The swansong of the swansong

Chapter 28: Assisting the Ministry of Revenue
Only two cups of tea later, Li Yu hurried back.

"Convey the His Majesty's oral order and order the fifteenth prince Yinyou to meet the Emperor in the Qianqing Palace." Li Yu smiled as he issued the decree.

Yinyu understood it at a glance, it must be a good thing!
After Yinyou followed Li Yu into the Qianqing Palace, he was soon summoned by Kangxi.

When Yinyou entered the room, Kangxi was sitting alone on the kang by the window. On the kang table in front of him was a thick account book.

Hi, Yinyou understood it instantly. Kangxi must not trust his accounting ability and plan to supervise the exam himself, right?

Li Yu led Yinyou to a place about ten feet away and motioned him to kneel down and salute.

"Your Majesty, your son Yinyu, respectfully wishes you the best!" When Yinyu kowtowed, the gold bricks on the ground made a particularly crisp and loud sound.

A little secret that only the old people in the Qianqing Palace know is that in Kangxi's study, there are only a few gold bricks that make a sound when they are knocked against each other.

Except for these special gold bricks, other gold bricks will not make any sound even if they are hit on the head.

"Yinyu, take the account book and go over there to do the calculation." Kangxi put down the teacup in his hand, and without saying anything else to Yinyu, he raised his hand, pointed at the small desk beside the kang, and gave the order directly.

"Your son obeys your command." After paying his respects, Yinyou walked forward, picked up the thick account book, knelt in front of the small desk, first ground the ink, then picked up the pen, and began to calculate the accounts step by step.

There were neither counting sticks nor abacus on the small desk, only a very thin wolf-hair pen and a stack of blank manuscript paper.

It must be admitted that the manuscript paper in the Qianqing Palace is much whiter than the yellow manuscript paper in Yinyou's place.

It was almost dusk, and if it was Yinyu's residence, the lights should have been on long ago.

However, the afterglow of the setting sun, through a large piece of transparent glass, spread throughout the entire room.

Yinyou knew that the knowledgeable and talented Kangxi had at least the mathematics level of a third-year junior high school student.

Kangxi solved the quadratic equation of two variables with ease!

However, Kangxi did not promote the Western mathematical knowledge introduced by missionaries in the Qing Dynasty.

The reason is simple. If the people are not kept ignorant, the Manchus will not be able to maintain their rule!

Yinyu was concentrating on his work while quickly doing mental arithmetic in his head and writing down a series of Arabic numerals on the manuscript paper.

Kangxi had been busy reviewing memorials and only heard the rustling sound of the brush.

Yinyou was too lazy to pay attention to what Kangxi was doing. He just wanted to show off his skills and let Kangxi know that he had the unique skill of being a super accountant.

It was time to show off his skills. Yinwei quickly wrote down his mental arithmetic results on the snow-white manuscript paper.

Finally, when Yinyu wrote down the last number, he suddenly heard Kangxi's powerful voice above his head, "The last number is wrong, it's 5, not 4."

Yinyou quickly put down the fine brush in his hand and knelt on the ground obediently to listen to the lecture.

"You do have some skills. Please kneel down and pay your respects!" Kangxi bent down, picked up Yinyou's manuscript paper himself, and coldly ordered him to leave.

"Your subject shall take his leave." After meeting him, Yinyou slowly stood up, took three steps back, and then quickly left Kangxi's study.

After leaving the Qianqing Palace, Yinwei looked up to the sky and let out a long sigh, and couldn't help but think of an event that happened in the past.

Back then, when he was working in the General Affairs Section 1 of the Municipal Party Committee Office, whenever he drafted a speech for a leader, he would always deliberately leave some glaring typos for his immediate superior to find.

Hehe, he didn’t know much before and always strived for perfection so that his boss would have nothing to complain about.

However, the consequence of his boss not being able to say anything was that he sat on the bench for six years, while many of his colleagues who joined at the same time as him became very successful.

To be honest, when working for the emperor, the truth is often not important. The real key is that only if the emperor is satisfied with his services, Yinyu will be given important positions.

