My father is Yongzheng, and I am Qianlong?

Chapter 358 Hongli's rebuke made Yongzheng reflect on his actions, and he generously rewarded the Crown Prince with a large gift!

However, Hongli still cares about Yongzheng.

Therefore, Hongli first checked Yongzheng's mental state and saw that he was still in good spirits and even sneered at him.

Hongli then felt relieved and continued to argue with Yongzheng: "Your Majesty did encourage your fifth brother to pay attention to the imperial workshops, but that was because your fifth brother really liked this aspect. As the saying goes, the good should be followed, and the next best should be guided!"

"Therefore, I intend to guide his interest in this area towards things that benefit the country and its people, so that he will be more willing to study, rather than letting him become decadent!"

"Besides, no matter what I do, the choice is ultimately in my own hands, Fifth Brother."

"Even if Father insists on blaming me, it won't change Fifth Brother."

"Furthermore, putting aside these facts, if we're really talking about spoiling Fifth Brother, Father, didn't you spoil him in the slightest?"

Hongli then questioned Yongzheng.

This means that, as the emperor and father, Yongzheng could have prevented Hongzhou from becoming obsessed with manufacturing.

Upon hearing Hongli's words, Yongzheng blushed and then said in a trembling voice, "Get out of here!"

"Yes, Your Majesty! Your subject will leave now!"

Hongli replied with a sentence and then stood up.

Heh, he doesn't indulge Yongzheng.

It's because Emperor Yongzheng only responds to force, not persuasion.

However, at this moment, Yongzheng was indeed stunned for a moment, and then calmed down: "What a wise and honest man! When the Qing Dynasty is handed over to you, it will only continue to prosper!"

"come back."

then.

Then Yongzheng said this to Hongli, who hadn't turned around to leave yet.

Hongli secretly smiled, then turned around and bowed to Yongzheng, saying, "Father, please calm down!"

"If it weren't for the fact that you never hide anything from me, I wouldn't believe you!"

Yongzheng snorted and explained why he wouldn't argue with Hongli.

Hongli said, "If I dared to keep this from you, I wouldn't dare to risk my life to speak out like this!"

Upon hearing this, Yongzheng grinned, then sighed, "Enough! It is indeed a good thing that you brothers are of one mind. I shouldn't have been so angry. I should be happy that you always know how to treat your brothers with kindness."

"I won't think about it too much anymore. You should just focus on being a good crown prince."

"But the more this is the case, the more I must ensure that those who have made outstanding contributions, such as Celing and Yue Zhongqi, are demoted or even imprisoned and punished. You should understand why."

Yongzheng began to speak again.

Hongli bowed and said, "Your subject understands! Father is sacrificing his own reputation for your sake."

"I am not only doing this for you, but also for the stability of the nation."

"Furthermore, since you need to cultivate your reputation, I will grant your wish and give you 500,000 taels of imperial funds to comfort the Eight Banners households who died or were wounded in this great battle, so that more people will be grateful to you, the Crown Prince!"

As he spoke, Yongzheng waved his hand and said, "Go and pay your respects to your mother and mother."

Hongli was overjoyed upon hearing this.

In the Yongzheng era, it was indeed more suitable to be a loyal advisor!

They directly gave 500,000 taels of silver to comfort the families of the Eight Banners who were injured or killed.

This was a privilege enjoyed only by the fourteenth prince during the Kangxi Emperor's reign.

Now that he, the crown prince, is doing this, it will be even more difficult for Yongzheng to depose him in the future.

of course!

In reality, Emperor Yongzheng had no way to depose himself.

Unless Emperor Yongzheng could live another ten or twenty years, until Fu Hui and the two newly born princes grew up.

After all, the other adult prince, Hongzhou, is clearly showing signs of ruining himself.

"Whoo!"

Hongli responded with delight, and after bowing in thanks, said:

"My son, please retire!"

"Father, please don't overwork yourself. Take care of your body."

Hongli also gave Yongzheng instructions on this matter with concern.

"Ok!"

Yongzheng was slightly taken aback, but after nodding in agreement, he began to review the memorials.

However, after reviewing the documents for a short time, Yongzheng was still indignant about Hongzhou's matter.

No matter how you look at it, Emperor Yongzheng was ultimately a ruler with a strong desire for control.

But Hongzhou did not do things as he expected.

This was naturally a challenge to his imperial nature.

"Master, what's wrong?"

Seeing that Yongzheng was in a daze, Su Peisheng dared to ask a question.

At this moment, Emperor Yongzheng sighed and said, "My two sons are both more wicked than the other!"

"But unfortunately, they are like the only two large vases I have now; I can't afford to break either of them!"

"But since Heaven has arranged it this way, is it also intentionally so that I will devote my mind to benefiting the country and its people?"

Then Yongzheng asked himself the same question.

