My father is Yongzheng, and I am Qianlong?

Chapter 158 The Wisdom of a Young Man
"That's right. His Majesty has issued an edict ordering that the crimes of disrespect and insubordination committed by your younger brother and his subordinates, as reported by the Infantry Commander's Office, be punished by being demoted and executed."

After the captain answered, Nianfu took a few steps back.

He seemed to have been struck by lightning, and it took him a long time to recover.

"How can it be!"

But then Nian Fu muttered to himself, "So, the Emperor really doesn't value my Nian family anymore, and is only letting us off the hook because of the Fourth Prince?"

"Fourth Master, you also asked me to pass on a message to you."

The captain replied.

Nian Fu's heart skipped a beat, and he immediately bowed respectfully, saying, "Please speak!"

“I said that if he doesn’t come to apologize and beg for forgiveness, he won’t be able to see Nian Xing return home alive.”

"Furthermore, let me add one more thing: if he still refuses to come to the Infantry Commander's office to apologize and beg for forgiveness, he can forget about leaving here alive. I have nine ways to kill him!"

After the captain finished recounting the story, Nianfu felt a surge of anger, but at the same time, an overwhelming sense of fear welled up inside him.

He knew he had truly angered the Fourth Prince.

This fourth prince really would kill someone when he got angry!
And angering the Fourth Prince would indeed have serious consequences.

"You arrogant and disrespectful lackey deserves to die!"

Nian Fu immediately knelt down, gritted his teeth and replied, and soon his forehead was covered in sweat.

After the people from the Infantry Commander's Office left, Nian Fu stood up, looked at Nian Xing's corpse, and couldn't help but murmur, "Fourth brother, it was your second brother who killed you!"

talking.

When he was young, tears streamed down his face.

At this moment, Nian An asked Nian Fu, "Second Master, what should we do now?"

"Take some men and prepare three times the amount of the gifts given to Longkodo! I need to take them to apologize to the Fourth Prince!"

Nianfu held back his tears and replied.

Nian An couldn't help but ask, "What about Fourth Master's corpse?"

"Don't worry about it for now!"

Nian Fu suddenly shouted angrily.

Then, Nian Fu flicked his sleeves and said, "If we had been a step too late, not only would I have been killed, but you would all have been killed too!"

Nian An then became nervous and hurriedly agreed to prepare.

"Wait!"

Nian Fu called out to Nian An.

Nian An turned around: "Does Second Master have any further instructions?"

After hesitating for a moment, Nian Fu gritted his teeth and ordered, "Pack up the 'Five Oxen' painting in my study and add it to the gift list."

“That was your favorite, Second Master.”

Nian An was greatly alarmed.

"If we don't calm the Fourth Prince down, we'll lose our lives. Why worry about anything else!"

Nianfu looked impatient.

"Whoo!"

……

……

An hour later.

Outside the main hall of the Infantry Commander's Office.

Nian Fu is kneeling here, holding up the gift list.

In June, the capital city is always so hot that you could fry an egg on the floor.

On this day, the sky was cloudless, and the dazzling light seemed to ignite the earth.

At this moment, Nianfu felt as if he were kneeling on a fire, his skin almost burning.

But he persevered through gritted teeth.

He let the beads of sweat, the size of soybeans, fall from his forehead.

Hongli was sitting in the back hall, leisurely eating watermelon slices brought by Aqitu, enjoying the cool breeze brought by Haha Zhuzi beside him, without any intention of inviting him in.

If goodwill is not respected.

Then he can only use ruthlessness to maintain the dignity of goodwill.

He also knew that the more principled and firm he was when necessary, the more Yongzheng would appreciate him.

So, only when Nianfu was scorched by the blazing sun outside did Hongli say, "Let him go back!"

Li Yu, who was waiting there, was taken aback.

But having followed Hongli for so long, he also knew Hongli's rules, which was that unless one had a clear idea, one could not question his instructions.

"Whoo!"

After Li Yu responded, he went to relay the message to Nian Fu.

Nian Fu was greatly surprised after hearing this.

