My father is Yongzheng, and I am Qianlong?

Chapter 359 How powerful was the Qianlong Emperor, whom Yongzheng taught? The Eight Banners cried out that their gratitude was never-ending!
Yongzheng's face darkened, and he looked coldly at Sun Jiagan, while glancing sideways at Hongli.

At this moment, Hongli deliberately widened his eyes and looked at Sun Jiagan.

Then, Hongli turned back to look at Yongzheng, deliberately keeping his mouth slightly open.

Emperor Yongzheng straightened his back even more, stood up with great spirit, and walked up to Sun Jiagan: "Do I need to teach you the four words 'serve the emperor with sincerity'?"

Hongli also looked at Sun Jiagan and thought to himself, "Well, as expected, Yongzheng has succeeded in his act."

Okay, fine, let you pretend then!
Anyway, you're the emperor now, and I'm just the emperor of the future.

Sun Jiagan's body trembled slightly.

"What, you want to deny it? Deny that you didn't say such contradictory things just now?"

"It's all recorded in the daily records!"

Yongzheng looked down at Sun Jiagan and pointed at Hongli: "Now you see, these upright Confucian officials, very few of them are truly selfless gentlemen, they all have their own selfish motives!"

“Sun Jiagan is the same!”

“This phenomenon began when he recommended his younger brother as the Vice Director of the Imperial Academy, and it continues now with his former students and friends.”

"I only need to test it slightly to expose its true nature."

Yongzheng then asked Sun Jiagan, "Sun Jiagan, tell me in front of me and the Crown Prince, did you commit this act of deceiving the emperor because of your own selfish motives?"

Sun Jiagan closed his eyes briefly.

He now hates Yongzheng to the core!
After all, not only did Yongzheng set him up like this, but he also used him as an example to teach the Crown Prince not to completely trust these upright Confucian officials.

He doesn't understand!

Why didn't Emperor Yongzheng die sooner? Why did he have to continue to torment them like this, stripping away all the dignity of these Confucian officials?
But outwardly, Sun Jiagan could only helplessly reply, "Your subject is guilty!"

"You are not only guilty, you are guilty of deceiving the emperor, a capital offense!"

Yongzheng pointed at Sun Jiagan and said sternly.

Sun Jiagan had no choice but to echo, "Yes, I deserve to die!"

As Sun Jiagan spoke, he clenched his teeth, his eyes turned bloodshot, and veins bulged on his forehead.

What are you angry about?

"You think I've wronged you?"

"Or are you deliberately trying to create the impression that I have wronged you, so as to continue your act of deceiving the emperor?"

Upon seeing this, Yongzheng coldly questioned Sun Jiagan.

Sun Jiagan said, "Your Majesty has not wronged me. I am angry because I have failed you!"

"Summon Zhang Tingyu."

At this moment, Yongzheng gave an order.

Before long, Zhang Tingyu, the chief Grand Councilor, arrived at Yongzheng's place.

"Draft an imperial edict to hand Sun Jiagan over to the Ministry of Justice for trial!"

Emperor Yongzheng gave an order.

Zhang Tingyu was slightly taken aback.

"Whoo!"

But then, he replied with an expressionless face and retreated to his duty room in the Grand Council, facing Yongzheng and Hongli.

After the establishment of the Grand Council, its offices were all located very close to the emperor's sleeping quarters.

Therefore, whether Zhang Tingyu came to receive the imperial edict or went back to the Grand Council to draft the edict for Yongzheng, it would be done very quickly.

After Zhang Tingyu delivered the drafted edict to Emperor Yongzheng for review, Yongzheng nodded in approval.

Zhang Tingyu then withdrew and formally copied it into an imperial edict.

Sun Jiagan was taken away by the imperial guards, but he still kept a straight face as he was being led away.

Upon seeing this, Hongli chuckled to himself.

He could only lament that Sun Jiagan had never imagined that Yongzheng would have noticed the detail of his recommendation of his own younger brother as the Director of the Imperial Academy long ago, and that Yongzheng was incredibly sensitive to subtle changes.

Not to mention Sun Jiagan, he could see through even the subtle thoughts hidden in Lao Ba's mind.

It should be noted that Emperor Yongzheng was very attentive to details, to the point that even the slightest detail, such as the Eighth Prince's weight gain after his birth mother's death, was noticed.

“I didn’t actually intend to kill Sun Jiagan, but now that I’ve imprisoned him, it will create public opinion.”

"Just you wait and see. Sun Jiagan's disciples and old friends aren't that stupid. They'll come looking for you and bring you Sun Jiagan's latest ideas."

"I have rejected Sun Jiagan, and they need you to reaffirm his position so that they can affirm their entire faction!"

Then Yongzheng turned to Hongli and whispered, “You should first do them this favor and get them to support your civil administration work, and then they will praise you. In this way, you will have the momentum to promote your new phonetic notation method throughout the country in the future.”

"Father is my best teacher!"

"What I learned from my father cannot be learned from books!"

Hongli immediately clasped his hands in a deep fist salute and bowed in response.

