A little candlelight, a ray of light, Heshen , who is in prison, seems to have seen his future. He is only forty-nine years old, but his life seems to be like this candlelight, with oil running out and the lamp dry up.
Heshen was afraid. He was afraid of the cold and darkness around him after his death, and also afraid that those who had been bullied by him would take the blame. He was afraid that he would become the target of public criticism and everyone blamed him, but what if he could do?
He has done so many evils. In the end, the cause and effect cycle is cycled, and he still has to taste the evil himself. No one can do it for him. Looking back on his energetic appearance decades ago, Heshen was crying in his two lines. How great would it be if time could be repeated!
He also wants to be a clean official, honest and open-minded, but time is so cold, and when he walks on this road, he should have thought that he will never go back.
When the emperor asked him if he could spend so much money greedy, Heshen's heart was in his throat, but even if his answers were perfect, Jiaqing would not leave any hidden dangers like him.
Just die! A real man works and works as a person. Eighteen years later, he is still a hero. Heshen could only comfort himself like this, but if he did all the evil in this life, how can he be worthy of the next life?
The life of a corrupt official Heshen ended, but the story he left behind was still passed down by word of mouth.
Heshen’s childhood
In the eyes of the world, Heshen was a top corrupt official in history. He was tempted by profit, was forgetting his righteousness when he saw profit, and he was disgusting when he was making money without any consequences.
And in order to satisfy his own greed, he was willing to deceive the emperor and his ignorance of the king, which made people feel even more chilling, but no one knew that Heshen was originally a good person.
1750, Heshen was born in an official family, but not all official families have glory and wealth. The life of Heshen's family is at most unhungry than that of ordinary people.
But even so, the family lives together, reunion and happiness, and there is sweetness in bitterness, but when Heshen was three years old, his family changed.
The mother unfortunately suffered a difficult labor in order to give birth to her younger brother Helin and died without treatment. The motherless child is like a grass. Heshen experienced the misfortune of life too early and was destined to spend all his efforts to survive.
But God has no eyes. When he was nine years old, Heshen's father also passed away. His parents were the children's biggest backers. Heshen, who had no backers, became a lonely and helpless prodigal son.
The relatives and friends in the family also became demons who eat meat and drink blood. In order to divide the few remaining money of the He family and the devastated house, they actually wanted to drive the Heshen and his brothers out of the He family.
That is Heshen’s only safe haven. If they don’t even have a home, how can they live? Why did he bear all the sufferings in this world?
Fortunately, there was a loyal servant in Heshen’s family who helped him, and Heshen did not become a homeless beggar begging along the street. But for a child under ten years old, after seeing all these pickled flowers, how can he grow up healthily?
Heshen always had a sigh of relief in his heart. He wanted to make his name, he wanted to live a glorious life, and he wanted those who once looked down on him to kneel down and beg for mercy.
Perhaps many people think that Heshen is helpless. He has such an idea at a young age and will definitely become a disaster for society in the future. However, if he has not experienced Heshen’s suffering, who can truly understand his hatred?
What's more, although Heshen was not from a wealthy family, he also understood that the title of the Golden List was the most glorious, so Heshen did not embark on the road of robbing his family, but instead picked up the book and focused on studying.
Children from poor families have long been in the family, so why don’t children without parents be like this? Heshen studied day and night, and sometimes he was so sleepy that he was dozing off. However, when he thought that he would be trampled by others if he didn't work hard, Heshen became energetic.
Stills
In ancient times, there was a head hanging on the beam and a cone piercing the thigh. Now, Heshen recalls the past. Looking at the present, Heshen's perseverance is admirable, and his gains are also enviable.
He was originally a Han Chinese, but he was proficient in three languages: Manchu, Tibetan and Mongolian languages. Even in modern times, few people could reach it. In addition, Heshen also understood the Four Books and Five Classics to the point of perfection.
Every word in the book was thought out by Heshen for a long time, including Heshen’s rotation in spring, summer, autumn and winter and day and night. With Heshen’s hard work, his achievements are worthy of the word “worthy”.
When he was eighteen years old, Heshen was admitted to Xian'an Palace with his talent. It was a school that only royal relatives could enter, but Heshen was able to pass the exam for a civilian class. The efforts behind him were beyond imagination.
