There is no such thing as the Kangxi and Qianlong eras

Chapter 220 Qianlong Understands Everything
The current situation is increasingly deviating from the original historical trajectory.

First of all, the Guizhou Zhongmiao, which should have been eradicated last September, has actually persisted until now and is even showing signs of intensifying.

Then, the Xiangyang White Lotus Sect, which had also been on its last legs by the end of last year, unexpectedly revived itself after fleeing into Shaanxi.

To be precise, it wasn't that they revitalized themselves, but rather that there were very few Qing troops left in the Shaanxi area.

Henan was being held back by Liu Zhixie's White Lotus Rebellion, while the Western Regions were suffering from a severe drought that had started in July of last year. The two military cities controlled by the puppet Qing dynasty, Kashgar and Yingjishar, were too busy stockpiling grain and fodder to prepare for the famine and had no capacity to enter the pass to suppress the rebels.

Furthermore, the land of Shaanxi and Gansu was the foundation of the imperial dynasties during the Sui and Tang dynasties, but it became a nightmare for the Ming and Qing dynasties.

Why do you say that?
Because Shaanxi and Gansu during the Ming and Qing dynasties had basically become a breeding ground for natural disasters, the reason why Li Zicheng was able to make a comeback after being defeated a dozen or more times at the end of the Ming dynasty was that the Shaanxi and Gansu region suffered from drought nine out of ten years and major floods and earthquakes in one year.

When the Qing Dynasty came, things got even worse. Emperor Qianlong called it a "golden age," but in just sixty years, the Shaanxi-Gansu region suffered as many as 45 natural disasters.

Such frequent natural disasters resulted in widespread displacement of people. This large influx of refugees and starving people, coupled with the successful merger of the White Lotus sect in Xiangyang and Shaanxi, further exacerbated the situation.

As a result, Shaanxi was in an uproar.

Yi Mian, the Governor-General of Shaanxi and Gansu and concurrently the Governor-General of Sichuan, was nearly driven mad. He desperately wanted to rush back to Shaanxi to quell the rebellion, but he couldn't leave. As the concurrent Governor-General of Sichuan, if he abandoned Sichuan and allowed the White Lotus Rebellion to run rampant, he would be held responsible.

Moreover, the White Lotus Sect was extremely difficult to defeat; his Eight Banners and Green Standard Army forces had already been thoroughly defeated. He could only rely on Luo Siju's local militia to continue guerrilla warfare against the White Lotus Sect, and also dispatch a Green Standard Army detachment to block Hanzhong to prevent the White Lotus Sect from reuniting in the three provinces, otherwise things would truly spiral out of control.

All these changes in the Southwest were caused by Nie Yu. If the Great Han had not defeated and scattered the main force of the Qing army in seven provinces in one fell swoop, leaving the Qing army in the Southwest with empty troops, and if the Great Han had not defeated the Qing army several times, exposing the weakness of the puppet Qing army and the Eight Banners in advance, the situation in the Southwest would probably not have deteriorated so quickly.

Having discussed the unpleasant local issues, let's now talk about the puppet Qing dynasty!

Liu Yong and Ji Xiaolan have returned to the capital, bringing back the story of the Han traitors who refused to be appeased and instead demanded that the Qing Dynasty cede four provinces in Hebei and seven provinces in Jiangnan as a precondition for peace talks.

Such outrageous and presumptuous demands enraged not only Emperor Qianlong, but also Emperor Jiaqing, who was a puppet ruler.

All the officials, both Manchu and Han, were clamoring to send troops to destroy the Han traitors.

Then there is no more then.

Did they send troops to destroy the Han traitors?

They definitely need to be wiped out, but the problem is that the Qing government doesn't have any troops at the moment!
The Qing army in Zhili could not be easily mobilized, and the Eight Banners of Mongolia outside the Great Wall could not be moved at will either. So there were not many troops left. The Qing army in Jiangnan had to guard against the invasion of Han traitors, the Qing army in the north had to suppress the White Lotus Rebellion in Henan, and the Qing army in the Western Regions had to suppress the Hui people.