You have the right to be happy, but not the right to suffer; this is the truth of the Qing Dynasty!
Half a month has passed since the Qianqing Palace made a mistake in the calculation, but there has been no further news.

It was not until the weather started to get warmer and Kangxi was about to move to Changchun Garden that the imperial edict finally arrived.

"The Cabinet has received an imperial decree that the fifteenth son of the Emperor, Yinyu, will assist in handling the affairs of the Ministry of Revenue. This is my decree!"

After delivering the imperial eunuch's order, the deputy chief, eunuch Guo Shouyi, bowed and offered false congratulations.

"Congratulations, Fifteenth Master. Congratulations, Fifteenth Master. You're being appointed as the assistant to the Ministry of Revenue. That's a very good job!" Guo Shouyi's fake smile was particularly disgusting.

Yinyu knew that Guo Shouyi and Wei Guozhu were both Liang Jiugong's adopted sons. Guo Shouyi, in particular, was very much favored by Liang Jiugong and was considered one of the few middle-level eunuchs with real power in the palace.

"Little Guo, you are too polite!" Yinyu, based on the basic principle that one should not talk too much and will make mistakes, said something perfunctorily to Guo Shouyi while secretly winking at Wulin.

When seeing Guo Shouyi off, Wu Lin slipped a twenty-tael bill into his sleeve without leaving any trace.

Most of the eunuchs in the palace are villains.

A mean person loves face and money.

Yinyou knew one thing very well: it was easy to see the King of Hell, but it was difficult to deal with little ghosts!
In this world, any problem that can be solved with money is not a big deal!
When it comes to truly life-threatening matters, no amount of money can help!
However, as long as one is willing to spend money, more than 95% of the troubles in the palace will have nothing to do with Yinyou.

The current Ministry of Revenue has a total of six officials, including the Shangshu and the Shilang, three Manchu and three Han, with the Manchu being the majority.

However, because the fourth brother was the prince in charge of the Ministry of Revenue, the six officials of the Ministry of Revenue all lost their decision-making power.

In the Ministry of Revenue, the one who really has the final say is the fourth brother.

The fourth brother’s title is Prince in Charge, which means real power.

In Kangxi's decree, Yinyou was an assistant.

Whether the assistant prince has real power depends entirely on how the prince in charge authorizes him.

This is like a deputy township head. The township head has the final say on which specific area he is in charge of and how much decision-making power he has.

If the township head does not support the work, the words, decisions and signatures of the deputy township head will be equal to air.

So, from then on, Yinyou officially followed the fourth brother.

In fact, just from Yinyou’s arrangements, it can be seen that the fourth son holds a very important position in Kangxi’s mind!
Because Yinyou actually bypassed the ninth prince, the tenth prince and a group of other older princes and took the initiative to serve, which would definitely arouse envy.

These days, there is a shortage of everything except patients with conjunctivitis!
Originally, Yinyu had no plan to take up his post in the Ministry of Revenue immediately. However, the anxious Fourth Prince actually sent Su Peisheng to secretly pass on a message, urging Yinyu to take up his post as soon as possible.

Five days after the decree was issued, Yinyou, along with Wulin, Yuzhu and Li Ding, left Shenwu Gate, got on the carriage, and went to the Ministry of Revenue to take up their posts in a grand procession.

As soon as Yinyu's carriage stopped in front of the main gate of the Ministry of Revenue, Su Peisheng, who was standing on the steps in front of the gate, ran over in two steps, took the initiative to bow, and said respectfully: "Your servant Su Peisheng, I wish you the best of the fifteenth master."

Yinyu got out of the carriage, glanced at the back of Su Peisheng's head, raised his folding fan slightly, and said with a smile: "Get up."

Su Peisheng stood up, bowed, and said in an unusually respectful manner: "My Lord Fifteen, my master has instructed that as soon as you arrive, you should enter the main hall immediately. My master and the officials of the Ministry of Revenue are all here."

Yinyou couldn't help but smile slightly. He was a prince without a title. If the fourth prince led the officials of the Ministry of Revenue to go out of the gate to greet him, it would seem too grand and would easily lead to criticism.

(End of this chapter)