My father is Yongzheng, and I am Qianlong?

Chapter 179 The Eighth Prince's Wife
Hongli's words, "Hongshi has always had a very good relationship with the Eighth Prince," made Yongzheng's expression instantly turn even more unpleasant.

This made Yongzheng feel even worse than when he heard the news that the Eighth Prince had killed the Ninety-Sixth Guard.

When Hongli mentioned that the Ninth Prince had helped the Eighth Prince use secret techniques to contact Western missionaries, it further solidified Yongzheng's resolve, as he had always been wary of the imperial family coming into contact with Western religions.

"I have also heard that he has been drinking heavily lately and often expresses resentment. So, I will also place Hongshi under house arrest."

Yongzheng then replied.

Hongli was secretly delighted.

By stepping on Hongshi, he effectively cut off Hongshi's chance to contact the outside world. Only when he became emperor would he show Hongshi mercy under the pretext of easing conflicts within the imperial clan.

Of course, this is on the premise that Hongshi was still alive at that time.

However, Hongli did not want Hongshi to be imprisoned with Lao Ba, so that Hongshi could not feel too lonely while imprisoned because of his good relationship with Lao Ba, and Lao Ba could continue to influence Hongshi, making Hongshi's reflection not thorough enough.

If loneliness is a form of punishment.

Therefore, the more severe the punishment, the more effective the deterrent effect.

Taking advantage of Yongzheng's wariness of Hongshi's close relationship with the Eighth Prince, Hongli suggested, "I have thought about it and I think it is not advisable for the Eighth Uncle and my cousin to be imprisoned together, lest the longer my cousin is imprisoned under the Eighth Uncle's sweet words and flattery, the less he will understand why he is imprisoned."

"rational!"

Yongzheng nodded: "I did not intend to confine the two of them together, but to have someone else look after Hongshi."

Then Yongzheng asked Hongli, "If he is imprisoned, who should guard him?"

Hongli knew that in history, Hongshi was eventually handed over to the twelfth prince for safekeeping because the twelfth prince was dutiful. After pretending to think for a moment, he continued to copy the answer from history and said: "It is appropriate to hand him over to the twelfth uncle, because when it comes to dutifulness, no one knows better than the twelfth uncle how to protect himself."

"The twelfth brother?"

Yongzheng nodded with satisfaction.

Originally, Hongli suggested that Hongshi also be imprisoned, which made him realize that Hongli was also heartless towards Hongshi.

But now, hearing what Hongli said, he could tell that Hongli really wanted Hongshi to change and wanted to protect Hongshi.

This made Yongzheng instinctively feel somewhat gratified.

Because he still wanted to see Hongli give Hongshi a chance.

"Great! We'll do it your way!"

Yongzheng then replied with this sentence.

The sixteenth prince also looked at Hongli with emotion.

Hongli suggested handing Hongshi over to the twelfth prince, which made the sixteenth prince feel that Hongli was considering Hongshi's future and also the eighth prince's future.

Even the sixteenth prince believed that the current fate of the eighth prince and Hongshi was largely due to their close relationship and deep mutual influence, which made Yongzheng wary and Hongli uneasy.

“Hongli, do you think if we had prevented your eighth uncle and Hongshi from having any contact earlier, so many things wouldn’t have happened, such as Hongshi being adopted and your eighth uncle killing his own guard?”

When leaving the Hall of Mental Cultivation, the sixteenth prince took the initiative to ask about Hongli.

Hongli rubbed his hands, smiled at the sixteenth prince, and said, "But in the beginning, no one had any reason to prevent the uncle and nephew from contacting each other, not even the Khan."

Old Sixteen nodded.

"In my humble opinion, as long as there is a lack of consensus, even family members will inevitably have conflicts. Conflicts will lead to struggles, and struggles will lead to rewards and punishments."

"Sometimes, when the head of the family disciplines his family members in a strict way to ensure that everyone in the family has the same understanding, it is also for the sake of family harmony. It is a great act of benevolence and love, because only by first unifying understanding and goals can brothers and fathers and sons work together, thereby prospering the family business and living in harmony."

At this point, Hongli placed his hands on his abdomen and pursed his lips slightly.

Old Sixteen stopped in his tracks.

Hongli stopped and looked at the sixteenth prince, waiting for him to speak.

At this moment, the sixteenth brother suddenly smiled and said, "You're right."

"Actually, when you first asked Fourth Brother to also imprison Hongshi, Sixteenth Uncle didn't quite understand, but now that you've said this, Sixteenth Uncle completely understands."

"More importantly, your sixteenth uncle now understands my fourth brother even better."

The sixteenth brother let out a long sigh.

He clearly didn't understand Yongzheng because of his suspicion of the Eighth Prince and the matter of targeting the Eighth Prince.

