The film and television world begins with the battle for the throne in Kowloon

Chapter 13: Promoted to Prince of Dun

Hearing what Li Yan said, Chen Pengnian was overjoyed. There are so many princes in the capital, and apart from the crown prince, the tenth prince is the most noble and has the most powerful background. Moreover, he has been entrusted with important tasks at such a young age. It seems that he is highly valued by the emperor.

Although he was a relatively clean official with a good reputation, it was not enough to be a good official now. He had to have someone above him. The emperor's sons were getting older and they were not easy to deal with. They might offend someone. Now the Tenth Master was quite satisfied with him. When he arrived in the capital, he would have a good relationship with the Tenth Master. If he had any problems, he could ask the Tenth Master for help and feel more secure.

"In that case, I and the officials of all ranks in Suzhou will host a banquet for Master Shi tonight. Please be sure to come and enjoy the feast!" Chen Pengnian said enthusiastically.

Li Yan nodded with satisfaction: "Okay, if that's the case, then I won't refuse it!"

In the Golden Palace of the Forbidden City, a court meeting is going on!

"If you have something to do, start the show, if nothing happens, leave the court!"

The loud voice of a young eunuch echoed throughout the hall.

The prince quietly winked at Huang Tiren who was standing beside him. Huang Tiren stepped forward and said, "Your Majesty, I have something to report!"

"Prelude!"

Huang Tiren said: "Your Majesty, I have a copy of the Tenth Prince's seal."

"Since receiving the imperial edict to oversee disaster relief in Jiangnan, the Tenth Prince has not considered the people's sentiments and provided relief to the victims since arriving in Yangzhou. He has ignored hundreds of thousands of victims and indulged himself in banquets and welcoming and seeing off local officials all day. He has accepted bribes and exploited the local people, causing widespread complaints and making the people miserable. He has failed the emperor's kindness. I hope the emperor will see clearly."

"Oh! Is there such a thing?"

Kangxi asked with a frown.

The Eighth Brother quickly stepped forward and said, "Father Emperor, Huang Tiren is talking nonsense. After receiving the assignment, my Tenth Brother headed to the disaster area without stopping, sleeping in the open air all the way. Every time he arrived at a place, he would personally inquire about the local disaster situation and strictly order the local authorities not to refuse to let the disaster victims out of the city."

"After arriving in Yangzhou, he worked tirelessly to collect money and food every day. Now the disaster in Yangzhou has been basically controlled. The refugees everywhere are in good order. No one has starved to death, and there has been no large-scale civil unrest. This is all thanks to my tenth brother."

"Tenth brother, regardless of his status as a prince, has lowered his status to raise relief funds from local officials and salt merchants. It is inevitable that he has to ask for favors everywhere, and it is reasonable that he has to do some things like welcoming and seeing off people. This is also for the survival of the millions of victims in the disaster area, and for the completion of the important task entrusted by the emperor father."

At this point, the Eighth Old Man turned around and glared at Huang Tiren: "And you, Master Huang, are in the capital, protected from the wind and rain, well-fed and warmly dressed. Not only did you not praise the Tenth Brother for going to the disaster area, but you also pulled the Tenth Brother's legs from behind, adding insult to injury, and slandering him without any reason. It's really abominable. I hope the Emperor will punish you!"

Kangxi looked at Huang Tiren coldly: "What the Eighth Old Man said is the truth, do you have any evidence for the Tenth Old Man?"

Huang Tiren shuddered when he saw Kangxi's cold face, but thought that if he backed down at this moment, he would offend both the crown prince and the emperor, so he gritted his teeth and said, "Longkodo, who was appointed by the Tenth Prince, has been accepting banquets from salt merchants every day and has been robbing them by trickery. Every time he goes to a house, he asks for thousands or tens of thousands of taels of silver. There were two families who refused to comply, so he framed them with crimes, confiscated their property, and detained their entire families."

"One of them was accused of reselling disaster relief supplies and was beheaded in the street. This is a heinous crime and has caused great public outrage. I hope the emperor will take a closer look."

"Longkodo, I seem to have heard of this name." Kangxi murmured to himself.

Tong Guowei came out and said, "Your Majesty, Longkodo is the son of my brother Tong Guogang, and his nephew. I saw that he had nothing to do in the capital, and it happened that the Tenth Prince went to the south of the Yangtze River to provide relief to the victims. I asked him to do his part for the country and go to the disaster area with the Tenth Prince to help and do some practical things, so as not to let the Majesty's teaching go unnoticed."

"Oh, I remember now."

"It's Xiao Duozi! He accompanied me during the northern expedition to Junggar and made contributions. Is he now with Yin in providing disaster relief in Jiangnan? This is a good thing."

Kangxi's expression relaxed and he nodded with satisfaction.

Tong Guowei continued, "Because the disaster in Anhui is serious, hundreds of thousands of victims are displaced, and the matter is of great importance. And this is the first time that the Tenth Prince has left the capital. Although Xiao Duozi has some military experience, he has never served as a local official, so it is inevitable that he is not familiar with specific affairs. I am afraid that he will act recklessly after arriving at the local area and affect disaster relief, so I have been paying attention to the Tenth Prince and his party."

"Eighth Prince said the truth. After arriving at the disaster area, Tenth Prince inspected everywhere without taking off his clothes. After arriving in Yangzhou, he only slept three hours a day. He often went out before dawn and returned after dark. He devoted the whole day to disaster relief. The disaster in Jiangnan was under control, all thanks to Tenth Prince."

