Zhu Chao accompanied me to watch short videos

Chapter 355: Seven Corrupt Officials

When Wu Cheng'en wrote Journey to the West, it was during the reign of Emperor Jiajing. At that time, the commodity economy had developed to a certain extent, but it was also accompanied by a widening gap between the rich and the poor, and serious land annexation made social contradictions increasingly intensified.

In addition, corruption and bribery in the officialdom and power struggles were common, so Wu Chengen had many criticisms of the Ming Dynasty. In Journey to the West, Sun Wukong was repeatedly excluded by the Heavenly Palace, and finally he could no longer bear it and made a big fuss in the Heavenly Palace.

The Heavenly Palace constantly sent out heavenly soldiers and generals to capture Sun Wukong, and even resorted to conspiracy to deal with him. In fact, the story of Sun Wukong's havoc in the Heavenly Palace reflects the extreme dissatisfaction of the people of the Ming Dynasty with the society at that time. Among them, the Heavenly Palace represents the Ming Dynasty government, and Sun Wukong represents the people who are capable but repeatedly excluded.

The final havoc in heaven reflects the inner desire of the world for equality and to get out of trouble. At the same time, Sun Wukong also symbolizes adventurers, while demons and monsters represent the difficulties faced in changing the current society.

He bravely challenges, subdues demons and monsters, and finally achieves enlightenment and becomes the Fighting Buddha. Wu Cheng'en places the fearless spirit of Sun Wukong on adventurers who dare to challenge authority.

[Counting the seven corrupt officials in ancient history, Heshen's wealth was equivalent to the country's income for 15 years, and there were people who were even greedier than him. Historical trivia and historical figures]

There are many notorious corrupt officials in history. They played tricks, extorted money, and sold official positions. Some relied on their power to become rich enough to rival a country, while others became rich by robbing merchants. So among these seven officials, who can be called the most corrupt official in ancient times?

First: Heshen during the Qing Dynasty

Heshen was a popular figure around Emperor Qianlong, and many officials gave him large amounts of money and property in order to curry favor with him. For example, one official, in order to get Emperor Qianlong's attention, built a palace for him through Heshen's recommendation, and later gave Heshen 20 taels of silver as a thank you.

Heshen had served as Minister of the Ministry of Revenue and Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and these departments were quite lucrative. He took advantage of his position to steal huge amounts of money from the state treasury.

When he was the Minister of Personnel, he was responsible for the assessment and selection of officials, which gave him the opportunity to extort money from officials. He often used his power to demand money from officials in exchange for their smooth careers in officialdom.

Heshen's wealth was not limited to officialdom, he was also actively engaged in business activities. He opened pawnshops, antique shops, and engaged in long-distance transportation, and even took advantage of social unrest to hoard a large amount of land at a low price.

When Heshen fell from power and his property was confiscated, it was found that he owned more than 3000 properties, 75 pawnshops, 42 silver banks, 80 acres of fertile land, and every antique in his collection was priceless.

The wealth accumulated from corruption and bribery alone amounted to 15 million to billion taels of silver, which exceeded the total fiscal revenue of the Qing government in years.

Second place: Yan Song during the Ming Dynasty

Yan Song used his power and position to openly sell official positions. For example, he once accepted a bribe from the head of the Ministry of Justice, and two pieces of silver could be exchanged for a position as the head of the Ministry of Personnel.

This behavior seriously undermined the fair competition and selection mechanism in the officialdom. Yan Song also took advantage of the opportunity of the imperial examination to solicit bribes from candidates. For example, in a recruitment, he would select the candidate with the largest bribe and admit him.

Yan Song was very good at using the emperor's favor to blackmail officials.

He fabricated crimes against officials by making up rumors and then used this opportunity to blackmail them. He interceded for officials in front of the emperor and absolved them of crimes in exchange for money. According to records, Yan Song and his son held sway over the country for more than 20 years.

When Yan Song's property was searched, the court seized more than 202 taels of gold and 6000 million taels of silver. In addition, there were millions of acres of land and more than properties. The value of various precious antiques and famous calligraphy and paintings is inestimable.

Third place: Liu Jin, the eunuch during the Ming Dynasty

Liu Jin had created all kinds of entertainment activities for the emperor, which won him great favor. Later, he used his power to deduct military pay, especially the pay of the northern border garrison troops, which was reduced by half, and part of it was privately annexed by Liu Jin.

Liu Jin also placed his own people in the Ministry of Revenue, and then used these subordinates to embezzle state property, including public funds and internal treasury (the emperor's private property).

He even openly sold official positions and titles at a fixed price. According to historical records, Liu Jin embezzled as much as 250 million taels of gold, more than 5000 million taels of silver, and other treasures that could not be counted.

