Emperor Jiaqing was assassinated four times, and each incident became a joke for future generations. Why didn’t Jiaqing find the root cause?

These four assassinations can be said to have challenged the security of the Forbidden City again and again. Although Emperor Jiaqing tightened martial law on the palace after each assassination, he could not prevent the assassinations. the occurrence of events. The fundamental reason is that the capabilities of the Qing army at that time were no longer what they used to be.

Let’s first briefly talk about the four assassinations of Emperor Jiaqing. Once, a vulgar servant sneaked into the palace to assassinate, but only eight people were left to protect Emperor Jiaqing; the second time, a monk sneaked into the palace and wanted to have a "good chat" with Emperor Jiaqing, but was caught because he got lost; the third time was A middle-aged man broke into the palace without any reason, but was stopped by the guard who guarded the palace gate with his bare hands because the weapon was too heavy. The fourth time, a thief entered the palace to steal, but managed to escape.

I think back then, when the Qing army invaded the Central Plains, it could be said that it was full of fighting power, so it was finally able to replace the Ming Dynasty. But when Emperor Jiaqing ascended the throne, the Qing Dynasty had actually begun to slowly decline, so the combat effectiveness of its soldiers also declined. People like the reckless man and the monk who entered the palace to assassinate were not masters of great ability, but they could drive straight into the palace. It can be seen that the guard's ability is very insufficient.

After the assassination, Emperor Jiaqing also took corresponding rectification measures and severely punished those guards who neglected their duties. However, these punishment methods cannot fundamentally solve the problem, because the ability of the new guards is still low. It can also be seen from this that Emperor Jiaqing's qualifications were mediocre, far inferior to those of emperors such as Kangxi and Qianlong. Otherwise, he could have seen that the root cause of frequent assassinations lay in the Qing army's lack of capability, rather than the lax guarding in the palace.