Su Peisheng naturally didn't dare to answer, and just listened silently.

But this reminded Yongzheng of Hongshi, and he said, "Issue an imperial decree that Consort Qi come to the garden to see me tonight!"

"Whoo!"

……

……

"Slower!"

"Slower!"

When Hongli arrived at Yongshou Palace, he saw the Empress chasing after Yonglian, panting heavily.

Yonglian stopped in front of Hongli and crossed his two little hands together, saying, "Father!"

The Empress then ran over and stopped in front of Hongli.

Hongli suppressed the urge to pick up Yonglian and bowed deeply to the Empress, saying, "Greetings to my mother."

The Empress took Yonglian's hand and said with a smile, "No need."

Then, the empress, whose temples were turning gray, said, "I was going to wait for you in the main hall with him, but he saw a bird perched in the courtyard and chased after it. The palace servants had to go with me to chase after him, and we never expected to run into you."

"He's naughty and makes his mother tired."

Hongli replied with a smile.

"I'm not tired, I just hope he doesn't feel wronged."

"At such a young age, he has to stay in the palace with this old man like me. Outsiders only think this is his honor, but who knows how good it is to stay by your parents' side since childhood?"

The Empress waved her hand and led Yonglian into the main hall.

After Hongli followed in, he exchanged a few pleasantries with the Empress, then went to Consort Xi's residence. He chatted with Consort Xi and Fu Hui for a while before returning to his own garden.

Although Emperor Yongzheng stated that he would allocate 500,000 taels of imperial funds to Hongli to comfort the wounded and injured bannermen, it would still take some time before the Imperial Household Department issued the decree and completed the disbursement of funds.

Emperor Hongli then focused his attention on compiling a general dictionary and promoting the new phonetic notation method.

During this period, Hongli first requested that Songshou and Liu Tongxun be appointed as Grand Masters of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices to assist and guide him.

Songshou was a Manchu Jinshi (successful candidate in the highest imperial examination) in the first year of the Yongzheng Emperor's reign.

Liu Tongxun was a Han Chinese who passed the imperial examination in the second year of the Yongzheng Emperor's reign.

According to custom, the position of Grand Master of Ceremonies should consist of one Manchu and one Han official.

Emperor Hongli then requested permission to appoint Songshou and Liu Tongxun as his chief advisors.

His choice of Liu Tongxun was naturally based on the ideas Liu Tongxun had demonstrated, which he strongly agreed with.

As for Songshou, since there were indeed not many Jinshi (successful candidates in the highest imperial examinations) among the Manchus, he first selected one based on seniority and integrity.

Hongli had already explained to the two men his purpose in using the Imperial Household Department to compile a general dictionary and promote the new phonetic notation method.

Liu Tongxun did not express any objection to this.

However, this was within Hongli's expectations.

After all, Liu Tongxun was a scholar-official who advocated respecting the common people.

Songshou did not express any objection, which surprised Hongli quite a bit.

This led him to speculate that Matsutoshi might not be a conservative or selfish person.

Since neither of them expressed any objection, Hongli asked them to recommend loyal and upright officials to serve as junior tutors and other officials.

The news that Liu Tongxun and Songshou had been appointed as Grand Masters of the Palace quickly became known to the court and the public.

The princes and ministers naturally guessed that the two would have a lot of say in the appointment of officials under the Crown Prince, such as the Junior Chamberlain.

Therefore, many princes and ministers sent invitations to them, hoping to gain their personal connections.

After all, becoming an official under the Crown Prince would certainly lead to a better career.

No one wants their protégés to have better careers, which would help enhance their own power.

Even Sun Jiagan, who has become famous among scholars for his outspoken remonstrances to the emperor, has not escaped this trend.

He wanted to get his younger brother, Sun Yanggan, appointed as an official in the Eastern Palace, so he met with Liu Tongxun and subtly brought up the matter to him.

Liu Tongxun bluntly stated, "It is certainly possible to recommend Li Gong (Sun Yanggan's courtesy name) as an official under the Crown Prince, but if His Highness wishes to revitalize culture and education, it would be detrimental to him if he were to become an official under the Crown Prince."

Sun Jiagan smiled after hearing this: "How does Your Highness intend to revitalize education and culture?"

Liu Tongxun then informed Sun Jiagan of Emperor Hongli's plan to compile a general dictionary and promote the new phonetic notation method. Since this reform was to be announced to the public in order to gauge public opinion, Emperor Hongli granted them permission to make the matter public.

Sun Jiagan frowned, looking like he was thinking seriously.

"Your Highness, I request that you halt the compilation of a general dictionary and the promotion of the new phonetic notation method!"

but!
As a result, Sun Jiagan came to Langrun Garden the next day and stopped Hongli's carriage as he was leaving the garden, and began to speak to Hongli passionately.

