After Yongzheng ascended the throne and became the emperor, he reigned for 13 years, the emperor pushed the feudal imperial dictatorship to the highest peak, and he was not happy to bow down in person, in addition to he also promulgated countless decrees and decrees, which had a profound impact, such as rectifying the rule of officials, cracking down on friends, implementing the secret folding system and other measures. It has made outstanding contributions to the "prosperous era of Kangqian".
The primary problem faced by Yongzheng after he ascended the throne was the financial deficit and officialdom corruption left over from the previous dynasty. When dealing with the ** problem, a governor actually paid 2.1 million taels, but Yongzheng considered that "that person" was the younger brother of the governor, so after some consideration, he treated the governor leniently.
Why does this governor ** so many silver taels? And who is that person? In the face of the courtiers' plays, why did Yongzheng compromise it?
In the last years of Kangxi, the rule of officials deteriorated, and the successor Emperor Yongzheng faced various social problems caused by serious and corrupt officials at the beginning of his accession to the throne. In order to rectify the rule of officials, Yongzheng carried out some continuous rectification and reform in a big way, which greatly changed the problem of corruption in the administration of officials.
Yongzheng was in charge of many yamen in the court before he took the throne, as a brother who came and went in the wind and rain and started from the grassroots level, he was well aware of the corruption in the officialdom and knew the best way of corruption.
Because in the late Kangxi period, the court was negligent in political affairs, and the officialdom was in a miasma, and Emperor Yongzheng decided to comprehensively rectify it after he ascended the throne.
From the first year of Yongzheng to the third year, with the continuous deepening of the inventory and deficit work, a large number of local ** have been dismissed, and countless people have been raided. Therefore, there are also a lot of valuable materials left in the literature, from which we can understand the actual property situation of the first at all levels at that time.
In order to eliminate hidden dangers, Emperor Yongzheng personally named and investigated and dealt with the prefects of the three major prefectures in Shanxi, among which Feng Guotai, the prefect of Pingyang, Li Qingkey, the prefect of Taiyuan, and Luan Tingfang, the prefect of Datong, were the most typical.
Emperor Yongzheng severely suppressed the ** filthy officials through a series of policies, and the court officials were ruled by a clear government, and in only five years, the silver reserves of the Qing treasury also increased from 8 million taels in the last years of Kangxi to 50 million taels.
Although Yongzheng did not reign for a long time, he was really a very diligent emperor, and he did a lot of practical things for the Qing Dynasty in politics, military and economy.
After Emperor Yongzheng succeeded to the throne, he was determined to reform the accumulated evils, crack down on the first, and rectify the rule of officials. He ordered the provinces to make up for the deficit in the treasury within the time limit, severely punish those who were verified, recover the stolen money, and confiscate the family property. At that time, Yongzheng's punishment of some ministers obviously had politically complex reasons, but it did play a role in cracking down.
At the same time, Yongzheng solved the problem of low official salaries and no guarantee of local ** expenditures. The specific method is to implement the practice of "raising incorruptible silver". So during the Yongzheng period, the rule of officials improved significantly.
As early as more than 1,000 years ago in the Tang and Song dynasties, there was a practice of raising incorruptible silver, but there was no fixation and institutionalization from time to time.
In different historical periods in China, their incomes are also different. Among all the dynasties, the Song Dynasty had the highest ** salary. The second is the Han Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty.
And the establishment of the Qing Dynasty was only after the Ming Dynasty, so their income was not high. During the Qing Dynasty, the implementation of the low-income system, a positive product can only get 180 taels a year, and the average monthly is only 15 taels. When it comes to Qipin**, it is only 45 taels a year, and the average is less than 4 taels per month.
Before the incorruptible silver system, the income of the first was too low, which was not proportional to their efforts in the "ten-year cold window", and in order to live a high-quality life, a large amount of corruption was born.
After the accession of the Yongzheng Emperor, the Qing Dynasty reformed the existing shortcomings and systems of the imperial court. In terms of internal affairs, Yongzheng has his own actions, whether it is a certain division or an official gentry. At the same time, a system of incorruptible silver was created.
