My father is Yongzheng, and I am Qianlong?

Chapter 254 Powerful Governance, the Tyrannical Prince!
The next morning, after paying his respects to Emperor Yongzheng, Hongli went to the Court of Colonial Affairs.

Yunli was already waiting for him outside the yamen with the officials of the Court of Colonial Affairs.

"Nephew greets Seventeenth Uncle!"

Hongli first gave Yunli a bow, and after the seventeenth prince helped him up, he looked at the officials of the Court of Colonial Affairs.

After these officials from the Court of Colonial Affairs greeted Hongli, Yunli smiled and introduced them to him.

"This is Tegut, the Minister of the Court of Colonial Affairs."

Yunli first pointed to Tegut.

"Fourth Master!"

Tegut bowed and called out first.

Hongli nodded and noticed that although his eyes were small, they were quite deep.

Next, Yunli introduced the other officials.

Hongli simply nodded, and together with these people and Yunli, they entered the main hall of the Court of Colonial Affairs.

Since Hongli was only in charge of managing the Court of Colonial Affairs, Yunli naturally sat in the first seat of the main hall, while he sat in the second seat on the right. As a minister, Tegut could only sit in the first seat on the lower left.

This was a unique feature of the Qing Dynasty: in the central government departments that were managed by princes and dukes, the Minister was not the first person in charge.

Yunli spoke first: "Right now, the most important thing for the Court of Colonial Affairs is the border agreement. His Majesty the Fourth Brother has asked the Court of Colonial Affairs to discuss whether to replace the Minister of State Affairs, Longkodo, as the chief negotiator."

When he had some free time recently, Hongli also learned in detail about the border agreement with the Russian Kingdom.

After Lagukins was imprisoned for threatening the Qing emperor, the deputy envoy Langk returned to China and informed the Tsar of the matter.

The ruler of the Rakshasa Kingdom was therefore furious.

However, because they learned from Langke that the Qing rulers had understood their true strength and weaknesses, and that after the widespread dissemination of the "Beijing Xinbao" newspaper, they were no longer afraid of their threat to instigate the Dzungars, and that after they claimed to unite with the Ottomans, Sweden, and Persia against Russia, Russia still had to continue sending envoys to contact the Qing in order to continue trade, and hoped that Yongzheng would release Ragukinsky.

However, shortly after being imprisoned, Raguginsky died in prison from a disease that caused his abdomen to become hard as iron and his face to turn sallow. This happened when Langk arrived in the capital of the Qing Dynasty as the chief envoy.

Langk had no choice but to send Raguginsky's body back to St. Petersburg while continuing negotiations with the Qing Dynasty.

Initially, negotiations were held in Beijing, but later they were moved to the banks of the Bur River, not far from Kyakhta.

The negotiating representatives from both sides negotiated the actual land situation in the negotiation area and determined the boundary based on the population affiliation and natural trends of both sides.

Longkodo became the chief representative of the Qing Dynasty.

However, Longkodo, who was familiar with diplomatic affairs and chose to follow Hongli, acted too aggressively during the negotiations. He insisted on ceding the area east of the Innie River, west of the Ergun River, south of the line from the Angana River to Lake Baikal, then to the Lena River, the Weidimu River, and finally to the Outer Khingan Mountains to the Qing Dynasty, with this line as the boundary.

The Russian Empire only accepted the boundary from the Ergun River to the Shabinai Ridge, and stated that it could not give up Lake Baikal, Udinsk, the lower reaches of the Selenga River, and Nerchinsk, and could not allow China to gain a foothold on the Irtysh River.

Therefore, the Russian Empire was very unwilling and even transferred the garrison troops of Tobolsk to the border, claiming that it would militarily protect its territory and demand an explanation for the untimely death of its envoy. It also incited the Mongol princes in the border areas to put pressure on Yongzheng and impeach Longkodo.

Consequently, Beizi Yanbuchubdorji and other Mongol princes jointly submitted a memorial impeaching Longkodo.

Langke himself wrote a letter to Yongzheng, hoping to replace Longkodo and refusing to negotiate with him.

Emperor Yongzheng sent the memorials from the Mongol princes and the letter from Langke to the Court of Colonial Affairs, asking the Court to discuss the matter.

"Hongli, please share your thoughts first."

Yunli then looked at Hongli and asked him about him first.

Tegut and other officials of the Court of Colonial Affairs also looked over.

In any case, Hongli was a prince with a very high chance of inheriting the throne, so they naturally cared a lot about his opinion. Even if Hongli's opinion differed from theirs, they still had to consider whether they should abandon their own views or try to persuade Hongli to do so.