The Southwest... there are hardly any soldiers left in the Southwest. Rebellions are happening everywhere there. It's good enough that local officials aren't asking the imperial court for more troops.

Don't be fooled by novels and TV dramas anymore, where they always depict armies of hundreds of thousands going on campaign. The total standing army of the entire puppet Qing Dynasty was only a little over 600,000. If you take away those who were drawing salaries without working, it was probably only around 400,000.

In the first year of the Jiaqing Emperor's reign, the Han army defeated 100,000 Qing troops in western Hunan. These were all regular troops, and the soldiers that Emperor Fukang'an was commanding could not have been recruited without paying salaries. Therefore, the Qing army was already stretched thin.

Without military strength, we cannot suppress the Han traitors; if we cannot suppress the Han traitors, then we can only offer them amnesty.

If appeasement fails, the bandits must still be suppressed...

……

Yuanmingyuan, the Hall of Diligent Governance and Kindness to the Worthy.

Liu Yong was summoned to meet Emperor Qianlong. He thought that his attempt to pacify the country had failed, and that after returning to the capital and submitting a memorial, he would be imprisoned in the wrath of the retired emperor, or at the very least, be stripped of his official rank and sent home to retire.

Unexpectedly, Emperor Qianlong not only did not imprison him or demote him, but also issued an edict to appease him and took on the responsibility of pacification himself.

This made Liu Yong, who had been in officialdom for decades and thought he knew Qianlong very well, suddenly feel a little confused.

Liu Yong stepped forward to pay his respects, while Emperor Qianlong was reviewing memorials.

"Your humble servant Liu Yong kowtows to Your Majesty, long live the Emperor!"

"No need for formalities, here is a mat for you."

That's how powerful the puppet Qing system was; even servants had to kneel when they met the Manchu emperor. However, older servants could be given soft cushions to prevent them from getting cold and sick from kneeling for too long.

The eunuch brought over a fine kneeling cushion, and Liu Yong adjusted his kneeling posture slightly before bowing his head and kneeling down again, without looking up at Qianlong (looking up at the emperor was considered extremely disrespectful).

After reading for a moment, Qianlong put down the memorial in his hand and asked, "I have finished reading your memorial. Are the Han traitors in Huguang really so powerful and difficult to control?"

Having been summoned to court today, Liu Yong already had his suspicions, especially since he hadn't been punished upon his return to the capital. After carefully considering his words, he immediately kowtowed and said, "I dare not deceive Your Majesty, the Han rebels of Huguang are not just powerful and difficult to control, but utterly uncontrollable. If they are not surrounded by elite troops from several provinces, they will surely wreak havoc on the world and become a major threat to our Great Qing!"

These words were spoken in a very serious manner, but the more serious they were spoken, the more Qianlong took them seriously.

Emperor Qianlong was stubborn and self-willed, and also very concerned about his image. However, when it came to local rebellions, this "perfect emperor" was surprisingly able to restrain his personality flaws and do his best to be patient, hoping that the local authorities could suppress the rebels as soon as possible.

The reason for this is quite simple: Emperor Qianlong was already quite old, and his mind was full of thoughts of achieving perfect merit and completing his "Ten Great Military Achievements".

But the reality is that, in the very year he announced his abdication, a rebellion broke out in Huguang. Even if you rebels had just put up with it!

Let me fulfill my merits!
The rebels arrived at the perfect time, leaving no room for Emperor Jiaqing to shift the blame. In order to salvage his military achievements and reputation, Emperor Qianlong could only tolerate the incompetence and corruption of local officials and generals, hoping they would do their best to suppress the rebels.

Agui recommended Ehui, Mingliang, and Lebao, saying they could suppress the bandits. Qianlong approved them without hesitation.

When Agui passed away, Emperor Qianlong wept bitterly in mourning, also because he had lost a capable minister and general.

Even when E Hui died in battle due to underestimating the enemy, Emperor Qianlong did not issue an edict to reprimand him. Instead, he praised and posthumously honored him. Along with him, a group of military and civil officials who had died in battle were also posthumously honored. Their crimes of corruption and incompetence were all subconsciously ignored by Emperor Qianlong.

