Chapter 38 Conquer dissidents first

Those who have been able to achieve great things throughout the ages are not people who are hesitant when they encounter problems. The most important thing for them to succeed is to act decisively and decisively, without the benevolence of women.He Shen was able to skyrocket, and he was even more ruthless in doing things, and he would never be soft-hearted, otherwise the spittle of his political opponents would drown him.Especially when dealing with those who dare to oppose him, he often has to put them to death to feel at ease. When He Shen was in power, there were often people who dared to question He Shen's actions and ended up losing their official positions or even ruining their families.The experience of Wuxu Valley is a typical example.

Wu Xugu, also known as Wu Ji, was born in Yanshi, Henan Province. In the fifty-seventh year of Qianlong (1792), he served as the magistrate of Boshan County. law and order.At that time, it was widely rumored in the society that the peasant leader Wang Lun who led the uprising in the thirty-ninth year of Qianlong (1774) was not dead, but was recruiting troops to prepare for rebellion.Therefore, He Shen condoned his subordinates to burn, kill and loot wantonly under the pretext of hunting down Wang Lun and eradicating future troubles.Not only were they active in the capital area, but sometimes they even went to the Shandong area where Wang Lun raised his troops to pick quarrels and provoke troubles.

Soon, Wu Xugu, who had just taken office as the county magistrate, encountered officers and soldiers sent by Heshen. The officers and soldiers wantonly hurt the people in the countryside and robbed them of money and goods, causing great public resentment.Wu Xugu is an upright person, and he can't see these people showing off their power here.So they were sent to the county government to arrest them.Unexpectedly, these people relied on He Shen's support, regarded themselves as officials, were arrogant and rude, and would not kneel down when they saw Wuxugu, and hinted to him that they were He Zhongtang's subordinates, so that Wuxugu could get acquainted with them and treat them put it back.

Wu Xugu thought he was right, so he said sharply: "The imperial court sent you here to arrest traitors, not to disturb the common people. You have arrived in our county and acted mischievously. What else can you say?"After speaking the order, they beat up the group of people left and right, and drove them out of Boshan County. Where have these people suffered such losses?When he went back, he reported to Heshen again, saying that the magistrate of Boshan County was arrogant and rude to He Zhongtang, uttering wild words without the slightest respect.After He Shen found out about this incident, he held a grudge against Wuxugu, and soon found an excuse to remove Wuxugu from his official position and send him far away to the Northeast as a slave.

Heshen treats a county magistrate who is usually out of reach and talks to him with deliberate plans and vicious attacks, wishing to kill them all. It is conceivable that he will do everything to those officials who are in high positions and usually do not take themselves seriously. After He Shen was favored by Qianlong, many ministers in the court no longer dared to belittle him, and they were very respectful.However, there are also some upright officials who think that He Shen's background and fortune cannot help but be on the right track, and he was able to be honored only by pleasing the king, and they are quite contemptuous of him.

Once, Jiangxi Governor Haicheng came to Beijing to report on his duties. When he arrived at the Military Aircraft Department, he bowed to everyone one by one, but his attitude towards He Shen was very arrogant and rude, and said: I didn’t expect that there would be another Minister of Military Aircraft after a few days. It turned out that someone was so capable that they made firecrackers and ascended to the sky.And deliberately let He Shen hear it, and finally attacked He Shen personally.He Shen didn't get angry at that time, but he was determined to put an end to Hai Cheng's arrogance.

