Li Wei was an official and went through the Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong dynasties. Although he was an official position that he had spent money, he was very honest during his tenure. Li Wei was born in a wealthy family, but he hated corruption in the officialdom. As an official in the Han Dynasty, he was highly valued by the emperor during the Yongzheng period and ranked among the three favorite ministers around Yongzheng .
Judging from Li Wei's life experience and ups and downs in the officialdom, it is not an exaggeration to call him a "legendary", but he never won Qianlong's trust. It was just that due to Yongzheng's favor, Qianlong did not deal with him directly, but did many indirect things.
So, after Emperor Yongzheng passed away, Li Wei lost his support. How did Qianlong deal with Li Wei after he ascended the throne?
The wealthy Li Wei of a family was awarded the official who donated money
Li Wei was born in Feng County, Jiangsu Province. His family was quite rich . Li Wei did not have to worry about life since he was a child. The wealth of Li Wei's family means that he will not have a lack of education opportunities since he was a child. The reason why he didn't know him later was that he was unwilling to study, rather than lacking the conditions for learning.
Li Wei's official position was obtained by donating money in the 56th year of Kangxi. That year, he was 31 years old. Li Wei, who had never done any serious things before, seemed to have found his goal in life after he became a Yuanwailang by donating money.
I have to say that family conditions are really important. After Li Wei, who didn’t know a lot of words, entered the officialdom, directly started his career as an official with the fifth-rank Yuanwailang as the starting point. In just two years, he was promoted to the Ministry of Revenue. I believe that behind such promotion, the strong support from his family should be indispensable.
In the 58th year of Kangxi, he was moved to the doctor of the Ministry of Revenue. ——"Draft History of Qing "
Although yellow and white things are very useful, as Li Wei's official position continues to improve, the help that wealthy families can provide him has also begun to decline. It is easy to donate money to buy a high starting point, but it depends on spending money to buy a good future. How can the wealthy family behind Li Wei compare to those who are supported by a big family?
So, how far the future can go depends on Li Wei himself. Li Wei is a 31-year-old man who doesn't recognize a few words. He has a job with donations. I believe that such conditions will not be highly regarded in the officialdom, especially those Jinshi who passed the exam with real skills, who may not have any favors to him.
But Li Wei, who gives people the feeling of being a "nova", quickly stood out in the officialdom . He seemed to be born as an official material, not only showed the unique qualities of a "capable minister", but also showed extremely superior political talent.
Li Wei was responsible for bank treasury management during his tenure as the doctor of the Ministry of Revenue. At that time, many princes were corruption. Li Wei discovered that a prince's subordinates confiscated 10 taels of silver when the bank deposited the silver treasury, and called it "Kuping Silver" . In fact, it was a clever name and finally put the silver into the prince's pocket.
Although Li Wei donated money to serve as an official, he was very upright and thought it was inappropriate to do so. But because he was slight, his kind dissuasion was directly ignored by the prince's subordinates. Seeing this, Li Wei came up with an idea. He set up a separate silver cabinet in the bank treasury, put all the "kuping silver" that was collected separately on this silver cabinet, and also hung an explanation, which stated "Prince XX won money".
In this way, all those who enter the bank treasury will know at a glance that this part of the bank is the "surplus" of a certain prince, to put it bluntly, it is the corruption part. After the incident spread, the prince was very embarrassed, but it made Emperor Yongzheng, who heard about it, illuminated his eyes. He had just ascended the throne and everything was difficult, and it was the time to use people.
Li Wei straight and not good-looking . He is not afraid of imperial power and pays attention to strategies when doing things. Isn’t this the talent he urgently needs? Li Wei is a straightforward and capable person, incompatible with those corrupt officials, but he is very tempted by Yongzheng. Yongzheng is a pragmatic emperor. Joining forces with Li Wei is truly a "perfect match".
Joining with Yongzheng's monarch and ministers
After Yongzheng planned Li Wei into his own employment category, he appointed him as Zhiliyi preaching at the beginning of his ascension. This appointment is obviously of investigation. After all, although Li Wei showed outstanding performance before, he had not been able to withstand the real test of the officialdom. Just as Li Wei went to his post, Yongzheng changed his mind and directly appointed him as Yunnan Salt Post Road , allowing him to manage the salt affairs in Yunnan. Although
is also a test, Yongzheng's intention is actually deeper to let Li Wei manage the salt affairs directly. Because the salt tax in Jiangsu and Zhejiang is a heavy tax on the state, there have always been great problems and someone urgently needs to solve them. However, the salt tax issue in Jiangsu and Zhejiang is very involved in , which is a problem that has not been solved for decades. If someone with great ability has not been to go there, even the emperor's personal sect will have to return in vain.
Li Wei was arranged by Yongzheng to train in the salt affairs field, and behind this is Yongzheng's long-term plan. Li Wei did not disappoint Yongzheng and achieved very good results in his tenure as a member of the Yanyi Road. Yongzheng promoted him to the governor, and all the fiscal and taxes in Yunnan Province were under his control. In two years, Li Wei accumulated a lot of management experience in fiscal and taxation and salt affairs, and passed the test of Yongzheng.