But now that Hongli has said this, the sixteenth prince has finally understood and is naturally in a great mood.

Hongli also smiled.

The fourth year of the Yongzheng Emperor's reign, the first month, the day of Jia-Shen.

The Imperial Clan Court then impeached Prince Lian, Yunsi, for the matter of the death of the 96th guard by the 8th prince. The court stated that the 96th guard had disobeyed the prince's orders and had been beaten to death. The eunuch Yan Jin had covered up the matter on the prince's behalf and was rewarded with a large sum of money and clothing.

Therefore, the Imperial Clan Court believed that Yinzhi's abuse of power over life and death was extremely rebellious, and that Yinzhi should be stripped of his title as a prince and placed under strict confinement; his subordinate officers should be removed from the government and placed in public office.

Therefore, the Imperial Clan Court received the following decree:

Yinzhi was stripped of his title of Prince and imprisoned in the Imperial Clan Court, and his subordinate officers were given to Hongwang; however, the ninety-six clan officers were not to be retained under his command and were to be transferred to the public office.

Furthermore, since Hongshi has already been adopted by Yunsi as his son, he should have advised his father more. Instead, he indulged in drinking and even made many slanderous and resentful remarks. He should be confined and placed under the supervision of Prince Yuntao in his residence.

Yinzhi's actions today are all due to his ulterior motives and his unrepentant attitude. However, Yinzhi's arbitrary and unruly behavior may not necessarily have been caused by his wife's instigation.

After Hongshi was adopted, he became increasingly arrogant and unrestrained, which was also related to Yunsi's wife's failure to fulfill her duties as a mother. On the day she returned to the mansion, she slandered the emperor and father in front of Hongshi and deliberately instigated him!
The late emperor once visited the Qianqing Gate and issued a special edict stating: "Yinsi's wife is cruel and has been influenced by the evil and disorderly habits of his maternal family, Prince An, which almost led to Yinsi's extinction. His wife was terrified when she heard this, so she allowed Yinsi to take in one or two maids, and they only had one son and one daughter."

I had repeatedly issued stern edicts to Yinzhi's wife and instructed the Empress to personally guide her, instructing her to advise Yinzhi, be grateful for my kindness, and serve me wholeheartedly. However, despite my repeated admonitions, Yinzhi and his wife showed no gratitude whatsoever.

Yinzhi's wife can be described as extremely unchaste, and Yinzhi is afraid of her. Now, Yinzhi's wife is violent and cruel, and still bullies her husband.

Furthermore, because the punishment of her mother's family was not announced, she instigated her husband, leading to extreme chaos and disorder.

Therefore, Yunsi's wife should not remain in Yunsi's house, lest she further damage his household.

According to past precedents, his wife should be dismissed, and he should be sent back to his maternal home. An imperial decree should be issued to provide his maternal family with several rooms to live in, and they should be strictly guarded to prevent them from secretly communicating.

The emperor also issued an edict to Yinzhi: "If, because of the banishment of his wife, he harbors resentment and feigns illness to refuse to travel, his wife shall be executed, and his son shall also be severely punished."

This edict should be delivered to Yinzhi's wife in person.

Upon learning of this decree, Hongli was quite surprised. He took the imperial gazette containing the decree and went to a brighter spot outside the palace, where he clicked his tongue in amazement.

To his surprise, Yongzheng also dragged the Eighth Prince's wife into the mix.

Yongzheng's decision to imprison the Eighth Prince and Hongshi was not unexpected, as he had indeed facilitated the matter.

But he didn't expect that when Yongzheng was still writing his imperial edict, he took it upon himself to blame everything on the Eighth Prince's wife, stating in his imperial edict that the Eighth Prince's wife was to blame for the way Yinzhi and Hongshi were behaving.

Hongli was unsure whether Yongzheng was simply trying to save face for his son and brother by shifting the blame onto the Eighth Prince's wife, or whether he truly hated her to the core.

However, this was no longer important to Hongli.

Importantly, unlike in the original history, Yongzheng did not imprison the Eighth Prince only after the Ninth Prince secretly wrote to the Eighth Prince in the Northwest, expressing his regret for supporting Yongzheng's ascension to the throne, nor did he strip the Eighth Prince of his yellow sash and change his name to Aqina. Instead, he imprisoned the Eighth Prince as soon as he killed the guard Jiushiliu.

This shows that Emperor Yongzheng did not intend to wait for the Eighth Prince to make an even bigger mistake before punishing him.

Historically, Emperor Yongzheng used a cat-and-mouse game to deal with the eighth and ninth princes, just like he did with Nian Gengyao.

