My father is Yongzheng, and I am Qianlong?

Chapter 231 Emperor Yongzheng bestows a generous reward; Jian wins the Emperor's favor!
"Your subject Hongli accepts the imperial edict and expresses his gratitude!"

After performing a grand ceremony behind the incense table, Emperor Hongli ordered someone to give Chen Shishun a reward.

Chen Shishun did not dare to put on airs in front of Hongli because he was a confidant of the Empress. Instead, he kowtowed to Hongli with great respect.

The princes and ministers were all amazed when they saw this.

"Her Majesty the Empress truly loves Hongli!"

"Yes, otherwise they wouldn't have made their niece Hongli's concubine!"

"I've heard that when Her Majesty the Empress was still the Fourth Prince's wife, she was already very familiar with the Emperor's intentions. Now that it seems that the Empress treats the Fourth Prince so well, it shows that His Majesty truly values ​​the Fourth Prince!"

……

When Hongli returned and said "excuse me," many of his peers and even older members of the imperial clan, who were not currently in official positions, became even more obsequious.

After all, Hongli was an adopted son whom even the Empress valued highly. Even Chen Shishun, the chief eunuch in charge of the Empress's household, was very humble in front of Hongli. How could they not try to please him?

Because, who knows, a gesture of flattery today might lead to a job or a title after Hongli ascends the throne in the future.

The Qing Dynasty's imperial clan system dictated that many princes and ministers had to become more worldly-wise.

Even though some minor squabbles occurred at the beginning of the banquet, none of the princes and ministers dared to cause trouble. They all remained very peaceful, avoiding offending Emperor Hongli by disrupting the atmosphere.

Many even began to regret that the gifts they gave were not substantial enough.

However, Hongli was still very polite to all these princes and ministers.

Whether they had power or not, they all fulfilled their due respects.

Even though the fifteenth prince, Yunwu, and the twentieth prince, Yunyi, did not yet have titles, Hongli greeted them with smiles, calling them "Fifteenth Uncle" and "Twentieth Uncle," and arranged for his personal servants to promptly serve them his treasured tea.

This led Yunwu, Yunyi, and other princes and ministers to praise Hongli highly, saying that even though he was the most favored prince in the Qing Dynasty, he had no arrogance or conceit.

These discussions and Hongli's performance soon reached Yongzheng's ears through various means.

This pleased Emperor Yongzheng greatly, and he said to the Empress, "It seems that I did not give Prince Yong's mansion to him in vain."

The Empress smiled slightly and said, "This is out of filial piety; he doesn't want you to worry about him."

After hearing this, Yongzheng nodded and ordered, "Issue an imperial decree to bestow 10,000 taels of silver upon the fourth prince, Hongli, and to grant the Li family, all bondservants of the Imperial Household Department, to serve as bondservants in his princely residence!"

Hongli did not expect that he would receive such a generous reward from Yongzheng, and he did indeed hope that Yongzheng could focus more on the new policies.

However, he was not only peaceful and humble towards these princes and ministers, but also secretly remained vigilant against them.

Now that he has his own royal residence, he will naturally have his own princely officials.

Among the prince's officials, the most important were the chief secretary and the master of ceremonies.

Here, the chief secretary, who was in charge of all affairs of the prince's residence, was usually a Manchu. If he was lucky, he would usually be promoted to deputy commander.

The master of ceremonies was responsible for the documents, etiquette, and archives of the Prince's residence. He was usually a Manchu and held the rank of fourth grade.

Towards the end of the Qing Dynasty, in order to avoid using Puyi's name, the title of Master of Ceremonies was changed to Master of Etiquette.

The first chief secretary of Hongli's Prince's Mansion was actually Yuzhu, the son of Longkodo.

As for his master of ceremonies, it was Yitong'a, the nephew of Consort Xi.

Yu Zhu, who had been dismissed from his post, was reinstated as the chief secretary of the Prince's Palace. This was naturally related to Longkodo entrusting his "head" to Hongli, which made Hongli feel at ease using Longkodo's son.

However, Hongli did not dare to employ Longkodo's eldest son, Yue Xing'a.

This was because Longkodo favored Li Si'er, which resulted in Yue Xing'a's birth mother being treated unfairly by Longkodo, making Yue Xing'a very dissatisfied with Longkodo.

The father and son were no different from enemies.

Historically, Yue Xing'a even took the initiative to expose Longkodo's crimes.

Therefore, if Hongli were to employ Yue Xing'a, Yue Xing'a might very well disregard the interests of the Fourth Prince in order to retaliate against Longkodo.

As for Itonga.

Hongli appointed him as the master of ceremonies, naturally because he was his cousin.

After all, the documents and archives of the Prince's Mansion could easily involve the privacy and secrets of Prince Bao.

Therefore, Hongli could only feel at ease when he had people who shared his political interests in charge of documents and archives.

If Itonga were of sound mind, he would know that loyalty to him was the only right path for his family.

Before moving, in order to prepare for the celebrations of the princes and their wives coming to his palace, Hongli specially summoned his two subordinate officials to Ping'an Residence.

Ping An Residence is located within the East Academy of the Prince's Mansion. It was originally a place for Yongzheng to relax when he was a prince.

According to the Qing Dynasty book "Tian Zhi Ou Wen" written by Zhen Jun, "To the east of the palace is the academy, which was formerly a mountain pond. Entering the gate are the Ping An Ju and Ru Yi Shi, surrounded by artificial rockeries."

As early as the "Prince Zhen's Mansion" period, Dongshuyuan was a place where Prince Zhen and his wife would read books, appreciate flowers, and enjoy the moon.

Now, Hongli has become the master of this former Yongwang Mansion.

