My father is Yongzheng, and I am Qianlong?

Chapter 246 The Iron Fist of the Qing Dynasty Directly Suppresses!
Li Wei reported the matter of Chenqiao transporting books to the Western barbarians to the imperial court in the form of a memorial.

The central government's proposed motion was to prosecute him for treason and hand him over to the Ministry of Justice for deliberation, and to arrest the missionary Abbott in Guangzhou.

Emperor Yongzheng approved this in red ink and said to his thirteenth son, "Indeed, many of these gentry from Jiangnan actually want foreign powers to become stronger. They will betray whoever rules China, rather than be truly submissive."

“We still need to be stricter! Hongli’s proposal to use books to pay off debts has really forced some gentry in Jiangnan to take some extreme measures and reveal their true nature.”

The thirteenth son then spoke.

The fact that Emperor Yongzheng intended to approve the bill in red meant that the entire Chenqiao clan would be implicated.

As Hongli told Li Wei, the Yongzheng reign continued the Qing dynasty's policy of strictly preventing collusion between internal and external forces, and even went so far as to be more stringent.

In the first year of the Yongzheng Emperor's reign, he issued an edict ordering missionaries from all provinces to reside in Guangzhou or Macau, prohibiting them from preaching in the mainland; only a few missionaries with special skills (such as the court painter Giuseppe Castiglione) were allowed to stay in Beijing.

Therefore, it was taboo for the Chen family to have private contact with the Westerners and to entrust their books to them for safekeeping.

"It's Li Wei! Li Wei is framing our loyal and virtuous officials who came from the imperial examination system! It's definitely him!"

"Because my Chen family has always been loyal to the Qing Dynasty. Ever since my grandfather was the first to kneel and welcome the Qing army down to the south of the Yangtze River, my family has never done anything to betray the Qing Dynasty."

“This time, it’s just Li Wei framing us, a family that has passed the imperial examinations. We were just entrusting the books to a friend for safekeeping. It’s not that we didn’t want the court to get them, but does that mean we, the gentry of Jiangnan, can’t make friends with foreigners?”

"But Li Wei claimed that we were intentionally helping the Western barbarians to grow stronger, which is pure slander! Framing! Deception!"

"The strength of a nation lies in upholding the way of the sages. If a few books can make the Western barbarians powerful, then the Four Books and Five Classics would have been copied by the Western barbarians long ago, and they didn't become powerful. So what? Just because some books that are not entirely classical studies were given to the Western barbarians, in Li Wei's mouth, it has become helping the Western barbarians become powerful and betraying the court?"

"This is truly an unparalleled injustice!"

When Prefect Cui Ning arrived to arrest the entire Chen family for trial ahead of schedule, Chen Qiao's father, Chen Zhuo, accused Li Wei of all the crimes.

Cui Ning felt quite sympathetic towards the Chen family's situation and offered them some advice:
"It's no use talking about this now. This dynasty is much stricter than the previous dynasty in preventing collusion between the inside and outside. You know that. This applies to both commoners and bannermen."

Tears welled up in Chen Zhuo's eyes: "The court is so strict because of treacherous officials like Li Wei who instigate and mislead the emperor. If it weren't for these treacherous officials, the emperor would never treat us like this."

"Please tell Li Wei that I will haunt him even as a ghost, and he should wait!"

Chen Zhuo said this.

Cui Ning ignored them and, after seeing all the Chen family members being put into the prison cart, got into his sedan chair and took these criminals to the Governor's Office prison in Jiangning.

The governor's prison was generally used only to temporarily detain important criminals such as those accused of treason and rebellion before they were escorted to the capital.

Because ordinary criminals are only imprisoned in state or county jails.

Chen Qiao soon met Chen Zhuo and his clansmen at the Governor's Office.

"Father, will we die?"

"Brother, why is our entire clan being arrested just because we handed the books over to the Western barbarians?"

Chen Qiao also heard many familiar voices coming from the dark prison.

He didn't shout at these people, he just silently shed tears, and then pounded the ground with his fist.

He hated himself for being so clever as to entrust his family's collection of books to his Western friends.

Because he now realizes that, given the current practices of the Qing Dynasty, even if a powerful foreign power were to replace the Qing Dynasty and rule the Central Plains, it would likely follow the Qing Dynasty's lead and be even more ruthless.

All of this was simply to ensure the consolidation of his own power and prevent any successor from taking over through internal support.

He had to ask himself if being absolutely loyal to the Qing Dynasty was the right thing to do, instead of playing a dual role, on the one hand stabilizing the people's livelihood and maintaining internal order for the Qing Dynasty, and on the other hand betraying the Qing Dynasty and acting as a comprador and spy for foreign countries.
Then, after an unknown amount of time, he suddenly shouted hysterically, "Long live the Great Qing! Long live the Great Qing! Long live the Great Qing! I was born a subject of the Great Qing, and I will die a ghost of the Great Qing!"

loyalty!