When Emperor Yongzheng initially dealt with the mistakes of the Eighth and Ninth Princes, he mainly reprimanded and criticized them. However, when he ordered the Imperial Clan Court to discuss their crimes, and the Imperial Clan Court requested that the Eighth Prince be imprisoned or stripped of his title, Emperor Yongzheng specially decreed that he be pardoned.

This led those around the Eighth Prince, like Nian Gengyao, to initially have the misconception that Yongzheng couldn't bring himself to be too ruthless, which made them even more unscrupulous, especially the Ninth Prince, who became increasingly arrogant.

It wasn't until Nian Gengyao was punished that those around the Eighth Prince realized that Yongzheng wasn't just incapable of being ruthless; he was not only killing him but also destroying his spirit.

Therefore, historically, after Nian Gengyao was killed, the ninth prince wrote a private letter to the eighth prince saying that he regretted supporting Yongzheng as emperor.

When the Eighth Prince killed the Ninth Sixth Guard, and the neutral faction in the court and the public felt that he should be restrained and that the Eighth Prince had indeed gone too far, Emperor Yongzheng still pardoned the Eighth Prince and did not punish him.

Historically, it was only a month after the Eighth Prince killed the Ninth Prince and the Emperor pardoned him that the Emperor suddenly stripped the Eighth Prince of his yellow sash, imprisoned him, and forced him to change his name. The Emperor did the same to the Ninth Prince.

This is like letting you off the hook at first, then suddenly catching you and torturing you to death, like a cat playing with a mouse.

The eighth brother was fine with this, and even took the initiative to name himself Aqina, while the ninth brother was completely bewildered by it.

At the same time, the entire court of princes and ministers were also very puzzled.

They could understand why Yongzheng imprisoned the Eighth Prince after the Ninety-Sixth Guard was beaten to death. After all, it was a matter of life and death, and the Ninety-Sixth Guard was a Manchu. Imprisoning the Eighth Prince could also be understood by many Manchus.

As the emperor, Yongzheng had to forgive his younger brother. He didn't punish the eighth prince for the death of the ninth prince, so they couldn't say anything. Instead, they stood up for an ordinary guard who had been killed.

However, Yongzheng suddenly changed his attitude and severely punished the Eighth and Ninth Princes just because of a private letter from the Ninth Prince, which was unacceptable to the princes and ministers of the court.

After all, the fact that Prince Xing makes you feel okay one moment and feel like you're about to be tortured to death the next means that Yongzheng was deliberately torturing the Eighth and Ninth Princes psychologically, making him seem even more cruel and ruthless.

As the saying goes, a scholar can be killed but not humiliated, let alone a brother.

The court officials and ministers found this method of handling the matter unacceptable.

However, in this life, Yongzheng did not do this. Instead, he imprisoned the Eighth Prince after the Eighth Prince killed the Ninety-Sixth Guard.

In Hongli's view, this was related to the fact that the Ninth Prince was placed under house arrest in advance, and even more so to the fact that his cooperation put Yongzheng at ease.

Because there was no ninth prince, even if the eighth prince was unwilling to offend princes and ministers for Yongzheng, he wouldn't go too far or go against Yongzheng too much. He would generally follow the rules and not anger Yongzheng too much.

Therefore, the plan was to make Yongzheng stop thinking about letting the Eighth Prince off the hook, and then give him a major turning point by continuing to torment him to death.

Furthermore, Yongzheng himself did receive considerable comfort from Hongli, knowing that he had sons and brothers who understood him, and therefore he was less intolerant of the Eighth Prince.

After receiving the decree that he was to be placed under house arrest, the Eighth Prince did not express any dissatisfaction. Instead, he accepted the decree respectfully and submitted a memorial to apologize, saying that he had indeed acted improperly while drunk.

Even though the Eighth Prince's wife did not feel indignant on behalf of the Eighth Prince, she just burst into tears, unable to accept that she was to be sent back to her parents' home and that she would not be able to communicate with the Eighth Prince.

This was even more unacceptable to her than Yongzheng's various accusations of her lack of virtue, even bringing up Kangxi as evidence, and even killing her.

On the contrary, Hongshi was very dissatisfied with Yongzheng's decree.

Because he was also to be imprisoned, and Yongzheng still blamed his mistakes on the Eighth Prince and his wife.

When the twelfth prince came to fetch Hongshi on imperial orders, Hongshi said to the twelfth prince while he was comforting him, "Uncle Twelfth, please pass on a message to Hongli and Hongzhou, saying that I did not have the care that an older brother should have for them back then, and I hope they can forgive me."

Old Twelfth nodded and asked, "I will pass on your message. Who else would you like to send a message to? I can help you with that too."

The twelfth prince wanted to ask if Hongshi wanted to tell Yongzheng something like that he had made a mistake.

(End of this chapter)