This peaceful residence naturally became his place of leisure.

When Yuzhu and Yitong Alai came to see him, Hongli was at the railing by the pond in Ping'an Residence, scattering bait into the pond, which attracted a group of koi to jump up.

As the koi fish were jumping on the water, Hongli instructed Yuzhu: "Tomorrow, as the chief secretary, you should go and toast and exchange pleasantries with the princes and ministers who come to offer their congratulations. Try to hear as much as possible about what they say when I am not around. Remember the important things and then tell me."

"Whoo!"

then.

Hongli then instructed Yitonga, "You shall follow me and record the conversations I have with the princes and ministers."

"Whoo!"

Therefore, although Hongli appeared to be humble and polite to the princes and ministers who came to congratulate him on his housewarming, he had actually secretly arranged for people to record and observe their every word and action.

After a couple of drinks, many of these princes and ministers did indeed start to speak without restraint.

Aside from discussing matters between men and women, many people habitually switch to political commentary mode.

However, most of them knew their limits and did not dare to get involved in overly sensitive political topics.

Among these matters, the recent border negotiations with the Rakshasa Kingdom were particularly mentioned by many princes and ministers.

However, because Emperor Qianlong exposed the current situation of Russia through the "New Daily News of the Capital", and even had the Russian envoy Ragujinsky personally disclose and belittle Russia, the reason for this was that...

Therefore, many princes and ministers no longer advocated for concessions, and some radicals even clamored for threatening the Russian Kingdom with war to force it to cede more land.

However, this also made some princes and ministers who were trying to use the threat from the Russian Kingdom to force the court to stop reforming and developing the border areas and to cede benefits and power to officials and gentry even more dissatisfied.

They didn't expect the Beijing Daily to steer public opinion in this way.

Huang Guocai, the Minister of War who came from the Plain White Banner of the Han Army, mentioned the *Jingshi Xinbao* (New Gazette of the Capital) to Cao Zhaoye, the Imperial Textile Commissioner of Jiangning, who was also in Hongli's city on his way to the capital for an audience with the emperor, after a few drinks:

"It's truly baffling that the court doesn't investigate the fact that rebels are smearing the imperial family and nobles in the newspaper 'The Capital News'!"

Upon hearing Huang Guocai's words, Yuzhu, who had just come over to toast Huang Guocai, asked curiously, "Grand Minister of Justice, is this true?"

At the same time, Cao Zhaoye also looked at Huang Guocai with curiosity.

"Of course!"

"The traitor I'm referring to is Layman Huiqing!"

"Haven't you noticed? This person loves to criticize the imperial family and nobles. And his name, Huiqing, is actually a pun on 'overthrowing the Qing Dynasty,' meaning he wants to abolish our Great Qing and restore the Ming Dynasty!"

"That's why this person keeps attacking the imperial family and nobles of our Great Qing Dynasty!"

"The purpose is to make the world believe that the fate of our Qing imperial family is nearing its end!"

After Huang Guocai finished speaking, Cao Zhaoye nodded: "That makes sense!"

Therefore, Huang Guocai suggested, "Why don't we submit a memorial together to report this matter? It might be a great achievement!"

Knowing that the Qing emperors were fond of literary inquisitions, Cao Zhaoye became even more excited after hearing this: "In that case, maybe my Cao family won't have to make up for the deficit!"

Not long after Yuzhu overheard this, he informed Hongli about it.

Did the literary inquisition backfire on Emperor Yongzheng himself?

Hongli found this amusing.

But he still summoned Cao Zhaoye: "I heard from Yuzhu that you plan to impeach Huiqing Jushi as a traitor together with Huang Guocai?"

"This servant dares not lie to Fourth Master, this servant has this intention!"

Cao Zhaoye was surprised for a moment before answering.

Hongli said, "Your Cao family is now my bondservants. Because of this, I can't ignore your family's fate. So, you can't get involved in this matter. Otherwise, if you get into trouble and your family is confiscated, don't blame me for not warning you!"

"How could this possibly lead to the confiscation of property?"

"Your Majesty, please be wise! Layman Huiqing's various vile and abusive remarks against our Great Qing imperial family clearly indicate his intention to overthrow the Qing and restore the Ming!"

Cao Zhaoye really didn't want to miss this opportunity to gain merit by reporting a literary inquisition and be exempted from making up for the deficit, so he explained it to Hongli.

Hongli glanced at Cao Zhaoye and knew that this cousin of Fu Peng had been the King of Jiangnan for too long and clearly did not think highly of him, the young master. He thought that Cao Zhaoye understood politics better than him, which was why he continued to argue with him.

to this end.

Hongli didn't say anything more, only sneered: "Then you'll regret it!"

"Rest assured, Your Majesty, if His Majesty truly blames me for this, I will absolutely not implicate you or claim that you ordered it!"

Cao Zhaoye assumed that Hongli was preventing him from impeaching him for fear of being implicated, so he answered righteously.

Hongli simply chuckled and waved for Cao Zhaoye to leave.

Before leaving Beijing, Cao Zhaoye and Huang Guocai submitted a memorial impeaching Huiqing Jushi, attempting to reignite the literary inquisition in the Qing Dynasty.

These bureaucrats naturally knew that in the Qing Dynasty, the emperor loved to persecute literary figures, and that they, as ministers, could easily become the emperor's confidants by cracking down on such cases.

But this time, they really made a blunder.

Upon receiving their memorials, Emperor Yongzheng, seeing himself branded a traitor, summoned them and coldly asked:
"You were originally part of Lao Ba's faction. Tell me, how much favor did you receive from Lao Ba that you're so protective of him?"

(End of this chapter)