Old Summer Palace

Inside the Zhengda Hall of Light

Since the Manchu Qing Dynasty signed a peace agreement with the bandit suppression army, the bad news from the front line of the Qing army has become less and less in an instant, and even in the last few days, there has been no bad news, but the good news that various places have been recovered. So, Qianlong, who felt a lot of pressure and relaxed, moved back to the "Imperial Gate Listening to Politics" that had been in the Taihe Hall of Bauhinia City before.

"Upper court..."

"If there is something to play, there is nothing to retreat..."

Under the shouts of the eunuchs, Qianlong, who was sitting on the dragon chair at this time, was in a good mood and asked the ministers of the imperial court at all levels standing below: "Ladies and gentlemen, who has a book to play today?" ”

The ministers in the court looked at each other silently, as if they didn't want to be the first to stand up and say something. After a moment of silence, the atmosphere seemed awkward. Suddenly, a loud voice in the procession was heard breaking the calm of the hall.

"Minister, Jiang Yongchang, the squire of the Ministry of Works, has something to do, the Yellow River is seriously flooded today, and Henan has been affected by a large area in previous years..."

With the slow speech of Jiang Yongchang, the waiter of the Ministry of Works, today's court meeting is officially opened.

After Jiang Yongchang finished the matter, Qianlong immediately understood that he was asking for money to repair the Yellow River.

"The waters of the Yellow River have not been in trouble for thousands of years, so it is not bad at that time. This year, the imperial court has sent Liu Tongxun to Henan to govern. I believe that it should not be difficult to deal with it with Liu Tongxun's ability. ”

"Now the court is in an eventful season, there are endless wars everywhere, and it takes a lot of money for the court to be pacified. It is not easy for the imperial court to spend money, and now one point is used as two cents to spend, so this year's Yellow River channel repair problem will be put aside first! Tell me to go down and let the flood soldiers below step up their patrols. Qianlong didn't have too many excuses, so he directly refused Jiang Yongchang's invitation.

If the Manchu Qing had not lost their tax-paying land in the south, Qianlong might not have cared about the little silver that had been repaired on the Yellow River. But now the heavy tax areas in the south have been firmly occupied by the bandit army, and the tax revenue of the Qing court has been reduced by nearly half of its income all of a sudden.

Even if the Qing court can quickly calm down, in the next year or even two to three years, the tax revenue of the Manchu court will be reduced a lot on the original basis.

As a result, the imperial court's current huge expenditures could only be supported by the existing deposits of the state treasury.

You must know that the bulk of the Manchu court's annual tax expenditure is the "crop silver" distributed to the bannermen.

If the imperial court does not have a large amount of tax support and can only rely on the treasury to spend on the bannermen, then the imperial court's treasury is estimated to bottom out soon. Once the national treasury is exhausted, there is no silver to pay the banner people, and those flag people also make a fuss with the anti-thieves, then the Qing Kingdom is really going to die.

Therefore, for those "insignificant" things, Qianlong naturally tried not to deal with them as much as possible, in line with the fact that the treasury could save a little bit.

"Yes..."Jiang Yongchang didn't dare to refute anything, and retreated with interest.

"Who still has a book?" Being made by Jiang Yongchang like this, Qianlong's mood became a little unhappy.

The ministers below fell silent again.

"Minister, Qin Tianjian He Zhongshi has something to play." At this moment, a man stood at the end of the procession and knelt down and kowtowed.

"Qin Tianjian?" Qianlong was slightly stunned.

Qin Tianjian, in Qianlong's mind, is just looking at the time, calculating the agricultural time and the like, Qianlong really can't figure out what else Qin Tianjian can do.

"Come forward and speak."

"The minister's decree, thank the emperor." After He Zhongshi finished speaking, he hurriedly stepped forward and knelt on the ground again and said.

"What's going on?" Qianlong asked.

"Recently, the minister has been watching the stars at night and found that the Ziwei Emperor Star has changed its previous obscurity and is shining. This will mean that our Qing court will soon sweep away the anti-thieves everywhere, the world will be peaceful, and the country and the people will be safe. After bowing for a while, He Zhongshi replied with a full temperament.

"Okay, haha... He Aiqing is right. When He Zhongshi said this, Qianlong stood up from the dragon chair excitedly and laughed.

"I received Fu Sen's military intelligence last night, they broke through Pengyang in Gansu in one fell swoop, and now the troops are directly aimed at Guyuan. I want to come to pacify the anti-thieves in Gansu is just around the corner. ”

"The ministers congratulate the emperor and congratulate the Qing Dynasty. As soon as Qianlong's words fell, the ministers in the court immediately knelt on the ground and shouted.

