Remove Heshen , Jiaqing immediately withdraws the troops. Except for Yijiang A , Wu Xinglan, Wu Shengqin and others who were punished, no one who was promoted by Heshen or who had given bribes to Heshen will be investigated, ensuring the stability of the political situation.
Why did Emperor Jiaqing eradicate Heshen? And it is urgent? Some people say that Heshen was killed because he was too rich. Heshen fell and Jiaqing was full. How much property does Heshen have? The statements are different. Some say that it reached 800 million taels of silver, which is the sum of the financial resources of the Qing Dynasty for ten years, so it caused a murder.
We can see from the list of searching Heshen’s property that Heshen plundered a lot of wealth during his lifetime. He has long controlled Chongwenmen's tax customs, solicited bribes and accepted bribes, merged a large amount of land, opened pawn shops in the capital and suburban counties, and released usury loans. Not only did he open coal mines in the area of Fangshan , but he even engaged in various operations such as transportation, and a large amount of money entered his private pockets.
A large amount of wealth allowed Heshen to live a luxurious life like an emperor. He built residences outside Chengdeli's main gate, Beijing Beichang Street Accounting Department Hutong and other places.
Prince Gong’s Mansion
Heshen built a luxurious house on the banks of Shichahai in Beijing, which is today’s Prince Gong’s Mansion. In the mansion, even built a nanmu house in the mansion imitated Emperor Qianlong’s Ningshou Palace , called Xijinzhai. The emperor also built , Chuanhuamen, , and , palace lanterns, , used in the palace, etc.
Heshen also built the grand and beautiful Shuchun Garden in Haidian, Beijing. It is part of today's famous institution Peking University , called Weiminghu . The stone hood that is left behind now is also built in the same way as the emperor.
Weiminghu
Heshen not only enjoyed a life of group wives and concubines and wealthy clothes all day long, but also dreamed of being as glorious as an emperor after his death. In Jizhou, Hebei, today's Ji County, a huge tomb was built, with a specification even exceeding that of the prince, which is called Heling by the people. When Heshen was confiscated, his grave had been destroyed, and now it has become a large reservoir.
When Heshen was confiscated, in addition to confiscating the above houses and gardens, he also collected more than 3 million taels of silver, more than 32,000 taels of gold, more than 100,000 mu of land in various places, more than 1 million taels of silver, and more than 1,000 houses collected and rented in various places, silver shops and various jewelry and clothing, etc. The total property is equivalent to about 10 million taels of silver. Although it is not as much as the legendary 800 million taels, it can be said that it is rich enough to rival a country. You should know that the Qing government at that time had an annual income of only 70 to 80 million taels. It is of course a great gain to copy such a large amount of property, which seems to confirm the statement that "Heshen fell and Jiaqing was full." In fact, it is not difficult to see from the Xijinzhai, Shifang, Chuanhuamen, Palace Lanterns, and super-scale tombs built by Heshen, which imitated the emperor's system, that Heshen was no longer greedy for money, but his desire for power had reached a very astonishing level. This is the main reason why he caused his death.
After the execution of Heshen, it can be clearly seen from the memorials of Emperor Jiaqing who reviewed the governors of various places that Emperor Jiaqing was considering that Heshen's power was too great.
For example, in the fourth year of Jiaqing, Jiaqing ordered in a memorial of Zhang Chengji: If I do not eliminate Heshen, the people in the world will only know Heshen, but not me.
In fact, Jiaqing was able to check Heshen’s property. On the 17th day of the first lunar month of the fourth year of Jiaqing, Jiaqing clearly stated in the memorial of the governor of Zhili Wu Xiongguang: There is no need to be too implicated. And he repeatedly stated in his instructions why he wanted to kill Heshen. Even when Sa Bintu later reported that "the current copy is less than 1/10, and he requested to dig deeper and pursue him again", he was severely criticized by Jiaqing. From this we can see that Emperor Jiaqing killed Heshen because his power was too great. This is the so-called contradiction between monarchy and ministerial power.
When the authority threatens the monarch's power, the monarch takes action. Emperor Jiaqing even suspects Heshen's rebellion, so he wants to kill Heshen.
There is a saying that Jiaqing killed Heshen for his money, and this statement is inaccurate.
Not only that, Jiaqing still affirmed Heshen's achievements and talents.
In the 19th year of Jiaqing, 15 years after Heshen was killed, the National History Museum of the Qing Dynasty gave Jiaqing a review. Seeing that the records were extremely simple, there were only a few pages in total, only recording Heshen's official resume. He was very dissatisfied. He instructed: Heshen was not useless. He was smart and agile. He served for 30 years and still did a lot of things. It was only because Heshen was greedy and was arrogant and tyrannical, greedy and authoritarian, so he had to be severely punished. He said that hundreds of years later, people would have to verify a person's life based on these merits. If his merits and crimes are unknown, how can he judge his evil spirit? Therefore, the biography of national history should not be compiled too simply. To this end, Jiaqing also ordered that the officials who compiled this historical fact be punished separately.
Now what we see is the manuscript of the "Biography of Heshen" compiled and revised that year.
It is said that Heshen has a humorous personality and likes to joke. He never thought that he played the biggest joke with himself. When he was imprisoned, he knew that he would not live for a few days. Looking at the bright moon on the Lantern Festival night outside the window, he sighed and wrote a poem, and still said that he was sad about the past with the scenery, and he was confused about this.
These two lines of poetry talked about the misfortune of the whole family and the ending of his life. Heshen said his heart.
During the Qianlong period, Heshen might have been very lucky and declined when he was overwhelmed. After the first year of Jiaqing, Heshen's family suffered misfortunes one after another.
On the seventh day of the seventh day of the first year of Jiaqing, the second son, who was regarded as the pearl in his hand by Heshen, died at the age of two. At that time, he was traveling to the summer resort. Heshen was extremely sad when he heard this unfortunate news and immediately wrote ten poems "Quatric Quatrains to Memorize the Dead".
Just over two months later, Heshen's younger brother, Helin, was infected with miasma in the army and died. The two Heshen brothers studied together since childhood, and their brothers and sisters were deeply in love. Helin was a pillar of his officialdom. He suddenly died suddenly, and Heshen was particularly sad. In the second year of Jiaqing, Heshen's grandson also died. In February of the third year of Jiaqing, Heshen's wife Feng, who had been with him for 30 years, also left. Although Heshen had many wives and concubines, he had the deepest relationship with Feng. Recalling the scenes of living together in the past, Heshen wrote many sincere eulogies, including the sentence "I cry today, who will give me the next year?" In less than a year, he himself became a ghost under the fountain. After Heshen's death, his son, Fengshen Yinde, found a piece of land in Jizhou, Hebei Province and buried Heshen in a hurry.
Film and TV series information
Heshen thinks he is harmed by his talent. Heshen was indeed a talented person, but his greatest talent was playing with power. There is such a scene in the TV series. In the cell, Heshen got the three-foot white silk given to him by Emperor Jiaqing and walked on the road to the underworld. This is the case. His ability to ascend to a high position below one person and above ten thousand people is because he is close to the emperor and his ability to cater to and win the emperor's favor. However, this ability could not allow him to enjoy wealth forever, and in the end the emperor sent him to the guillotine.
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