When the emperor comes to modern times, history collapses!

"What the hell, he was able to embezzle tens of millions of taels of silver in just a few months!"

"How could there be such a greedy person!"

"Then how much did he embezzle? It must be hundreds of millions of taels of silver. Is it really possible for someone to embezzle so much?"

"Isn't it said that Qianlong was very smart? How could someone under him embezzle so much money?"

The emperor present was a little bit unbelievable.

Several million taels are already a lot, and tens of millions are a bit unimaginable.

Hundreds of millions of taels of silver, it’s really hard to imagine.

Zhu Ming smiled and said, "You may underestimate corrupt officials. If they don't have tens of millions, they can still be called famous corrupt officials. Let's not talk about anything else, Brother Zheng, the money Zhao Gao embezzled must be counted in hundreds of millions. It can be said that there are such people in every dynasty. Even your ministers in history have embezzled tens of millions."

Everyone was surprised again.

"If you say that some of my ministers have embezzled more than 10 million, it is possible, but are there any corrupt officials under Zhu who can really embezzle so much?"

"Yes, you also know Lao Zhu. He will not feel comfortable if he does not kill a few corrupt officials every day. Last time, he came to my Great Sui to help deal with corrupt officials!"

"Given the horrific methods used by Zhu Yuanzhang of the Ming Dynasty, let alone tens of millions, even a million is unlikely, right?"

Zhu Yuanzhang's attitude towards corrupt officials is well known to everyone.

He once vowed to kill all the corrupt officials in the world. His determination was astonishing.

People couldn't help but wonder why Zhu Yuanzhang hated corrupt officials so much, as if he had a blood feud with them. After asking, they learned that Zhu Yuanzhang had been persecuted by corrupt officials when he was a child.

When he was a child, he made a living by herding cattle for a landlord. The cattle were eating grass nearby, and Lao Zhu was lying on the grass with a piece of grass in his mouth, and he began to fantasize: If I could become the emperor, how would I punish these hateful corrupt officials?

His wild thoughts day after day led him to come up with many ways to punish corrupt officials.

Now that he has finally ascended the throne, he naturally wants to fulfill his childhood dream, so he racks his brains every day to find those corrupt officials hiding in the dark.

Zhu Ming smiled and said, "You should know that there are policies from above and countermeasures from below, and corrupt officials are often not corrupt alone, but in groups. Although Zhu is the most severe in dealing with corrupt officials, in the Hongwu Dynasty in history, corrupt officials were as numerous as crucian carp crossing the river, and the proportion is probably even greater than that of your officials."

"Can't you?"

"If I were an official under Zhu, I would not dare to embezzle."

"That's right. If you embezzle 60 taels, you will be skinned and stuffed with straw. I'm scared just thinking about it!"

Zhu Ming said: "You only see how harsh Zhu is to corrupt officials, but you don't notice how much the officials in Zhu's place were paid. Even an official like a county magistrate would have a hard time supporting his family if he didn't embezzle. It's OK if the family is healthy, but once they get a serious illness, how can they get the money to treat the illness if they don't embezzle? As long as you embezzle, you will only get more and more.

Once it exceeds sixty taels, I will let it go. If I am caught, I will be dead anyway, so why should I enjoy more happiness?

Even during the Hongwu Dynasty, there were people who embezzled tens of millions of dollars.”

The First Emperor was shocked: "Is this true? Who is the person who embezzled tens of millions of yuan under Zhu?"

Emperor Wu of Han blinked and looked at Lao Zhu: "Is it possible? Lao Zhu's Jinyiwei are very powerful. The Jinyiwei who helped me train are very good."

Yang Guang nodded: "Yes, the training method of Zhu Jinyiwei is much better than those of my previous spies, and they also conduct special training for improvement every year."

Li Yuan stroked his beard and said, "He embezzled more than 10 million yuan during the Hongwu Dynasty. He is truly a talent. If it were me, I probably wouldn't be able to do it."

"Please introduce this talent."

Zhu Ming said: "One of the four major cases in Hongwu was the Guo Huan case.

In the eighteenth year of Hongwu, the Guo Huan case broke out.

Guo Huan, the assistant minister of the Ministry of Revenue, and others colluded with officials from various provinces to cheat, steal and sell government grain, and were exposed.

Mainly through:

1. Privately embezzling taxes from Taiping Prefecture, Zhenjiang Prefecture and other prefectures to reduce the court's tax revenue.

2. He embezzled the autumn grain from western Zhejiang. The autumn grain from western Zhejiang should have been handed over to the government at 4.5 million shi, but Guo Huan only handed over more than 2 million shi.

3. When collecting taxes, they created various pretexts and levied various taxes such as water fees, food fees, treasury fees, and fees for gods and Buddhas, and enriched themselves.

A total of more than 24 million shi of grain were embezzled.

This case involved twelve provincial governments across the country, including the Minister of Rites Zhao Mao, the Minister of Punishments Wang Huidi, the Vice Minister of War Wang Zhi, and the Vice Minister of Works Mai Zhide.

The total loss was 24 million dan of fine grain.

