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

Chapter 73 Kangxi's Southern Tour
Yangchun March
The mighty spring breeze seemed to have awakened the whole world. The icy and snowy north had begun to enter spring, the temperature rose, and the grass turned green. The scenery in the south of the Yangtze River was even more pleasant. Li Yan, who had been to Suzhou and Hangzhou, applied to accompany Emperor Kangxi to the south when he decided to tour the south.

Helplessly, Kangxi rejected Li Yan's request and told him that it was not convenient for him to bring the prince with him on this tour. He was in charge of the Xishan Ruijian Camp and had to stay in the capital. He was also asked to keep an eye on the officials and princes, and report any disturbances in the court at any time.

Li Yan had no choice but to give up, and missed the scenery of Jiangnan with regret in his heart!

Outside Xizhimen, a whole set of highest-level ceremonial guards, accompanied by music, escorted Kangxi's carriage out of the capital, and all officials knelt to see Kangxi off.

Li Yan also knelt among the princes, looking at the little Hongli held by Kangxi's hand, and then turned his head to glance at the fourth prince Yinzhen who was suppressing his excitement. His heart suddenly sank. History always has its inertia. Kangxi still took Hongli to the palace and told the outside world that he wanted to keep a grandson by his side to enjoy the happiness of family life.

But there are many underage princes in the palace, and the eldest, third, eighth and other princes also have young children in their own homes, so this explanation is a bit far-fetched.

As an emperor, Kangxi would not do anything unnecessary. Perhaps his current vision had already seen decades into the future. In terms of life experience and wisdom, all the princes present combined were far inferior to Kangxi.

Li Yan was not like other princes, who would be confused by Kangxi's cover-up. Extra explanations would only make him look like an attempt to cover up the truth. He was just a child, so he could be brought to the palace if he wanted. Kangxi was the emperor, with absolute authority. Who dared to question him? Why would he need to explain more?

With the experience of later generations, Li Yan never had any illusions about Kangxi's mind.

It seems that the old man's default candidate for succession is still the fourth son Yinzhen. Thinking of this, Li Yan's heart became even more gloomy. He clenched his hands into fists, frowned, and his face was cold and ugly. He did so many things overtly and covertly, but still lost to Yinzhen.

How am I inferior to him!
In terms of status, Yinzhen was born to Consort De Uya, and was later raised by Empress Xiaoyi Tong Jia, who was the daughter of Tong Guowei and was a royal concubine. She had no sons and only had one daughter who died after one month. She later raised many princes, Yinzhen was just one of them, and was later named the third empress by Kangxi before her death. Tong Jia was only empress for one day before she passed away!
The mother of the tenth prince Yin was Consort Wenxi Niuhulu, the daughter of Grand Tutor Guoyi Gong Ebilun. Three years after the death of Kangxi's first empress Hesheli, Kangxi appointed Niuhulu as empress. She was a sister of the biological mother of the tenth prince Yin.

At the same time, Tong Jia was canonized as a noble concubine.

However, this Empress Niohuru was unlucky and only served as queen for about half a year. In February 1678, she died in Kunning Palace at the age of 25.

Yin's biological mother also passed away when Yin was 11 years old. After her death, she was posthumously named Concubine Wenxi. She was the only concubine with a posthumous title in the Qing Dynasty.

The status of the tenth prince Yin was higher than that of the fourth prince Yinzhen. If both Niuhulu clans were alive, the tenth prince would have been the crown prince.

In terms of ability, treatment of others and willingness to take responsibility, Li Yan believed that he was no less capable than Yinzhen. The only difference was that he was ranked too low, unlike Yinzhen who was ranked ahead.

Was it because of this that I was rejected by Kangxi?
Well, I wanted to compete fairly with the princes as an ordinary person, and I didn't want to bully the weak, but I didn't expect to be treated unfairly. The old man forced me to take extraordinary measures! I didn't want to take special measures. It seems that I am too honest, so I was bullied by these ancients.

As Li Yan was thinking, he felt a figure passing by.
He raised his head and took a closer look. It turned out to be Crown Prince Yinreng. As Kangxi had just left, the Crown Prince stood up regardless of etiquette, and looked back triumphantly at the officials and brothers kneeling behind him. He seemed to be enjoying his freedom at the moment. Without Kangxi in Beijing, Yinreng completely let himself go.

He changed his previous cautiousness and wantonly exercised his power as the crown prince, whipping servants at will and punishing officials. He even scolded and neglected the ministers in the study room. It seemed that in revenge for the last crown prince nomination, Yinreng threatened to dismiss all officials who supported the eighth prince, making all the officials in the court feel uneasy.

Not only was he mean to officials, but he also became cold towards people like the Fourth and Thirteenth Brothers who were originally from his faction.

His inability to control himself and his frivolous and dissolute behavior disappointed the ministers who had originally had some expectations of him.

Yinreng called back several of his cronies who had been neglected by the emperor after he was deposed last time. These people brought a piece of news that Ren Bo'an, the Jiangnan Salt Inspector who was originally a follower of the Ninth Prince Yin'er, secretly recorded the private affairs of hundreds of officials while managing the files of hundreds of officials in the Ministry of Personnel and compiled a booklet.