When Yongzheng saw that the time was ripe, he let Li Wei, who was then the governor of Zhejiang, also serve as the envoy of the salt administration of Liangzhe. These are all important positions that hold real power. Yongzheng arranged this way, mainly to do two things through Li Wei. One is to manage salt administration , and the other is to handle private salt .
Li Wei has always understood Yongzheng very well. After serving as the Liangzhe Salt Administration Commissioner, he immediately began to deal with the problems in Zhejiang Salt District. At that time, dozens of salt areas were divided into two parts in the Qing Dynasty. Zhejiang salt areas were just one of them, but they were the salt areas with the highest salt prices, accounting for an important proportion of salt tax revenue.
The problem is that Zhejiang Salt Zone is adjacent to Lianghuai Salt Zone, but the price difference is huge. Especially for people living in the two salt zones, they cannot accept such a price difference and often secretly buy low-priced salt in Lianghuai Salt Zone. As a result, the salt in Lianghuai Salt Zone has a great impact on the salt in Zhejiang Salt Zone, making it difficult to sell the salt in Zhejiang Salt Zone, and the country has lost a large amount of salt tax revenue.
After Li Wei understood this situation, he realized the rigidity of the Qing Dynasty system at that time, but this system could not be changed in a short period of time. To solve this big problem, he could only think of other solutions.
Li Wei has a high political talent. He soon discovered that the key to the problem lies in . The harm caused by the people to buy salt in private in Lianghuai Salt District is actually not great. The real impact is the huge group of private salt dealers. As time goes by, they use the sale of private salt to earn a lot of wealth, have their own arms, and collude with many Qing Dynasty officials, forming the "stubborn disease" that is difficult to eradicate for decades.
Li Wei is just an official who does not have the support of a large family. Although he is supported by the emperor, being with the king is like a tiger. If something is too involved, Yongzheng also feels tricky, it is not impossible to push Li Wei to calm public anger. Therefore, Li Wei needs to take great risks to eradicate the problem in Zhejiang's salt area. After all, behind such high benefits of , the involvement is too wide.
Yongzheng did not misread the person. At this critical moment, Li Wei was not shaken in the face of bribery, win over and threats. He not only successfully eradicated the largest salt lord Shen family, but also proposed subsequent management measures to restore the salt administration in Zhejiang's salt district and prevent private salt dealers from rekindling. gave Yongzheng a perfect answer.
Li Wei, who was loved by the people, did not like Qianlong
Since then, Li Wei has gained more and more trust from Yongzheng, whether it is to build seawall , it has truly realized the special funds and use them for the purpose of making the people blessed and the treasury relieved pressure; or to suppress the local area, crack down on thieves, and protect the safety of the country. Li Wei is well-deserved "capable minister" , and has a very high reputation accumulated among the people.
In addition, although Li Wei is ignorant, he always takes a master to help with official business when doing errands.But he respects literati very much, and even paid for Zhejiang Tongzhi out of his own pocket, is highly respected by literati . When the literati were subjected to literary inquisition, Li Wei also bravely stood up and spoke out for the wronged literati and saved them from the fire and fire.
Therefore, Li Wei was not only respected by Yongzheng, but also deeply loved by the people and supported by literati. But he was a Han after all. After Yongzheng's death, 's status was far inferior to that of Ortai , who were also the three confidants of Yongzheng.
Qianlong was also quite dissatisfied with Li Wei. Firstly, it was because Qianlong was not a person who did practical things and was particularly disliked by a practical person like Li Wei, because a capable minister like Li Wei would seem to be "incompetent"; secondly, Li Wei was not afraid of the powerful and would inevitably touch the royal relatives. He used to be supported by Yongzheng, but now it was Qianlong, so he was naturally dissatisfied with him.
Although Li Wei is upright, he is very different from Hairui . He has room for things to do. Although he is not favored, he does not leave any handle for Qianlong. Although Qianlong beat Li Wei several times, it was just a small friction that was harmless, so Li Wei was able to enjoy his old age.
However, Qianlong's scrupulousness did reach a certain level. After Li Wei's death, he found that there was a statue of Li Wei in the Flower Temple in the West Lake. He could not control his anger and sent someone to destroy Li Wei's statue.
"It's very different to build a temple by name!"
In Qianlong's eyes, Li Wei, as a Han official, relied on Yongzheng's favor, repeatedly became enemies with Manchus, which embarrassed Manchus. He was not a "pure minister". From this point of view, Qianlong's mind was far less than Yongzheng's , and he turned a blind eye to Li Wei's contribution. If Yongzheng and Li Wei had not worked hard to lay a foundation, how could Qianlong's prosperity be heard?
Overall, Li Wei's life was also perfect. Although Qianlong was dissatisfied with him, the real explosion period was also after his death. Although such treatment is not fair to Li Wei, it is difficult to guess that the emperor's mind can have such an ending, is considered to be a relatively complete .
Reference materials: "Draft History of Qing Dynasty"
