But in the question? The price of a bowl of vermicelli in Neifu is 70 thousand silver? Or slightly exaggerated, its real source should be the "wild riding in the spring ice room" recorded in historical materials, which Daoguang Emperor ate? Sliced soup? A farce:
Daoguang, who has been thrifty all his life, once wanted to eat folk food? Sliced soup? It is obviously a bowl of home-cooked rice, but the Ministry of Internal Affairs quoted that if you want to make a piece of soup, you have to build a stove to get food, and the scale of funds adds up to 16,200. I was so angry that Daoguang knew something was wrong, but he couldn't say a word, so he had to swallow his saliva and stop eating? Eating a bowl of soup, the internal affairs department dares to hijack it like this.
In fact, similar anecdotes are not only spread by Daoguang, but also by his son, Emperor Xianfeng. "Notes on Nanting" records that later Emperor Xianfeng ascended the throne and wanted to repair the door pivot of Shangshufang, but the internal affairs office immediately opened the mouth and asked for a maintenance fee of 5,200 yuan. Emperor Xianfeng's violent temper is not as easy to fool as his father Daoguang. You went up as soon as you heard it, scaring the officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to change their minds quickly, and 5200 changed to 520.
In other words, in the late Qing Dynasty, the officials in charge of the daily diet and daily life of the emperor looked condescending. In fact, they are all like greedy cats of chicken thieves. If the emperor is not careful, will he call them? Stealing food? A few bites. Then the question is, how can this office have such a great skill that even the emperor can make tricks?
The first reason is the powerful power of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Although his name is low-key, he has been in charge of the palace since the founding of the Qing Dynasty? Banquet? Money and food? Clothing? Ministry of Finance? Ceremony? Huang Zhuang? Knitting? Waiting for power. So the money for the whole palace has to be handled by the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
In addition, it is in charge of the royal finance. Who has the right to supervise Manchu government officials at all levels? Theoretically speaking, the Qing empire had the right to impeach the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but few really dared to impeach it, and few had good results. With so much money and power, nobody cares, and the relevant case-handling officials will naturally be lenient.
But the more important reason is the collective degeneration of officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In fact, in the early days of the founding of the Qing Dynasty, the Office of the Interior was a very ethical yamen. Many officials who worked in the Ministry of Internal Affairs during the Kangxi period were known for their incorruptibility. With the praise of Emperor Kangxi? Today, I pay the head of the internal affairs office, and the money I need is five or six hundred and twenty yuan in January. . Like a model of a clean government. However, with the aggravation of corruption in the Qing Dynasty, the quality of officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs is getting worse from generation to generation.
By the end of the Qing dynasty, a considerable number of officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, who mainly hung flags, passed? Donation? Find an official. The official positions are all bought, so you will naturally have them after you take office, right? With the support of the Ministry of the Interior, nobody cares? Conditions are good, of course, laid hands on him more malicious.
Even if it's not? Donation? Officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, basically secretaries, have been hanging around the palace for a long time, and all kinds of corruption routines are naturally familiar. In the late Qing dynasty, the royal family was extravagant and extravagant, but any large-scale construction was an opportunity to fish in troubled waters. Described as "Rizhitang Notes": It has always been a habit of internal work, which is conducive to a large amount of expenses so as not to be eroded. ?
In the final analysis, was the royal family the root of the corruption in the interior office in the late Qing Dynasty? Black sheep? Like a mess. For example, in the memory of his later years, the eunuch Xiao claimed that Empress Dowager Cixi had a daily living allowance of 42,000 yuan. What does this mean? Does it mean that Cixi can buy a Japanese ace warship with half a month's living expenses? Yoshino? . But is this astronomical figure really spent on Cixi? Reference? Tunnel light soup? Cheat Xianfeng into repairing the door? Allusions will be known, and the internal affairs of the office will be blown away appropriately.
In this context, the corruption of the internal affairs office in the late Qing Dynasty also broke through the scale year by year: according to "Derun Fold in the Fifth Week of Guangxu February 9", the gray income of the first-class officials in the internal affairs office is more than two million silver per year.
Every time these people go home to visit relatives, they bring home one million taels of silver. Even the chefs of the imperial chef buy land in the suburbs of Beijing, like rich people.
Artisans of various treasurers, such as the Construction Department, even the monthly money and grain are deducted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Pity these hungry craftsmen who work for the royal family and have to do odd jobs to make a living. Under the eyes of the Qing emperor, corruption has reached this point.
Did the late Qing Dynasty really ignore such a corrupt scene? Determined to purge several times, the minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs also caught a lot. However, after the purge storm, greed and fishing remain the same. Until 19 1 1 year on the eve of national subjugation in the late Qing dynasty, Wei Xiao, the minister of internal affairs, also made a corruption scandal, but in the end it went away. The corruption scandal of Hangzhou weaving has also been exposed.
But before the Qing dynasty made up its mind to clean up, the Revolution of 1911 was shot and the Qing dynasty was killed. The corruption of the internal affairs office did not change until the Qing Dynasty's national subjugation. The lesson of corruption and national subjugation, a vivid teaching material, is the internal affairs office in the late Qing Dynasty.