Speaking of the big ** in Chinese history, He Shen must be on the list, wild history legend, the wealth he accumulated in more than 20 years, is worth the 15 years of tax and silver income of the Qing Dynasty at that time, so there was still a saying among the people at that time: He Shen fell, Jiaqing was full.
In the well-known film and television dramas, He Shen is either flattering and currying favor with Qianlong every day, or he is busy arguing with Ji Xiaolan and Liu Yong, and he is completely like a dirty official.
However, He Shen in history is extremely talented, and he can become Qianlong's favorite minister entirely because of his own ability.
It is said that Qianlong was very angry when he read the chapter once, and unconsciously said a sentence from the Analects, but at that time, the guards and eunuchs next to him looked at each other, and no one could answer.
When Qianlong was feeling bored, a clear voice behind him replied respectfully with nine words, which immediately made Qianlong's eyes light up.
This guard is He Shen, and it is because of these nine words that he has been promoted six times in a row within a year, and he has risen to the top ever since.
He Shen is a Manchu nobleman, belongs to the Zhenghongqi people, the surname is Niu Hulu, and his ancestors are hereditary captains of the three light cars because of their military exploits.
He Shen's father, Chang Bao, attacked the lieutenant of the light car and achieved the position of the deputy commander of Fujian, which is equivalent to the current deputy commander of the military region, so the status of the He Shen family is also very prominent.
However, the good times did not last long, when He Shen was 3 years old, his biological mother died because of dystocia, leaving him a younger brother, and 6 years later, his father Chang Bao also died in the post of deputy capital of Fujian.
Although Chang Bao was in a high position, he did not save much family wealth, and there were no effective elders in the family, so the Heshen brothers were bullied by their own family and had almost no place to stay.
Fortunately, they still had a faithful servant, and one of their father's concubines took care of them, so that He Shen and his younger brother would not be left alone and starve to death on the streets.
Relying on his own knowledge and the background of the Manchu Zhenghongqi, after the death of his father, He Shen was selected to study in the Xian'an Palace.
Xian'an Palace is an aristocratic school set up by Yongzheng, the purpose is to cultivate the noble children in the Eight Banners, which not only hired Hongru as a teacher, but also has a more comprehensive curriculum than the private school outside.
In order to get ahead, He Shen cherished this opportunity to learn, and when other classmates were fighting cocks and lackeys, he focused on studying, in addition to the Four Books and Five Classics, he was also proficient in Manchu, Mongolian, Tibetan, and Chinese languages.
It was precisely because of his hard study that Feng Yinglian, the governor of Zhili, who often inspected the Xian'an Palace, noticed it.
He Shen has an excellent appearance and is diligent and hardworking, Feng Yinglian thinks that he is a clever person and good at observing words and feelings, and he will definitely achieve great achievements in the future, so he married his granddaughter Feng Jiwen to He Shen.
After marrying a wife, He Shen inherited the family's hereditary light car captain, and was later selected as a third-class guard, and because of his outstanding appearance, he became the "Luan Honor Guard" of the emperor's close attendants.
Luan Yiwei is equivalent to the current honor guard, when the emperor travels, they will accompany him, and it is precisely because of this position that He Shen got the opportunity to show his talent in front of Qianlong.
In the fortieth year of Qianlong (1775 AD), when Qianlong was taking a public car to relax, he received a report from the border.
At that time, the Qing Dynasty and Myanmar had some small friction on the border, and the newspaper said that there was a key criminal who took advantage of the guards' inattention and escaped and entered the territory of Burma, and the person in charge could not be pursued, so he could only report the matter to Qianlong.
Qianlong was very angry after seeing it, and asked loudly: The tiger is out of the sheng, and the turtle jade is destroyed in the coffin, whose fault is it?
This sentence comes from the Analects, which means that the tiger and the rhinoceros escaped from the cage, but the tortoise shell used for divination and the beautiful jade used for sacrifice were destroyed in the box, whose fault is this?
The guards and eunuchs around him looked at each other, and no one could accept Qianlong's words, but He Shen on the side said loudly: The warden must not shirk his responsibility!
He Shen's answer comes from the Southern Song Dynasty physicist Zhu Xi's commentary on the Analects, which means that the person in charge of this matter cannot shirk responsibility.
The few nine words hit the nail on the head, not only answering Qianlong's question, but also showing his talent just right, which made Qianlong's anger disappear in an instant.
After seeing that it was a young guard, Qianlong put down the recital and asked He Shen if he was also familiar with the Analects, and after receiving a positive answer, Qianlong was even happier and asked him carefully about his family history.
attracted the attention of the emperor, and He Shen was very excited, but he was neither humble nor arrogant, and his answers were in line with Qianlong's wishes, which made Qianlong very satisfied.
