And because the emperor took the lead in extravagance and corruption, the latent corrupt cells in the bureaucracy lost their inhibitions and obtained the environmental conditions for wild growth. Brib

And because the emperor took the lead in extravagance and corruption, the latent corrupt cells in the bureaucracy lost their inhibitions and obtained the environmental conditions for wild growth. Bribery became common in both the government and the public, and corruption became common. In the middle and late Qianlong period, major corruption cases occurred one after another. In 1757, the "Golden Furnace Case" occurred between Hengwen, the governor of Yunnan and Guizhou, and Guo Yiyu, the governor of Yunnan. In the process of operating the tribute gold furnace, the two bought low and sold high, mixed with fakes, and enriched their own pockets. In the same year, there was another case of embezzlement of treasury funds by Jiang Zhou, the governor of Shandong while serving as governor of Shanxi. After the incident, Hengwen was ordered to commit suicide, Jiang Zhou was executed, and Guo Yiyu was sent to the army. Subsequently, there were three consecutive "salt introduction cases" involving Gao Heng, Pu Fu, and Lu Jianzeng, who were two consecutive Huai salt officials. The embezzlement amounted to 10 million taels (equivalent to 1/4 of the Qing government's annual fiscal revenue). After the case, an average of 3 people were involved. Being executed. However, since then, major corruption cases have not decreased, but have increased in number. In 1781, Wang Wangqian, then governor of Zhejiang, was involved in a case of embezzling disaster relief grain during his term in Gansu, implicating more than 60 officials. Wang Wang and 22 other people were executed. The governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, Jin Erjin, committed suicide. In addition, the case was also a case within the case. Chen Huizu, the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang who investigated the case, exchanged gold for silver during the house raid and took Wang's stolen goods as his own. After the incident, Chen Huizu was ordered to commit suicide. In 1782, there was another case of embezzlement of the treasury by Shandong Governor Cathay and Chief Envoy Yu Yijian. Cathay committed suicide after the incident. In 1786, Wulana, the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, and Pu Lin, the governor of Fujian, were executed for demanding bribes. In 1792, Fu Song, the governor of Zhejiang Province, committed suicide due to a case of extorting bribes and embezzling public funds. Although a group of extremely corrupt individuals, including many governors, governors and other high-ranking officials, were killed, corruption in the officialdom was still getting worse, because Qianlong and Heping were the root cause of corruption. They punished corruption. In fact, taking the opportunity to "slaughter the fat duck" and make a big profit is tantamount to greed. These major cases are just the tip of the iceberg of corruption cases. The above-mentioned cases were punished by the governor, and they were all exposed and could not be covered up. There are countless others that have been reported without a trace. He □ had been in power for more than 20 years under the protection of Qianlong, and the private property he had confiscated amounted to 100 million taels, equivalent to two years of government revenue at that time. Even the confiscated property of his two servants amounted to more than 7 million taels. Therefore, there was a folk proverb at that time that said: "When peace falls, Jiaqing is full."The officialdom was obviously very corrupt at that time, but Qianlong still pretended to be deaf and dumb, whitewashing the peace and not listening to advice. In 1790, Yin Zhuang, the minister of the Ministry of Rites, published a picture of Qianlong and advised him: "The governors and governors have a bad reputation, and the officials are ineffective. When I pass by the place, I check whether the officials are good or not, and most of the businessmen and people sigh. The customs of all provinces are generally the same" ( Zhao Erxun: "Manuscript of Qing History" Volume 109). Qianlong was furious after seeing this. He was first sentenced to death for "defrauding the public and raising dissent". Later, in order to avoid fulfilling Yin Zhuangtu's reputation for loyalty and admonishment, he was exempted from the death penalty and demoted.

In this culture of only listening to good words but not rules and regulations, tabooing medical treatment, officials protecting each other, shielding top and bottom, only knowing how to collect money and taking bribes, and not caring about the life and death of the people, the officials, big and small, just follow the rules, slander the superiors and bully the subordinates, and follow the rules of the court. Lack of energy, inefficiency, and neglect of tasks. Cao Zhenyong was a famous figure in the Qianlong, Jiaqing, and Daoguang dynasties. He was a very popular minister. His way of being an official was to "kowtow more and talk less." In the middle and late Qing Dynasty, these people governed the country, and the consequences can be imagined.