Fourth place: Yuan Zai during the Tang Dynasty

Yuan Zai was favored by Emperor Taizong of Tang because he helped him eliminate powerful officials. He began to use his power to drive many loyal officials out of the court, and then sold these vacant positions for huge profits.

Although the history books do not give the exact amount of money Yuan Zai embezzled, they do mention that his family had a mountain of gold and silver. The pepper he hoarded alone amounted to 800 dan, equivalent to 64 tons today.

You know, pepper was an extremely expensive luxury in the Tang Dynasty, its price was the same as gold, and even exceeded the value of gold in some periods. Moreover, when Yuan Zai was raided, a large amount of land and real estate were also confiscated. There were two large and particularly luxurious mansions next to the imperial palace.

Fifth: Cai Jing of the Northern Song Dynasty

Cai Jing gained power because he was favored by Emperor Huizong of Song. Selling official positions and titles became commonplace. He embezzled public funds during his time as the manager of the national treasury, which seemed to be covert and secretive on the surface, but in fact was like open robbery.

Cai Jing also tried his best to encourage Huizong to build large-scale projects in order to take advantage of the opportunity to seek personal gain. For example, during the transportation of flowers and stones, Cai Jing took the opportunity to mobilize skilled craftsmen to build his own mansion and took a large number of precious flowers and stones for himself. He even used the name of reform to seize wealth.

For example, in the process of restoring the Que Yi Law, he created various pretexts to increase taxes, thereby increasing the burden on the people and seeking more wealth for himself. According to historical records, Cai Jing was as rich as a country and owned hundreds of thousands of acres of land.

Sixth: Shi Chong of the Western Jin Dynasty

Shi Chong was an official who relied on robbery. While serving as the governor of Jingzhou, he used his power to set up checkpoints and then had his soldiers disguised as bandits to rob merchants of their belongings.

Shi Chong quickly accumulated a lot of wealth in this way. With his later business investments, he lived an extremely extravagant life. The history books do not clearly state how much wealth Shi Chong had, but they tell the story of his competition with Wang Kai.

Shi Chong built the Jingu Garden, which was dozens of miles in radius, and made 50 miles of silk curtains. Even the toilet was built in an extremely luxurious way. Outside the toilet, there were maids dressed in gorgeous clothes and beautiful faces waiting. Many guests thought they had mistakenly entered Shi Chong's bedroom when they went to the toilet.

7. Liang Ji of the Eastern Han Dynasty

Liang Ji was a relative of the Eastern Han royal family and once ruled the country arbitrarily for nearly 20 years.

He fabricated facts and falsely accused others, and then took the opportunity to seize money. For example, he once falsely accused Sun Wen, a Fufeng man, causing his brother to die under torture, and then took Sun Wen's property worth more than 1 million yuan for himself.

In addition, the list of treasures handed in by the localities had to be reviewed by Liang Ji first, and only after being filtered by him could it be delivered to the emperor. At the same time, Liang Ji also used violence and intimidation to extort huge amounts of money from officials and wealthy businessmen.

If he was not satisfied, he would suppress or kill them. As a result, many officials and wealthy businessmen had to bribe Liang Ji in order to protect themselves.

According to records, Liang Ji lived an extremely luxurious life. He built many royal gardens to compete with the royal family and raised various birds and animals in them.

When his property was raided, his assets were auctioned off for more than 30 billion silver coins, which was equivalent to half of the country's tax revenue at the time.

Who was the most corrupt official in ancient times?

Judging from these records, Heshen is undoubtedly the most famous corrupt official in ancient history. However, there is also a view that if calculated based on purchasing power, the amount of money Liu Jin embezzled actually exceeded that of Heshen.

[How difficult was siege warfare in ancient times? Why did the attackers have to attack the city? Couldn't they just go around it? Historical trivia and historical figures]

There have been many battles in history where generals went all out to attack cities. For example, Kublai Khan's Mongolian army spent six years and paid a heavy price to attack Xiangyang. Sun Quan of the Eastern Wu attacked Hefei several times but to no avail, and he almost lost his life.

However, what exactly is the reason why many generals in history did not choose to fight around the city? Why was Deng Ai in the Three Kingdoms period able to successfully bypass the city?

In ancient times, generals often faced very complex considerations regarding sieges and circumnavigations. However, according to historical records, there are obviously more records of sieges than circumnavigations.

The necessity of siege

First of all, a city is the political, economic and cultural center of a region. Controlling these cities can quickly gain strategic advantages and influence the direction of the entire war.

Moreover, the city has abundant reserves of food and supplies. Successful capture means obtaining a stable source of supplies, which is crucial for long-term combat.

Secondly, a siege victory can greatly boost morale, improve the army's cohesion and combat effectiveness, and have a great impact on the enemy's morale, and even shake their military will, creating favorable conditions for subsequent operations.

