My father is Yongzheng, and I am Qianlong?

Chapter 173 Please execute Prince Lian!
Hongli smiled slightly.

He could tell that because of the changes in the sixteenth prince, Yongzheng was less wary of the eighth prince.

However, the conflict between the two had accumulated over time, making a complete reconciliation impossible.

After all, the two had fundamental differences in their routes and each had their own principles.

Hongli only hoped that this conflict would not seriously affect his future.

However, he had to admit that Yongzheng was indeed a staunch reformer. Taking advantage of the Eighth Prince's willingness to bear the consequences, he simply adopted the strictest reduction strategy.

This will undoubtedly cause a lot of complaints and trouble among the Manchu officials who are just filling positions without working or receiving salaries.

Sure enough, just after Hongli finished his apprenticeship in the Hall of Mental Cultivation, Lai Bao, the Grand Minister of the Imperial Household Department, sought him out because he could see Hongli.

Because of his good performance as a first-class imperial guard at the Imperial Guard, Lai Bao was promoted to Minister of the Imperial Household Department when Hongli left the capital.

As soon as Lai Bao saw him, he brought up the matter: "Fourth Master, this servant had no other choice but to come and report this to you."

“Now that each commander in the capital is only keeping fifty guards, my family members have all come to me crying and saying that this is making it impossible for them to make a living.”

"What do you think this servant should do?"

Hongli knew that many Manchus were living paycheck to paycheck, and that a sudden loss of income would be difficult for them, forcing them to sell their property. So he took a sip of tea and chuckled.
"If you had known this would happen, you wouldn't have done it in the first place. Your family members are having a hard time making a living. When you decided to only cut the number of Huntohe cavalry, did you ever think about whether they would have a hard time making a living?"

"This one……"

Lai Bao was speechless for a moment.

Hongli continued, “You are all Khan’s own people, how come you don’t understand Khan’s difficulties in reducing the number of employees? You actually followed Uncle Ba and came up with a strategy that seems to please Khan, but in reality it’s just to make yourselves comfortable and make Khan get scolded.”

After hearing this, Lai Bao gritted his teeth and said even more earnestly, "You are right! This servant was foolish and did not think of this. I only thought that not letting His Majesty suffer was the greatest loyalty! But I forgot that His Majesty is a wise and diligent ruler. His greatest grievance is not that he has lost his official title, but that the Qing Dynasty cannot become more prosperous."

"Why didn't this servant understand back then?"

"This servant truly deserves to die!"

Lai Bao then began to kowtow.

Hongli said calmly, "Since you know you're wrong, you should apologize and admit your mistake. As for the trouble caused by your family members, explain things clearly so they can blame the people who misled you instead of you."

"This……"

Lai Bao never expected that Hongli would want him to direct the anger of his subordinates towards the Eighth Prince.

Hongli said, "What, are you afraid of offending your Eighth Uncle?"

"It's not that I'm afraid of offending Prince Lian, but I feel that Prince Lian is, after all, His Majesty's younger brother, and we should consider his feelings."

Laibao replied.

Hongli smiled and said, "This is what you don't understand. You are a servant. Whether you give face to someone depends on whether your master wants you to give face to someone. Do you understand?"

Hongli then added, "As the Grand Minister of the Imperial Household Department, the more you worry about this and that, the more uneasy people become."

Do you care how much your dog knows how to please others?

"Isn't the goal to make him yell as loudly as possible at outsiders?"

"At most, you might think he's gone too far. Even if you tie him up with a rope, kick him, or even beat him to death, there's no reason why he wouldn't be more aggressive, right?"

Hongli's words were quite clear; they were nothing more than encouraging Laibao to oppose the Eighth Prince.

Because only when these people oppose the Eighth Prince more fiercely will Yongzheng's self-conscious and uneasy heart feel more at ease, and he will not feel that not only his brothers and nephews are loyal to the Eighth Prince, but even his servants and confidants sympathize with and admire him.

Lai Bao thought about it and agreed that Hongli's description was correct, so he quickly kowtowed and said, "This servant understands, thank you for your guidance, Fourth Master!"

then.

When Lai Bao saw the Imperial Household Department family members who had been stripped of their vest qualifications, he immediately began to blame the Eighth Prince.

"This is all the fault of Prince Lian! I couldn't stop it!"