Corruption was also the direct cause of the Qing Dynasty’s military disorganization and the decline in military combat effectiveness. The military is the backbone of the state machine and the guarantee of national strength and social stability. By the mid-to-late Qianlong period, political corruption was followed by military slack and a lack of armament. The Eight Banners soldiers in the early Qing Dynasty were a strong and skilled army. When they entered the Pass, they were invincible and made great achievements in battle. They made great achievements in defining the Central Plains and unifying the whole country. But in just one generation, the Eight Banners and the Manchus degenerated and decayed due to various advantages and privileges, and lost the majestic, heroic and fighting spirit of their ancestors. During Kangxi's battle to quell the "Rebellion of the Three Feudatories", the Eight Banners soldiers' military discipline was broken and their military strength was greatly reduced. After that, the children of the Eight Banners and the Eight Banners soldiers became even more arrogant and lazy. They relied on their power to run rampant and commit all kinds of evil. Not only did their military disciplines deteriorate and their training was neglected, but their lives were also corrupt. They took drugs, gambled, hired prostitutes, and even extorted money and ravaged the people. The original fierce and heroic soldiers of the Eight Banners became old soldiers who could not fight and only disturbed the people. The children of the Eight Banners became idle and boastful sons and wasted money. Later, whenever there was a war in the imperial court, it mainly relied on the green soldiers.

However, in the corrupt social environment, the Green Army soldiers also quickly became corrupted. They deducted military pay, colluded with soldiers and bandits, enriched themselves with corruption, and had many shortcomings. They also became a showy army that only looked good and could only scare ordinary people. When Emperor Jiaqing was still the crown prince, he once accompanied Qianlong in a military parade, but what he saw was a farce of "shooting arrows, arrows are missing; galloping horses, people fall to the ground" ("Jiaqing Dynasty Donghua Lu", Volume 7, the first month of the 4th year of Jiaqing) ). Since both the Eight Banners and the Green Camp were degraded due to corruption and lost their combat effectiveness, by the time of the White Lotus Rebellion, the Qing Dynasty had to mainly use rural warriors and regiment training. By the time of the Opium War, the Eight Banners, Green Camp, Xiangyong, and Tuanlian were all useless, and hundreds of thousands of Qing troops were defeated by more than 10,000 British expeditionary forces. The Qing Dynasty fell into the abyss of semi-colonial and semi-feudal society. Due to the imperialist invasion and civil strife such as the Taiping Rebellion, the situation in the Qing Dynasty became increasingly out of control and corruption grew day by day. Military, political, and financial powers were gradually transferred outward and downward, and the central authority was increasingly reduced. Under the impact of internal and external troubles and the erosion of internal corruption, , the Qing Dynasty moved step by step towards the path of decline and collapse.

The inevitable consequence of the extravagant corruption of the bureaucratic ruling institutions is to intensify the oppression and exploitation of the common people, causing the majority of the people to live increasingly impoverished lives. Bureaucrats, aristocrats, landlords, and wealthy businessmen annexed large amounts of land. More and more peasants became landless and landless. There were also a large number of peasants who abandoned their fields and fled because they could not bear the excessive expropriation. They lost their livelihood and wandered around. The number of refugees in society has increased sharply, factors of social instability are increasing day by day, class conflicts have become increasingly acute, and a major social storm is brewing. In February 1796, a White Lotus Rebellion broke out that lasted for nine years and swept five provinces including Hubei and Sichuan. The Qing Dynasty mobilized troops from 16 provinces and spent 20 million taels of silver to barely put out the uprising. The White Lotus Rebellion peeled off the Qing Dynasty's cloak of prosperity and peace, exposed its decadent and weak nature, and became a turning point in the Qing Dynasty's transition from prosperity to decline.