My father is Yongzheng, and I am Qianlong?

Chapter 264 Direct Slaughter, Hongli's Tough Rule!
Three days later, at the Court of Colonial Affairs.

Having received the silver, Celing arrived here and bid farewell to Hongli, the head of the Court of Colonial Affairs.

"Fourth Master's great kindness will never be forgotten by your humble uncle!"

When Celeng took his leave, he said this, and Hongli helped him to his seat, smiling as he said:
"Next, the Court of Colonial Affairs plans to re-survey and delineate the land for each banner. At that time, we will need my uncle's strong support so that the Mongol princes will have no choice but to cooperate."

Upon hearing this, Celeng, who never cared about personal gain, was even more delighted and immediately bowed, saying, "Of course! Fourth Master's management of the Court of Colonial Affairs is indeed a blessing for our Mongol vassal state!"

"Uncle, you flatter me!"

Next, Hongli personally escorted Celeng back to the inner palace and gave him some more instructions.

As Hongli said, the survey and redivision of the Mongolian pastoral areas did indeed require the support of some prestigious Mongolian princes, who were able to mobilize the Mongolian common people to support the redivision.

Meanwhile, after Celing left the capital, he was still invited by Hongxi.

Hongxi also said to Celing, "I never expected that my uncle would be stripped of his title and imprisoned this time. Fortunately, the Emperor is benevolent as heaven and has finally forgiven you. I no longer need to worry about my uncle. However, I never expected that Hongli would be so powerful, causing my uncle to suffer such a great loss this time!"

"But this time, it's all thanks to Hongli!"

"Now, from the bottom of my heart, I am grateful to him and respect him!"

"We should all acknowledge him as the Lord of the future!"

At this moment, Celing spoke very seriously to Hongxi.

Hongxi was quite surprised and forced a smile, "Really?"

Celing nodded: "Firstly, he disregarded past grievances, believed that I was a loyal and virtuous person, and did his best to save me and treat me well. He is a gentleman with a broad mind and a virtuous person who cares about the country and the people!"

"Such a virtuous gentleman, I, Celing, have received his kindness, and I should repay him with my life; otherwise, I would not deserve to be called a human being!"

As he spoke, Celing took a swig of wine. After drinking, his face turned solemn, and he said to Hongxi, "Prince Li, please do not look down on Fourth Master or distrust him, and do not say anything slanderous. Otherwise, even if Fourth Master does not care, I, Celing, would rather die a horrible death than compromise my lord's dignity!"

Hongxi was struck dumb, and asked in astonishment, "Was it Hongli who saved you?"

Ce Leng nodded.

Snapped!
Hongxi gritted his teeth, slammed his hand on the table, and exclaimed, "Excellent! What a fine Prince Bao! He has both magnanimity and talent! I underestimated him after all!"

"Ashamed!"

"I'm ashamed!"

then.

Hongxi then bowed to Celing and said, "As my father said, I was jealous of him because he was so outstanding. That's why I spoke so disparagingly of Hongli in front of my uncle before. Now I realize that I am indeed far inferior to Hongli!"

Seeing his frankness, Celing also comforted him with great appreciation, saying, "Prince Li, there is no need to feel too guilty. Fourth Prince is wise and kind. He can even forgive me. Besides, you only looked down on him for a moment. From now on, as long as you treat him with sincerity, Fourth Prince will not treat you, his cousin, unfairly!"

"Uncle is right!"

Hongxi replied with a smile, but after Celing left, his face darkened, and he said to Wang Tingcheng, "Now it seems that Hongli not only has the talent to manage a department, but he may also have the talent to govern!"

"I'm starting to suspect that the late emperor passed the throne to my father, Hongli, because of him!"

Hongxi then spoke with a bitter laugh.

"Isn't it because of this elder brother, the Prince, that the Fourth Prince was raised so well?"

"Who doesn't know that the prince who initially mentored and taught the Fourth Prince was none other than Your Highness?"

Wang Tingcheng then said with a smile.

Hongxi clapped his hands and laughed: "That's absolutely right. If you talk like this in private, now, slandering Hongli will only incur the disgust of the Emperor and many princes and ministers. The only way is to frankly acknowledge his excellence and let people know who among his peers has devoted himself to teaching him!"

……

……

After returning to the northern desert, Celeng implemented a policy within his own banner that exempted those who went out to suppress the Russian invaders from corvée labor and tribute.

at the same time!

Celing also used the silver that Hongli had given him as a reward fund for eliminating the invaders.

Celing demanded a reward of thirty taels of silver for capturing a Russian, and twenty taels of silver for beheading a Russian.

Due to the large influx of silver into the country during the mid-to-late Ming Dynasty, the price of silver plummeted. By the late Ming Dynasty, the reward for beheading a enemy had increased to twenty to fifty taels of silver. For example, Huang Degong, a famous general in the late Ming Dynasty, started his family business by beheading two enemy generals and receiving fifty taels of silver.