He hadn't expected that despite his sincerity, the Fourth Prince would refuse to see him.

The fire in Nianfu's heart was as scorching as the blazing sun, and he clenched his fists, his jaw trembling.

But he held back and gritted his teeth as he replied, "Yes, sir!"

Then, Nian Fu rushed back.

But as soon as he returned, he met Nian Xialing, who had rushed over from the Nian family ancestral home upon hearing the news, and couldn't help but bow and say, "Grandpa!"

"Fourth Master hasn't seen you?"

Wearing an imperial dragon robe bestowed upon him by the emperor, Nian Xialing leaned on a cane under the eaves, his brow furrowed.

When he met Fu and he returned with gifts, he asked this question.

Nian Fu nodded: "He made his grandson kneel outside for most of the hour, but refused to see him. Then he made his grandson come back."

"So, you came back?"

Nian Xialing asked with a displeased expression.

Nian Fu hurriedly defended himself, "He wants his grandson back!"

“He wants you to come back, so you come back! Why weren’t you so obedient before?” Nian Xialing glared at Nian Fu and pointed her cane at him.

Nian Fu opened his mouth as if to speak, but didn't know how to answer.

"Fourth Master is trying to wear down your arrogance and put on a show for His Majesty and the Imperial Concubine. Even if he lets you leave, you should kneel outside the yamen until he is willing to see you!"

"You've already killed your fourth brother, are you going to kill the whole family too?!"

"Go back immediately and kneel outside the yamen. It's better to kneel until you die than to let him petition for your execution on charges of disrespect!"

As Nian Xialing spoke, he pointed outside with his cane and gave instructions.

Nian Fu had no choice but to grit his teeth and turn away.

Nian Xialing sighed: "Just like his father, he's a constant worry!"

This time, Nian Fu actually knelt down outside the Infantry Commander's office.

He knelt until sunset, and after he fainted, passersby inquired about the incident. Only then did Hongli have him carried inside and given medicine to relieve the heat.

When Nian Fu woke up, he found himself in a dark room in the Infantry Commander's Office. Hongli was standing in front of him, but with his back to him and his hands on the table, admiring his painting "Five Oxen".

Nian Fu hurriedly got off the bed and knelt before Hongli: "Fourth Master, this servant is guilty!"

"Not crazy anymore?"

"You know who you are now?"

"Trying to put on airs with me? Do you even have the ability to do so?"

Hongli sneered and then asked him a question.

Nian Fu said, "This servant dares not."

Do you know where you went wrong?

Hongli still had his back to him, and only asked one more question in a low voice.

Nianfu replied, “My fault lies in not going to thank the Fourth Prince when I knew that my father was able to continue serving as a general in Hangzhou because the Fourth Prince pleaded for him; my fault lies in preferring to curry favor with Longkodo rather than showing goodwill to the Fourth Prince, thus taking advantage of his kindness; my fault lies in stubbornly refusing to go to apologize when I knew that my younger brother had disobeyed the Fourth Prince and that the Fourth Prince had shown leniency by only sending me to apologize!”

"Looks like you're not confused after all!"

Hongli replied coldly.

"You arrogant and disobedient lackey deserves to die ten thousand times!"

“But this matter only concerns the servant, and has nothing to do with Mafa, Amma, or the other members of the family.”

"Please, Fourth Master, have mercy and forgive my family."

The young man returned home.

Hongli snorted: "Now you're starting to worry about implicating your family?"

Nian Fu continued, "Fourth Master is right to rebuke me. I was drunk and lost my mind, which led my family into danger. If my family dies because of me, even if I go to the eighteenth level of hell, I will not be able to forgive myself!"

At this point, Nian Fu completely broke down, and tears streamed down his face.

Hongli had completely shattered his arrogance in front of him, leaving him with only endless guilt towards his family and unease about the family's fate.

“Your grandfather has already gone to the palace to request an audience with the Khan.”

"For the sake of your grandfather, Consort Dun, and your eighth brother, I will accept your apology."

I hope you will turn over a new leaf.

At this point, Hongli's tone softened.

