My father is Yongzheng, and I am Qianlong?

Chapter 226 Showdown and Public Trial!
"Your son thanks Your Majesty for your great kindness!"

Hongli quickly bowed.

Yongzheng smiled and then asked him, "What do you think should be done with this father and son?"

“Third Uncle has always been very respectful to you, Father, and it’s hard to find fault with him. But he just dotes on his son too much, so it’s best to separate them first.”

Hongli replied.

Yongzheng then asked, "How should it be divided?"

"Your subject believes that we should strictly confine my cousin Hongsheng, adopt him as my tenth uncle's son, and let my tenth uncle keep an eye on him."

"Because this cousin Hongsheng does indeed have clear evidence of soliciting bribes."

Hongli replied.

Yongzheng asked, "Evidence of the crime of soliciting bribes?"

Hongli nodded: "Didn't Longkodo hand over a ledger of his own bribes to me? It just so happens that I sent people to investigate and found that Su Keji, the governor of Shanxi who had a lot of contact with Hongsheng, was also on Longkodo's ledger. Therefore, I had Su Keji hand over the evidence of Hongsheng soliciting bribes from him."

Upon hearing this, Yongzheng frowned: "Since there is evidence of his crimes, why wasn't it handed over immediately?"

"Your subject intends to hand it over only when Father is willing to punish Third Uncle, so as to avoid any suspicion of using this to exclude Third Uncle and disregarding the overall situation."

Hongli replied.

Yongzheng nodded, then asked, "Why did you have your tenth uncle look after Hongsheng?"

"Although Uncle Shi was tricked by Uncle Ba once, he still cares about Uncle Ba and still has contact with Uncle Ba's henchmen. Therefore, ever since Uncle Shi learned that Uncle San planned to use Father to kill Uncle Ba, he has been very willing to control Uncle San and deal with his people."

"Therefore, if we let Uncle Ten keep an eye on Hongsheng, he will definitely not hold back!"

"This way, we can take advantage of the fact that Third Uncle and Tenth Uncle don't get along, and make them check and balance each other. As long as Third Uncle is not honest, we can secretly allow Tenth Uncle to take stricter control measures against Hongsheng; and if Tenth Uncle is not honest, we can continue to force Third Uncle to deal with Tenth Uncle."

“In this way, Father, Uncle Thirteen, and Uncle Sixteen can continue to focus on implementing the new policies without worrying about Uncle Three and Uncle Ten joining forces to oppose them.”

Hongli replied.

Emperor Yongzheng nodded with satisfaction.

To his relief, Hongli did not consider befriending the Eighth Prince's faction, such as the Tenth Prince, on one hand, and the former Crown Prince's faction, such as the Third Prince, on the other, so that the two factions could merge into a more powerful new Fourth Prince's faction, which would threaten his imperial power and even affect the overall implementation of the new policies.

"You are able to consider the overall situation of implementing the new policies at any time, rather than just contacting your uncles for temporary power. This shows that you understand what is important and what is not."

Yongzheng then smiled and spoke to Hongli, saying, "I will follow your suggestion. You should first go to see your thirteenth uncle and give him the evidence you know about Hongsheng's crimes. I will then summon your tenth uncle and discuss this matter with him."

"Whoo!"

Hongli then returned to the Qianxi Second Palace and took the evidence of crimes handed over by Su Keji, the governor of Shanxi, to Prince Yi's residence, where he gave it to the thirteenth prince.

After examining the evidence, the thirteenth prince asked Hongli, "So, Fourth Brother agrees to deal with Hongsheng?"

Hongli nodded: "Father said that both father and son are wicked people."

"Fourth Brother is absolutely right!"

Hongli knew that the thirteenth prince had always been most dissatisfied with the third prince, so he was not surprised that the thirteenth prince agreed with the fourth prince's point of view, and simply smiled.

The thirteenth prince then said, "Now that we have this evidence, I will arrange for someone to impeach Hong Sheng."

"Then I'll have to trouble you, Uncle Thirteen."

Emperor Hongli bowed in gratitude.

The thirteenth prince waved his hand: "It's no trouble at all. I'll do anything to make Yunzhi suffer!"

The third prince, Yunzhi, also prepared to visit Yongzheng shortly after Hongli left.

As Yongzheng had previously told Hongli, the third prince had already asked Yongzheng to grant the Cao family to serve as bondservants in his princely residence, and to take care of the family of his second son, Hongsheng.