Heshen also quickly became a young man who was optimistic about many officials in the capital. They all had the idea of begging Heshen for their daughters. At this time, Heshen had already changed his destiny by relying on knowledge.
1769, the nineteen-year-old Heshen and the granddaughter of Zhili Governor Feng Yinglian became husband and wife, climbing such a big tree, and Heshen would be able to rise to the top in the future.
But Heshen was not arrogant because of his talent. He thanked someone for promoting his future career path, but he was wise to study history. He also understood that the blacksmith still had to be strong himself, so he decided to take the imperial examination and enter the officialdom.
The former good official
With Heshen’s knowledge reserve, it is possible to pass the top scorer, but for various reasons, Heshen missed the third place. Fortunately, he performed well in the school. In order to give Heshen a good way out, the teachers recommended him to the emperor.
Heshen's experience is that gold will shine everywhere. Even if Heshen did not win the top scorer, he still embarked on the career and became a courtier who was in the officialdom.
Heshen first entered the workplace and had a lot of ambitions. His past experience told him to be a good official, so Heshen was quite visionary at the beginning, and his style was also recognized by the emperor.
But other officials were unhappy. First of all, Heshen was so young that he sat in a position where they had not been able to sit for decades, and they were not convinced.
Secondly, Heshen is not greedy for money and is not lustful, and is a clear stream in the officialdom, which sets off their incompetence. They can't stand this kind of clean style.
Heshen’s portrait
In their hearts, becoming an official in the court is profit. If they don’t do money or power, they will be the biggest fool in the world, so they exclude Heshen everywhere.
is in the quagmire, and it is not an easy thing to be covered in plain white.
Heshen has an extraordinary academic career, but he is not the opponent of these old foxes. Over time, Heshen will inevitably receive some gifts to integrate into the circle.
But what he collected was nothing but worthless things, such as a few stones of rice and a few pots of wine. Compared with those gold, silver and jade, it was simply shabby and out of place.
Someone once advised Heshen to tell him not to be too stubborn. He is now deeply favored by the emperor. If he doesn't take the opportunity to make his wallet full, it would be a big mistake. However, Heshen really couldn't bear to let those poor children spend all their money, so he had to laugh and not respond.
Look, in such an era, honesty became a sin, but if honesty is wrong, what is right? Heshen didn't know that he had no choice but to insist on walking the path under his feet.
There is no shortage of officials in the court, and there is no shortage of high-ranking officials, but there are only good officials with conscience. Heshen is one of the few good officials, at least in the first half of his life.
And there was a story that was enough to prove that he was a good official.
At that time, it was a severe drought in the world. The crops that the people had worked hard for a year had no harvest. In order to quickly provide disaster relief, Qianlong sent Heshen to the disaster area to preside over the matter.
But Heshen gave an order as soon as he took office, and he ordered his subordinates to raise sand into the cooked porridge.
The victims were hungry at first, but now they have mixed sand, how can they eat porridge?
Many people don’t know why Heshen did this. It was not until the porridge was released that Heshen’s good intentions were known.
It turned out that many families had surplus food at that time, but in order to get a bargain, they insisted on pretending to be a disaster victim to receive relief. The food distributed by the state was originally enough for the victims to eat, but now someone has misapproved it, so the amount is not enough.
Heshen’s life experience tells him that human nature is so dark, but time is tight and the task is heavy. He has no time to check one by one who is the real disaster victim and who is the fake disaster victim. Mixing sand is the most effective method.
Stills
Those victims had no food. If they didn't eat porridge mixed with sand, they would have to starve to death.
And the fake victims will not fight for a bowl of inedible porridge. In doing so, they save food and distinguish the authenticity.
Although Heshen was scolded by many people for being ruthless, this seemingly ruthless behavior saved thousands of lives. Do you think Heshen is a good official or a bad official?
If Heshen could always think about the people like this, his way of becoming famous must be "for the country and the people", rather than "corruption and bribery".
But where did life come from so many. If Heshen’s later transformation from good to bad was just cause and effect.
Greedy Pixiu
Heshen has always been the name of integrity and is deeply trusted by Qianlong. Even if his official title is getting bigger and bigger, he has never shaken his persistence. However, in 1780, Heshen still moved his heart.
