Ji Xiaolan, Liu Yong and other upright ministers hated He Shen's greedy behavior extremely much, and they had long wanted to rectify it, but they had no chance for a while.

In the 42nd year of Qianlong, there was a great drought in the two provinces of Zhili and Shandong, the fields were dry and cracked, the rivers dried up, the seedlings withered, and the grains were not harvested. In the early autumn, there was a plague of locusts that had not been seen for many years, and the locusts flew in the sky, and even the leaves of the trees were gnawed dry everywhere they passed. The people had no place to live, and they begged everywhere to make a living.

Ji Xiaolan is from Xian County, Hejian Prefecture, Hebei Province, and Liu Yong is a native of Zhucheng, Shandong.

One day, Liu Yong came to Ji's mansion, and when the two like-minded ministers met, Ji Xiaolan's eyes suddenly lit up and an idea popped up. Ji Xiaolan whispered this and this in Liu Yong's ear, and Liu Yong stroked his palms and laughed.

After Liu Yong returned to the house, he assigned a few capable family members to make all the preparations, and ordered a housekeeper who was familiar with the family members of the mansion to arrange tasks with his ears, and everything was ready, waiting for the evil wolf to fall into the trap.

On this day, He Shen returned home early, and a confidant family member stepped forward and whispered: "My lord, the villain has found out an important news and specially reported it to Xiangye." ”

"What's the news?" asked He Shen casually as he drank tea.

"Liu Yong's house has 200,000 taels of silver hidden in his house, and he is scheduled to be transported out of Chongwenmen by horse team in the early morning of the day after tomorrow to his hometown of Shandong to relieve the victims. The family whispered.

When He Shen heard the news, he was only a little surprised at first, and then laughed out loud, he said to himself: "Liu Yong, Liu Yong, you have impeached this official for corruption and bribery three times and twice, and this time it can fall into my hands, where did you Liu father and son get so many silver taels? It must be from an unknown source, as long as you get the stolen silver, there will be a good show to watch!"

So he ordered a hundred family members and quietly made arrangements to wait for tomorrow morning to intercept the Liu Mansion horse team. The next day, Heshen's men and horses robbed all the fifty horses of Liu's Mansion back to Hefu. Then he opened the crates and took out the silver, and the two hundred wooden crates were all stones. At this point, He Shen realized that he had fallen for Liu Yong's trick of pretending to be true.

At the beginning of the early dynasty, He Shen was included in a book by Liu Yong, Liu Yong knelt on the ground and said: "Your Majesty, He Shen sent a family to rob all the 200,000 taels of silver that his ministers transported to Shandong to relieve the victims. ”

Emperor Qianlong was shocked when he heard this, and hurriedly asked He Shen, who was standing in the middle of the court, "He Shen, is there such a thing?"

He Shen was aggrieved and couldn't appeal, so he had to cry with a sad face, knelt on the ground and replied: "Your Majesty, there is indeed such a thing, but what was carried immediately was not silver taels, all of them were stones, and Liu Yong deliberately framed Weichen." ”

As soon as these words came out, Emperor Qianlong was shocked again, and the emperor, who had always prided himself as smart, was also fooled. He looked at the two important ministers kneeling in front of the imperial case, wondered in his heart, and hurriedly said to Liu Yong: "Liu Aiqing, you answer, what is going on?"

Liu Yong replied: "The wooden box is full of silver, there are 200,000 taels, how can it be a stone, it must be a ghost with Shen, deliberately trying to swallow up this silver." ”

Qianlong thought for a while, and shouted loudly: "Bold and Shen, you instructed the family to intercept the silver, just like a bandit, and should be punished, I will remember that you are still diligent in political affairs on weekdays, exempt from punishment, hand over the intercepted silver taels, and fine another 200,000 taels to help the victims." ”

He Shen is dumb and eats Coptis chinensis now, and he can't say anything about his suffering, so he has to obediently admit compensation, so he has an indissoluble grudge with Liu Yong.