This system not only alleviates the country's financial crisis, but also solves the social situation in which corruption is rampant. This system is the first of its kind in Yongzheng, and it has also achieved good results in practice.
The so-called maintenance of incorruptible silver is to give a certain amount of work and living subsidies to ** people (mainly local **) according to their grades, so that they have the economic power in line with their own identity, so as to maintain integrity and dedication, and put an end to the occurrence of phenomena such as bending the law for personal gain.
Unlike modern times, the Qing emperors were only responsible for the appointment of **, but did not care about the establishment of their "office" and the arrangement of the working team. The cost of hiring a master needs to be paid out of your own pocket. In order to make the master work with one heart and one mind, the salary paid should not be too harsh.
As for the additional expenses of life and work, it is also a huge expense. To be an official, you must have an official faction, and you must abide by the system of the imperial court. When you go out, you must ride a horse and sit in a sedan chair, and you must sound a gong to clear the road; In daily life, people must serve tea and water, and wait before and after. All of this must be sustained with a great deal of silver.
In order to clean up the finances and put an end to the first, Yongzheng started with the reform of the tax and the system of taxation and the system, and implemented the "return of envy to the public". The so-called "consumption of envy" refers to the subsidy for reasonable loss when taxes are levied and money and grain are paid.
The magistrates were allowed to levy additional taxes for every two pieces of silver when collecting taxes.
Two or three points are called "fire consumption" and "consumption envy". Yongzheng stipulates that "five cents per two additional consumption" is collected as a normal tax of **, which is kept in the treasury, and the "incorruptible silver" is extracted from it and issued to officials as living allowances and office expenses.
It means that if you can get this money, you should be honest and honest, and no longer be greedy and deprive the people. This was an important reform of the Yongzheng period, and the implementation of this system clarified the rule of officials to a certain extent, making the reign of Yongzheng one of the best periods of the Qing Dynasty. **Ten Thousand Fans Incentive Plan Although some **dirty officials have been reduced to a certain extent, for some**, they should still be greedy.
In the first month of the first year of Yongzheng, Emperor Yongzheng, who had just ascended the throne, received a secret letter from Huang Bing, the governor of Shandong, revealing that Jiang Chenxi, the former governor of Shandong and the governor of Yunnan and Guizhou, was more than 2 million taels, but the final result was surprising.
Jiang Chenxi may not be familiar to many people, but his younger brother Jiang Tingxi is very famous, he is a famous minister of the Yongzheng Dynasty, and Zhang Tingyu is the first batch of military ministers.
Jiang Chenxi was born in the Kangxi period and was born in a famous Jiang family. His family has a great reputation in the history of the Qing Dynasty, and the Chiang family has had two prime ministers, a governor, a governor, and four jinshi. Jiang Chenxi became a jinshi in the twenty-fourth year of Kangxi and was appointed as the magistrate of Fuping, Shaanxi. However, his political achievements and official reputation were outstanding in the first half of his life.
According to historical records, in the 25th year of Kangxi, Fuping County experienced a drought that had not been seen for decades, and the people were displaced.
Faced with this situation, Jiang Chenxi decided to open a warehouse to release grain, but there were too many victims, and the official grain could not help many victims. As a last resort, Jiang Chenxi poured his family property and paid more than 80,000 taels out of his own pocket to let the people survive the crisis.
When this news reached Kangxi's ears, he immediately praised him and felt good. Subsequently, his official fortunes climbed all the way, and Kangxi ordered him to be transferred to serve as the chief of the main and guest department of the Ministry of Rites, the priest of the ancestral hall, and the Shandong Jining Dao.
During his tenure, he demonstrated exceptional governance skills and impartiality. In particular, during his tenure as Jining Province in Shandong, he vigorously promoted the construction and management of the Lianghuai River, so that the local floods were effectively controlled.
Because of his outstanding achievements, his career soared all the way, and then Jiang Chen Xiguan became the governor of Shandong, the governor of Yunnan and Guizhou, and finally died in the last years of Kangxi.
