My father is Yongzheng, and I am Qianlong?

Chapter 244 Presenting a gift to Hongli, only asking for mercy!

After Li Wei asked this question, Chen Qiao, a gentry member from Jiangnan, couldn't help but chuckle: "Governor, it's not that we're unwilling to help the court with education and culture, it's just that we feel bad about it!"

"We are the ones who have wronged the court, yet the Fourth Prince is so benevolent that he only asks us to offer our books as payment for our debts. We feel even more ashamed because of this!"

"Yes, we really can't bear it. Fourth Master has been so kind to us. If we just use books to pay off our debts, would we still be human?"

That's exactly right!

“Your Excellency, you are wise. We may be greedy and have done something that is so disrespectful to the court, but that does not mean that we, the gentry of Jiangnan, are truly without any sense of propriety, righteousness, or shame, and that we will put Fourth Master in a difficult position.”

These gentry from Jiangnan echoed each other, each using the excuse that they couldn't bear to let the court settle the debt with just a letter, and thus made things difficult for Hongli.

Sitting in the armchair, Li Wei wasn't angry. He simply tilted his body to the side, flicked his nails, and said calmly, "I'm just passing on Fourth Master's words to you. You can wait for news yourselves."

"Anyway, the Fourth Prince's memorial has already been submitted. Whether or not to do it depends on whether the Emperor approves it."

Li Wei then stood up, uttered those words, and then turned and walked out.

The Jiangnan gentry who remained here still had stiff expressions and forgot to see Li Wei off.

The main problem was that the method that Hongli suddenly proposed was extremely dangerous for them.

They naturally understood how important the books and collections treasured by their various clans for many years were to their families, and they also knew how dangerous it would be if these books and collections fell into the hands of the imperial court.

It can be said that they would rather lose the land than lose the books and collections of writings that their family has treasured and compiled for generations.

It should be noted that when many aristocratic families divided their property, many of their sons considered it a great gain to receive a larger collection of books than land or shops.

"What should we do? I wonder if Fourth Master has a mastermind behind him, or if he is truly shrewd and wise beyond his virtuous and kind nature? He has actually set his sights on our books and collections!"

"No matter what, Fourth Master has truly found the most deadly spot for us this time, and we just can't find a reason to refuse or support the court's efforts to revitalize education!"

"We need to come up with a plan quickly! If the Emperor really agrees to this proposal, we'll be facing a calamity unlike any we've seen in a century!"

"Now I hope that the Emperor and those in power will be more concerned with financial gain and not actually adopt the Fourth Prince's suggestion."

"We can prepare for both possibilities. On the one hand, we can ask high-ranking officials in the court to persuade the Fourth Prince to reject his proposal, and on the other hand, we can continue to persuade the Fourth Prince to change his mind on his own."

……

……

"Fourth Master, the local gentry have jointly submitted an invitation, wishing to entertain you at the Qinhuai River, and would like to ask you to grace us with your presence."

"You see?"

Shortly after these Jiangnan gentry discussed the matter of settling debts with books, Hongli received from Li Yu that the Jiangnan gentry wanted to host a grand banquet for him.

After hearing this, Hongli asked, "Have you met with them?"

Li Yu knelt down: "This servant dares not lie to Fourth Master. This servant met with them and they gave this servant a gift of three thousand taels of silver and a piece of land in Jiangnan."

Hongli said, "Get up."

"Thank you, Fourth Master!"

Li Yu stood up.

Hongli said, "I allow you to contact them, but you must remember that if you dare to do things for them behind my back, you will not have a good ending. You know what happened to Fan Shiyi."

Li Yu trembled slightly and hurriedly said, "This servant understands."

Hongli indeed had no intention of refusing the attempts of these Jiangnan gentry to curry favor with him in private.

Because he needed to lull these Jiangnan gentry into a false sense of security, give them a glimmer of hope, and thus gain a better understanding of them.