In history, there have been traitorous ministers in all dynasties, especially the more prosperous dynasties. Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty was a generation of wise monarchs, but the corrupt officials and Shen were rampant and corrupt for more than 20 years, and the reason for this has to be suspicious.

The relationship between Qianlong and He Shen is by no means as simple as the world imagines, from the encounters, temperaments, hobbies and interests of the two, to a certain extent, they are an interdependent and utilized contradictory unity, and have an inseparable harmonious relationship. Therefore, the monarch and the minister get along and never get tired of looking at each other?

When Qianlong was the crown prince, he once entered the palace for an incident, and saw that one of his father Wang Yongzheng's concubines was extremely beautiful, and she was dressing up in the mirror, and she couldn't help but want to make a joke with her, so she pressed the concubine's eyes with both hands from behind, and the concubine didn't know what to do, so she hit it backwards with a comb, and it hit Qianlong's forehead. When Qianlong's queen mother saw it, she said that the concubine molested the prince and committed suicide by giving her silk.

Qianlong felt that he couldn't stand this concubine, so he tapped it on the concubine's neck with cinnabar, and said sadly: "I hurt you, if your soul has a spirit, wait until twenty years later, and then reunite with me?"

Later, He Shen entered the palace to wait, and the more Qianlong looked at He Shen, the more he looked like the concubine who died unjustly, and examined his neck, and sure enough, he saw a red birthmark on his neck. When asked about his age, it also coincided with the time of the concubine's death, which was exactly twenty-five years. Qianlong became more and more surprised, so he thought that He Shen was the body of the unjustly killed concubine.

In order to repay the debts of his youth, Qianlong cared for He Shen and protected him everywhere, causing He Shen to rise to prominence and rise step by step, so that the power leaned towards the government and the opposition, and he was powerful and blessed for more than 20 years without falling. It wasn't until after Qianlong's death that Emperor Jiaqing brought him down, and when he died, he was actually Bai Aya's death, which was the same as the concubine, which was really a historical coincidence.

In fact, the main reason for He Shen's reign is the autocratic mechanism of feudal officialdom, which has achieved this incomprehensible relationship between monarchs and ministers. He Shen was born in the banner of the Niu Gulu clan, belonged to the Manchurian Zhenghong Banner, lost his father when he was young, and his family was poor, which made him taste the heat and coldness of the world prematurely, and also made him have a deeper understanding of money. He believes that only with money can we be respected, and only with money can we be superior. This realization later left a deep mark on his crazy accumulation of wealth.

He Shen has a long figure and clear eyebrows, not only a standard beautiful man, but also a smart, exported, and clever person, and is the best at financial management and wealth accumulation. Before he became the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the agency in charge of royal affairs often exceeded its income and often ran short, and after He Shen became the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Internal Affairs not only did not run short, but also had a slight surplus.

He was not only good at collecting money and giving it to the emperor from the feudal officials of the provinces, salt government weaving, and wealthy merchants, but also initiated the implementation of the silver in the imperial court, and all the income was incorporated into the special income of the internal affairs government to meet the needs of Qianlong's extravagant and extravagant life, which was deeply praised by the Qianlong Emperor. Qianlong claimed to be the elegant emperor, and Shen was handsome and proficient in Manchu, Han, Mongolian and Tibetan languages.

He Shen's excellence also lies in his loyalty to Qianlong and his ability to figure out Qianlong's ideological intentions. Qianlong loved gold, so he suggested that Qianlong build a tower of ten thousand Buddhas, so that princes and ministers and civil and military officials at all levels could offer golden Buddhas to the emperor in order to collect money.

Qianlong liked to talk about literature and history, and he boasted that he knew everything, so he deliberately copied a few words in obvious places when compiling the 24 histories, and asked Qianlong to point them out one by one, so as to show the wisdom and profound knowledge of the Son of Heaven, so as to satisfy Qianlong's vanity.

