Why does Gan Long like Jiangnan?

Emperor Kangxi went to Jiangnan six times before, and Emperor Qianlong followed the example of his ancestors and made six southern tours. Ganlong thinks that he has done two great things in his life: one is to "learn from the scriptures", lead the army to the west, and pacify the northwest; The other is "southern tour", which has visited Jiangnan six times in the past 30 years. It can be seen that the significance of Jiangnan in Qianlong's mind is extraordinary.

Under the conditions at that time, it was a huge project for the emperor to go to Jiangnan. It's 6000 miles from Beijing to Jiangsu and Zhejiang. At that time, there were no modern means of transportation, and it took at least three to five months to go back and forth by car and horse. Every time the emperor went on patrol, he led two or three thousand people, including royalty, civil and military officials and guards. He used five or six thousand horses, four or five hundred cars and thousands of boats, and the demand consumed one or two million taels of silver. Gan Long was 74 years old when he visited the South for the sixth time. It is not easy to climb mountains and mountains like this. Then why did the emperor bother to make a series of southern tours?

According to Emperor Qianlong's own explanation, he went to Jiangnan for four reasons: first, the officials and people in Jiangsu and Zhejiang sincerely asked for permission; Second, the DPRK and China officials repeatedly advocated; Third, Jiangsu and Zhejiang people are rich in production and rank first, so they should personally investigate public opinion and military affairs; Fourth, pay homage to mother and visit scenic spots to show filial piety. These statements are just a routine, and Qianlong has more serious and profound intentions in his heart.

At the top of the list, there is heaven above and Suzhou and Hangzhou below. Jiangsu and Zhejiang are the famous land of plenty, rich land, industrial and commercial base and rich land in China. It was the primary "grain bag" and "cash box" of the Qing government, which maintained the economic lifeline of the court. At that time, Jiangsu and Zhejiang paid 38% of the national grain tax, 29% of the national tax revenue and 50% of the national tariff. At that time, salt and silver were the second largest financial source after land tax. More than 60% of the salt silver comes from Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and the salt merchants in Yangzhou alone hand in as much as 6 million taels of salt silver every year. Two-thirds of the 4 million stone grains that Beijing needs every year are transported from Jiangsu and Zhejiang to Beijing. Without unlimited financial support from Jiangsu and Zhejiang, it is impossible to create prosperity. Every southern tour, the emperor and powerful ministers not only ensured these normal treasury revenues, but also seized a large amount of private money from officials and rich people in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces by means of sharing, sponsorship, buying and selling officials, extortion and bribery. It can be said that firmly controlling Jiangsu and Zhejiang and fully mobilizing the local rich financial and material resources to support the huge Qing Empire are the primary factors for the prosperity of Jiangnan.

Second, there are many talented people in Jiangnan, and there have been many affairs since ancient times. Jiangnan is a place with outstanding people and talented people. Among the top 1 14 in the Qing Dynasty, 49 were from Jiangsu, accounting for 43%. Jiangnan Gongyuan, located in Nanjing, is the largest imperial examination room in China, with more than 20,000 candidates. More than half of the top scholars in the Qing Dynasty came from Gongyuan in Jiangnan. One of the primary intentions of Qianlong's trip to the south of the Yangtze River is to find talents for Anbang to govern the country, foster scholars and win the hearts of the people. Qianlong's six southern tours did discover a large number of politicians, scholars, academic leaders and writers in the south of the Yangtze River. On every southern tour, Gan Long met with scholars and celebrities, and personally proposed the examination. Those who performed well in the exam were specially awarded the title of "Juren" and were awarded official positions on the spot to compete for celebrities and publicize their grace.

Jiangsu and Zhejiang in the Qing Dynasty were also places with many immigrants in the late Ming Dynasty, and there were many shopping malls with anti-Qing ideas. On the one hand, scholars took Huairou to win over; On the other hand, it also strictly manipulated ideas, severely cracked down on intellectuals with different political views and launched a literary inquisition. Qing Dynasty is the most prosperous period of literary inquisition in history, and Qianlong is the highest peak of literary inquisition in Qing Dynasty. The absurdity of the charges, the wide range of implications and the harshness of the techniques far exceed Kangxi and Yongzheng. Gan Long's high cultural accomplishment made him civilized, neurotic and paranoid. A typical literary inquisition is that after Qianlong first went to Jiangnan, someone pretended to be a minister and criticized Qianlong's extravagance, serious disturbance to the people and unfair rewards and punishments when he went to Jiangnan. Qianlong was furious and ordered a nationwide investigation into the producers and disseminators of this fake manuscript. Countless people have been detained, dismissed and beheaded.