"From the left and right vice ministers of the six ministries and below, seven million in stolen money was confiscated, and the officials from the provincial and provincial governments were implicated, and tens of thousands of people were killed." In order to recover the stolen money, it turned into a nationwide riot, and all the rich people went bankrupt. This is known in history as the "Guo Huan Case."

The reason why he wrote it as seven million is because this number is already shocking enough. If it is more, he is worried that ordinary people will not believe it.

Zhu Yuanzhang snorted coldly: "If there is one, kill ten. If there are ten, kill a hundred. I don't believe that there are still people who dare to embezzle!"

Zhu Ming asked doubtfully, "Shouldn't we kill one if there is one, and kill ten if there are ten?"

Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly smiled and explained, "Killing corrupt officials alone is not enough to deter other officials. We need to let them know the consequences of corruption. We must punish three, nine or even more clans. If one corrupt official is caught, ten people may be implicated and executed. So it is not an exaggeration to say 'kill ten for every one'."

The others nodded, indicating that they understood the deeper meaning.

"I see, if you calculate it this way, it is indeed correct!"

"As expected of Lao Zhu, I admire you so much!"

"I thought Mr. Zhu was not well educated and used the wrong quotes. It turns out that our thinking is too narrow."

Zhu Yuanzhang continued: "However, from what you said, I'm afraid he is far inferior to Heshen of the Qing Dynasty."

Zhu Ming nodded: "In history, there are only two or three people who can stand shoulder to shoulder with Heshen in terms of corruption, but in terms of fame, Heshen is the biggest one. When thinking of ancient corrupt officials, the first person that comes to mind is Heshen.

He Shen used his power and position to plunder wealth. He accumulated a huge amount of wealth through bribery, extortion, and corruption. He accepted various bribes, including gold, silver, jewelry, precious cultural relics, land and real estate.

Even the appointment and dismissal of officials became a tool for him to make money, and many people did not hesitate to bribe him in order to get a position.

Heshen also manipulated taxation and financial affairs, privately withheld taxes, and took state money for himself.

He also intervened in business activities, monopolized the market and made huge profits.

At the same time, he abused his power, occupied people's land, and caused a large number of people to lose their land.

According to incomplete statistics, Heshen's property included 3000 houses, 8000 hectares of land, 42 silver shops, 75 pawn shops, 60000 taels of pure gold, 100 large gold ingots (1000 taels each), 56600 small silver ingots (100 taels each), 9000000 silver ingots, and 58000 yuan in foreign currency. The total amount exceeded 11 billion taels of silver.

The emperors present were all stunned.

There was no other sound around except the sound of the wind.

After a while, someone finally responded. "How much?"

"Did I hear it right? 1.1 billion taels of silver?"

"Fuck, I remember that if converted into silver, the annual tax revenue of my Great Qin was less than 10 million taels of silver. Doesn't that mean that the total tax revenue of the entire Qin Dynasty is not as much as Heshen's!" The First Emperor was shocked. He really didn't expect that the data was more than he had imagined.

"The Han Dynasty is developing rapidly now, but the annual tax revenue is only about 200 million. Wow, the tax revenue for five years combined is not as much as Heshen's."

"I am the emperor and the richest man, but I feel like a pauper in front of Heshen!" Yang Guang was also very surprised by this number.

Zhu Di held his chin up and said, "With so much money, even if there were two Zhu Dis, and they had led troops to fight since childhood, they probably wouldn't be able to spend it all in their lifetime."

Zhu Ming continued: "The annual fiscal revenue of the Qing government was only more than 80 million taels of silver. In other words, Heshen's wealth alone was enough to equal the fiscal revenue of the Qing government for more than ten years.

During the late Qing Dynasty, the total amount of reparations paid by the Qing government for all foreign wars exceeded 6 million taels of silver. These reparations put a great deal of pressure on the Qing government, which had to be paid in installments and using tax as collateral.

But for He Shen, this is not a problem. If it can be solved with money, then it is not a problem. He Shen can easily handle it himself. With the remaining money, He Shen can even say that he is the richest man in the world! "

"Kill Heshen, and the emperor will become fatter!"

"They say fatten them up before killing them, but this time they've fattened them up!"

"Did Qianlong kill Heshen in the end? No wonder he became arrogant later. He suddenly had more than ten years of tax revenue. Happiness came too suddenly."

"If it were the original history, even if you let me be greedy, I don't think I could have been greedy for so much in more than 20 years!"

Even Zhu Yuanzhang said with emotion: "Although he is a corrupt official, I have to say I admire him. Being able to embezzle so much is also a skill. In history, I have been an emperor for more than 30 years. Even if I didn't spend a penny, I can't catch up with Heshen himself in the past 30 years. Awesome!"

"Yes, although Heshen is greedy, he is also very capable! He is a financial genius."

Heshen came from an ordinary family, but he was born intelligent. He was proficient in the Four Books and Five Classics and could speak five languages, namely Manchu, Chinese, Mongolian, English and Tibetan. He relied on his own strength to enter the officialdom through the imperial examination, which was rare among the Manchus at that time.