Hongli thought that Sun Jiagan had gained great prestige among officials and scholars and had considerable influence among scholars throughout the country since he dared to remonstrate with Yongzheng, so he had no choice but to lead him to the outer study to talk and asked, "Why did you stop?"

Hongli knew that his reforms to improve literacy rates would certainly provoke opposition from officials of gentry backgrounds, so he did not show any surprise.

“Compiling a common dictionary encourages students to take shortcuts in their studies, focusing solely on recognizing characters and reading texts. This will create many people with only a superficial understanding of the subject, who will be more easily misled, thus corrupting the moral character of scholars and the general public, making the court even more difficult to control!”

"If the promotion of the new phonetic notation method becomes a policy and is implemented, it will disturb the people! Local officials will inevitably curry favor with their superiors, forcibly forcing commoners to learn this method, and taking the opportunity to extort money!"

After answering very seriously, Sun Jiagan knelt down and kowtowed, saying, "Your Highness, please reconsider!"

Hongli nodded without saying a word after hearing this.

Although he felt that Sun Jiagan might be opposing him out of self-interest, what the other party said did make sense.

Seeing that Hongli remained silent for a long time, Sun Jiagan's face, staring at the floor tiles, became increasingly resolute.

Although he was known for his outspokenness and willingness to speak his mind, he was not entirely selfless.

After all, Sun Jiagan's act of recommending his younger brother for the position of Vice Director of the Imperial Academy, despite being the Chancellor of the Imperial Academy, was unacceptable to scholars, and he was also punished by Emperor Qianlong for protecting his subordinates in history.

He is different from Liu Tongxun.

Liu Tongxun pursued tangible benefits.

Therefore, he was willing to treat commoners with courtesy because he felt that the lessons of the fall of the Ming and the rise of the Qing had proven that while keeping the people ignorant might bring temporary peace, if the people never understood the order of propriety and governance, then when natural disasters or man-made calamities struck, another Li Zicheng or Zhang Xianzhong would emerge.

Sun Jiagan, however, pursues fame.

Sun Jiagan was well aware that compiling a common dictionary and promoting a new phonetic system were clearly aimed at increasing the literacy rate of the common people, making it more difficult for the gentry to monopolize writing and the dissemination of information at the grassroots level, and making it less conducive for him, a scholar-official, to act as a mediator between the emperor and the common people.

He must oppose such matters that are detrimental to the rights of the officials.

Otherwise, his accumulated fame would vanish.

His nepotism will be further amplified, making it even more difficult for him to practice nepotism in the future, thus allowing him to expand the power of his own faction.

Therefore, Hongli felt that Sun Jiagan might have ulterior motives.

Moreover, he came from a later era, not from a prince of this time whose education was primarily based on Confucianism.

Therefore, he never hesitated to speculate about these scholars with the utmost malice, based on the thinking he had learned in later generations, speculating from their standpoint and from their human nature.

But Hongli didn't say anything on the spot, only saying calmly, "I understand what you mean, I will think about it again."

However, Sun Jiagan's words did indeed discourage Hongli somewhat.

Because even a prominent official like Sun Jiagan, who had influence among bureaucrats and scholars, did not support it, the promotion of phonetic symbols would not succeed.

After all, grassroots education had become dominated by private schools controlled by the gentry, and the revitalization of community schools advocated by Yongzheng had little effect.

This is related to the fact that revitalizing community schools meant forcing children from ordinary families to study.

After all, few children from ordinary families could afford the expenses of community school.

If this is enforced, it will lead to clerks taking the opportunity to extort money from the people to avoid paying for their education.

Therefore, Emperor Yongzheng only advocated for it but dared not enforce it.

In this way, even if local officials responded to Yongzheng's call and established community schools, those who went to study there would either still be children of wealthy families or be students in fraudulent projects that swindled public funds.

The former is naturally no different from a private school, and can still be taught in the original way.

The latter, on the contrary, only benefited corrupt officials.

But Hongli was not completely discouraged.

The bureaucrats and officials have never been of one mind.

Even though Sun Jiagan had influence, not all scholars would heed his call.

Hongli could still find a group of civil officials willing to do this first, and conduct local pilot projects and promote it.

However, Sun Jiagan's reasons are not entirely without merit.

Therefore, Hongli did not give a direct answer, but only said that he would consider it.

"Get up and leave."

Hongli continued to speak on this matter.

"Thank you, Your Highness the Crown Prince!"

Sun Jiagan stood up, glanced at Hongli with a calm expression, and thought to himself that this Crown Prince was indeed not a stubborn person, but an enlightened heir who was willing to accept advice!
After thinking it over, Sun Jiagan showed a look of excitement, and after returning home, he smiled at Sun Yanggan and said, "Your entry into the Eastern Palace should be no problem!"