"Some local gentry are rich but unkind. They spend money like water and have huge amounts of grain, but they are unwilling to give some to help the country and watch the victims starve to death. What's worse, they hoard grain and fodder to make money during the national disaster. The people Mr. Huang just mentioned were dealt with by Xiao Duozi on the orders of the Tenth Prince because of this situation. I think there is nothing wrong with it. If I were here, I would deal with them the same way." Kangxi heard this and said angrily, "These profiteers are getting a bargain by dealing with them this way."

Tong Guowei turned to Huang Tiren and said, "What you said, Master Huang, about the Tenth Prince and Longkodo extorting money is also malicious slander. It should be said that they were raising funds for disaster relief. Master Huang, have you seen the Tenth Prince or Longkodo taking the money for themselves? Or have you seen poor families being forced to lose their homes? As far as I know, the Tenth Prince has never asked for money from any ordinary citizen or forced them to donate."

Huang Tiren was speechless under the pressure of Tong Guowei. His buddy Xiao Guoxing stood up and said loudly: "Someone saw with their own eyes that the Tenth Prince ordered Longkodo to put dust and sand in the porridge given to the victims, and the people angrily scolded and complained. Hundreds of victims who lined up to receive porridge at that time saw it with their own eyes, and Lord Tong cannot deny it."

"This incident shows that the Tenth Prince does not understand the suffering of the people, does not treat the victims as human beings, and treats the people like cattle and horses. Please punish me, Your Majesty!"

Kangxi also frowned when he heard this. Yinzhi was short-sighted and impatient, and he was indeed capable of doing such a thing. However, it was difficult to stop people from talking about it since so many people had witnessed it!
At this time, Tong Guowei smiled and said, "This is true, but Sir Xiao, you don't know the details. You only know one thing but not the other."

Huang Tiren seized on Tong Guowei's words and said, "No matter what the reason is, throwing dirt and sand into the people's life-saving food is unforgivable. What else do you have to explain? Could it be that Master Tong thinks that the person involved is his nephew, so he wants to excuse his own man? This is not good."

"Your Majesty, Longkodo also mentioned this matter in his letter, so I know it clearly. Please listen to me!"

Tong Guowei described the situation in detail, and then explained the Tenth Prince's actions to the whole court. Finally, he said: "Facts have proved that from then on, some people who had surplus food and nearby people who were not affected by the disaster no longer used false names to collect food. In the following days, when porridge was distributed, almost half of the food was saved compared to before."

"As we all know, the people's fraudulent claiming of food has always been a major problem that troubled the court. These people are mixed in with the court, and they cannot be beaten or scolded, just like red beans mixed in with green beans, which cannot be picked out. However, the Tenth Prince only took a handful of dust, and solved the problem of insufficient food for disaster relief every time before, greatly reducing the burden of food. I admire him very much when I heard about it."

After he finished speaking, he looked at Huang Tiren and Xiao Guoxing and said, "Are you two satisfied with this explanation and answer? Do you have anything else to say?"

The two were stunned for a moment. They thought that the Tenth Prince accepted the banquet and extorted money, so it was not a big deal to report it. After all, the disaster relief was not over yet, and these things were just a matter of arguing. As long as the Tenth Prince insisted that these were to raise money and food to treat the victims, they could push it aside. The two focused on the fact that the Tenth Prince asked Longkodo to sprinkle sand in the porridge.

This incident was witnessed by so many people. It is a fact that is set in stone and is of a heinous nature and cannot be denied.

One of these two people is involved with Old Eight, and the other is connected to Tong Guowei. They are both from Old Eight's faction. It will be of great benefit to the prince to attack them.

Unexpectedly, Tong Guowei did not try to argue but admitted it outright, saying it was true.

However, his subsequent explanation was well-reasoned and convincing. Not only the emperor and his ministers, but even he himself had to admit that his doing so made sense and could not find any fault with it.

They were speechless for a moment, not knowing what to say. They secretly looked at the prince, who was also silent. The two knew that it would be unreasonable to continue arguing, and would only make the emperor hate them more, so they quietly retreated.

After hearing Tong Guowei's explanation, Kangxi suddenly realized what was going on. He looked at the two of them with disgust, then looked at the prince. The prince lowered his head and said nothing.

Kangxi frowned, then ignored it, turned around and smiled, laughing: "I didn't expect Yin to have a straightforward character since he was a child. I thought he would not have any future. I didn't expect that when he went to the local level, he could come up with such a solution. It's really great. A small handful of dust saved hundreds of thousands of dan of grain for the court, and also benefited the real victims!"

"I think that in this matter, the Tenth Prince is not only innocent, but also meritorious. What do you think?"

"Your Majesty is wise, and the Tenth Prince has done nothing wrong. This incident proves that the Tenth Prince personally visited the disaster area and truly took disaster relief to heart. He spent every day thinking about how to better treat the victims. He was trained and nurtured, so he could come up with such a good method."

"For this reason, I would like to request the emperor to reward the Tenth Prince!" Tong Guowei offered compliments at the right time.

Seeing that Emperor Kangxi was very pleased, the ministers all bowed and said, "We ask the emperor to reward the tenth prince!"

"Hahaha"

"Okay, Yin has made great contributions to the disaster relief in Jiangnan. The Imperial Study will immediately draft an imperial decree to confer the title of Duke of Dun on Yin!"

"Your Majesty!"

(End of this chapter)