Returning to the capital? The Imperial Household Department to compensate two thousand taels of silver to each province along the way? Tired?
Qian Long's series of reactions made He Shen, in a daze, feel as if he were seeing a lion that was gradually aging.
The lion was old, its claws were no longer sharp, its roar was no longer as soul-stirring as before, and its strength and spirit could not keep up. Faced with the provocation of a young cub, the old lion could only roar twice in helpless retreat, hoping that its roars alone could scare away the young cub.
Even, it hoped that the animals in its territory would remember a little of its past kindness, hoping that these animals, which it usually oppressed and preyed upon, would help it drive away the young cub that dared to provoke it.
After all, Qian Long was seventy-three years old. Even if this old dog ate ginseng and deer antler as meals, even if this old lustful dog still had the mood to inspect the river engineering on the bodies of young girls, it, ultimately, was still old.
He Shen sighed inwardly, bowed in assent, and then took Agui and Ming Xing to retire. It wasn't until they left the palace where Qian Long resided that He Shen cleared his throat and said, "This official will be returning to the capital with His Majesty. The matters of firearms and bandit suppression will have to trouble you two more."
Agui and Ming Xing quickly bowed and said, "Your Lordship, what are you saying? This is what your subordinates should do, what they should do."
He Shen grunted, blinked his dead-fish eyes, and instructed Agui, "After I return to the capital with His Majesty, you, as the Imperial Commissioner, must properly rectify the officialdom of Shandong."
"You must know that our Emperor is a good emperor who loves his people like his children. Yet, these local officials act unscrupulously, leading to the first the rebel Zhu, and then the Bagua Sect and the White Lotus Sect. This, this truly disheartens His Majesty!"
Agui immediately understood He Shen's meaning, bowed, and said, "Your Lordship, please rest assured. Your subordinate will surely rectify these corrupt officials and will not let these corrupt individuals tarnish His Majesty's reputation."
What kind of people are corrupt? What kind of corruption is punishable by death?
Our Manchu Qing Eight Banners officials certainly won't be corrupt. They are all virtuous officials who love their people like children. As for "ice silver" and "charcoal silver," do those things have anything to do with corruption?
The remaining mud-legged officials are certainly corrupt, but among them, some deserve to die, and some do not. For example, those who can pay "crime silver" certainly do not deserve to die, and those who can voluntarily find gold, silver, jewelry, or paintings and submit them certainly do not deserve to die.
Those who deserve to die are those who neither pay "crime silver" nor are willing to voluntarily submit the gold, silver, jewelry, or calligraphy and paintings they find.
This is a subject, an extremely profound subject, a subject that can allow people to have enough to eat and wear.
Hearing Agui's pledge, He Shen nodded with satisfaction and then smiled at Agui and said, "Agui, I call you this way, you won't mind, will you?"
Agui immediately flattered with a smile, "Your Lordship, what are you saying? You call your subordinate this way because you are close to your subordinate, so how could your subordinate mind?"
He Shen grunted and then said, "In my opinion, the matter of suppressing rebellion has its own complexities."
Agui was stunned, and then he bowed and flattered again, "Please instruct, Your Lordship?"
He Shen grunted and said, "His Majesty loves his people like his children and naturally does not wish for excessive killing. However, suppressing rebellion is, after all, warfare. Warfare results in deaths. If you are unwilling to kill, the rebels will not be pacified. If the rebels are not pacified, His Majesty will be unhappy. Therefore, hmm?"
Agui immediately bowed and said, "Your Lordship, please rest assured. Your subordinate will now use the authority of the Imperial Commissioner to mobilize the Eight Banners and Green Standard troops of Zhili and Shandong to suppress the rebellion, and I guarantee to annihilate the rebels within three months. Otherwise, your subordinate is willing to present his head!"
He Shen smiled and said, "Look at what you're saying. Presenting one's head or not, it's sheer nonsense. His Majesty wants you to do your job diligently, not your head."
After saying this, He Shen waved his hand at the two of them and said, "Go. The sooner the firearms matter is settled, the sooner all those rebels can be annihilated, and the sooner we can return to our Great Qing a bright and clear world."
...
Qian Long's southern tour generally started from the capital, passing through Zhili, Shandong, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang. The return route was not fixed; it essentially covered these four provinces or a few surrounding provinces, and each province would pass through several prefectures.
This meant that Qian Long's so-called compensation of two thousand taels of silver to each province along the way, after being distributed to the prefectures along the route, might only be two to three hundred taels. Further down to each county, it might only be tens of taels, and further down to each village, it might only be a few hundred wen.
It should be noted that this was under the premise of no corruption at all levels to ensure that each village received a few hundred wen. If it went through the layers of exploitation in the Qing court, let alone a few hundred wen for each village, even the county yamen would only receive a fart.
Fortunately, this time it was Qian Long himself who instructed to compensate two thousand taels of silver to each province along the way, and He Shen personally instructed to rectify the officialdom. Therefore, the compensation of two thousand taels per province was indeed distributed to the common people without a single iota missing.
Unfortunately, when the compensation silver reached the common people, each household only received one wen.
If they found a wen on the road normally, the common people would probably be very happy, after all, it was money found for free. But holding the one wen of compensation from Qian Long, no common person could be happy.
They had honestly paid taxes their entire lives, even paying taxes decades in advance. Every few years, they had to provide their own food and labor for Qian Long's southern tours, paving roads with loess and sprinkling streets with clean water. Now, Qian Long casually said, "I often reflect on my mistakes," and gave a compensation of one wen. Who could be happy about that?