Since then, He Shen has been appreciated by Qianlong, and has been promoted 6 times in a year, the previous year was still the Sanpin Luan Honor Guard, and by the end of the second year, he was already the Minister of Military Aircraft, the Minister of Internal Affairs, and also won the honor of riding a horse in the Forbidden City.
In the TV series, He Shen's promotion almost all depends on his whiskers, but the reason why He Shen in history was able to gain a firm foothold in a short period of time was because of his real talent.
When He Shen played right in front of Qianlong for the first time, because he heard that he had taken the imperial examination, Qianlong asked him if he could still recite the articles written at that time.
He Shen immediately replied yes, and then recited the essay he wrote in the exam word for word, and Qianlong said after hearing it that with He Shen's talent, being a guard was a condescending talent, so he was promoted.
It can be seen from this that although He Shen did not take the imperial examination, his study in Xian'an Palace was also very solid. And He Shen later relied on the Tibetan language he learned in Xian'an Palace to make himself shine again.
In June of the 45th year of Qianlong (1780 AD), Qianlong in the summer resort of Chengde received a document from the 6th Panchen Lama, because there was no one around Qianlong who could speak Tibetan at that time, and no one could understand the document.
Remembering that He Shen had said that he had learned Tibetan, Qianlong asked He Shen to rush from Beijing to Chengde.
After receiving the edict, He Shen immediately set off, traveled day and night to Chengde, and after arriving, he couldn't take a rest and immediately began to translate documents.
Qianlong was naturally very happy to see He Shen so diligent, and he handed over the construction of a lama temple for the sixth Panchen Lama in Chengde to He Shen.
After receiving the task, He Shen worked tirelessly, personally designed and supervised the construction, and Qianlong was very satisfied after the completion, and personally inscribed the inscription.
Since then, He Shen has another identity: the secretary of the Lifan Yuan, helping Qianlong deal with the affairs of **, Xinjiang and other ethnic minorities.
Since then, every time Qianlong went to Chengde Summer Resort to meet the princes and nobles of ethnic minorities, He Shen would be by his side, which invisibly made Qianlong more and more dependent on He Shen and inseparable from him.
Just like Feng Yinglian, the grandfather of He Shen's wife, said back then, the shrewd He Shen once again seized the opportunity and got the opportunity to "show his face" in front of the emperor.
In addition to being good at seizing opportunities and revealing his talents, He Shen is also very serious in doing things.
Yongle Canon is Ming Chengzu Zhu Di organized the court and the Chinese erudite ** to revise, is a collection of ancient Chinese classics in Dacheng class of books (ancient large-scale information books name books), if you want to repair the "Siku Quanshu", "Yongle Canon" is indispensable.
When Qianlong found out, he sent his trusted He Shen to look for it, and He Shen first consulted the relevant archives and made sure that the "Yongle Canon" hidden in the Forbidden City had not been burned, and began to search carefully.
After leading people to rummage through the relevant places, He Shen finally found the "Yongle Grand Canon" wrapped in yellow silk in the Jingyi Pavilion of Guozijian, and even those knowledgeable ministers were impressed by him.
In addition to helping Qianlong deal with minority affairs, the Qing Dynasty's diplomacy was basically the responsibility of Heshen.
When dealing with the foreign affairs of various countries, He Shen's demeanor left a deep impression on the foreign directors.
In the 57th year of Qianlong (1792 AD), the British sent Macartney as an envoy to visit the Qing Dynasty, and they hoped to open up the Chinese market in the name of celebrating Qianlong's birthday.
After the mission arrived, there was a dispute with the Qing court because the British refused to perform the etiquette of "three kneels and nine knocks", and He Shen was ordered to negotiate with the British.
After arduous negotiations, the British finally compromised and were willing to pay homage to Qianlong in accordance with the etiquette of the Qing court, and the matter came to an end.
Although he was forced to bow his head, Macartney was full of praise for him when he mentioned him afterwards, saying that He Shen had an amiable attitude, and had a deep and sharp understanding of the problem, and was a mature politician.
In the subsequent negotiations between the British mission and the Qing court, He Shen fully demonstrated his diplomatic skills, shrewdly maneuvering between the British, not only rejecting the unreasonable demands of the British, but also allowing them to find no fault in the slightest.
Finally, the British summed up their visit, saying that they had received "the most courteous greeting, the most hospitable hospitality, the most vigilant surveillance, and the most civilized expulsion."
With Qianlong's trust and his own ability, He Shen successively served and concurrently served as the chief university of the cabinet, the foreman of the military aircraft, the commander of the infantry army, the head of the internal affairs government and other important positions, from which the name "Hezhongtang" came from.