At that time, Heshen was ordered to investigate the corruption of Li Shiyao . At first, Heshen thought it was just an ordinary investigation. Before leaving, Heshen was still thinking: Li Shiyao is just a local governor. Even if he is greedy, can he have 10,000 taels of snowflake silver ?
But when Heshen saw the room full of gold and silver and countless rare antiques, his worldview completely collapsed.
Silver
A governor of Yunnan and Guizhou, whose power is not as good as Heshen, can get so many benefits from the country. What if it were him?
Heshen dared not think about how many years he would have to receive his salary for so many gold, silver and jewelry on time? No, how many lifetimes will it take to save enough! He is just an ordinary person. How could he not be moved when he sees so many temptations?
So, after this long journey, Heshen, who was once honest, disappeared, and he completely became a corrupt official. He took a large amount of property seized from Li Shiyao. After returning to the capital, he even began to make money.
He used his position to make money wildly. Anyone who wanted to seek an official in the court must first show sincerity and respect him. If he wanted to get promoted and make money, he would not be able to suffer heavy bleeding once.
In order to facilitate his money, Heshen also recommended many of his students to the court. With them working with Heshen inside and outside, Heshen's account balance also increased.
As his "knowledge" became more and more extensive, Heshen gradually became picky, and only received large amounts of money, and only received precious gifts.
Under the world, is the king's , but Heshen has become the local emperor, but his swagger will inevitably attract the attention of officials.
Many loyal ministers have initiated impeachment, but Heshen is always unmoved. His skills even alarmed the future heir to the throne, Jiaqing.
Jiaqing's bystander was clear. He could see that Emperor Qianlong was deceived by Heshen, so Jiaqing made up his mind that the first person to get rid of Heshen after he took office was Heshen's extremely greedy Pixiu.
How could the cunning Heshen not understand that he had already made enemies on all sides? But now the world is still up to Qianlong. As long as he makes Qianlong happy, it doesn’t matter what others think.
But Qianlong fell out at this time, his health became worse and worse, and Heshen, who was originally proud, began to be uneasy and could not let Jiaqing ascend the throne.
But the facts were in front of him. Qianlong was already dazzled, and Jiaqing still walked towards the dragon throne. At this time, Heshen truly realized that something was wrong.
Qianlong stills
As expected, Jiaqing immediately summoned Heshen to his side after taking office, and Jiaqing's words also made Heshen's spine cold and his scalp numb.
"I want to ask you, can you spend all the money you greedy?"
Heshen had known that this trip would be more likely to be a good accident, but he didn't expect Jiaqing to be so direct. After thinking for a moment, Heshen said tremblingly: "I naturally cannot spend all the money I greedy for."
"But I also know that I am a slave of the royal family, I am just a passerby God of Wealth, the Emperor of the Supreme People's Garden, and the money I took from me 1 Jiangnan ."
Obviously, Jiaqing was stunned. He didn't expect Heshen to be so honest, but smart people don't have to go around. Since Heshen said that, Jiaqing's goal has also been achieved.
But Jiaqing didn't know how to make a living for a while. As far as Jiaqing knew, his father did spend a lot of money on Heshen.
But no matter how much the father spent, it was not an excuse for Heshen to embezzle 800 million silver! The money Heshen greedy was Qing treasury income for fifteen years!
Even if he was greedy, Heshen was too bold. Jiaqing would never have kept such hidden dangers by his side, so he put Heshen in prison.
Heshen had long known that it would be the end of the day, but in the face of interests, he always had a lucky mentality. He thought it was okay to be greedy, but if he accumulated a little, the money became a weapon to kill him.
Every minute and every second in the cell was very painful. Heshen knew that he was about to die. When he recalled the past, he regretted it, but he also understood that in this world, no matter how big the official is, he is a slave in the eyes of the emperor.
The emperor has an order, but he dares not refuse to obey. He is in a dirty environment, and the dirty will infect him and will also send him away.
Half a month later, a foot of white silk was sent to prison. Heshen understood it and committed suicide by hanging himself in an empty corner. His life was bumpy and his half-life prosperity finally came to an end.