In addition, He Shen lost no time in showing his loyalty in front of Qianlong, even if he became a first-class marquis, he still called himself a slave in front of Qianlong, instead of calling himself a minister or an old minister like other ministers, and sometimes when he met the emperor coughing and spitting, he always personally entered it with a drowning weapon, and always and everywhere left Qianlong with the feeling that he was his own person, which was absolutely necessary to gain Qianlong's trust in personal feelings.

Therefore, of course, He Shen is favored not only by his whiskers, but also has some real skills, otherwise he would not have become a first-class marquis of the Qing Dynasty with both civil and military skills. And the emperor's trust in exchange for a glorious future on the road of Heshen, but also created a thief who leaned towards the government and the opposition and brought the Son of Heaven to order the princes. When He Shen's house was raided, the statistician had more than 8,000 hectares of fertile land, pawnshops, silver horns, antique shops, and foreign shops all over the country, with a total family wealth of more than 800 million taels of silver, which was equivalent to the total financial income of the Qing Dynasty in five years at that time, which was staggering.

Under the feudal autocracy, the whole world is not the king's land, and the shore of the land is not the king's ministers. The emperor is the supreme ruler, as long as he gains the trust of the emperor and does not pursue the emperor in everything, there is nothing to fear from the cunning officials and corrupt officials. In fact, these cunning officials and corrupt officials all deeply understand that the emperor has the power of life and death, as long as they put their efforts on the emperor, and have the emperor's big tree and umbrella, they can sit back and relax. As for the impeachment attacks of other ministers, it is not based on the emperor's right and wrong, good and evil, the imperial power is supreme, and He Shen hugged Qianlong's thick legs, of course, he can do whatever he wants.

As the old saying goes: "Cunning officials are not afraid of punishment, and corrupt officials do not avoid dirty." "The reason is that the audacity of cunning officials and corrupt officials is not right on the bottom. In front of the emperor, they are absolutely innocent and honest officials, and the money they have amassed is carried out in a legal and legitimate name, which is absolutely impossible to grasp.

Qianlong favored He Shen and felt guilty of repaying his debts, and Qianlong wanted to deliberately promote and reuse He Shen; He Shen was indeed talented and was Qianlong's right-hand man in handling government affairs; He Shen was good at figuring out the emperor's heart, and could make the emperor's life full of interest at all times; and the chronic disease of feudal officialdom and officials protecting each other, sometimes the emperor was no exception.

When it comes to He Shen, everyone may immediately think of the clown who doesn't learn and has no skills, and just relies on his mouth to please Qianlong. He Shen is not as unbearable as rumored, on the contrary, he is handsome, erudite, and a young reader of the history of the subset. He Shen is proficient in Manchu, Chinese, Mongolian, and Tibetan languages.

Qianlong had a good love for Heshen, Qianlong also gave Heshen's six-year-old son the name Fengshen Yinde, and soon married his favorite little daughter and princess Xiao to Fengshen Yinde, and married Qianlong in the fifty-fourth year. Talking to Shenshan, he knows how to handle a good relationship with Qianlong, and he has been extremely graceful in his life, and has been promoted as many as 50 times. Not only that, but he is also good at dealing with people who are officials in the same dynasty, including his nemesis Wang Jie, Liu Luoguo, Ji Xiaolan and others.

He Shen is twenty-six years younger than Ji Xiaolan, Liu Luoguo is thirty years old, and Wang Jie is twenty-five years old. At the age of twenty-nine, he entered the military aircraft department. Although He Shen himself did not have a jinshi, he was proficient in piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, and he could also be said to be a talent, and he promoted a large number of young talents together with Ji Xiaolan, Wang Jie, Liu Luoguo and others.

Ji Xiaolan is just a university scholar, although Liu Luoguo is the minister of the Military Aircraft Department, he is mainly responsible for ministry affairs, and although Wang Jie is the champion, he is only a university scholar. These three people all look beautiful in name, but they don't have any real power in their hands, and they can't have a frontal fierce conflict with He Shen, and they can't make trouble against He Shen.

