"At the beginning of my imperial reign, until thirteen years after I tasted my will, the country will definitely have something to do with it, and it is beyond our control." This sentence not only appeared again in the mouth of Emperor Qianlong, but Emperor Qianlong himself seeme

"From the beginning of my imperial reign, until the thirteenth year after I tasted it, the country will definitely have something to do with it, and it is beyond the expectation.", This passage not only appeared in the mouth of Emperor Qianlong again, but Qianlong Emperor himself seems to be very sensitive to the word thirteen, perhaps because his father Yongzheng passed away in the thirteenth year of his reign, or perhaps for other reasons.

Emperor Qianlong's predictions seemed to be very accurate. In the thirteenth year of Qianlong's reign, many major events of historic significance occurred, and Emperor Qianlong was motivated by unknown fear or precaution.

In that year, Emperor Qianlong's management of the country, especially the management of officials, reached the most stringent level in the history of the Qing Dynasty. And why is it said that the thirteenth year of Qianlong was the most harsh year in the history of the Qing Dynasty? What happened?

1: Turning point, the thirteenth year of Qianlong

In the thirteenth year of Yongzheng, Qing Shizong died, Qing Gaozong ascended the throne, who was later Emperor Qianlong. Emperor Qianlong can be said to be the luckiest emperor in the entire Qing Dynasty . Not only did he reign for more than sixty years, but the Qing Dynasty was at the height of its national power and the people lived and worked in peace and contentment.

What he took over from his father Yongzheng was a prosperous dynasty. Emperor Qianlong initially left the impression of the court ministers as a generous and gentle emperor. However, this scene did not last long. In the thirteenth year of Qianlong's reign, Emperor Qianlong was During the year when the style of his rule changed drastically, many major events that affected the course of the history of the Qing Dynasty also occurred.

In the thirteenth year of Qianlong's reign, Emperor Qianlong's Empress Fucha passed away. Emperor Qianlong was very sad. Empress Fucha and Emperor Qianlong could be said to have a deep love for each other. He once praised Empress Fucha as the most virtuous empress in history, although she had a lover. There is suspicion of Xi Shi in her eyes, but it can also reflect Empress Fucha's status among Emperor Qianlong.

Once Emperor Qianlong unfortunately fell ill. Although he got better after treatment by the imperial physician, his body was very weak and he needed help for a hundred days.

This could have been handled by her subordinates, but Empress Fucha personally moved outside the emperor's palace and took care of Emperor Qianlong meticulously. She did not move back to the palace until Emperor Qianlong recovered.

Empress Fucha can be said to be Emperor Qianlong's virtuous wife, and the couple share weal and woe. But such a virtuous empress died in the thirteenth year of Qianlong's reign, and Emperor Qianlong was very sad. Another major event is that in the thirteenth year of Qianlong's reign, the Qing Dynasty suffered frequent defeats in the wars between and Jinchuan .

Emperor Qianlong was full of confidence in the war to conquer the Jinchuan and Jinchuan at first, but reality slapped Emperor Qianlong hard. When the Qing army came to the Jinchuan and Jinchuan, the Qing army found that the enemy occupied a very favorable terrain.

However, the Qing army was unable to exert its full strength. The Qing army adopted all imaginable tactics such as tunnel digging and artillery bombardment, but none of them achieved good results.

Emperor Qianlong's confidence in conquering Jinchuan and Jinchuan began to waver, and he ordered the Qing army to take a temporary rest. Unexpectedly, the enemy seized the opportunity and launched a surprise attack on the Qing army. The Qing army suffered heavy casualties, and the first campaign to conquer Jinchuan and Jinchuan ended in failure.

Later, Emperor Qianlong once again sent generals to attack Xiaojinchuan, but they suffered another disastrous defeat. The frontline commanders avoided the battle and even resorted to remote control warfare. Emperor Qianlong was very angry, and the battle on the frontline was unfavorable. , for Emperor Qianlong, who was very happy with his achievements, it would damage his image as a wise and mighty emperor.

2: In the most harsh year, all officials were as quiet as chilling

After being hit by the double blow of the death of his beloved wife and the loss of troops on the front line, Emperor Qianlong began to undergo tremendous changes, especially caused by the funeral incident of Queen Xiaoxian A large number of bureaucrats were demoted or sentenced to death, which caused huge waves in the relatively calm officialdom in the early years of Qianlong. Qianlong's imperial style began to change from lenient to strict.

According to the usual practice, Hanlin Academy was responsible for writing the relevant documents about Empress Daxing. The document handed over to Emperor Qianlong at that time now wrote the queen as the empress dowager. According to past practice, this was not a big deal originally, as long as it was changed. That was fine, but Emperor Qianlong became furious because of this.