Absolute loyalty!
Emperor Qianlong had to admit that the more ruthless he was, the more loyal many gentry members became.

Of course, not all gentry thought this way.

Some gentry still wanted to rebel.

After all, even among the gentry, individual opinions differ.

Therefore, the Zeng Jing rebellion case occurred during the Yongzheng reign in history.

Li Wei was ordered to copy books to pay off debts, and because of this, he seized the entire Chen family, naturally causing a huge uproar in Jiangnan. Some gentry with a spirit of resistance chose to strike and collectively petition Hongli, the imperial prince in Jiangnan, outside the Imperial Textile Bureau.

They hoped to stop using books to settle debts and accused Li Wei of cruel official conduct, seeking justice for the Pan and Chen families.

They believed that both the Pan and Chen families had been treated too harshly by treacherous officials in the court.

"Your Majesty, you are wise. Since ancient times, the Holy Dynasty has always treated the gentry with respect in order to promote their moral education. But now, because corrupt officials and treacherous ministers hold power in the country, they are oppressing the gentry, especially people like Li Wei!"

"Please, Fourth Master, convey our message to the Emperor: the Pan family's theft of the horse was a false accusation by a villain, and the Chen family's transport of books to the Western Barbarians was merely an exchange of culture, aimed at appeasing distant peoples and promoting peace. Yet now both families have been imprisoned, which is truly unjust! Both families have always been virtuous in their communities and have pure family traditions. The court can find out by sending an imperial envoy to investigate."

"That's right!"

"What we dare not fail to tell Fourth Master is that the people of our hometown are all shocked and uneasy about the way the Pan and Chen families have been treated. Furthermore, thieves have caused trouble because of this. If this continues, the area will truly be in turmoil!"

"It is precisely because Li Wei and others deliberately confuse right and wrong, and even incite the court to 'better to kill the innocent than let the guilty go free' that such a cruel act of 'exterminating the entire clan' has occurred today! Such an inhumane policy makes the people of Jiangnan uneasy, and we fear that the world will descend into chaos. Therefore, we dare not open the market. We also ask Your Highness to understand the people's plight and report to the Emperor to save Jiangnan!"

"Please, Fourth Master, save my Jiangnan!"

"Please, Fourth Master, save my Jiangnan!"

"Please, Fourth Master, save my Jiangnan!"

……

Since Emperor Hongli had been directing the arrest of the entire Pan family and the confiscation of books by Li Wei, the Governor-General of Liangjiang, without directly expressing his political stance, these gentry members with some courage chose to petition Emperor Hongli.

Because they understood that Hongli, as the emperor's son, was doing this because he had to be cautious in the power struggle. And because they knew that Hongli was cautious, they were certain that he wouldn't do anything to them directly.

As a result, the Imperial Textile Bureau was once again filled with kneeling scholars, a huge, dark mass that blotted out the sky.

When Hongli learned that many scholars had come to the Textile Bureau to petition, he was not surprised. He knew that historically, Qianlong was able to collect a large number of books from Jiangnan to compile the Four Books and Five Classics only after he had made four trips to Jiangnan and made the gentry in Jiangnan more obedient.

It's not surprising that some of the gentry in Jiangnan strongly opposed his proposal to settle debts with books as early as the fifth year of the Yongzheng Emperor's reign.

Therefore, he also understood that the Qing Dynasty still needed to continue to use its iron fist to punish these people. As he told Li Wei, the harsher the Qing Dynasty was, the less likely they would dare to be lackeys of outsiders in the future.

Hongli then had Jin put on the crown prince belt that Yongzheng had bestowed upon him, and secretly met with He Tianpei, the General of Jiangning, saying, "Tell Li Wei that now is the time to prove his loyalty. If he refuses, you should impeach him!"

"Whoo!"

He Tianpei then met with Li Wei and relayed Hongli's words to him.

Li Wei said with a serious expression, "I never expected that Fourth Master's attempt to settle the debt with books would come to this."

"Why think so much? Let the Governor's Office's standard troops take action. I don't want to have to bring the Eight Banners troops to surround your Governor's Office again."

He Tianpei said.

Li Wei nodded.

Next, the officers and soldiers of the Governor's Battalion under Li Wei lined up and came this way with guns in hand.

"The government troops are coming!"

"The government troops are coming!"

The petitioning scholars soon learned of this news.

Some panicked, some chose to leave immediately, while others remained calm and did not leave, intending to observe the situation further and see if Hongli would come out.

boom!
boom!
But when these government troops arrived, they discovered that Li Wei had also arrived and waved for the soldiers to fire.

Many scholars then realized that Li Wei really wanted to kill them.

However, the scholars who failed to escape in time were clearly unable to leave and were all shot.

A young student collapsed in front of Li Wei, his back riddled with bloody holes. Li Wei glanced at him, his lips pressed tightly together, and simply gave the order:

"By order of this official, those who still refuse to close the market three days from now will have their property confiscated and sold to others at half price."

(End of this chapter)