In "Yongzheng Dynasty", in the forty-sixth year of Kangxi, many officials at that time owed money to the national treasury, and Emperor Kangxi asked Lao Si Yinzhen to collect the arrears.
When some officials saw this situation, some of them cried out miserably, some fanned the flames, some compared themselves with others, and some tried to stubbornly resist and deny it...... It's all kinds of ugliness.
Among them was Wei Dongting, who owed 350,000 taels to the treasury, and when he saw that he couldn't make up the arrears, he hanged himself.
In the history of the Qing Dynasty, there is no such person as Wei Dongting, this is a fictional character of Februaryhe, the author of the novel "Yongzheng Dynasty", but this character also has a prototype, written based on Cao Xueqin's grandfather Cao Yin.
Wei Dongting, as Emperor Kangxi's companion, cronie and confidant, why would he rather die than seek Kangxi, what is the secret in this?
A Yellow River disaster, the people were displaced, and the imperial court did not even have the money for disaster relief, and it was still a prosperous era at that time. The treasury was also in a hurry, and after careful counting, tens of millions of taels of silver were borrowed by the officials.
At this time, Kangxi asked his fourth son Yinzhen to collect these payments, Wei Dongting didn't take it seriously at first, he felt that there were many people who borrowed money from the treasury, and there were also Prince Baylor and the like, maybe they were just shouting slogans, the thunder was loud, and the rain was small.
However, he underestimated Kangxi's determination to recover the arrears this time, and the old fourth Yinzhen of the Kangxi faction, usually known as the "cold-faced prince", is a well-known master who does things according to the rules.
The officials who owed the money didn't take it seriously at first, and some people gathered together to go to the eighth child for help, and the eighth child has been working against the fourth child, and they want the eighth child to support them.
There are also some people who can't get along with the collection executors sent down by the fourth child, and the minister Tian Wenjing was with the fourth child at that time, and these people don't pay attention to Tian Wenjing at all.
Unexpectedly, Tian Wenjing, like the fourth child, had tough methods and a resolute attitude, and on the first day of collecting the arrears, he humiliated the old champion Chen Wensheng and almost stunned the old champion. Seeing this, Wei Dongting had to express his stance to raise the arrears as soon as possible.
Because Wei Dongting owed a lot of money, he would not be able to raise money for a while, so in order to delay it, he ran to Tian Wenjing to ask why the prince was not called for debts.
Wei Dongting wanted to compare with the prince, but he didn't expect the prince to raise the money quickly and pay it back, now Wei Dongting had no choice, he asked Lao Jiu to help but was refused, and then asked Lao Thirteen Yinxiang to intercede.
Because they all know that the old thirteen have the best relationship with the fourth, Wei Dongting found the old thirteen, and the old thirteen knew the purpose of his coming at a glance, he didn't want to get involved in this matter, but Wei Dongting was also a senior minister, so he had to deal with it.
Wei Dongting came up and first recalled that the old thirteen rode a horse on his back when he was a child, this is playing the emotional card, and the smart old thirteen knew what he meant, so he echoed his recollection.
Then Wei Dongting said that he owed too much money to the treasury, and it would be difficult to pay it off within ten days, so he would have to be raided.
Lao Thirteen was a little surprised when he heard that Wei Dongting owed 350,000 taels. He asked Wei Dongting that he had accumulated a lot of money when he was the governor of Caoyun, so why did he lose so much at once.
However, Wei Dongting said that these deficits were all due to the reception of Emperor Kangxi, who made five southern tours and lived in his house twice, saying that he was bankrupt and could not let the emperor be wronged.
In fact, Wei Dongting was planted on Kangxi's head, although Kangxi lived in his house twice and spent him some money, but the arrears were owed later.
Wei Dongting's family has a lot of expenses, his son is also a loser, and his wives and concubines are in groups, just to give a ring to the concubine, he can spend five thousand taels, and how much money is not enough to squander it so much.
Why did Wei Dongting dare not open his mouth to Kangxi when he was desperate, because although he spent a lot of money to receive Kangxi twice, these money were not obtained legitimately, and it was far from enough to rely on his money.
Most of the money Wei Dongting spent on Kangxi's southern tour was from being an official for many years, especially when he was the governor of Caoyun, he had a lot of oil and water and corruption.
He spent a lot of money to curry favor with Kangxi in order to be able to have more fat and get more money, so the wise old thirteen saw very clearly that the money that Wei Dongting embezzled should be far more than the money he spent on visiting his house in Kangxi's south.
So in the end, Wei Dongting begged his grandfather to tell his grandmother, but he never dared to ask Kangxi for help, he was seen through in front of the thirteenth child, not to mention that the emperor knew him better.
If he said in front of Kangxi that he had spent money for him and owed so much to the treasury, Kangxi would definitely not follow it, and if he counted the general account of the previous corruption, it would definitely be a large amount.
Wei Dongting didn't know the bottom of his heart at all, it was Kangxi who instructed Yinzhen to collect the arrears, if he asked Kangxi for help, wouldn't he deliberately get along with Yinzhen, and then Kangxi would definitely think that others could hand it over, so if he didn't pay it, he wanted to cheat, and the love of the two people was over.
And Wei Dongting hanged himself in the end, although the way was extreme, but it was also equivalent to sacrificing himself and preserving his family and reputation.
As soon as he dies like this, Kangxi will definitely not sit idly by, nor will he continue to pursue his family, and this is indeed the case later.
Wei Dongting actually didn't have the face to intercede with Kangxi, he embezzled a lot, even if he spent some on the emperor, more of it was squandered by his family.