On February 8, 1751, Qianlong embarked on his first visit to the south of the Yangtze River, which was also his first southern tour.
Speaking of Qianlong, the first thing that comes to mind is that the "prosperous era of Kangqian" brought the Qing Dynasty to the most prosperous period, but it was also the Qianlong period that the Qing Dynasty entered a turning point from prosperity to decline.
What kind of person is Qianlong?
First, Qianlong worked hard in the early days of his reign, and the Qing Dynasty became more and more prosperous.
In the early days of his reign, Emperor Qianlong put forward the policy of "blending leniency and severity".
Qianlong emphasized that the government should be lenient, rest with the people, and practice benevolent government.
In the year of his accession to the throne, Qianlong exempted the people from the money and grain owed by the previous people, and later reduced a number of agricultural and commercial taxes.
During the period of Emperor Yongzheng, some overly strict policies were adjusted, and the drawbacks in the return of envy to the public, the apportionment of land into acres, and the promotion of cultivated land were reformed, and many unreasonable policies such as clearing land, deed paper and deed root law, and water conservancy were stopped.
At the same time, water conservancy projects have been built and a number of water conservancy projects conducive to agricultural development have been carried out, such as the Haitang and the Yellow River in Zhejiang.
In terms of commerce, unlike the traditional light merchant thinking, Qianlong attached great importance to the role of merchants in the circulation of commodities, and took planned measures to prohibit the government from extorting merchants and protect the development of commercial capital.
Through various measures, Qianlong lightened the people's burdens, eased social contradictions, reconciled the internal relations of the ruling group, and promoted the development of agriculture, handicrafts, and commerce in the early period of his rule.
The entire social economy has been significantly improved, laying the foundation for the future heyday.
In the early period of his reign, Qianlong also attached importance to the rule of officials, attached importance to the selection of officials, and assessed the officials through the Beijing inspection plan and other forms, and carefully stipulated the assessment standards for incompetent officials, and severely punished them.
For the royal family, in order to avoid the malpractice of the clan from interfering in politics, Qianlong also made the decision to completely exclude them from the highest authority, and since then the system of the prince's clan not entering the military aircraft has been formed for nearly 120 years.
Under the rule of Emperor Qianlong, the Qing Dynasty was politically stable, economically prosperous, socially harmonious, and the people lived and worked in peace and contentment.
All this is due to the Qianlong Emperor's efforts in the early days of his reign and the implementation of a strategy of combining leniency and severity.
Second, Qianlong liked to emulate Kangxi, and during his reign, he toured the south of the Yangtze River six times.
Qianlong's grandfather, Emperor Kangxi, also made six southern tours, and Emperor Qianlong followed his grandfather's example, hoping to understand the situation in the south of the Yangtze River through the southern tour, inspect the progress of water conservancy projects, and exempt money and grain taxes to reduce the burden on the local people.
Every time, I usually go to Jiangning Mansion, Suzhou Mansion, Hangzhou Mansion, Yangzhou Mansion, and the last four times I also visited Haining in Zhejiang.
Although Qianlong made these six southern tours, he had a better understanding of the actual situation and people's feelings in various parts of the Yangtze River.
He inspected the progress of many water conservancy projects, and often exempted money and grain taxes, thus reducing the burden on the locals.
These measures have played a positive role in promoting the economic development and social progress of the Jiangnan region.
However, his southern tour was huge, wasting a lot of financial and material resources.
Everywhere he went, great ceremonies and banquets were held, and the reception was expensive.
This kind of extravagance and waste contributed to the glitz and glitz of society, and some historians even believe that this was one of the reasons for the decline of national strength in the late Qing Dynasty.
Third, Qianlong favored ** and Shen in his later years, and ruled corruption.
He Shen was a famous ** in the last years of the Qing Dynasty, and he was called "the king of **" by later generations because of ***.
He Shen made his career in the middle of the Qianlong Dynasty and was promoted to the Minister of Military Aircraft.
Emperor Qianlong was very fond of him, almost to the point of obeying his words.
He Shen took the opportunity to form a party for personal gain, recruited power and accepted bribes, and made the rule of officials even more corrupt.
At that time, peasant uprisings such as the White Lotus Sect and the Tianli Sect continued to break out, and the Qing Dynasty spent a lot of manpower and material resources to suppress them.
In order to pay for the military expenses, the imperial court continued to increase taxes, and officials at all levels took the opportunity to extort, and the people were miserable.
He Shen also used his power to make a lot of money.
He has accumulated huge wealth by accepting bribes, embezzling **, plundering people's property and other means.
According to historical records, Heshen's family property is equivalent to half of the state's fiscal revenue.
His mansion was magnificent, comparable to a royal palace.
He Shen also had a large personal guard, which was even larger than the emperor's Imperial Guard.
After the death of Emperor Qianlong, Emperor Jiaqing was deeply indignant at Heshen's corrupt practices and was determined to purge his influence.
Emperor Jiaqing ordered the investigation of the case of Heshen, which lasted more than two years, and finally pulled this ** off the horse. He Shen was sentenced to death and had his house confiscated.
The investigation and handling of the Heshen case shook the entire government and the opposition, and also brought a trace of clarity to the Qing Dynasty officials.
However, this did not fundamentally solve the problem of corruption in the Qing Dynasty.
With the decline of the Qing Dynasty's national power, the corruption of officials intensified, which eventually led to the demise of the Qing Dynasty.
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