Heshen, who had just become an official, was just an attendant in the ceremonial guard, but because of his outstanding appearance and handsome looks, he was valued by Emperor Qianlong and kept by his side.

From the 38th year of Qianlong's reign to the 44th year of Qianlong's reign, Heshen's official position rose like a rocket.

From warehouse manager to deputy governor of the Zhenglan Banner Manchu, from the Zhenglan Banner to deputy governor of Manchuria to deputy governor of the Xianghuang Banner Manchuria, and then to left vice minister of the Ministry of Revenue and right vice minister of the Ministry of Personnel, he changed positions almost before he could get comfortable in one position.

In just six years, he was promoted directly from a seventh-rank official to the second-rank.

Without ability and emotional intelligence, it is definitely impossible to do it.

During the twenty years that Heshen was in power, Qianlong never worried about money. No matter it was disaster relief, southern tours, or even the empress dowager's birthday banquet, the finances controlled by Heshen never complained to Qianlong. If Qianlong, a spendthrift and super spendthrift, had not had Heshen, the chief eunuch in charge of money, behind the scenes, in charge of the Qing Dynasty's purse, war would have broken out long ago.

"To be able to do this, one must be a talent!"

“Is this considered a typical case of a poor family rising to prominence?”

"Thinking about the former Minister of Revenue, I have the urge to strangle him to death every day!"

"Alas, it's fine in normal times, but I don't know how many disasters will happen to ordinary people when there is a natural disaster. With such a corrupt official, he should be executed by slow slicing!"

Zhu Ming waved his hand and said, "You are wrong. Although Heshen was greedy, he was still very principled. There were three kinds of money that he would not be greedy for."

The emperors present were all stunned. How could such a corrupt official not be greedy for money?

"Is it true that corrupt officials still have principles?"

"If you were less greedy, you wouldn't be able to collect these tens of billions of taels of silver."

"I wonder if Heshen should have his money changed in history books. Can such a person still have principles?"

Zhu Ming was stunned for a moment: I don’t know whether the history books were changed.

As far as I know, there are three types of money that Heshen did not covet:

First: Don’t be greedy for disaster relief funds

Heshen never coveted disaster relief money. Not only that, he also strictly ordered his subordinates not to be greedy either.

It is recorded that in the 51st year of Emperor Qianlong's reign, Gansu suffered a severe drought. Emperor Qianlong donated 3 million taels of silver for disaster relief and appointed Heshen to supervise the work. When Heshen arrived, he found that the silver used for disaster relief had been embezzled by some officials. Heshen was furious and ordered a strict investigation. He severely punished a group of corrupt officials and forced the Gansu government to voluntarily donate silver for disaster relief.

What is most surprising is that Heshen not only did not tamper with the relief money, but also paid out of his own pocket to make up for the shortfall in relief money.

"Impossible, absolutely impossible!"

"You must be kidding me! Without the item of disaster relief and corruption, how did they get over a billion?"

"It's ridiculous that corrupt officials can pay out of their own pockets!"

"To change history, it must be changed. A minister like this must be very powerful. Threatening a few historians is not a hardship at all!"

No one else dared to believe it, and they were just like a pervert visiting a brothel, ordering only men. They must be kidding.

"It is said that disaster relief is a big deal for the imperial court and it can easily cause riots and rebellions, threatening the position of the rulers. Heshen is cunning and knows the seriousness of the matter. This kind of money is too hot to handle, so he is determined not to think about it. Of course, we will ask about its truth when the time comes, anyway, Heshen is in there!" Zhu Ming said, pointing to the warehouse.

"Yes, I must ask!"

"If that's the case, then this is really possible!"

"The money for disaster relief is too hot to handle!"

"To be honest, I am becoming more and more interested in Heshen now!"

“I still think history has been changed!”

Second: Don’t be greedy for money from the imperial examination

The imperial examination was the most important way for poor people to enter the officialdom and for the court to recruit talents in ancient times. It was extremely important to the country and could be said to be the emperor's Achilles' heel. Fraud in the imperial examination was a serious crime punishable by beheading, and many people lost their lives for this.

Heshen knew that the water was too deep. Not only was he a nuisance to the emperor, but he could easily be accused of forming a clique for personal gain.

"It turns out that corrupt officials are the best at protecting their lives!"

"In my country, the main thing about the imperial examination is that no matter how many people are caught, they will all be killed. It's just like what Zhu said, 'If there is one, kill ten, and if there are ten, kill a hundred'!"

"Yes, it was the same in the Tang Dynasty. Anyone who dared to take action would be chopped off immediately. The assistants were also greedy, but they never dared to touch the imperial examinations!"

The third type: Don’t be greedy for things that cannot be accomplished.

Accepting money from others is to help them get rid of disasters. When Heshen was paid to do things for others, he would only accept money if he was sure that it would be done. In other words, Heshen would only accept money if he felt that he could do it. If he was not sure that it would be done, he would not accept money.

If Qianlong issued an edict to clearly identify the person to be punished, Heshen would never interfere. (End of this chapter)