Of course, if there were no peasant associations, perhaps the common people would have just endured it with a wry smile. After all, common people do not fight with officials. If Qian Long could give you a compensation of one wen, it meant he thought highly of you. Even if he didn't, what could you do? You still had to do the labor you were supposed to do, and you still had to take out the money you were supposed to take out!
However, with the existence of peasant associations, these common people knew that the reason Qian Long gave this compensation of one wen was not because he often reflected on his mistakes as he claimed, but because he was scared by the continuous rebellions in Shandong. He was afraid of losing his imperial throne, so he gave compensation and scurried back to the capital.
This principle was the same for those local tyrants and gentry. When the peasant associations united all the common people, those local tyrants and gentry no longer dared to talk about fifty percent rent. Instead, they started lowering rents, and some even used silver to humbly request to join the peasant associations.
As Mr. Lu Xun said, from ancient times, the easiest people to deceive were the common people, and the hardest people to deceive were also the common people.
The common people, who clearly understood this point, were not grateful for Qian Long's compensation of one wen as Qian Long had imagined. Instead, they united more closely around the peasant associations, and the scale of the peasant associations also expanded significantly.
In other words, there were more rebels in the Shandong region, and the trend was intensifying.
Especially after Qian Long left Jinan Prefecture, in places like Dongchang Prefecture, Qingzhou Prefecture, Laizhou Prefecture, Dengzhou Prefecture, Caozhou Prefecture, and Yanzhou Prefecture, the peasant associations were as vigorous as in Yizhou Prefecture, openly resisting taxes and levies.
In any case, the taxes for Qian Long's forty-ninth year had already been paid in Qian Long's twenty-third year. If the government wanted to collect the taxes for Qian Long's ninety-fourth year in advance, there was no way!
Upon receiving this news, from Agui and Ming Xing to all the prefects, sub-prefects, and magistrates, all they felt was unspeakable sorrow.
To be fair, the compensation silver given by Qian Long this time was indeed not much. Coupled with the existence of Zhu Xiaosong, Chen Tailai, and the peasant associations in various places, neither Ming Xing's Shandong Provincial Governor's Yamen nor the local prefectural or county yamens dared to touch these two thousand taels of silver.
On the contrary, because Agui was brandishing the butcher knife and gesturing wildly, and because the number of common people was too large and the compensation silver was too little, many local magistrates had to pay out of their own pockets to cover part of the shortfall, which allowed each household to receive one wen.
However, the final result was so difficult to describe.
To the extent that Agui, the Imperial Commissioner, was almost driven mad: "His Majesty has already stopped the southern tour and given them compensation. What more do they want! Do they have to force His Majesty to issue a decree of self-reflection? How can this be such great treason!"
Ming Xing, sitting beside him, seemed indifferent. Instead, he picked up his teacup, took a sip of tea, and then smiled and said, "It's just some country bumpkins who have lost their way. You're too impatient."
Agui thought to himself, "Damn it, I am the Imperial Commissioner, and you are the Shandong Provincial Governor. We are almost in the same boat now. And you still have the mood to drink tea?"
Agui was displeased, and he immediately snorted, "The movements of those rebels are getting bigger and bigger, and even the prefect of Tai'an has defected. This Imperial Commissioner is indeed impatient. Could it be that you, Your Excellency the Governor, are not anxious?"
Ming Xing chuckled, put down his teacup, and said, "Of course I'm anxious, but what's the use of being anxious? The three thousand matchlock guns purchased from the Western barbarians are expected to arrive the day after tomorrow. In addition, another twenty-seven thousand matchlock guns and fifty Hongyi cannons are still on the way. What's the use of being anxious now?"
Hearing Ming Xing say this, Agui was stunned. After a while, he recovered and asked, "Matchlock guns? You're buying matchlock guns instead of flintlock guns?"
On the surface, matchlock guns, because of the fork inserted into the ground in front of them, were more stable than flintlock guns when firing. If used in a nine-stage ten-ring formation, continuous firing could indeed be achieved.
However, in reality, when encountering rebel troops like Zhu Xiaosong, who preferred ambushes and surprise attacks to direct confrontation, where would they have the time to insert the forks of the matchlock guns into the ground? Where would they have the time to set up a nine-stage ten-ring formation?
The best way to deal with those dishonorable rebel troops like Zhu Xiaosong was to use flintlock guns to counter flintlock guns.
Now, Ming Xing, this scoundrel, bought matchlock guns instead of flintlock guns? Was this not a sign that he thought this Imperial Commissioner was dying too slowly or that being captured once was not enough of a disgrace!
Thinking of this, Agui's expression couldn't help but darken.
Damn it, originally, considering that we both belonged to the Upper Three Banners, I let you handle the firearms matter, and I planned to let you take the lion's share of the profits. But now, looking at it, if you're not leading the troops, you're trying to screw me over to death!
Agui became more and more angry as he thought about it. He couldn't help but snort, "When we suppress the bandits, you will accompany me."
Ming Xing saw that Agui was displeased, and after a little thought, he knew why Agui was displeased. He immediately smiled and said, "Don't worry, there are still twenty thousand flintlock guns. The matchlock guns are for the Green Standard troops, and the flintlock guns are for our Eight Banners. By the way, you didn't think I only bought matchlock guns, did you?"