At that time, Ji Xiaolan repaired the "Siku Quanshu" and was at the vice president level, while He Shen was at the president level. The weather was hot in the summer, and Ji Xiaolan was so tired that he was busy repairing books again, and when He Shen saw this, he suggested that he take off his clothes and pants and wear pants, anyway, the emperor didn't come. Ji Xiaolan was afraid of the heat, so he listened to him take off his clothes and pants, and continued to repair the book with his pants. He Shen saw that Ji Xiaolan was still sweating, so he asked people to take a fan to help Ji Xiaolan.

Unfortunately, the emperor came, seeing that the emperor's untidy appearance was a capital crime, He Shen hurriedly asked Ji Xiaolan to hide under the table, Qianlong Ye saw that Ji Xiaolan was not there, and asked Ji Xiaolan where is the person? He Shen replied: "He is not feeling well, so he didn't come today." ”

After Qianlong left, Ji Xiaolan came out from under the table and thanked He Shen: "If it weren't for you today, I would not have been beheaded, and I would have been sent to Yili." ”

Because of this, although He Shen's age is much younger than Ji Xiaolan, Liu Luoguo, and Wang Jie, they are all willing to do things for He Shen. During the Qianlong period, the relationship between Burma and the Qing government became increasingly tense, and in order to protect Qianlong's martial arts, He Shen strongly advocated war with Burma, and almost went to prison for this.

After the British envoy Macartney left China, he only gave the highest evaluation to one person in the country he looked down on, and that was Heshen.

In this decadent and incompetent empire, only He Shen maintained his dignified identity, with an amiable attitude and a sharp and profound understanding of problems, worthy of being a mature politician. ”

Less than ten days after the death of Emperor Qianlong, Emperor Jiaqing gave death to the huge greed of the Qianlong period, Emperor Qianlong's favorite minister and Shen, and confiscated a huge amount of property, which became the largest political event in the early years of Jiaqing except for the White Lotus Uprising. After He Shen was arrested and imprisoned, he wrote a desperate poem: "Fifty years of dreams are true, and now I will give up my hand to thank Hongchen." He is full of water and dragons, and he recognizes cigarettes as the back. ”

Some people always like to use their endless imagination, according to this fateful poem by He Shen, saying that He Shen died without turning a blind eye and was reincarnated as Cixi to take revenge on the Qing court. In fact, Cixi is also a distorted politician, before she came to power, the great powers had already invaded China, and the first unequal treaty had nothing to do with her, and the great powers would not stop when they tasted the sweetness. Imagine that the Eight-Nation Coalition was only a few months, the Japanese invading army could stay for eight years, and Cixi was born in the wrong era, but she still used her iron fist to protect the Qing Dynasty and China.

He Shen in Qianlong's later years can be said to be windy and rainy, even the nominal ruler Emperor Jiaqing did not dare to speak, but it is rare that He Shen did not have the idea of replacing Jiaqing, there are many people in history who want to replace the old master because of too much power, like Emperor Wen of Sui and Taizu of Song. And He Shen, one person is above 10,000 people, and it is rumored that he is the second emperor of the Qing Dynasty, but he is still loyal to his master, which is really rare.

He Shen embezzled one billion taels of silver, so much so that Youyan and Shen fell, and Jiaqing was full. He Shen should only have 20 million taels of silver when he copied the family, and a considerable part of it was his own business income, he was a businessman, good at calculation, and he used more of the silver obtained from corruption to invest in business, although he was greedy, but not as unscrupulous as rumored, and many of his negative exaggerated information should be spread by Emperor Jiaqing for political needs.

Although He Shen is greedy, he is indeed a very good politician. It's just that after the emperors of the previous dynasties came to power, they would clean up the ministers left by the previous emperors, and He Shen was in real power, so of course Jiaqing would not let him go. It is not so much that Emperor Jiaqing overthrew huge greed, but that when there is a change of power, someone must sacrifice, and He Shen is one of them.