In the leap month of the 40th year of Qianlong, the 26-year-old Heshen was promoted to Qianqingmen Guard. In November, he was promoted to the Imperial Front Guard and was awarded the title of Deputy Chief of Zhenglan Banner . In the first month of the 41st year, he was appointed as the Left Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, in March, and in April, he was appointed as the Minister of Military Affairs.
In just half a year, Heshen went from an ordinary guard to the highest level of power in the Qing Dynasty and became a confidant and favorite minister of Emperor Qianlong. From then on, Heshen was promoted every year and promoted titles every year, and most of the people in charge were fat and shortage and important positions.
"Biography of Heshen" records that in the first month of the 45th year of Qianlong, 31-year-old Heshen accepted an important task and went to Yunnan with the Minister of Justice Kaning A to investigate the corruption case of Li Shiyao, the Grand Secretary and Governor of Yunnan and Guizhou. When he arrived in Yunnan, he first arrested the housekeeper of Li Shiyao and obtained evidence, forcing the smart and capable Li Shiyao to bow his head and plead guilty.
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Heshen only took more than two months from accepting this task to Qianlong’s imperial order to deal with Li Shiyao. Heshen then reported to the emperor that the administrative management in Yunnan was chaotic, and many prefectures and counties were in deficits and needed to be thoroughly cleaned up and rectified. This report was immediately praised by Qianlong. Qianlong originally wanted to keep Heshen in Yunnan and serve as the position of governor of Yunnan and Guizhou, but considering that Li Shiyao's case was investigated and dealt with, it was somewhat inconvenient for his future work, so he decided to use another relative, Fukang'an .
After Heshen returned to Beijing in May of that year, he further expressed his specific opinions to the emperor on reorganizing the salt affairs, money law and border defense affairs in Yunnan, which were all affirmed by Qianlong one by one.
The archives preserved today are the most authoritative records of the investigation and prosecution of Li Shiyao in March of the 45th year of Qianlong.
Heshen handled the case in Yunnan very well, and indeed showed his talent and ability to do things, so Heshen was promoted to the Minister of Revenue on his way back to Beijing. After a month, Qianlong gave Heshen's six-year-old son Fengshen Yinde , and soon betrothed his favorite young daughter, Princess Xiao, to Fengshen Yinde, and got married in the 54th year of Qianlong. Now we can see from the gift list of the "Inner Court Rewards Book" file in the Qing Palace that the gifts that Qianlong rewarded his daughter and son-in-law at that time were extremely generous.
This marriage not only brought great economic benefits to Heshen, but also brought immeasurable political benefits. From then on, the relationship between Heshen and Qianlong was not only a relationship between master and servant, but also a relationship between monarch and minister, but also a relationship between in-laws.
Heshen did whatever he wanted from then on because Qianlong was his protector, and he could always turn bad luck and danger into danger.
In the 46th year of Qianlong (1781 AD), Su Su 43 rebelled and advanced to Lanzhou. Heshen was ordered to go to the army to suppress the army with Grand Secretary Agui. The general in front was about to win, but Heshen was blindly commanded one step first, but he turned victory into defeat, resulting in the general of Tuqinbao being beaten to death.
Heshen did not report the truth to Qianlong, but instead blamed the soldiers for not obeying orders.
A few days later, Grand Secretary Agui rushed to the scene to re-deploy, personally directed, and did not find anyone who did not listen to the order.
Agui portrait
Agui's memorial After Qianlong learned of the situation, he instructed Agui's memorial, saying that this incident was caused by Heshen's improper command. Now that you have arrived there, it is enough for you to command the matter alone. After receiving the order, Heshen will return to Beijing immediately. There is no need for both of them to stay there.
After Heshen returned to Beijing, he not only did not receive punishment, but instead served as the Minister of War.
In the following years, Heshen continued to have part-time jobs, and each promotion of Heshen was recorded in historical materials. To illustrate the problem, historians listed Heshen's promotion and title time, position and age as a brief table. It can be seen from this that when Heshen was 20 years old, he only inherited the position of a third-class light char lieutenant, but by the time he was 37 years old, he had been promoted to the Grand Secretary of the Wenhua Palace. Until the 29 years before he was convicted, there were nearly 50 important promotions and titles.
In March of the 41st year of Qianlong, 27-year-old Heshen was awarded the Minister of Military Affairs. Three years later, after the death of the foreman, the Minister of Military Aircraft, Yu Minzhong, the Grand Secretary of the Wuying Palace, has always served as the Minister of Military Aircraft. The other members of the Military Affairs Office also worked in the of the Grand Secretary Wang Jie , the Shangshu Dong Gao and Fu Chang'an. Agui, Wang Jie and Dong Gao all hated Heshen, and as a result, there was a strange phenomenon that the five ministers did not work together every day.
For this reason, the Censor Qian Feng specially submitted a memorial, asking the emperor to order the restoration of the regulations on the military ministers working together, so that they can discuss matters. In fact, the memorial was aimed at Heshen. Qianlong admitted that the situation reflected in the memorial was correct, but it was finally left unresolved.
Portrait of Emperor Qianlong
Qianlong knew that Agui had a bad relationship with Heshen, and often asked Agui to lead troops outside or review projects and handle cases. The real power of the Military Affairs Office naturally fell into Heshen's hands. Because his power was too great, in the 58th year of Qianlong (1793 AD), when British envoy Macartney visited China, he heard that many Chinese privately called Heshen the second emperor.
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