Third, Jiangnan is the primary hometown of water conservancy and flood. Especially in northern Jiangsu, where the Yellow River, Huaihe River and canals meet, such as Hongze Lake and gaoyou lake are all "hanging lakes". Once many, Huai 'an, Yangzhou, Taizhou, Nantong and Yancheng were all Wang Yang. Gan Long said in The Journey to the West: "Six trips to Jiangsu and Zhejiang are essential to people's livelihood, and nothing is more important than a levee. You must visit it yourself. " In the Qing Dynasty, the annual bank repair for fixed river works accounted for110 of the national financial expenditure, which was the largest capital construction project at that time. Every time he goes to the south of the Yangtze River, Gan Long will visit the Hongze Lake basin to inspect the flood control project. During the six expeditions to the south, Qianlong * * * issued hundreds of water control instructions, implemented a number of severe water conservancy projects, and used tens of millions of silver, which played a primary role in reducing floods and maintaining rural life.

Fourth, Jiangnan is a "land of flowers and willows, a gentle and rich country". Beautiful mountains and rivers, rich human capital, numerous gold powders, and beautiful women like clouds. In the words of Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, "Good mountains and good water, good winds and good moons, a beautiful land for thousands of years; Idiot, infatuation, infatuation for generations. "During the Qianlong period, the cities on both sides of the Yangtze River Canal were commercially developed and popular. At that time, there were ten metropolises with more than 500,000 people in the world, and Jiangsu accounted for the third-Nanjing, Yangzhou and Gusu. Nanjing people call it "the land of beauty in the south of the Yangtze River, the home of Jinling emperors", with ten miles of Qinhuai, nine songs of Jinbo, six dynasties of gold powder, and a curtain of quiet dreams. Suzhou gardens are famous all over the country; Suzhou's embroidery is great. Coupled with small bridges and flowing water, white walls and tiles are full of poetry and painting. Yangzhou is a collection of giants with beautiful scenery. " Rich in money, riding a crane down Yangzhou "shows that Yangzhou was a famous city of dreams, leisure and consumption." When the emperor came to Jiangnan, he enjoyed himself, enjoyed himself, enjoyed himself, and bought what he wanted. Of course, he likes to come again and again.

Gan Long has a soft spot for Jiangnan gardens. Every time he goes to Jiangnan, he will bring some painters to paint some famous gardens in Jiangnan. Then, in the Summer Palace, the Forbidden City and chengde mountain resort, we imitated the garden landscapes such as Gusu Lion Forest, Hangzhou West Lake Ten Scenes, Wuxi Chicken Farm Garden and Zhenjiang Jinshan Temple.

Fifth, the safety of imperial patrol comes first. Without Shan Ye in Jiangsu, it is difficult for thieves to hide. Jiangsu people, in particular, are gentle, obedient, not crazy, obedient and rich in life. They belong to the local "granary knows etiquette, food and clothing know honor and disgrace" area, which is a rare model area of good citizens, obedient people and public security. When the emperor came here, there was less danger and safety could be guaranteed.

Throughout the ages, people have different opinions about Liuxia Jiangnan. Even at that time, the ruling and opposition parties had many doubts about the practice of ambitious, extravagant, sizing up the situation and wasting people's money. Before abdicating, Qianlong said to the minister: I have been in the imperial palace for sixty years, and my virtue has not been lost. I only made six southern tours, which wasted people and money. We must stop the emperor from touring the south in the future. But there is no doubt that if it were not for the prosperous times of peace, there might not be the grand occasion of the emperor's six visits to the south of the Yangtze River. These six southern tours have played an infinite role in calming Jiangsu and Zhejiang, gathering financial resources, attracting talents, comforting people, building water conservancy projects and controlling floods.