Now, during the Yongzheng era, Celing naturally couldn't set the reward money too low.

Three million taels of silver would theoretically be enough to exterminate the Russians in the northern desert region and even the entire Siberian region.

Because these places are not sparsely populated to begin with, let alone the Russians, even the native Mongolians are few in number due to the prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases and the growing number of monks.

In addition, since the Russians have different skin, hair and eye colors, they are easy to identify, so there is no need to worry about killing natives to claim credit.

The reward of twenty or thirty taels of silver for capturing or beheading a single person was a substantial sum for the lower-class Mongols.

After all, even if the price of silver drops sharply, an income of twenty or thirty taels is still a considerable fortune, equivalent to several years' income for many people in the mainland.

Therefore, when Celeng strictly implemented Hongli's will, the followers and unregistered households of each Zuoling spontaneously formed a cavalry regiment based on kinship and began to sweep deep into the areas where the Russians were found.

In the Qing Dynasty, young and strong Mongolians, besides becoming monks, were divided into two categories.

One type is arrowhead.

Arrow soldiers were soldiers who primarily served the imperial court.

A kind of follow-up.

Suiding were soldiers who primarily served the Jasaks, the princes and nobles of the various banners of Mongolia.

In reality, many Mongolians would become slaves to Mongolian princes to avoid military service, thus becoming unregistered residents.

This is similar to how many Han Chinese people in mainland China would also rely on gentry and become unregistered residents.

The weaker the central government's control, the more severe this phenomenon becomes.

Celeng could only command his followers and unregistered households within his banner.

There are quite a few people in this group.

In recent years, Hongli advised the sixteenth prince, who was in charge of the Ministry of War, to promote the use of self-propelled firearms and small bronze cannons.

Because of his status as a prince consort, Celeng equipped his retinue with a self-propelled short-barreled musket and bronze cannon suitable for cavalry, making their equipment not much different from that of the Russian Cossack cavalry.

On the upper reaches of the Selenge River, a sentry post was privately established by a Russian soldier.

The Russian soldiers here soon discovered that there were Mongol cavalry several times their number, which filled them with fear and astonishment.

"How could there be so many Qing Dynasty cavalry!"

"My God, they actually launched an attack on us! Are they going to repeat what happened at Yaksa?!"

The officer in charge of the outpost, Ivankov, was twitching his facial muscles as he watched the Mongol cavalry getting closer and closer to the outpost.

What shocked Ivankov even more was that these Qing cavalrymen were exceptionally brave when attacking their outposts, their eyes shining as if they had seen gold and silver treasures when they saw them.

They have far too few troops stationed at the outposts, as they have ventured deep into the upper reaches of the Selenga River, into the heart of Khalkha Mongolia.

Therefore, many of them were taken prisoner, and some, though they died in battle, were still beheaded. Only a small number escaped.

Meanwhile, because the border had not yet been agreed upon, the Russian Kingdom was actively sending large groups of mercenaries to plunder the heartland of Khalkha Mongolia, establishing more outposts in more border disputed areas, and forcing more Mongols and other local natives to submit to them. Their aim was to create the objective fact that the disputed areas were their territory.

The Russian courtier Korychev led a group of mercenaries deep into the Kulun (Ulaanbaatar) area, where they massacred and plundered a zuoling (military commander), captured many Mongols, and forced them to establish outposts for him.

Dissatisfied with the lack of a border agreement, the Mongol princes had the bodies of the killed Mongol civilians brought before Longkodo and his entourage.

The Mongol princes and nobles who remained in Beijing and walked around the Qianqing Gate collectively petitioned the Court of Colonial Affairs, hoping that the Court would replace Longkodo and requesting that Russia release the captured Mongols.

Emperor Qianlong, who was in charge of the Court of Colonial Affairs, also learned of this matter. He only instructed these Mongol princes: "The Court of Colonial Affairs will warn Kolychev through Longkodo that if he refuses to release the captured people, China will retaliate tenfold. That is, if he kills one of my prisoners, I will kill ten of his prisoners; if he enslaves one of my people, I will enslave ten of his prisoners!"

The Mongol princes present were all shocked, never expecting Hongli to be so domineering.

But as soon as Hongli finished speaking, Bandi came over and said, “Fourth Prince, Vice Minister Tulichen has sent a message that all the captured Mongol people have been executed by Kolychev!”

Upon hearing this, Hongli's face darkened, and he said, "Then issue an order to Prince Celeng from the Court of Colonial Affairs: immediately escort ten times the number of captured Russian prisoners to the negotiation site and kill them in front of the Russian envoys!"

"Whoo!"

Not long after, Hongli stamped his silver seal on the draft imperial edict.

(End of this chapter)