What for?
This was naturally intended to encourage local officials. As long as you risk your lives to suppress the bandits, even if you die in battle, I will not blame you. On the contrary, I will reward you and posthumously honor you, and all your crimes will be wiped clean.

Emperor Qianlong closed his eyes and remained silent for a long time before opening them and asking, "Tell me everything you saw during your trip to Huguang, in great detail."

"The slave obeys the order."

Liu Yong responded first, then continued, "Actually, as early as when I went to Huguang and passed through Anhui, I met Governor Zhu Gui of Anhui. Governor Zhu had already spoken with me about the arrogance and domineering nature of the Han traitors in Huguang. The arrogance of these Han traitors lies first in defying the will of the world by usurping the title of king, and then in their heinous acts of forging the imperial seal and fabricating the Mandate of Heaven..."

Emperor Qianlong's eyelids twitched, and he immediately interrupted, "Is it really the Imperial Seal?"

"Your Majesty, please take a look!" Liu Yong produced the proclamation of his title of king that he had obtained from Zhu Gui.

Qianlong's personal eunuch stepped forward, took the notice, and then passed it on to Qianlong for inspection.

With just a glance, Qianlong frowned. It was indeed the imperial seal. The difference in the seal script was almost imperceptible: "How audacious!"

This was before Nie Yu showed the jade seal to Emperor Qianlong. If Qianlong had seen it himself, he might not have been able to tell the difference between the real and fake. This was because the seals in Nie Yu's possession were one-to-one replicas of Qing Dynasty jade seals. There were no real images of jade seals from other dynasties available, and in terms of craftsmanship alone, they were even superior to the Imperial Seal of the State in Qianlong's possession.

After all, how can hand carving compare to machine carving? Being on par would be the best they can do.

As for the jade issue, that's easy to resolve. Who says the jade used for the imperial seal must be the same jade used for your pseudo-Qing imperial seal? My Great Han Imperial Seal was bestowed by the gods, and it's not as legitimate as the one your pseudo-Qing stole from the Mongols.

Emperor Qianlong put down the notice, tried to calm himself, and continued, "Anything else? What else did Zhu Gui say?"

Liu Yong said, "The gentry and the people under the rule of the Han traitors were not as I had known about them before the Qing Dynasty."

"Local officials are deceiving and submitting false reports?" Qianlong frowned.

Liu Yong said, "It's not all deception and false reports. Some things are indeed difficult to report. Once they are reported, people will be unsettled and the court will be in turmoil."

That's a very skillful way of putting it. It doesn't mean it's entirely true, but it does mean that some local officials are still deceiving their superiors and covering up the truth.

Emperor Qianlong appeared calm, but inwardly he was burning with rage. He could tolerate corrupt officials and sycophants, but he could not tolerate local officials deceiving their superiors and concealing the truth from their subordinates; this was a challenge to his authority.

Emperor Qianlong had already made a secret decision: once the Han traitors were pacified, he would thoroughly investigate and punish all the officials and lackeys in various regions. Whether they were corrupt or not did not matter, but they could not deceive him, the emperor of the Great Qing.

Liu Yong lowered his head and continued, "The reason why the Han traitors in Huguang are so difficult to control is not only because they are audacious and disrespectful to the court, but also because they are very good at winning over the hearts of the people."

Emperor Qianlong nodded slightly: "Distributing the land of the gentry to the common people will indeed win the hearts of the Han traitors."

Liu Yong said: "Not only that, the Han traitors were trying to win over the hearts of the people by dividing up the land of the gentry and winning over the common people. On the one hand, the Han traitors divided up the land of the gentry, and on the other hand, they encouraged the sons of the gentry to serve as officials under the rule of the Han traitors. The Han traitors divided up a large number of local towns and villages with the intention of creating enough official positions for the sons of the gentry to serve as officials."

"If the Han traitors are like this, aren't they afraid that all the officials under their rule will be corrupt and incompetent?" Qianlong asked in surprise.