Otherwise, if he were to shut these Jiangnan gentry out of his sight, he would have no way of knowing what means they would use to protect their interests from harm.

Strategically, he could disregard these Jiangnan gentry, taking advantage of their reluctance to openly overturn the table, but tactically, he dared not ignore them.

After all, these people are very adept at bewitching people and corrupting those in power. It should be noted that many Manchu nobles and even members of the imperial family have been secretly influenced by them to become their vassals, their spies and pawns in the court.

The ways in which these people corrupted the Manchu nobles and even the imperial family were nothing more than land, money, women, and even reputation and refined tastes.

Hongli also gained some understanding through his contact with members of the imperial family and nobles of the Eight Banners in the capital.

However, Hongli did not intend to directly contact these Jiangnan gentry.

Firstly, he feared that Emperor Yongzheng would worry that he too might be corrupted, since Emperor Yongzheng was very sensitive;

Secondly, he had too much direct contact with these Jiangnan gentry, and often became entangled with them, ending up in a situation where he was not their ally but had become one of them.

Therefore, Hongli still did not intend to directly contact these Jiangnan gentry. The reason was naturally that he was the emperor and had to be cautious in many situations, and could not make friends with Confucian scholars in private.

After Li Yu answered in this way, Hongli nodded and said:

"Then it remains the same old rule: I will not meet with any gentry in private. Even if officials come to see me, they must present a formal invitation. I have no personal relationship with them. If there are any matters of state or public opinion to report, I can only do so through officials. The rules cannot be broken!"

"Whoo!"

"What if they want you, Fourth Master, to offer them a special gift?"

Li Yu then asked.

Hongli said, "To avoid suspicion, we will only accept tributes from Manchu slaves."

"I understand!"

Therefore, Hongli did not meet with these Jiangnan gentry. Only Sui Hede, under the pretext that he was afraid Hongli would lack servants in the textile bureau, offered one of his daughters to Hongli.

Of course, while they called her a daughter, she was actually a beautiful young woman, like a "skinny horse," that Sui Hede had acquired from the gentry of Jiangnan.

For this, Hongli criticized Sui Hede, blaming him for not reporting that he had a daughter, and made him apologize to Yongzheng himself. In reality, this was to let Yongzheng know about the matter and show that he never hid it from Yongzheng.

Emperor Yongzheng responded in kind, saying that although Sui Hede's actions were against the rules, they were also a rare display of filial piety, and ordered that his daughter be granted to serve Hongli.

Before receiving this decree from Emperor Yongzheng, Hongli had already received an imperial edict from Yongzheng allowing gentry to offer books as payment for debts and to copy books as payment for debts.

Therefore, Hongli immediately summoned Li Wei and gave him the imperial edict: "There is no time to lose. Take this edict and go collect the debt immediately, so that these gentry will not come crying and begging to allow them to repay the debt in silver again."

"Whoo!"

At that time, Li Yu also arrived.

Hongli asked, "What is it?"

Li Yu replied, “This servant has learned that many gentry in Jiangnan have begun to secretly move and hide their books and collections, and some are even privately handing them over to Western missionaries for safekeeping!”

"Outrageous! They actually want to help the Western barbarians grow stronger!"

Hongli's expression changed on the spot, and he looked at Li Wei: "In that case, don't wait for them to present the books, just go and copy them!"

"Whoo!"

Swallow Rock.

On this day, Chen Qiao was having his servants load boxes of books onto the ship, and he instructed his son, "We cannot stop along the way. We must get them to Guangzhou quickly and deliver them to Mr. Abner."

"it is good!"

After his son left by boat, Chen Qiao smiled smugly and said, "Rather than handing over the knowledge of my Han people to the court, it is better to hand it over to distant people!"

At this moment, two ships full of officers and soldiers, flying Li Wei's flag, surrounded the Chen family's civilian ship.

Chen Qiao froze on the spot.

(End of this chapter)