Why didn't Qianlong kill He Shen?

There are two main reasons.

First, don’t want to kill.

Because Qianlong was a good man and loved great achievements, he thought he was a perfect old man and wanted to be the emperor for eternity. So no matter what you do, do it with utmost luxury, and do it the biggest and best since ancient times. But money is limited after all, and often his ideas are simply unachievable in the eyes of ordinary ministers. However, He Shen's ability to make money is first-rate, and he can often turn the impossible into possible. Moreover, He Shen is very good at flattering people and can describe the waste of people and money as the actions of Yao and Shun. Therefore, Qianlong could not do without He Shen at all.

Qianlong himself could not imagine that killing He Shen and then using a loyal minister to manage his money would lead to death if he tried to do something big. And he couldn't actually kill him, otherwise he would not only fulfill his reputation as a loyal minister, but he would also be labeled as a foolish king.

Second, there is no need to kill.

In fact, Qianlong knew very well that in an environment like the Qing Dynasty, what would happen no matter how much money you were greedy for? You can't move to a foreign country, let alone immigrate overseas. Moreover, the currency at that time was mainly silver rather than banknotes. If there were too many, you had to build your own bank for safekeeping. Money is indestructible. Whenever Qianlong wanted money, he could just copy it. It was as convenient as going to the bank to withdraw money now.

For an official like He Shen, it makes no sense to be greedy for too much money, because there is no way to spend it. Even if you are not so greedy, you will still have such a standard of living; if you are greedy, your living standard will not be much higher. It is just to get more antiques, calligraphy and paintings, which are really extraneous things. Once you steal everything, it belongs to the country.

Moreover, it would be of greater political use to keep He and Gentry alive. As we all know, Jiaqing, Qianlong's successor, was a very mediocre person. Whether such a person would be able to maintain a stable position in the country after taking over should be a question that Qianlong was more worried about in his later years. And retaining He Shen, a traitorous minister who was scolded by the whole country and called Jiaqing to kill, would be very beneficial to Jiaqing in winning the hearts of the people and stabilizing the regime.

Some historians commented on Jiaqing and said that he only did one thing in his life, and that was to overthrow He Shen. In fact, in my opinion, the credit for this matter probably still goes to Qianlong.