Official Records
It was originally intended to be presented to the Eighth Prince, but Ren Bo'an was angry that the Eighth Prince had sacrificed the Ren brothers in order to move to the Crown Prince. So Ren Bo'an wanted to present this official record to the Crown Prince, on the condition that his brother-in-law Liu Ba Nu be released and his own official position be restored.

Yinreng agreed immediately and found the Thirteenth Prince Yinxiang, who was in charge of the Ministry of Justice.

Who would have thought that when Yinxiang heard about such a dirty thing, he refused it outright and even advised the prince to act openly and uprightly!
The prince became impatient and stubborn, and seeing that the Thirteenth Master refused to give in, he pretended to change his ways and let the Thirteenth Master deal with Zheng Chunhua.

The Thirteenth Prince thought that he had already refused once, and getting rid of Zheng Chunhua would also make the Crown Prince feel at ease, so he agreed. He secretly hid Zheng Chunhua and reported that he had killed him.

However, the prince turned against his master at this moment and used this as a threat to force the Thirteenth Prince to release Liu Ba Nu. This method was simply despicable and shameless.

Yinxiang was helpless! He went to consult with Prince Yong Yinzhen, and they agreed to release the man first, and then let Sichuan Governor Nian Gengyao follow the order of the Ministry of Justice to capture him.

Nian Gengyao resolutely followed Yinzhen's order and sent people from Sichuan to Jiangxia Town to capture Liu Ba Nu and a pawn ticket from Wanyong Pawn Shop. However, Nian Gengyao discovered several million taels of silver that Ren Bo'an had saved for the ninth prince Yin'er in Jiangfeng Town. In order to embezzle the silver, the greedy Nian Gengyao killed all the hundreds of people in Jiangxia Town where Ren Bo'an and Liu Ba Nu were, as well as hundreds of officers and soldiers stationed in Huai'an Camp in Jiangxia Town.

The case was reported to the Ministry of War, which alarmed the Fourteenth, Eighth, and Ninth Brothers, who called Li Yan over.

Li Yan couldn't help but sigh inwardly, Nian Gengyao was indeed so bold!

After he took over the supervision of Xishan Ruijian Camp, Lao Ba and Lao Jiu took their efforts to win over Li Yan a step further. On the surface, Li Yan still hung out in Lao Ba's circle as before, but his status now was second only to Lao Ba, and before Lao Jiu and Lao Shisi.

In the end, although the eighth brother guessed that it was Nian Gengyao who did it, the matter was of great importance, so the fourteenth brother still had to send people from the Ministry of War to Sichuan and Jiangxia Town to look for evidence. For such a big thing, if there is no evidence and only speculation, it would not work. After all, Nian Gengyao has the support of the fourth brother and the thirteenth brother behind him, and he is also the brother-in-law of the tenth brother.

Li Yan knew that the plot had developed to this point. The pawn ticket of Wanyong Pawn Shop was already in the hands of Lao Si. The next step was to ask someone to go to the pawnshop to redeem the pawn. He didn't know whether Lao Si would find him.

That day, Li Yan was chatting with Wu Sidao in the mansion when Li Wei came back. As soon as they met, he said, "Master Shi, someone came to redeem Ren Bo'an's pawn ticket today. I followed your instructions and told him that Ren Bo'an had said that he must come in person or have someone get his handwritten letter, otherwise he would not be able to redeem it."

Li Yan glanced at Lao Wu and said, "What did that person say?"

"The visitor didn't say anything, he just asked if the things were still there. After I confirmed, he left."

"Okay, I understand. You can go back now. By the way, if anyone comes to pawn something from the palace or the prince's mansion in the near future, don't accept it."

"嗻"

After Li Wei agreed, he returned to the pawnshop!

Li Yan asked Wu Sidao: "Sir, do you think Fourth Brother will come to see me?"

"That depends on the cunning of the Fourth Prince. But based on my understanding, it shouldn't be the case." Wu Sidao thought for a while.

"Why is that? During this period of time, I have been getting along well with Fourth Brother. Could it be that I still haven't gained his trust?"

Wu Sidao smiled and said, "Since ancient times, those who have accomplished great things would never trust others easily! Moreover, the Fourth Prince is plotting to become the emperor. The Tenth Prince is on good terms with the Fourth Prince, and he also has a close relationship with the Eighth Prince. Now, for the Fourth Prince, the Tenth Prince is only a friend, and for such a big matter, one can only consult with one's own people, not friends."

"Besides, the Fourth Prince may not really consider the Tenth Prince as a friend."

Li Yan's heart sank. This fourth brother was indeed not a simple character. In the original drama, he became the final winner because he was ruthless and used all kinds of means, even shady conspiracies, which he often used.

It’s contradictory to say that Yinzhen has a side that works hard for the country and the people, but he also has a side that does whatever it takes to achieve his goals. Perhaps this is what a normal person is like!

In reality, all kinds of successful people are always promoting hard work and diligence to get rich in public, but they themselves may know the real reason for their success. In any case, Li Yan rarely sees those people letting their children work hard every day. Most of them indulge their children to enjoy life.

Unexpectedly, things turned out to be not unexpected!

In the afternoon, Li Wei came back again and said that a merchant from Shanxi had bought a lot of the finest fox and sable fur coats that could only be used by princes, dukes, ministers, and court beads used by first and second rank officials in court, and the prices were very cheap.

If Li Yan hadn't told him otherwise in the morning, Li Wei would have wanted to eat it all.

(End of this chapter)