinde take over, which can be said to be a change of soup but not medicine.

Heshen is smart and sophisticated, good at financial management, and can continuously supply Qianlong with a large amount of gold and silver treasures for his consumption and squandering. In addition, he is good at figuring out Qianlong's thoughts and always does what he wants, so Qianlong is very satisfied and at ease with him, especially in his later years. It has even reached the level of Yibiyidu.At that time, the financial power of the entire country was controlled by Heshen alone. He successively served as the minister of the household department, the secretary of the household department, managed the three treasuries of the household department, and the minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for many years.Once, because of too many part-time jobs, Qianlong reluctantly let him resign from the household affairs.However, the Miao uprisings in Hunan and Guizhou that occurred shortly thereafter, and the White Lotus Sect uprising that followed, caused a sudden strain on military expenditures.Because Yi is familiar with military supplies, he also ordered and managed the household department to write about the reimbursement incident.Yi actually controlled the affairs of the household department by one person, which was changed into a rule, and ministers were not allowed to discuss a word.He Shen's arbitrary behavior can be seen from this.

One of the important reasons why Heshen amassed money crazily across the country was to meet Qianlong's endless needs.In the fifty-fifth year of Qianlong (1790), and Qianlong's 80th birthday, Heshen was of course the main person in charge of organizing the celebrations. Of course, he also wanted to take the opportunity to make a fortune.So officials at all levels were asked to pay tribute to please Qianlong.Of course Qianlong was aware of He Shen's corruption of ink, but in his eyes, only He Shen was the person he trusted the most and was worthy of his reliance.Therefore, his behavior was ignored.

Qianlong and Heshen relied on each other on this point: Qianlong regarded Heshen as the God of Wealth who was able to attract wealth and treasure, and asked him for money when he was short of money; Great fishing.Qianlong couldn't do without Heshen to support himself, and Heshen couldn't do without Qianlong to support him, so both sides enjoyed it.