He Shen, who walked in the center of power, could have gone down in history, but because of his greed, he soon died in the hands of Jiaqing, who succeeded him, after losing the blessing of Qianlong.
In fact, after being appreciated by Qianlong, He Shen was an honest and honest official for a long time.
In June of the forty-second year of Qianlong (A.D. 1777), He Shen was appointed as the left attendant of the household department, and also served as the right attendant of the ministry.
One of the household department and the official department are in charge of finance, and the other is in charge of personnel, both of which are important yamen, and after taking up the post of the two ministers, the people who have gone through the relationship will soon come to the door.
There was a clerk named An Ming in the yamen who gave He Shen a gift, hoping that he would promote himself, and He Shen refused the bribe, but still promised An Ming that he would promote him.
Later, An Ming was really promoted, and in order to thank He Shen, he gave He Shen another piece of beautiful jade, but He Shen rejected it again.
This refusal to bribe also allowed He Shen to avoid a difficulty, and then An Ming did not want to go home to mourn and conceal the death of his parents, and He Shen, who recommended him, was only accused of being "hoodwinked".
Although He Shen was not ** this time, when he handled Li Shiyao's case two years later, he really made a lot of money from it.
In the first month of the forty-fifth year of Qianlong (1780 AD), Yunnan sent Haining a letter to accuse Li Shiyao, the governor of Yunnan and Guizhou, of embezzling ink.
He Shen was able to do things, and after arriving in Yunnan, he arrested Li Shiyao's housekeeper Zhao Yiheng, and obtained important evidence from Zhao Yiheng's mouth, so Li Shuyao had to admit his guilt and surrender to the law.
After the case was over, He Shen was promoted to the head of the household department because of his merits, and a large part of the huge wealth obtained by Li Shuyao and his henchmen** fell into He Shen's pocket.
After tasting the benefits, He Shen was out of control and began to form a party, and with the help of Qianlong's favor, he frantically excluded dissidents.
When he was the president of "Siku Quanshu", He Shen framed those civil officials who had been his private collections, and he was very prosperous.
At that time, in addition to Heshen, there were other three forces in the court, and Heshen couldn't shake them for the time being, so he stretched out his greedy hand to the rich businessmen.
There was a wealthy businessman in Zhejiang, because he refused to submit to Heshen, his whole family was killed overnight, and the gold and silver in the family went into Heshen's pocket without knowing it.
I have to say that He Shen is also a financial expert, Qianlong was very happy in his later years, and all expenses depend on He Shen's planning, and the treasury can support it.
In order to enrich the treasury, He Shen created the "Discussion of Guilt Silver" system, stipulating that if you commit a crime, you can use money to exonerate the crime.
Naturally, a large part of this money also entered Heshen's mansion, and after seizing the power, the ** at all levels paid tribute to him, and in a short period of time, Heshen amassed a lot of wealth.
From 1775, when he was appreciated and promoted by Qianlong because of a royal answer, to Qianlong's death in 1799, He Shen's accumulated family wealth has been as much as 800 million taels.
Before He Shen died, he left a desperate poem, which has two sentences, "The scene hurts the past, Huai Cai mistakenly behaves", he thinks that he is "smart but mistaken by cleverness".
However, in everyone's impression, it is generally believed that he was hated by Jiaqing because he got too much family wealth, which led to the disaster of his later family raid.
In fact, after Qianlong's throne, Jiaqing, as a righteous emperor, not only had to be constrained by Emperor Qianlong, but also as Qianlong's favored minister, and Shen also had the title of "Second Emperor" at that time.
The powerful and powerful He Shen saw that his backers were about to fall, but he did not succeed in "surrendering" to the next emperor, which was his biggest hidden danger.
Therefore, the collection of Heshen's family wealth is only the secondary purpose of Jiaqing, and the main purpose of Jiaqing is to establish the authority of the king by overthrowing Heshen.
On the fourth day of the first month of the fourth year of Jiaqing (1799 AD), the day after the death of Emperor Qianlong, He Shen was dismissed and questioned, and seven days later Jiaqing issued an edict to count the 20 major crimes of He Shen.
Two days after the edict was issued, the 50-year-old He Shen hanged himself in the prison, ending his illustrious political career of more than 20 years.
In the popular TV series in recent years, He Shen is either fighting wits and courage with Liu Yong (Liu Luoguo), or gags with Ji Xiaolan to please Qianlong, in real history, Liu Yong is 30 years older than He Shen, and Ji Xiaolan is 26 years older than He Shen, and it is almost impossible for them to fight all day long like in the TV series.
And He Shen is indeed not like in the TV series, he only flatters and invites pets, but he is very talented, if it weren't for the greed in his heart, what he left in history would be a different image.