Although Kangxi was the third emperor of the Qing Dynasty established by the Jurchens, in fact, his first two emperors did not completely control the Central Plains in their own hands, so Kangxi frequently used troops after he succeeded to the throne. Therefore, in a strict sense

Kangxi Although he was the third emperor of the Jurchens to establish the Great Qing , in fact, his first two emperors did not completely control the Central Plains in their own hands, so Kangxi frequently used troops after he succeeded to the throne.

Therefore, strictly speaking, Kangxi can also be regarded as the founding king.

Therefore, under this background, it is not difficult for us to understand some of Kangxi's "abnormal behaviors", the most obvious of which is his condonation of official corruption.

According to records such as " Qing History Manuscript ", Kangxi was aware of this problem in his later years. He once said: There is a common phenomenon in today's officialdom. The kind of person who can make money and live a very corrupt life is easily regarded as a capable official, and people around him will often praise him.

Officials who go out without a car, eat without meat, and dress simply are considered "incompetent". Such people are not only unable to win the respect of their colleagues, but are even " despised by the world , Township Party" of laughter, of teaching children and admonitions of "

In ancient times, the rise and fall of a country mainly relied on the maintenance of ministers. If the officialdom at that time had reached this point, it is conceivable that the that had just been established in the Qing Dynasty had already become What does it look like.

There have always been different opinions on the reasons why Yongzheng succeeded to the throne. (For details, see "How did Yongzheng become the emperor? Did he conspire to seize the throne from his fourteenth brother, or did Kangxi pass it on himself?") However, looking at it from another perspective, for the people at that time, how the emperor succeeded to the throne was not actually a mystery. What matters is that the successor emperor is incompetent.

Before Kangxi's death, the well-documented silver left behind was about 24 million less than 424 million taels. After Emperor Yongzheng took over the mess left by his father, he once made the country's silver deposits reach more than 60 million taels. After Qianlong inherited the foundation laid by his father, his inventory once reached 70 million.

From this point of view, after Yongzheng inherited his father's mess, not only did he not continue to mess up, but he even stepped on the brakes, and this was the legendary " Kangxi and Qianlong ".

So how did Yongzheng, the emperor who only reigned for 13 years, do it?

In the words of Emperor Yongzheng himself, the most important thing in government is to employ people, " the rest are all trivial matters. ". So how does he use people? Today we will talk about the most legendary and Li Wei of the Yongzheng Dynasty as an example.

Because of the influence of literary and artistic works such as "Yongzheng Dynasty", many people think that Li Wei himself is just a street beggar. His subsequent rise to prominence was because he was bought back home by Yongzheng in his early years. is the direct line of Yongzheng.

Actually this is not true. According to records, Li Wei entered the system as early as the Kangxi Dynasty. However, his official position was not obtained through the imperial examination, nor was he favored by his ancestors, but was bought for him by his family.

From the way Li Wei entered the system, we can see two problems. First, during the Kangxi Dynasty, the background of officials was no longer so pure. Second, although Li Wei was not a street beggar, , but his cultural level should be limited, otherwise he would directly enter the official position through the imperial examination.

So how did he and Yongzheng develop a bond?

According to records, after Li Wei spent money to buy an official position, he was promoted from a member of the Ministry of War (deputy director level) to a doctor in the household department (director level) in just one year. It can be seen from this that Li Wei's family should not be short of money, and he himself should be a smart man.

However, in addition to being smart, Li Wei was also a person of great character. It was said that when he was in the Household Department, he deliberately caused embarrassment to others because he couldn't stand a prince amassing money. As a result, he was also in the Household Department at that time. Yong Zheng, who was in charge of the ministry, took him seriously.

But legends are legends after all, and with Li Wei’s IQ, he probably wouldn’t do such “ stupid things ” by himself. If he did, he should have become a member of Yongzheng at that time, or inspected Object, this matter is probably " voted for ".

After Yongzheng became emperor, he sent Li Wei, who had been inspected, to Yunnan to manage the salt affairs. At that time, there was also a man named Ertai who was sent to Yunnan in the same year as him. This man later became a model governor in the Yongzheng year together with Li Wei and Tian Wenjing.

Judging from subsequent events, Yongzheng's decision to ask Li Wei to go to Yunnan was not a sudden move, but a far-reaching plan. Because after Yongzheng succeeded to the throne, he replaced the person in charge of Yunnan with Gao Qizhuo, the brother-in-law of Gengyao in 1999. Later, one of Yongzheng's political achievements, "reforming native soil and returning to local rule", was also carried out in Yunnan.

It can be seen that the reason why Yongzheng arranged for Li Wei to go to remote Yunnan instead of staying with him, or even going to a prosperous land from the beginning, was because Yunnan was Yongzheng's " private land ", and this area It is easy for local governments to create political achievements, and of course Yunnan is also a touchstone.

After Li Wei's quality was tested, his qualifications were enough, so Yongzheng transferred him to Zhejiang as a supervisor. At that time, Yongzheng had only succeeded to the throne for three years. When Yongzheng took the throne for five years, Li Wei has become a first-class official - Governor of Zhejiang .

During his work in Jiangnan, Li Wei focused on two tasks, one was salt affairs, which was Yongzheng's money bag, and the other was "fighting bandits." Some people may ask, is it worth using a first-class officer to catch a thief and a robber?

But anyone who has had social experience knows that if there are evil forces in a place, then that will definitely happen. And this kind of behavior occurs in Jiangnan, where thoughts are surging. If it is not taken seriously, it will inevitably cause irreparable consequences.

Kangxi and Qianlong went to the south of the Yangtze River many times. What was the reason? It was not to visit the mountains and rivers, but to win people's hearts. The reason why Yongzheng did not often appease public opinion was largely because Li Wei was in charge of Jiangnan, and " civil and military officials were controlled by him".

After Li Wei completed his expected tasks in Jiangnan, Yongzheng promoted him to the Minister of the Ministry of War, and within a few years he was promoted to the Minister of the Ministry of Justice. It is worth mentioning that when Li Wei was in charge of the Ministry of Justice, he impeached Ortai's younger brother, and Ortai was already the chief minister of the cabinet at that time.

According to some records, Li Wei had two characteristics during his tenure in the Yongzheng Dynasty. First, he was upright. As long as he thought you had done something wrong, he would definitely deal with you without discussing it. Second, he was diligent. According to some historical records, Li Wei was in office during his tenure. On the movie, I was really tired and vomited blood like in "Yongzheng Dynasty".

If you are familiar with that period of history, you may find that some of Li Wei's behaviors are actually very similar to Yongzheng's, which is why Yongzheng was willing to promote him, an unconventional official.

Of course, the reason why Li Wei was able to win Yongzheng's trust was not only his own efforts and appreciation of Yongzheng, but also the historical background we mentioned at the beginning.

What Yongzheng inherited was a mess. If he didn't work hard to fix it, the Qing Dynasty might continue to decline. If Yongzheng wanted to do things, he had to use officials who were willing to do things and could get things done, rather than Li Wei, who had a professional background. , exactly this kind of person.