Did K'ang Hsi give Wai Siu Bo the most difficult assignments as opportunities?

[Ken Cheng]

Emperor K'ang Hsi tended to give Wai Siu Bo the most difficult and dangerous assignments. A part of it was that WSB, despite his lack of conventional acumen, had a knack for succeeding in helping the emperor to accomplish his goals through unconventional means. Do you think another part of it, however, was K'ang Hsi's desire to give his buddy opportunities to earn more rewards? As emperor, K'ang Hsi had the authority to give Wai Siu Bo any gifts the latter might have wanted, but doing so would have been corrupt and drawn criticism towards the emperor. Perhaps K'ang Hsi saw these difficult assignments as opportunities to reward Wai Siu Bo should Wai succeed in his missions (which he invariably did).

[pannonian]

Wei Xiaobao got his first assignments because of what he knew, and Kang Xi didn't want the knowledge to disseminate any wider than it already got. After his initial successes, Kang Xi recognised his unique talents as a very clever, utterly unscrupulous, yet extremely loyal agent, and used him for missions where orthodox thinking may be outdone by the situation. I think the orthodox military missions may be Kang Xi deliberately offered opportunities for Wei Xiaobao to shine, where he could have used others as effectively. That is, the capture of the hill insurgents (although this may also have been a test for WXB the Tian Di Hui chief), the bombing of Divine Dragon Island, and the border affair with Russia (although WXB's knowledge of Russian and Princess Sophia may have been a factor). WXB failed in the second, but shone in the first and third, earning himself quite a reputation as a general (probably to the delight of his sworn brothers).

One definite opportunity which Kang Xi dangled in front of him, but was never taken up by Wei Xiaobao, was the command against Wu Sangui. This was definitely a mission which others could do and did, but which was WXB's if he'd do the bidding of Kang Xi.

[Doc Kwok]

WXB failed in the second, but shone in the first and third, earning himself quite a reputation as a general (probably to the delight of his sworn brothers).

One definite opportunity which Kang Xi dangled in front of him, but was never taken up by Wei Xiaobao, was the command against Wu Sangui. This was definitely a mission which others could do and did, but which was WXB's if he'd do the bidding of Kang Xi.

He did not fail - the Divine Dragon island was effectively neutralised as a serious threat by the bombardment, with only a small handful of the leaders remaining, who by themselves could not amount to anything. Then again, all he had to do there was to give the go-ahead, Shi Lang did the rest.

Another reason that Kang Xi gave WXB so many assignments was as a stand-in for himself. As he believed himself to be superior to WXB in all aspects (which I personally disagree with), he reasoned that if WXB could do it, then so could he if he were the one doing it. He wanted to go out and do exciting, dangerous missions himself, but could not due to his station, so sending WXB to do it was the next best thing available to him. In effect, he was 'living the exciting life' through WXB, in contrast with the tedious, restrictive life of the Qing royal court.

[Mandred Skavenslayer]

I think it was more a matter of trust.

KX had very few friends which he could trust to carry out these delicate even personal missions so he used the one friend he had.