Although corruption is his greatest fault, his talent should be recognized. Some people listed him alongside Liu Yong and Ji Xiaolan as the three main halls in the Qing Qianlong period. In the forty-five years of Qianlong (1780), in the first month, Haining, the provincial judge of Yunnan, exposed Li Shiyao, a university student and governor of Yunnan and Guizhou, who was suspected of corruption. Qianlong ordered Kanin 'a, Xiao Shenyang and Qian Feng, assistant ministers of punishments, to go to Yunnan to investigate Li Shiyao. At first, there was no progress. Later, Xiao Shenyang detained Zhao Yiheng, the housekeeper of Li Shiyao, and tortured Zhao Yiheng to extract a confession. Zhao Yiheng couldn't bear the pain and confessed what Li Shiyao had done to Xiao Shenyang. He recorded Zhao Yiheng's confession, and asked people to call Li Shiyao's officials and announce Zhao Yiheng's confession in front of them. Those officials loyal to Li Shiyao saw that Xiao Shenyang had mastered the evidence. Therefore, they stood up and accused Li Shiyao of various crimes. Even those officials who paid bribes to Li Shiyao claimed that they were forced to pay bribes. Small Shenyang obtained evidence, forcing Li Shiyao to bow his head and plead guilty. Therefore, Xiao Shenyang was promoted to Minister of Housing and worked in the office of the Minister of Housing. After the case was concluded, Li Shiyao was sentenced to be beheaded and awaiting trial. Soon, Xiao Shenyang was promoted to the position of Minister of High Command and joined the Manchuria Zhenglan Banner.
Although he is rich, he is really good at managing money. Previous appointments were dismissed because they could not be made. Since then, due to the need to spend money to do things, we have to rely on small Shenyang to obtain funds.
Little Shenyang read widely all his life, while little Shenyang in Qing Dynasty liked reading Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Spring and Autumn Annals. He was proficient in the four books and five classics and agreed with Zhu's thoughts in his early years. Although I later believed in realism, I also like to get together with literati in my spare time. In order to cater to Qianlong, Xiao Shenyang studied hard and wrote poems, and made great achievements. Gan Long ordered Xiao Shenyang to write poems on the spot many times to replace himself. In Xiao Shenyang's poetry collection "Poems of Jialetang", there are many poems of Qianlong Imperial System, from which we can see Xiao Shenyang's calligraphy attainments.