Hongli remembered that the treaty signed in this negotiation was called the Treaty of Burinsky. Because of this treaty, the Qing Dynasty gave up a full 100,000 square kilometers of territory, especially the abandonment of Lake Baikal, which was the biggest mistake!

Because the area around Lake Baikal is a region suitable for agricultural development, and it is also the only region suitable for connecting eastern and western Siberia.

If this were to fall into the hands of Russia, and with the future development of railways, Russia would be able to connect East and West Siberia by laying railway lines across Lake Baikal, thus enabling it to transport troops to East and West Siberia on a large scale.

Therefore, Hongli had no intention of giving up the Lake Baikal area under any circumstances.

Even if he weren't currently managing the Court of Colonial Affairs, he would still do everything in his power to prevent this from happening.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have used the "Beijing News" to widely disseminate information about Russia, reducing the information gap between the Qing rulers and the Russian rulers, and also demanding that Longkodo not give up the land around Lake Baikal.

Logically, this area belongs to the territory of the Khalkha Mongols.

However, the Russian Empire has recently been frantically invading and plundering this area, and the lower-class Mongols of the Khalkha Mongols have been resisting fiercely, paying a heavy price for it.

The Khalkha Mongols submitted to the Qing Dynasty during the reign of Emperor Kangxi.

Therefore, if the Qing Dynasty were to abandon this area, it would not only be letting down the Khalkha Mongols who were fighting hard against the invasion of Russia, but it would also cause the Khalkha Mongols to flee on a larger scale due to the reduction of their pastureland.

At this moment, Hongli spoke up: "Of course we can't change them. Changing them would make us look weak and make it even more necessary to negotiate the border. Besides, Longkodo's request that the Russian envoy not bring female relatives into the negotiation site is also to maintain national dignity!"

"Negotiations are a serious matter. The fact that the Russian envoy brought his female relatives to the negotiations shows a lack of respect for China!"

In foreign negotiations, the Qing Dynasty would always refer to itself as "China," even in treaties. So, Hongli also referred to the Qing Dynasty in this way, in order to get used to diplomatic language.

"But if we don't exchange them, the negotiations will stall. Besides, we also need to agree on the border so that we can focus our efforts on dealing with the Dzungars."

Tegut then spoke up.

Yunli nodded at this point: "Yes, Your Majesty is also worried that the unresolved negotiations will increase the difficulty of conquering the Dzungars. Hongli, you must also consider this point and not just think about temporary honor or disgrace."

Hongli nodded: "Seventeenth Uncle is right, but the Russian Kingdom has always been greedy. If we agree to exchange people, they will force us to agree to give up the area around the North Sea (Lake Baikal)!"

"But this time, Longkodo's asking price was indeed too high, which was difficult for Russia to accept, and it resulted in most of this disputed area belonging to China."

"You should know that the Khalkha Mongols have only recently submitted to China. Most of their princes and nobles prefer to unite with Russia and march south, just as Ragujinsky envisioned. If they were to reach the capital, the millions of Eight Banners people would not be able to control the 200 million Han people, and would instead throw our Qing Dynasty into chaos, thus realizing their ambition to expand their territory."

Yunli said.

Tegut chimed in, "That's what I'm worried about too!"

"Our Great Qing Dynasty severely restricts the activity areas of the various banners of Mongolia and also severely restricts the power of Living Buddhas, which makes many Mongolian nobles in the northern desert very dissatisfied!"

"The Russian Kingdom supports their free grazing and free organization, is willing to give their Living Buddhas more power, and is also willing to let them become Cossacks and exempt them from the fur tax."

"That's right, the Russian Kingdom is despicable. They even exempted the Mongols who fled there to join the Cossacks from the Yasak system!"

“The expenses of the Mongol princes in the northern deserts when they went to the capital to pay homage were very high, and they had to repay a lot of debts. Naturally, they could not be exempted from the fur tax, which would only intensify the exploitation of the Mongol people at the bottom of society.”

"Therefore, if the border remains undefined, more and more Mongols will flee there, and in the long run, the balance between offense and defense will be broken."

Yunli echoed this.

Hongli nodded: "What Uncle Seventeen and Tegut said are true, but I think that the more we need to negotiate the border, the better we should ask for the highest price first. After all, the Rakshasa Kingdom also needs to negotiate the border right now."

"Aim high and you'll achieve something; aim for the middle and you'll achieve nothing."

"Not only should our Court of Colonial Affairs not advocate replacing him, but we should also impeach Longkodo for ceding too much land, even giving up the area east of the Irtysh River!"

(End of this chapter)