Acton, the bachelor who was in charge of the Hanlin Academy, was dismissed from his post for investigation and handed over to the Ministry of Punishment for prosecution. Finally, the Ministry of Punishment appointed Actun to be hanged in prison. Emperor Qianlong was very dissatisfied and thought that the officials of the Ministry of Punishment were suspected of favoritism, so ever since All officials of the Ministry of Justice, big and small, were dismissed from their posts and investigated. The then Minister of the Ministry of Personnel and others were also implicated.

Emperor Qianlong not only targeted the officials of the court, but also everyone, including his own sons. At the funeral of Queen Xiaoxian, Qianlong's eldest son and third son were scolded by Emperor Qianlong for not showing enough sadness.

Qianlong's eldest son and third son were not born to Empress Xiaoxian, and they did not have a deep relationship with the empress. Attending the funeral was just a formality. Not only these two princes, but most people at that time were like this. kind of mentality.

However, in the eyes of Emperor Qianlong, this kind of behavior was a heinous act of treason. Emperor Qianlong denounced the two as "unfaithful and unfilial, and unworthy of being sons of man", and directly declared that the two princes would never be able to take the throne again.

For these two princes, it was not only an innocent disaster, but also a devastating disaster. Just when the ministers thought that Emperor Qianlong would calm down after dealing with the two princes and all the ministers, unexpectedly, this was just the beginning.

Emperor Qianlong gave Empress Xiaoxian a very high funeral standard and attached great importance to it. The officials of the Ministry of Industry at that time were furious because the cover of the Queen's treasure book was not exquisite enough and they thought that these officials were disrespectful to Empress Xiaoxian. Then all the officials including the Minister of Industry were dismissed from their posts for investigation and handed over to Yousi for questioning.

After the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Industry and Ministry of Personnel, Ministry of Rites did not escape the wrath of Emperor Qianlong. When the Ministry of Rites presided over the sacrificial ceremony for Empress Xiaoxian, because the tribute table was not clean enough, Emperor Qianlong directly ordered all the officials of the Ministry of Rites to be held. All the officials were demoted, and the Minister of Rites was beaten to the bottom and demoted to a commoner. For a time, everyone in the government and the public was in danger.

According to custom, the queen is not allowed to shave her head when she dies. However, in the previous history, this system was not fully implemented. For example, when Emperor Yongzheng died, many officials shaved their heads within a hundred days. , and was not punished. But this time it was completely different. Emperor Qianlong paid special attention to this rule and required all subjects to abide by it.

However, the ministers did not pay enough attention to it, and Emperor Qianlong showed no mercy. The governor of Jiangnan River, Zhou Xuejian, and the governor of Huguang, two feudal officials, were killed by Emperor Qianlong directly because they had shaved their heads during the day. Hunan The governor, the governor of Hubei, and many other governors also lost their official positions.

From this point of view, the thirteenth year of Qianlong was indeed the most harsh year in the history of the Qing Dynasty. Because of a trivial matter, one could lose one's official position and life. So what was the intention behind Emperor Qianlong's being so harsh?

3: The deep meaning behind the harshness

Behind the harshness in the thirteen years of Qianlong was the change of Emperor Qianlong's strict governance. At the beginning of his succession, Emperor Qianlong was relatively opposed to the simple and brutal governance style of the Yongzheng Dynasty. After he came to power, Qianlong The emperor adopted a lenient governance policy.

However, with the relaxation of Emperor Qianlong's governance, the phenomenon of corruption among officials in various places has greatly increased. Things started to improve under Yongzheng, and the officialdom ecology deteriorated again, and the slackness of officials became more and more intense.

Emperor Qianlong began to undergo tremendous changes. After thirteen years of accumulated experience in actually governing the country, Emperor Qianlong realized that a qualified emperor cannot blindly and infinitely be tolerant.

Especially in a feudal autocratic government, ministers could not be as concerned about state affairs as the emperor, and he needed to rely on these people to govern the country. Strict governance became a path that Emperor Qianlong had to choose.

Emperor Qianlong was increasingly dissatisfied with his ministers, which finally broke out completely during the funeral of Queen Xiaoxian. As he grew older, Emperor Qianlong became more and more convinced of his father Yongzheng's governing style.

If you want to manage these ministers, you must be lenient and strict. After Emperor Qianlong implemented strict governance, the ministers of the Qing Dynasty had to be cautious in their words and deeds and work with all their heart. By the middle of Qianlong's reign, official governance once again moved toward the Qingming Dynasty.