However, Chiang's glorious political achievements and officialdom prestige masked his greedy side. In the early years of Yongzheng, Jiang Chenxi's deficit case as governor of Shandong was exposed, and the amount was as high as more than 2.15 million taels.
At that time, Jiang Chenxi proposed a grain donation plan to encourage local officials and citizens to actively donate grain to prepare for the disaster year. After several years of donations, Jiang Chenxi accumulated more than 3.1 million taels of silver, however, he only allocated less than half of the funds to buy grain and put it into storage, and embezzled the remaining more than 2.1 million taels for himself.
Therefore, Emperor Yongzheng at that time had many secret talks with several trusted ministers on how to deal with this thorny case. They realized that the Chiang family had deep roots in the court, especially since Jiang Tingxi was a cabinet scholar, and if it was not handled properly, it might not only cause turmoil within the court, but might even affect the authority of Emperor Yongzheng himself.
Jiang Tingxi due to the family's words and deeds and other reasons, so the career is smooth sailing, in the 38th year of Kangxi, Jiang Tingxi at the age of 31 in the Shuntianfu Township Examination in the middle school examination, that is, was recommended to walk in the south study, as a person for the first time. Jiang Tingxi's knowledge and talent left an excellent impression on Emperor Kangxi.
In the forty-second year of Kangxi, when Jiang Tingxi tried to fail, Kangxi thought that the elders who had real talent or a skill could often be included in the value regardless of their background and qualifications.
Therefore, Kangxi issued a special edict to Jiang Tingxi to take exceptional care and was awarded Jinshi. Since then, he has been transferred to the Cabinet Bachelor's Office.
Later, in the Yongzheng period, he served as a waiter of the Ministry of Rites, a scholar of the Ministry of Households, a scholar of the Wenhua Palace, and a prince and a prince. When he was sixty years old, he not only served as a scholar of Wenhua Palace, but also became a prince and a prince, concurrently served as a household minister, and served as the president of the "History of the Ming Dynasty", which shows the importance that the imperial court attaches to him.
Later, in the ninth year of Yongzheng, Jiang Tingxi became ill due to overwork and was sent to the hospital for treatment. In the summer of the tenth year of Yongzheng, Jiang Tingxi's illness recurred, and the treatment was ineffective, and he died in office in leap May. After Yongzheng heard this, he sent the minister to lay tea and wine, give sacrifices and burials, and give Wensu.
It can be seen that Jiang Tingxi was a very outstanding minister during the Kangxi Yongzheng period, and was deeply appreciated and valued by the emperor. Therefore, Yongzheng will have concerns about his brother's ** case. This also plays a role in the final processing result.
Yongzheng believes that Jiang Tingxi should not be angered, but he should not condone corruption. After careful consideration, Emperor Yongzheng decided to adopt a compromise plan.
Because Jiang Chenxi had passed away at the time of the crime, and Yongzheng was very fond of his younger brother Jiang Tingxi at that time, he took a low-key approach to Jiang Chenxi. did not impose any punishment on Jiang Chenxi himself, but ordered the Jiang family to pay two million taels in compensation.
The Jiang family ** was able to get so much silver, and soon Yongzheng looked at Jiang Tingxi's sake, and the Jiang family only took out more than 700,000 taels, and the rest was no longer pursued.
It was decided to take measures to reduce the compensation by half to the Chiang family. This decision not only reflected the punishment of the Chiang family, but also maintained the face and political stability of the imperial court.
From Jiang Chenxi's corruption to the final results and other events, it can be seen that the reasons for the demise of all dynasties are not exactly the same, but corruption, such as ants devouring pillars, over time, the pillar decays like slag, and often becomes an important factor in the decline of all dynasties. It should be said that the rulers still have some understanding of this historical phenomenon.
There are also some limitations to this anti-corruption campaign. Yongzheng's "secret report" system implemented under pressure inevitably brought about officialdom disputes; In addition to the envy and return to the public, the Yongzheng period implemented the system of apportioning the land into the mu and the officials and gentry paying the grain as one errand and one service, which not only increased the income of the local government and the imperial court, but also the political integrity and honesty was also the key factor for the Qing Dynasty to move towards a prosperous era.