Chapter 68 Chapter Two

military strategist Heshen was in power for more than 20 years in the late Qianlong Dynasty, and was highly valued and appreciated by Emperor Qianlong.Although Emperor Qianlong maintained Heshen everywhere, he was after all a generation of wise emperors who created the prosperity of Kangxi and Qianlong, not a faint emperor.Therefore, even though He Shen was corrupt and accepted bribes when he was in power, he could not be useless, and he was definitely not a person who was ignorant of military and state affairs; otherwise, even Qianlong would not agree to it without waiting for Jiaqing. Since Heshen was bestowed to death by Emperor Jiaqing, the authorities may have destroyed all the evidence in favor of Heshen.Therefore, most of the official records and folklore we can see are not good for Heshen.However, from the only surviving official materials, we can also see that there were several major military deployments in the Qianlong Dynasty. He Shen either went to the front line in person as a supervisor, or was responsible for the logistics supply of the entire military deployment. Emperor made suggestions and contributed to military victories.He Shen also performed well in domestic relations with various ethnic minorities and in handling foreign affairs.

Not only that, Heshen also made certain contributions in some economic affairs.For example, "Biography of Qing History" records that in the fifty-second year of Qianlong (1787), the price of rice in the capital was very high, and shops were hoarding it.Competing to raise prices, the citizens, especially the poor, are complaining.After Heshen learned of this situation, he immediately asked Qianlong to issue an order that the stocks of all grain merchants should not exceed 50 shi, otherwise they would be punished, and the market order would soon improve.Heshen also advocated selling the more than 60,000 stone grains found at a reduced price, or setting up a porridge factory to relieve the people, which caused opposition from businessmen and princes and ministers. It is said that only Liu Yong supported Heshen, while the people in the capital applauded. Some people even call He Shen He Qingtian.

During Heshen's more than 20 years in power, in order to get rid of bad governance, a series of changes and innovations were made to all political, economic, cultural and other systems formulated in the early Qing Dynasty, which is of positive historical significance.At this point, He Shen can be described as a strategist in military affairs.But it is undeniable that most of his many changes were for himself to become more authoritarian, which laid the foundation for the Qing Dynasty to decline from prosperity to decline. He Shen has served in the Military Aircraft Department for more than 20 years, and used his power to make a lot of adjustments to the Military Aircraft Department. When He Shen fell down, many policies had already been integrated into it, and it was difficult to distinguish.

Hong Liangji once said: For more than ten years, he has changed his ancestors' established rules, and he has been doing his own private affairs. Whoever is for the country's own use, who is introduced by Heshen, and whoever is accompanied by bribery and fraud, the emperor is extremely benevolent, indulges his desires, and coerces, and because of the large number of people, he cannot be eliminated. After the death of Heshen in Jiaqing, although he wanted to thoroughly investigate his party members, he had to give up because there were too many people and the law did not blame them.The reason why Heshen was able to do this was first of all because he changed the previous practice of having a fixed number of people in Zhang Jing of the Military Aircraft Department. Later, the power of appointment and removal of personnel in the Military Aircraft Department was transferred from the hands of the emperor to the hands of He Shen.From then on, the candidate can be decided without going through the emperor.This is conducive to Heshen's exclusion of those who are at odds with him.He Shen took advantage of this opportunity to dismiss or transfer out most of the people who were not attached to him in the General Aircraft Department, and arbitrarily planted his party members, making the huge Military Aircraft Department completely a meeting room for He Shen, giving him the opportunity to speak out. .

He Shen also made changes to the traditional Taiwan admonition system.In China's traditional bureaucratic system, because of the loose and unsound system construction, it is still mainly ruled by officials.However, the extremely flexible rule of man lacks an effective supervision mechanism.In order to make up for this defect, the so-called admonishment system was established.The admonition officer originated from Yushitai in the Han Dynasty, so it is also called the official of Taiwan admonishment.The main task of an admonisher is to supervise the behavior and conduct of officials at all levels, and they have the right to directly report to the emperor their behavior or impeach them, and they can take action based on hearsay, in order to attract the emperor's attention.

Most of this position is filled by honest and upright people.However, He Shen stipulated that admonishing officials can only appoint people over 60 years old on the grounds that young officials are not as prudent as older officials, and most of them are nonsense.In fact, he is cutting power in a disguised form. Imagine that when a person is old and dim-sighted, he does not have the vigor of a young man, and his body is half covered with loess. It is not far from the day when he returns to his hometown. Lose your old age?Therefore, since the implementation of this regulation, most of Taiwan's admonishing officials have remained silent and turned a blind eye to those misconducts, which are in name only.

In terms of military affairs, He Shen also holds important powers. In addition to serving as the deputy governor and governor of the Zhenglan Banner, Xianghuang Banner, Zhenghuang Banner, Zhengbai Banner, and Xianglan Banner, he also served as Minister of the Ministry of War. Has mastered the military power of the entire country.In the late Qianlong period, Gansu farmers revolted, and He Shen served as an imperial envoy to supervise the army. Later, during the Taiwan uprising, He Shen recommended Fukang'an to Qianlong as the coach to conquer Taiwan, and most of the food and logistics for the entire army were arranged by He Shen of.

The most important change in Heshen's system is the establishment of the criminal justice system.This system was established around the 45th year of Qianlong (1780) and lasted until Qianlong's death, which took about 20 years.The criminal bill is managed by Heshen's secret office set up inside the Military Aircraft Department. Most of the collected silver does not need to be returned to the national treasury. .That is, the system in which officials pay silver taels as substitutes for their crimes.However, in the actual operation process, there is no excuse for the so-called crime, as long as the emperor needs silver taels, he can easily find the reason and ask the officials to pay the money.Because the crime payment is voluntary, some corrupt officials, in order to show their loyalty and reduce troubles in the future, plan ahead, often hand in the silver before the higher-ups convict, and pay heavily, so as to To win the favor of the emperor.According to records, Qianlong's annual income can reach about 300,000 taels for the crime silver alone.

Most of the series of reforms Heshen made in the system were abolished after Jiaqing took office. However, these changes had a huge impact on the society in the later period of Qianlong's rule, objectively causing peasant uprisings everywhere and officials becoming corrupt. Wait for the chaos.