The reason is that Hongsheng still has no sons and needs to have a princess by his side.

Since the goal is to add more princesses, it would be better to have those of bondservant status.

However, Emperor Yongzheng neither explicitly agreed nor explicitly refused.

Therefore, the third prince felt that Yongzheng was still unwilling to give him the Cao family because he thought that it wasn't enough for Yongzheng to have helped him bring down many of the Eighth Prince's faction members and make them hand over many banners; Yongzheng wanted him to offer even bigger bargaining chips. Therefore, the third prince prepared new bargaining chips.

As Hongsheng saw his third son off from the palace, he said to him, "Father, since Fourth Uncle is so unappealing, will it be useless for us to offer too many bargaining chips, and will he just keep us hanging on?"

The third brother said, "It's just the Cao family. It's not like they're going to keep us hanging like this forever. You should watch your words. Your fourth uncle is the emperor after all. It's one thing for you to criticize your fourth uncle like this in front of me, but if you do it like this outside, I can't save you."

"My son knows his limits and won't talk nonsense outside."

Hong Sheng replied.

The third brother nodded.

Next, the third prince met with Yongzheng and said to him, "Hongsheng told me that he had reported to Your Majesty about the eunuchs around the fourteenth prince going out without permission."

Emperor Yongzheng nodded: "That is indeed the case."

The third prince said, "Your Majesty should take this matter seriously. In any case, the fourteenth prince was once a Grand General and has a very high reputation among the Manchu and Mongol Eight Banners."

"Then, in Third Brother's opinion, what should we do?"

Yongzheng asked.

The third brother cupped his hands and said, "As long as the fourteenth brother's command is withdrawn into the public domain, we can rest assured."

Since the third prince took the initiative to say this, it was tantamount to indicating that he was willing to assist Yongzheng in forcing the fourteenth prince to hand over all the military posts.

Yongzheng simply nodded.

The third prince then asked Yongzheng, "I wonder, what is Your Majesty's opinion on my previous request to grant the Cao family of Jiangning Textile Commissioner?"

“I wanted to tell you, Third Brother, but I was afraid you would be disappointed, so I didn’t tell you. I actually gave him to Hongli ahead of time. After all, Hongli now has an heir and two princesses are pregnant, so he needs servants to take care of him.”

Yongzheng said.

The third brother was struck dumb upon hearing this, and froze on the spot.

When he returned and told Hongsheng what had happened, Hongsheng's face immediately turned ashen, filled with utter disappointment: "How could this happen!"

"Without the Cao family, we won't be able to repay the money we borrowed."

The third brother sighed.

After thinking for a while, Hongsheng said to his third son, "I remember now. When I met Fupeng recently, I gave him some hints. Now that I think about it, Fupeng's expression at the time seemed very strange. It seems that he must have known the news in advance. I wonder who told him."

The third brother smiled and said, "Who else could it be?"

"Fourth uncle?"

Hong Sheng asked.

The third brother nodded and sighed, "There's no other way now but to ask Hongli for money. Someone has to pay for the money we spent on those scholars!"

"But Hongli didn't want to, did he?"

Hong Sheng asked.

The third brother's face darkened: "He has no choice but to agree, unless he wants to be an enemy of us and all the officials and gentry!"

Hong Sheng sneered after hearing this: "Fine, then we'll find Hong Li!"

"By imperial decree, Prince Xuancheng and his son Hongsheng are to enter the palace for an audience!"

However, the third son and Hongsheng did not expect that Yongzheng would suddenly summon them at this time, so they went to the palace together.

Upon entering the palace, they saw that the fifth, tenth, thirteenth, fourteenth, twelfth, sixteenth, and seventeenth princes, as well as Hongli, Hongzhou, and other nephews, along with ministers such as Ma Qi and Longkeduo, and Han official Zhang Tingyu, were all with Emperor Yongzheng.

This made the third brother and Hongsheng feel uneasy.

At this moment, Yongzheng said with a stern face: "In addition to the princes and ministers of the Council of State, I have summoned my brothers, the tenth, twelfth, and fourteenth princes, as well as my nephews, Hongli and Hongzhou, and Prince Cheng, so that you may know how fierce, unruly, rebellious, and reckless Prince Cheng's son, Hongsheng, is!"

The third brother and Hongsheng were immediately shocked.

(End of this chapter)