But as he spoke, Hongli looked at Nianfu and said, "If you don't stop now, even if I don't punish you, Heaven will punish you!"

At this point, Hongli simply said, "Let him go back!"

"This servant kowtows to express his deepest gratitude to Fourth Master!"

Hongli glanced back at the trembling Nianfu and couldn't help but smile slightly.

He didn't know if Nian Fu would guess that he and Yongzheng actually had no intention of letting him go.

Now, he and Yongzheng are giving Nian Xialing face, but it's just a ploy to lure him in, and they're only blaming the elimination of Nian Gengyao and Nian Fu on officials who hate the Nian faction.

The reason he and Yongzheng did not intend to let Nian Gengyao and Nian Fu go was not because they were so arrogant, but mainly because their initial disloyalty and deliberate choice of the wrong side showed that their political intelligence was too low, which touched the sore spot of the current emperor and the future emperor.

If such a person does not die, he will serve as a model for other disloyal people.

As the saying goes, the government must be reformed!

What is the imperial court?

Nature dictates that those who obey me will prosper, and those who defy me will perish.

Nian Gengyao was soon dismissed from his post as General of Hangzhou by Yongzheng on July 27th of the third year of Yongzheng's reign, and demoted to a sinecure guarding the Qingchun Gate, the east gate of Hangzhou.

The direct reason was that Nian Gengyao's memorial only reported the date of his appointment without expressing any gratitude.

The fundamental reason was that, according to a secret report from a southern official, after Nian Gengyao took office in Hangzhou, he "still had the air of a great general," and he still had more than a thousand followers, requiring more than a hundred additional houses to accommodate them.

Clearly, even at this point, Nian Gengyao had not realized that he could not forget to have reverence for the emperor just because the emperor was lenient. In addition, his two sons were not behaving well in the capital, which led Yongzheng to once again make the punishment more severe.

Upon receiving this imperial edict, Nian Gengyao was even more shocked than when he learned that his son, Nian Xing, had been executed for disrespecting Hongli.

Shocked, Nian Gengyao was also suddenly filled with anger.

"Either give me a quick death, kill me or torture me, why are you nitpicking and trying to demote me like this?"

"Is it that you can't bear to kill me, or that you don't want to bear the infamy of killing a former general like me?"

As a result, Nian Gengyao lost his temper in front of his confidant, Wang Jingqi.

Wang Jingqi advised, "Master, please calm down. Perhaps the Emperor intends for us to be unable to guess his thoughts, but it seems that our Emperor is indeed difficult to serve!"

After daring to speak his mind, Wang Jingqi sighed, but in the end, he still didn't directly say that Yongzheng was insidious and mean.

However, Nian Gengyao understood his meaning and shared the same sentiment, saying:

"It's not as good as the Fourth Prince, who simply requested an imperial decree to kill my son because he angered him! I, Nian Gengyao, will not blame the Fourth Prince for this; I only blame myself for failing to properly educate my son, which led to his unfortunate end!"

"What Dongweng said is true. The Fourth Prince, who is both benevolent and ruthless when necessary, should be respected. On the contrary, the Emperor, who is either pretentious and reluctant or hesitant and timid, is someone we should wait and see."

"Because it's hard to say. He really doesn't dare to kill the old man, nor will he kill the old man. He's just giving the old man a warning, like a master training his dog. He won't actually kill and eat his dog. The emperor might still consider you one of his own."

Wang Jingqi felt that he understood Yongzheng's thoughts very well, and he also felt that he was a very competent and loyal advisor.

After all, even though Nian Gengyao had reached this point, he hadn't left him and was still giving him advice.

Nian Gengyao nodded: "The Fourth Prince's birthday is coming soon, so I need to prepare another generous gift. That way, even if I can't get the Fourth Prince to accept me, I can at least know that I didn't dare to resent him because of my son's death."

"Your Excellency's insight is brilliant!"

One day in August of the third year of the Yongzheng Emperor's reign, after receiving a private letter from Nian Gengyao, Hongli handed the letter to the emperor: "Father, Nian Gengyao still underestimates you! He mistakes your kindness for weakness!"

(End of this chapter)