"If it weren't for Prince Lian, His Majesty wouldn't have intended to change it this way!"

"Because it was Prince Lian who first said that his six or seven captains could provide a single uniform without any problem, His Majesty, being so wise, naturally did not believe him and rejected his proposal, asking him to reconsider."

"He simply decided to allow only fifty cavalrymen to remain in Hunhe."

"But His Majesty made each Zuo Ling (military commander) wear fifty chariot armors in order to ensure fairness in the reduction."

Thus.

Many Manchu bannermen in the Imperial Household Department were the first to feel dissatisfied with the Eighth Prince.

"How could Prince Lian do things this way? Six or seven people only contributed one undergarment; that's not enough to support their families!"

"Let's go find Prince Lian and ask him if he really wants us to starve to death!"

"That's right, I should also ask Prince Lian if he's forgotten whose milk he drank to grow up like this!"

However, this also led these people to decide to cause trouble at Prince Lian's residence.

After all, many of the family members from the Imperial Household Department who came to Bao had served the late Emperor and Empress Dowager, and many of them had even been wet nurses or nannies to the princes of the Kangxi Emperor.

Therefore, although they were called household slaves, the princes of Kangxi actually had to give them some face.

These people actually dared to cause trouble, and they even led other princes' armored bannermen to join in, all heading towards Prince Lian's residence.

Lai Bao soon learned about this from his family, but he ignored it.

Like Tong Laibao, Changming and Li Yanxi also ignored it and did not inform Hongli and Yongzheng in time.

Upon learning of this, the sixteenth prince immediately came to see Hongli: "Something has happened."

"Sixteenth Uncle, what happened?"

Seeing his serious expression, Hongli perked up and took the initiative to ask about the sixteenth prince.

The sixteenth prince informed Hongli about the incident where members of the Imperial Household Department caused trouble at Prince Lian's residence.

Hongli asked the sixteenth prince, "So what does Sixteenth Uncle plan to do?"

“Of course I’ll tell Fourth Brother immediately, but he’s on his way to the Chantan Temple for a pilgrimage, so how can I disturb him? I plan to go tomorrow,” the Sixteenth Brother replied.

Hongli said, “We must go as soon as possible, even if we can’t disturb them! Although Father wants everyone to vent their anger about cutting back on the vests on Eighth Uncle, Sixteenth Uncle, you must let Father know that you support the reform, instead of just sitting by and watching things escalate and prevent the reform from being carried out. If you wait too long, Father will think that you are not taking it seriously.”

The sixteenth brother nodded after hearing this: "Then I'll go right away."

Let’s talk about it.

Yongzheng was preparing to visit the Chantan Temple, but at that time, he received a request from the Eighth Prince and decided to meet with him.

He thought that Lao Ba was probably referring to his uncle's family's recent request to be incorporated into his command of the Zuo Ling (a military unit).

However, when the Eighth Prince went to see Yongzheng, he saw people from the Imperial Household Department causing trouble at his residence.

“Prince Lian, you have also been in charge of the Imperial Household Department, so you should know that the situation of our Imperial Household Department commanders is special. Why did you make us the same as the commanders outside from the beginning?”

"Yes, Prince Lian, although you are no longer in the Upper Three Banners, you were once our Eighth Prince. You can't turn around and treat us like this!"

"Can you really bear to see us servants work so hard, only to end up worse off than before?"

But the Eighth Prince was not angry, nor did he order his guards to arrest these people, nor did he report to the Infantry Commander's Office. He only ordered his guards to drive these people away when Yongzheng came to see him.

As soon as Yongzheng saw the Eighth Prince, he asked him, "Is anyone causing trouble?"

Old Eight replied, "I've never heard of it."

"You came because of your uncle?"

"Yes, please grant permission, Your Majesty, Fourth Brother."

"Prince Zhuang has arrived!"

But then, Su Peisheng's voice came from outside.

As soon as Su Peisheng finished shouting, Yongzheng's sixteenth son arrived outside the Buddhist hall where Yongzheng was and called out to him, "Fourth brother, just as you predicted, someone really went to Eighth brother's residence to cause trouble!"

Yongzheng was taken aback upon hearing this and glared at the Eighth Prince.

Lao Ba was also stunned.

"What's the matter?!"

After asking the eighth prince a question, Yongzheng called out, "Sixteenth brother, come in!"