This is also the reason why in many battles in history, the attacking side would attack the city at all costs.

However, siege warfare is also quite difficult, and it is not easy to capture it quickly.

For example, in the Battle of Xiangyang at the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, although Kublai Khan's Mongolian army was extremely powerful, the Southern Song army and civilians relied on solid city defenses and firm will to repel the attacks of the Mongolian army many times.

Although Xiangyang City was eventually forced to surrender due to isolation and helplessness, the Mongolian army fought for six years and the losses during this period were incalculable.

Another example is the Battle of Hefei during the late Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period. Although the Eastern Wu army had a large number of troops, they suffered repeated setbacks during the siege and failed many times. In particular, when Sun Quan personally led the expedition to Hefei, he encountered a fierce counterattack from Zhang Liao and almost lost his life.

There was also the Battle of Zhongli between Southern Liang and Northern Wei, where the Northern Wei army, which was said to have hundreds of thousands of soldiers, besieged Zhongli City, which was guarded by Chang Yizhi, while there were only 3000 defenders in the city. Chang Yizhi took advantage of the natural barrier of the Huai River to make the Northern Wei army encounter great difficulties during the siege and ultimately failed to capture the city.

Including the An-Shi Rebellion during the Tang Dynasty, the rebel An Qingxu's 18 troops besieged Suiyang City, but were repeatedly repelled by Zhang Xun. An Qingxu's several attacks lasted for 10 months but were unsuccessful. The above cases fully illustrate the difficulty of siege warfare.

If the attack fails to be quickly conquered, the attacker will encounter disadvantages in many aspects: either the burden of logistical supply will be increased, or there will be a risk of supply lines being cut off by the defenders, or the defenders will be more determined and seriously undermine the morale of their own troops.

In this case, why didn’t the attacker choose to bypass the city and directly attack the opponent’s political center? First of all, ancient cities were often built at mountain passes, canyons, or important transportation routes.

For example, if the enemy wanted to bypass the Shanhaiguan and Jiayuguan passes, they had to cross the mountains and ridges, which was a great drain on the soldiers' physical strength and willpower. Coupled with the dangers of falling off cliffs and falling into water, the casualties caused were not few compared to those in siege.

Moreover, in ancient wars, logistics troops needed to ensure the stable and continuous delivery of food and fodder in a complex and ever-changing battlefield environment. Once a mistake occurred, the troops would inevitably fall into trouble.

The conditions for transporting food and fodder in ancient times were far worse than today. Even if the large army could bypass the enemy smoothly, the logistics troops would find it difficult to follow up in time due to the rugged mountain roads, and might even be attacked by the enemy.

There is also the issue of communications. Whether it is modern wars or ancient wars, the importance of communications is self-evident. It is one of the key factors that determine the outcome of a war.

Commanders need to develop effective strategic plans and issue accurate orders through communications. However, the harsh environment around the city will result in intelligence not being delivered in time, making it impossible to take the initiative in the war.

For example, in the early years of the Southern Song Dynasty, the Jin army invaded the south, and Huaixi and Luzhou were in a state of emergency.

The Southern Song general Liu Qi was ordered to lead his army to rescue Luzhou, but he found that the city defended by the Jin army was very strong, so he decided to fight around the city. However, during the march around the city, the logistics supply line was harassed by the enemy, resulting in a serious shortage of supplies for the army.

In addition, the road was rugged and difficult to travel, and the Jin army's movements could not be sent to Liu Qi in time. Therefore, during the long process of circling the city, he was completely unable to formulate a corresponding strategy. As a result, the Jin army took the opportunity to capture Luzhou and even had enough time to plunder the surrounding areas. Liu Qi not only failed to achieve the purpose of circling the city, but fell into a passive situation.

Successful cases of bypassing the city

Therefore, fighting around the city has always been a risky move for ancient military strategists, and this strategy is only used when it is absolutely necessary. Although there have been successful cases in history, it contains a lot of luck.

For example, during the Three Kingdoms period, when Wei was conquering Shu, Wei general Deng Ai encountered a stubborn resistance from the Shu army at Jiange Pass. The main force led by Zhong Hui was also blocked by Jiang Wei at Jiange Pass, and even considered retreating.

In order to avoid a direct confrontation with the enemy, Deng Ai decided to secretly cross the Yinping Trail, bypass Jiange, and then head straight for Chengdu, the capital of Shu Han. He eventually successfully bypassed the Shu army's heavy defenses and launched a fatal blow to Shu Han.

However, this march almost put Deng Ai into a desperate situation.

Because the Yinping Trail is located between high mountains and steep cliffs, the terrain is extremely dangerous. Among them, Motianling is the most dangerous section of the Yinping Trail, with an altitude of more than 2000 meters and cliffs next to it.