Liu Yong said, "This servant also had this doubt. After arriving in Huguang, I personally visited the towns and villages under the rule of the Han traitors. I found that while I wouldn't say all the officials under the Han traitors were honest, at least most of them were much more honest than those under my Great Qing. A dignified ninth-rank official, who is considered a local bigwig by the standards of the common people, ate nothing more than steamed buns and pickled vegetables every day. There was some meat, but it was mostly fatty meat. This servant ate like that for a few days, and the taste was simply unpalatable. Every time I finished eating, I was reminded of the meat dishes my family ate when we were poor in my childhood."

Upon hearing this, Emperor Qianlong was quite surprised: "Are all officials under the rule of the Han traitors like this? Could it be that the Han traitors knew you wanted to go and deliberately arranged this?"

Liu Yong shook his head: "It shouldn't be. When I accompanied him to the countryside for inspection, I found that the people along the way all respected the town magistrate under the rule of this Han traitor. Moreover, this dignified official actually disregarded his dignity and status, personally taking off his shoes and socks to work in the fields. Even when it came to meals, I have seen countless people, but he ate without any pretense, and on the contrary, he ate with great relish."

"To be honest, it's like that young, traitorous town mayor specially prepared several meat dishes for this old servant to take care of his old bones."

These words left Emperor Qianlong speechless. It wasn't that he had nothing to say, but rather that he simply couldn't believe that there could be such an honest and capable official under the rule of a rebel.

Emperor Qianlong pondered for a moment and asked, "Are all officials under the rule of the Han traitors like this?"

Liu Yong said, "I don't know, but that's what I saw. Even when I went to the Wuchang government office to discuss pacification with the Han traitors, the officials there weren't many curious onlookers. Instead, everyone was doing their jobs diligently and didn't dare to slack off in the slightest."

Emperor Qianlong thought for a moment and then asked, "Why do you think this is the case?"

Liu Yong answered truthfully: "I think there are three reasons. The first is what Governor Zhu told me, that under the rule of the Han traitors, officials only care about their political achievements and the people's livelihood, not about bribes. As long as you can achieve good results and the people can live and work in peace, you will have a smooth career path. Even if you are a clerk, you can be promoted to an official position based on your political achievements without any obstacles."

Emperor Qianlong interrupted again: "Can even a clerk become an official?"

Liu Yong said, "Not only that, the Han traitors also specially set up land distribution officials. These officials were called officials, but in reality they were clerks. Any gentry's son who applied to become an official had to start as a land distribution clerk."

Emperor Qianlong raised his hand: "Continue."

Liu Yong added, "Secondly, the Han rebels were very good at setting an example. Although they divided the land of the gentry and landlords, the first thing they divided was not the land of other gentry and landlords, but their own land. To put it bluntly, the Han rebels had already proclaimed themselves the King of Han, but as a dignified rebel king, the land that actually belonged to him was only one hundred mu, which was even less than the land that the gentry and landlords kept for themselves."

"With this distribution of land, the Han traitor himself first ensured that he was not greedy or embezzled, and did not seize the military farmland for his own benefit. Even if the local gentry had any dissatisfaction with the Han traitor, they had to admit that they admired him."

This is the truth. Liu Yong had even privately approached those local gentry and landlords. Many of them had a lukewarm attitude towards the Han traitors. This lukewarm attitude meant they disliked them more, but they couldn't say it openly because they had already joined the bandits.

Even so, when asked about their views on the Han traitors, many of the local gentry and landlords expressed some admiration.

To be able to own millions of acres of land and not be tempted is truly remarkable and rare for them.

Liu Yong continued, "The third point is that the Han traitors were very good at controlling people's hearts and knew how to divide and conquer. Although the gentry and landlords had their land divided by the Han traitors, even among the gentry and landlords, there were different classes. The Han traitors revised the tax law with the aim of suppressing the gentry, intimidating the local gentry, and winning over landlords and commoners. In this way, the Han traitors' rule would naturally be united and the people would be loyal to them."

In fact, there were many things that Liu Yong did not explicitly say, but Qianlong was not stupid and could naturally understand them.