"Everyone loves to be flat."

"Your Majesty."

"He Aiqing, you are good. Listen to the reward, reward He Aiqing with one hundred taels of silver, ten horses of yarn, and ten horses of silk. Qianlong said happily.

"The minister has thanked the saint, long live my emperor, long live, long live, long live..."He Zhongshi knelt and kowtowed excitedly.

Qin Tianjian has always been a clear water yamen, and there is no water at all. And even if he is a five-grade Han Jian Zheng, the silver is only eighty taels. Now Qianlong rewarded him with one hundred taels of silver at once, which is more than his silver in a year, how can he not be happy? Not to mention those yarns and silks?

"Okay, you go back!" Qianlong waved his hand and asked He Zhongshi to retreat.

"Ladies and gentlemen, who still has something to do."

"Minister, the military department is still the secretary Shu Mulu. Schuhd has something to do. "Located in front of the military department Shangshu Mulu. Schuhd said.

"Schuhd, what's the matter with you?" Qianlong asked.

"Back to the emperor, there is the latest news from the Ministry of War, the short-haired thieves in the south established a puppet country at the tenth day of the first month of August, and the country name is Yi." Shu Mulu. Schuhd replied after saluting.

"Haha, the way to kill a thief is not tolerated by heaven and earth. Five virtues always, heaven luck I Qing Dynasty. Qianlong, who had just sat down on the dragon chair, stood up again and said with a laugh.

Regarding the five virtues always said (1), Qianlong did not believe it in his heart (2). However, Qianlong doesn't mind using this to suppress the imposing bandit army during this period, and at the same time, he can also "positive" the fortune of the Qing Dynasty like the people of the world.

……………

Note (1): The Five Virtues are always said to be the historical view of Zou Yan, the yin-yang family of China during the Warring States Period. The "five virtues" refer to the five virtues or properties of earth, wood, metal, fire, and water. "The end of the five virtues" refers to the cyclic movement of these five properties from beginning to end and over again, which Zou Yan uses as the basis for historical changes and dynastic changes.

As a theoretical tool for changing dynasties, the Five Virtues Theory has been embraced by the founders of successive new dynasties. After Qin Shi Huang unified the six kingdoms, according to Zou Yan's thesis that "water virtue acts on behalf of Zhou", Qin Wengong went out to hunt the black dragon as the Fu Rui of the rise of water virtue, and carried out a series of reforms that met the requirements of water virtue to prove the legitimacy of his regime, and then became the first practitioner of the five virtues.

The Five Virtues Theory has always been the basic theoretical framework for dynasties to explain the legitimacy of their regimes. "Therefore, since Qin pushed five victories, named after water virtue, since the Han Dynasty, there is no country because of this." However, after the Song and Jin dynasties, the Five Movements Theory, which had been followed for more than a thousand years, was eventually expelled from the mainstream of Confucian political culture and tended to disappear.

After Kublai Khan, the ancestor of the Yuan dynasty, ascended the throne, Wang Yun, who was the author of the Hanlin Dynasty at the time, officially wrote the "Please Discuss the Virtue Luck", suggesting that the virtue luck of the dynasty should be determined, but did not receive any response.

At the beginning of the reign of Yuancheng, there was "Nanren Hong Youxue was sealed, and he talked about the five fortunes in vain, and sent him by flogging". This time, not only did he not get a response, but he was also beaten.

In the end of the Yuan Dynasty, there were not a few people who suggested that virtue and luck should be determined, but the Yuan court did not discuss this issue, that is, the Yuan court did not determine the virtue and luck.

Note (2): In the 38th year of Qianlong, Qianlong said more clearly in the preface of the poem "The Illustration of the Great Jin Deyun":

The luck of the five virtues is nonsense. Since Han Confucianism began to say that the five virtues of the king, then the three emperors and the five emperors each had their own talents, and then it became a prophecy, and it was very confusing. The prosperity of the husband's generation is all due to the accumulation of virtue and benevolence, how can the birth of the five elements be born? And to serve the royal house, since the yellow is positive, the rest is not appropriate.

The Yuan and Ming systems are still yellow, and they are not extravagant Chen Wude King, and their righteousness is very righteous. Because of this, this dynasty broke the ugly theory after the Han and Wei dynasties.

For more information, please Baidu "Huang Taiji changed the name of the country to "Daqing", does he really want to use water to conquer the fire virtue of the Ming Dynasty? 》