Live streaming life: The ancients begged not to stop

"Master Yu, what do you want to ask?" Qi Cheng said with a smile, "You are a great official. There is a memorial hall for you in Guangdong and Guangxi. I have always wanted to visit there."

In the yamen, Yu Chenglong smiled reservedly. He just wanted to do his own job well. He felt unworthy of the people's love for him as he thought that future generations would build a memorial hall for him.

I will be more diligent in the future.

"I'd like to ask if there were any major corrupt officials in the Qing Dynasty," Yu Chenglong said seriously. "If possible, could you please describe them in detail?"

"The Qing Dynasty's officialdom wasn't very good. Aside from the Yongzheng period, the rest had issues. There's a saying that goes, 'Three years as a clean official, worth 100,000 silver coins.'"

"Let me find three typical examples."

The twelve Qing emperors, except Yongzheng, all stared with wide eyes. Was their administration bad? They thought it was okay.

Isn’t this a bit too exaggerated?

"Let's start with the Kangxi period, during which you lived. There was a corrupt official named Galin. You two should know each other. In the 35th year of the Kangxi reign, he and you jointly supervised the central route of grain and fodder and arrived at the imperial camp. It was only then that he began to rise rapidly in his career."

Yu Chenglong didn't expect that he would introduce someone he knew at the beginning.

"Galli's greed was well known to everyone. Kangxi didn't punish him, perhaps because he had some talent, or perhaps because his mother was Kangxi's wet nurse."

"When he was the governor of Shanxi, he and Zhao Fengzhao, the prefect of Taiyuan, extorted hundreds of thousands of taels of silver from the people. Someone from Shanxi reported this to the censor."

"The censor also submitted a memorial impeaching him."

Qi Cheng shook his head and said that when the evidence was almost conclusive, Emperor Kangxi asked Galin to submit a memorial to defend himself. As a result, Galin was not punished, but the censor was convicted.

Later, Galin was promoted to the position of Governor-General of Liangjiang. Soon after taking office, he impeached Chen Pengnian and wanted to continue to harm him through literary inquisition.

Later, he was involved in the imperial examination cheating case, and he and the then Jiangsu Governor Zhang Boxing submitted memorials to each other.

"Originally, the imperial envoys in Beijing were on Galin's side, but Emperor Kangxi once met Galin's mother in the palace and asked her how Galin was doing in Jiangsu."

"His mother told him everything about Galin's corruption."

"Emperor Kangxi issued an edict. Even his mother was ashamed of his behavior, so how could he be innocent? The result was that Galin was dismissed and sent back to Beijing, while Zhang Boxing was dismissed but retained his position."

Qi Cheng sighed. This was still Emperor Kangxi. He didn't execute such a corrupt official. No one knew what his intention was. Sheltering a criminal was not a plus point.

"Later, Galin harbored a grudge against his mother and poisoned her food. However, the old lady figured it out and reported it to the emperor. In the end, Galin was ordered to commit suicide, and his wife followed suit. His descendants were exiled to Ningguta."

Everyone looking at the sky curtain was stunned. This guy named Galin was simply not a human being. He dared to participate in cheating in the imperial examination and even poisoned his mother. How could he be so bold!

Emperor Kangxi wasn't that great either.

"The second most corrupt official was Heshen during the reign of Emperor Qianlong. He was known as the most corrupt official in the Qing Dynasty. However, the reason he was not executed was most likely because he was left to his son Jiaqing by Emperor Qianlong."

"Heshen was executed by Jiaqing a dozen days after Qianlong's death. It's hard to say exactly how much of his estate there was, as some of it consisted of houses and antiques."

"It is said that this was equivalent to several years of the Qing Dynasty's revenue, with tens of millions of taels of silver alone. There was a saying at the time: Heshen fell, and Jiaqing was well fed."

"Unfortunately, even with a full treasury, Jiaqing could not prevent the Qing Dynasty from sliding step by step into the abyss."

After hearing about the two corrupt officials of the Qing Dynasty, the common people were truly amazed. How many rooms would it take to store tens of millions of taels? At the same time, everyone was even more curious about the third person.

"According to Qing Dynasty rules, the first two could only be considered useful servants. The last one is a true prince from the imperial clan, Yixin, the grandson of Emperor Qianlong's fifteenth son."