The gentry are the real cancer; the local gentry only need to be deterred. Only ordinary landlords are the foundation of the Qing Dynasty. Since the Han traitor has the audacity to do such a big thing, the local gentry and landlords will naturally support him.

As for the gentry, killing them is fine; it will only give the Han traitors countless more properties, allowing them to govern and keep the people at ease.

Moreover, the Han traitor and rebel king Nie Yu and his son set an example by distributing their own land and not seizing the land of landlords and gentry, but instead distributing it to ordinary people.

With such a top-down approach, how could local officials dare to embezzle?

Unfortunately, understanding something is one thing, but being able to do it is another.

If Emperor Qianlong hadn't taken the lead in embezzling silver, where would he have gotten the money to reclaim Xinjiang, fight the Gurkhas, wage war against the Konbaung Dynasty in Burma, and make six trips to the south of the Yangtze River? All of these were Emperor Qianlong's ten great military achievements and the great accomplishments of the Qianlong era. Not a single penny less would have been enough to accomplish them.

Qianlong's current thinking is very simple. He is already burdened by the achievements of the Ten Great Campaigns and the Qianlong Era of Prosperity. It is obviously impossible for him to clean up the bureaucracy at this time.

He can enjoy himself if he wants. Anyway, he's over eighty years old. In ten or eight years at most, the throne will have been passed to Jiaqing. At that time, the task of cleaning up the bureaucracy will be left to Jiaqing.

Emperor Qianlong first suppressed the White Lotus Rebellion and the Han traitors, leaving a peaceful and prosperous era for Emperor Jiaqing, thus making up for his own ten great military achievements.

After all, Emperor Qianlong wanted to leave an ancestor in the Imperial Ancestral Temple after his death, so that there would be four emperors in one dynasty, which would highlight his achievements!
Thinking of this, Emperor Qianlong sighed and said, "Liu Yong, now that you've said this, I realize just how difficult it is to deal with the Han traitors in Huguang. It seems that the Qing Dynasty can no longer underestimate the Han traitors."

"Your Majesty is wise!" Liu Yong hurriedly kowtowed and flattered.

Qianlong continued, "As for the Han traitors saying they will join forces with the White Lotus Rebellion this year to attack Sichuan and Shaanxi, although there is a suspicion that the Han traitors are deliberately misleading us, we still cannot be complacent. Fortunately, last year, that lackey Yi Mian, the Governor-General of Shaanxi and Gansu, submitted a memorial proposing a scorched-earth policy and a strategy of training local militias. Let that lackey try it out first!"

It was said to be a trial, but in reality, Emperor Qianlong was forced into a corner.

Last year, Yi Mian presented these two strategies, and Qianlong directly issued an edict criticizing them for being impractical, implying that they should not be mentioned again. However, this year he was forced to pick them up again.

This year has seen too many local disasters. The southwest is plagued by war, and floods are frequent in four provinces and the Jiangnan region. Even Zhili (Hebei) has experienced the breaching of the Yongding River.

It is now the Jiaqing era. The Yellow and Huai Rivers have been rotten since the Northern Song Dynasty. Although the Ming and Qing Dynasties tried to manage them, they mainly focused on alleviating and protecting the canal transport. This meant that whenever there was a little more or heavier rainfall, the Yellow and Huai Rivers would inevitably overflow and breach their banks, damaging the canal transport in the south.

With frequent disasters and rebellions erupting from the southwest and northwest to the central plains, the puppet Qing dynasty was running out of troops.

If Nie Yu hadn't explicitly refused to be pacified, Emperor Qianlong would have even considered humbling himself to write a letter to this traitorous Han Chinese, begging him to stop rebelling and to be pacified as soon as possible!
If the Han traitors were willing to be appeased, he could even bestow upon them the title of King of Pingnan!
Liu Yonggang respectfully withdrew, and after thinking for a moment, Qianlong summoned Heshen again, because Heshen had submitted a memorial saying that the foreign guns and cannons that had been secretly discussed earlier had been purchased.

(End of this chapter)