This is known as "penalty". Fines, which is an ancient system, are generally used to punish those who have made minor mistakes. The Qianlong Dynasty was not exempt from vulgarity, but because the Qianlong Dynasty began to implement severe punishments in the middle of the year, the emperor always believed that the money given was really not enough, and it could not wake up the people. The original conviction silver was only equivalent to the amount of money given to him by the emperor, and each of them was tens of thousands, which was not a small amount. Qianlong's original intention was to make those ministers who did wrong things "painful"!
And after He Shen came to power, He Shen, who was good at business, quickly realized this and turned it into a system. And the money for the crime is bypassed by the ** organ. Ordinary punishments are issued by the Ministry of Officials, reviewed by the Ministry of Households, and then handed over to the state treasury, and everything is open and transparent. The "money for the crime" is disposed of by the emperor himself, and will not go into the treasury, but will be included in his own treasury, and the specific amount does not need to be announced. Therefore, when He Shen reported his opinion to Qianlong, the emperor immediately agreed, and increased the punishment, such as some serious mistakes, such as financial errors, such as clerical typos, will be punished.
When the "conviction" system was formally established, some clever ** immediately realized this, and even a few ** proposed to pay the "conviction". For example, the Henan Governor's Department demanded to pay 20,000 taels because "important criminals could not be arrested as soon as possible". The governor of Shaanxi and Gansu demanded compensation of 40,000 taels for dereliction of duty. For another example, some ** accidentally got incense ash when writing the chapter, and they were so frightened that they offered to pay a fine of 30,000 taels of silver. With such a big stroke, the emperor couldn't bear it, and issued a decree to be gracious, reducing 20,000 taels of **, but it was only a symbolic punishment.
In addition to those who voluntarily paid, there were many more officials who were paid for "deliberations". * They are becoming more and more aware that their money bags are about to be copied by He Shen. It is difficult for an official not to make mistakes, and if he makes a mistake, he has to pay some money to save his life. As for the magnitude of the crime, it depends on how much money they can squeeze. For example, Xining, the former chief steward of the inner court, was beheaded by Qianlong for doing something wrong. Xining went to He He, and He He came forward to mediate and compensate 80,000 taels ** as compensation. The 80,000 taels of silver is very accurate, Xining did sell all the belongings, and barely took out the 80,000 taels of silver in order to save his life. Later, I was even more grateful to Heshen for his kindness, thanks, and thanks. It can be seen that Heshen has gained great benefits both internally and externally.
Through the operation of Heshen, the sin silver brought huge benefits to the emperor. Judging from the available files, in just thirteen years, five major cases have been convicted. In the local **, about one-third of the local governors pay their own money to discuss the guilt. Among them, more than 20 deputy ministers such as political envoys, salt administrations, and weaving ministers pleaded guilty, and this is only the middle and high level of the entire administrative system. The number of sins is usually 30,000 taels, and the highest is 384,000 taels, which is a very terrifying number. According to Qianlong, the "discussion of punishment" is a small part of the allocation from the rich local areas, which does not aggravate the people's grievances and is harmless to the country, but is a zero-sum game, which can be described as killing two birds with one stone. But in fact, the silver system is an extremely bad kind of politics. For so many years, the emperor has received millions of taels of silver from that money alone. However, he did not know that the economic damage caused by the "Guilty Silver" to the Qing Dynasty had reached hundreds of millions of taels.
I owe people a favor. The emperor looks at the past feelings, and he will generally open up the net. If it is a bribe, then there is no need to pursue it. To put it bluntly, it is to turn corruption into a legal act, and these people are protected by the emperor. Those *** people work harder than He Shen, and the family property they have accumulated for so many years has been squeezed dry by He Shen. As long as the official position remains, they will regain their strength and continue to plunder. Often he can't afford to pay the fine, he will continue to use more money in exchange for his crimes, if something really goes wrong, he can ask Mr. He for help, and he will definitely come up with a solution. is like Yin Zhuangtu playing the emperor: "Although this silver is a lot, it may not make people suspicious, and it can also make people greedy." ”