During Qianlong's reign, confiscation of banned books was prevalent. Haicheng always obeyed the imperial court's orders, so he worked very hard to confiscate banned books, and achieved great results.As the saying goes, Xiao He is the one who succeeds, and Xiao He is the one who loses. He almost lost his life because of confiscating banned books. At that time, there was a book called "Zi Guan", the author was Wang Xihou, whose real name was Wanghou. He was afraid that his name would make the court taboo, so he changed his name to Xihou.He was nearly 40 years old when he passed the exam, but because he failed to pass the exam repeatedly, he decided to give up the exam and write a book.In the 40th year of Qianlong (1775), he spent 17 years of hard work and finally wrote the book "Zi Guan" and published it.The book is divided into four categories: heaven, earth, people, and things. It is a concise dictionary.He is also very satisfied with his book, and wrote in the preface: It is extremely difficult to penetrate the characters in the world, and the rhyme of poetry is not less than ten thousand characters. Scholars still know too much but don't know how to use them.Today's "Kangxi Dictionary" has increased to more than 46,000 characters. Scholars search one thing and leave another, and miss ten. They often suffer from the end of the chapter and are at a loss.Therefore, he wrote this book in order to be able to connect the characters in the world so that scholars can find them easily.

Unexpectedly, it was because of the many inconveniences mentioned in the "Kangxi Dictionary" in his preface that it brought him the disaster of killing himself.The fellow villagers of Wang Xihou sued the officials in the name of slandering and belittling the emperor Kangxi.It was Haicheng who handled the case. He believed that Wang Xihou had no ancestors and was bold and arrogant. He suggested that Qianlong should remove his identity as a Juren first, and then try to convict him.After Qianlong read "Zi Guan" carefully, he didn't care about it, so he put the matter aside temporarily.

Unexpectedly, this book fell into the hands of He Shen, he wished to find a few words of disrespect to the royal family from the book, in order to gain Qianlong's attention and favor.Finally, he saw in the common examples in the book that the holy ancestors, the temple taboos of Sejong, and the royal names of Qianlong were listed one by one like other characters, so he seized the opportunity and immediately participated in the performance to Qianlong.Qianlong heard that there was such a rebellious behavior in the book, and he did not shy away from the emperor's name, which violated the majesty of the royal family, so he ordered Wang Xihou to be beheaded, six descendants to be executed, and twenty-one members of the whole family to sit together; He also reprimanded Haicheng for not handling the case carefully, dismissed him from his post, and handed him over to the Ministry of Criminal Justice for punishment.

In these feats again and again, He Shen attacked and defeated his political opponents, but he himself was promoted again and again, and invited favors in front of Qianlong.His behavior has even been heard by envoys from other countries. After the North Korean envoys returned to their country, it was recorded in the history books: There was a scholar in Shaanxi who could not stand Heshen's crimes of corruption, perverting the law, and forming a party for personal gain. In the darkness and the suffering of the people, regardless of personal safety, he wrote a letter to Qianlong, complaining about Heshen's various evil deeds, and hoped that Qianlong would punish Heshen's crimes according to the law.

The scholar's memorial finally reached Qianlong's hands, but Qianlong was showing great favor to Heshen at this time, so how could he listen to any good words?Still firmly believe in He Shen.But He Shen couldn't tolerate someone treating him like this, so he sent someone to find out the whereabouts of the scholar and killed the scholar's family.The civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty saw that He Shen was still favored by the emperor after he acted so recklessly, who would dare not respect him?For a while, the officials were all trembling and submissive when they saw He Shen, and when He Shen came, it was like the emperor's presence. In fact, if we think about it from another angle, we will find that the reason why He Shen used such vicious methods against people is because of necessity.He did not come from a noble background, nor did he come from an imperial examination. Therefore, although he had a high official position, he did not receive the corresponding respect, and his psychology was unavoidably unbalanced.If he hadn't dealt harsh blows to those political opponents and established himself, he might not have a good life in the officialdom. Later, in order to please the emperor and consolidate his position, he inevitably did a lot of unrighteous things, which aroused the anger of the officials and the people.At this time, he had no choice but to rely on harsh means to attack others, to make an example, so that others would not dare to act rashly against him.Otherwise, he would be easily sued by others, and his political career and even his life would be ended early.However, how could He Shen, who has been smart for a lifetime and has read a lot of poetry and books, not know that doing so is against the axiom of the world?By doing this, isn't he defending the people's mouth more than Fangchuan, and seeking his own death?It can be seen that He Shen is also beneficial to fainting.