"is it?"

Sun Yanggan's face immediately lit up with joy.

Sun Jiagan nodded, confidently stroking his chin, and said, "If the Crown Prince values ​​my opinion, he will naturally value me personally, and therefore he will value you as well!"

"Then, brother, is the Crown Prince willing to stop compiling ordinary dictionaries and promote the new phonetic system?"

Sun Yanggan also asked Sun Jiagan curiously about what he was really going to do when he went to see Hongli today.

Sun Jiagan smirked and said coldly, "Your brother has never succeeded in anything he didn't want others to do!"

"As long as the person who wants to do this is a sensible person."

"After all, I have always opposed things with solid reasons, rather than with intimidation and deception."

"He truly is my elder brother!"

"To stop the emperor and remonstrate with the crown prince is undoubtedly another legendary tale among scholars!"

Sun Yanggan said to Sun Jiagan with an undisguised smile.

After having Sun Jiagan push him down, Hongli looked at Cao Zhan and sighed, "You see, educating the common people is no easy task!"

"But our master is the Crown Prince. What the Crown Prince wants to do, how can anyone but His Majesty stop him?"

Cao Zhan asked, puzzled.

Hongli smiled slightly: "Apart from His Majesty, no one else can stop us, but that doesn't mean they can't do something underhanded!"

"Moreover, the problems that Sun Jiagan raised are indeed true."

Upon hearing this, Cao Zhan couldn't help but ask, "Then, Master, is this matter truly beyond our control?"

"What the Crown Prince cannot accomplish does not mean that the Emperor cannot accomplish it!"

As he spoke, Hongli left the garden and headed towards the Yuanmingyuan.

In his view, it was time to give his father, Emperor Yongzheng, a chance to demonstrate his worth.

So, after meeting Yongzheng, Hongli told Yongzheng about this matter.

Therefore, Hongli deliberately frowned and said, "Your subject is at a loss as to what to do. Please enlighten me, Father!"

Emperor Yongzheng raised his eyebrows slightly, smiled, and thought to himself that even his formidable son had moments of helplessness.

"It's nothing. What new policy doesn't face various legitimate objections?"

"But, if it's something your father wants to do, then there's nothing he can't do!"

With great confidence, Yongzheng ordered, "Summon Sun Jiagan to the palace for an audience!"

After giving this instruction, Yongzheng said, "Just you wait and see. I can still accomplish whatever you want."

When Sun Jiagan excitedly came to see Yongzheng, he saw that Hongli was also there.

This made Sun Jiagan immediately guess that it was Hongli who told Yongzheng about his advice to Hongli.

Sun Jiagan was even more excited, knowing that this would allow him to showcase his insightful views before the emperor.

But Yongzheng did not ask about this matter. Instead, he asked, "Are the instructors at the Imperial Academy about to complete their terms?"

Sun Jiagan became even more excited after hearing what Yongzheng said.

His Majesty's question clearly indicates his intention to promote and give important positions to the instructors of the Imperial Academy.

He was the Chancellor of the Imperial Academy, and the instructors of the Imperial Academy had long been replaced by his former students and acquaintances.

Therefore, when Yongzheng wanted to promote and appoint instructors at the Imperial Academy, he was essentially promoting and appointing his own people!
This made Sun Jiagan increasingly believe that his words of advice to the Crown Prince had not only moved the Crown Prince but also Emperor Yongzheng, making Yongzheng determined to cultivate his own people ahead of time.

This is an attempt to groom oneself for a position of power!

Sun Jiagan felt as if he could already see the Military Affairs Department beckoning to him.

to this end.

Sun Jiagan immediately replied, "Your Majesty, is the assessment period about to end?"

What options are available?

Yongzheng asked.

Without hesitation, Sun Jiagan replied, "Your Majesty, Song Hao and the others are all suitable!"

"is it?"

Yongzheng immediately frowned.

But when he saw Hongli looking at him curiously with a thoughtful expression, he couldn't help but smile.
"Then go and bring them here for instructions. I will examine them one by one to see if they are suitable!"

Sun Jiagan was taken aback.

Hongli chuckled to himself, thinking, "Heh heh, this Sun Jiagan is clearly blinded by greed and has fallen for the tricks of this cunning old emperor, Yongzheng!"

Sun Jiagan was naturally the most aware of whether all of these Imperial Academy instructors were usable.

If the emperor were to personally investigate, he would surely find those who were merely pretending to be skilled musicians.

Then Sun Jiagan would be considered a minister who deceived the emperor!

Sun Jiagan's face turned pale instantly, and in his haste, he had no choice but to bite the bullet and say, "Fang Congren is unusable?"

“You just said that all of them are usable, but now you say that Fang Congren is not usable.”

"How can matters presented before the Emperor be treated so lightly?!"

(End of this chapter)