The sixteenth brother walked in: "Fourth Brother!"

"What's going on? Who went to the Eighth Prince's residence to cause trouble?"

Yongzheng inquired about the sixteenth prince.

The sixteenth prince replied, "Those people from the Imperial Household Department, and other officers! They want to speak with the Eighth Prince."

Yongzheng said, "But your eighth brother said no one is causing trouble."

After hearing this, the sixteenth prince looked at the eighth prince, then immediately bowed his head and said righteously, "That Prince Lian should be executed!"

Yongzheng then looked at Prince Lian, the Eighth Prince: "Eighth Prince, tell me the truth, do you know about this?"

"I lied, but I was afraid that Your Majesty would be furious and would imprison and execute them on charges of causing trouble and rebellion."

The eighth brother explained, then glared fiercely at the sixteenth brother.

"Don't look at Sixteenth Brother like that. His timely report is a testament to his honesty and loyalty!"

"Unlike you, who are self-righteous and harbor treacherous intentions, deliberately making it seem as if they were spared punishment because of your forbearance."

"You really never forget to win people's hearts and gain fame!"

Emperor Yongzheng reprimanded the Eighth Prince with a stern face.

Lao Ba puffed up his cheeks.

Then, the eighth prince spoke up, saying, "Your Majesty is right to criticize us, but now that things have come to this point, in order to avoid the situation from getting worse, it would be better to withdraw the order and renegotiate a new reduction strategy."

"Don't think about it!"

Yongzheng chuckled coldly, then instructed Zhang Tingyu, the official accompanying him, "Hengchen, draft an edict ordering the Sixteenth Prince to lead troops to Prince Lian's residence and clearly tell those troublemakers that it is a prince's residence, how dare they enter and make a scene? Moreover, the Empress Dowager is inside, how can they be disturbed? Tell them to disperse immediately, or they will be arrested!"

"If it cannot be locked up, then it will be protected and the true Dharma will be constantly illuminated."

"These two lackeys can't even control their own families, nor do they report in time. They're clearly deliberately trying to make things escalate, so that the plan to reduce their numbers can be abandoned!"

"Whoo!"

After Yongzheng said this, the sixteenth prince quickly agreed and breathed a sigh of relief.

Because he had to admit that Hongli Ci was indeed the one who understood Yongzheng best, knowing that Yongzheng wanted everyone to hate the Eighth Prince, but at the same time he wanted only him to protect the Eighth Prince!

The sixteenth prince immediately dispatched troops to Prince Lian's residence, and also sent people to bring Lai Bao and Chang Ming to him, and announced the imperial edict.

But soon, after arriving at Prince Lian's residence, the sixteenth prince learned that these people who had caused trouble at Prince Lian's residence, instigated by someone, had gone to the home of Li Yanxi, the Grand Minister of the Imperial Household Department, and had even made a zero-yuan purchase at Li Yanxi's home.

Upon hearing the news, Infantry Commander Azitu had already arrested about forty people.

The sixteenth brother looked at Lai Bao and Chang Ming, who had been brought before him, and said, "You've caused a huge disaster."

Then, the sixteenth prince added, "Of course, I, as the prince in charge of the Imperial Household Department, also bear responsibility for not warning you ministers!"

The eighth brother, who had also rushed back with the sixteenth brother, said after hearing what the sixteenth brother said, "Forget it, I was the one who instigated and directed these people. It has nothing to do with Lai Bao and Chang Ming!"

Lai Bao and Chang Ming, who were terrified, looked at Lao Ba as if he were their savior.

They believed that Emperor Yongzheng, who had always disliked the Eighth Prince, would believe that the Eighth Prince had instigated it, and they were all pleasantly surprised by the Eighth Prince's willingness to take the blame.

But instead of being grateful to the Eighth Prince, the Sixteenth Prince scolded, "Eighth Brother! What kind of wise prince are you pretending to be here! No matter how Fourth Brother deals with them, it's all to protect the dignity of your prince and your mother. Instead of being grateful, you take the blame yourself, making them think that Fourth Brother didn't punish them because you took the blame."

"What benefits did they give you that made you so disloyal and unfilial!"

Lai Bao then realized what was going on and remembered Hongli's words: "That's right! There's no need for you, Prince Lian, to pretend to be kind. Not everyone is like you, harboring malice and not taking His Majesty seriously!"

(End of this chapter)