Yongzheng smiled, his body seemingly softening slightly, and waved his hand, saying, "This is nothing. What you need to do is not a policy that can cause serious damage to the powerful and wealthy right now, so there is no need to go to great lengths."

"On the contrary, the reform of the banner system will be much more difficult to do next."

"You should start learning first."

Yongzheng said.

"Whoo!"

"What should we do? Mr. Jingxuan has been imprisoned!"

"How can we save him? If Mr. Jingxuan is convicted, what will happen to those of us who are close to him?"

"The key question is, how will the Crown Prince view those of us who follow Mr. Jingxuan?"

Immediately, the government and the public alike began to discuss the matter of Sun Jiagan's imprisonment.

With the help of Shu Hai, the Minister of Justice, Sun Yanggan even managed to meet Sun Jiagan in prison.

Upon seeing Sun Jiagan, Sun Yanggan hurriedly asked, "Brother, why is this happening? How could you have committed the crime of deceiving the emperor?"

"Hey!"

Sun Jiagan sighed first, and then said, "I thought His Majesty valued me more because of the Crown Prince's advice, which is why he summoned me! Who knew that His Majesty wanted to use me as an example to teach the Crown Prince how to distinguish between loyalty and treachery!"

"And I, in a moment of confusion, acted as a treacherous protector, shamelessly saying that all the instructors at the Imperial Academy could be employed."

"His Majesty is wise and does not believe that there are no charlatans among the ranks, so he has decided to conduct the trial personally."

"Therefore I have to tell the truth: Fang Congren is not suitable for use! You know, he even succeeded in the imperial examination by muddling through. If it weren't for the fact that he's from our hometown, we wouldn't have let him enter the Imperial Academy as an instructor. If His Majesty really tests him, he will surely find something wrong!"

Sun Jiagan said, "But upon closer examination, the root of this matter is that I advised the Crown Prince against compiling that dictionary and promoting that new phonetic notation method."

Hearing this, Sun Yanggan looked intently at Sun Jiagan: "Is it related to this?"

"I suspect that's the reason."

"Otherwise, Your Majesty wouldn't have suddenly asked me about the completion of the examination period for instructors at the Imperial Academy at this time."

Sun Jiagan replied.

Upon hearing this, Sun Yanggan said, "So, only if my brother changes his story can he have a chance to escape death?"

Sun Jiagan nodded.

then.

Sun Jiagan picked up a document from the table and handed it to Sun Yanggan: "I have rewritten a statement. You must give it to the Crown Prince for me. Take Song Hao and the others with you. Only in this way can I save my life!"

"This time, it's different from before. This time, I, your brother, have truly committed the heinous crime of deceiving the emperor!"

Sun Yanggan nodded after hearing this, and subsequently, he indeed brought many upright officials to Langrun Garden to request an audience with Hongli.

Hongli naturally met with these people.

"Your Highness, this is a document that my elder brother carefully considered while in prison, and he specifically asked me to deliver it to you."

"My elder brother meant that his previous advice against you compiling a general dictionary and promoting the new phonetic system was ill-considered and his reasons were completely wrong."

"Because those who seek shortcuts in learning already exist even without the promotion of this new phonetic notation method; but the compilation of a common dictionary that is easy for young scholars to learn will at least allow more young scholars who are willing to learn more characters to learn more characters faster, and thus be able to carry out further learning. Whether or not they seek shortcuts is entirely up to them, and has nothing to do with whether learning characters will be easier to study in detail."

"There is no need to worry about disturbing the people when promoting the new phonetic system, as long as the court does not use it to enforce the law or to assess officials."

After meeting Hongli, Sun Yanggan explained his purpose for coming.

After saying this, Sun Yanggan bowed and said, "Your Highness is concerned about the country and advocates civil administration, which is a blessing for the world. Your virtuous rule will surely be widely spread; we all admire you!"

"Your Highness is concerned about the nation and advocates civil administration, which is a blessing for the world. Your virtuous character will surely be widely recognized; we all admire and respect you!"

"Your Highness is concerned about the nation and advocates civil administration, which is a blessing for the world. Your virtuous character will surely be widely recognized; we all admire and respect you!"

The upright officials who came with Sun Yanggan all echoed his sentiments.

Hongli looked at these people indifferently, sneering inwardly. He thought to himself, "These Han Chinese officials who follow Sun Jiagan are indeed very flexible on principles."

"You all get up."

At this moment, Hongli raised his hand.

These people all stood up. "Thank you, Your Highness!"

Hongli laughed and said, "It is rare that Mr. Jingxuan finally approves of what I did. I am very pleased. It is just a pity that he should not have acted so frivolously in front of the Khan. It is akin to a child deceiving the emperor."

"My elder brother himself is also filled with remorse."

"Although Fang Congren has always been diligent in his teaching, he lacks talent and learning, so he is not accepted by the students of the Imperial Academy. However, my elder brother is still willing to give him a chance, believing that although he lacks talent, his virtue is sufficient to be honest and frugal. Therefore, he did not say to His Majesty that he was unusable, but said that he was usable."

"I say this with absolutely no intention of complaining that Your Majesty should not be so diligent in governing and personally inquiring about matters!"

Sun Yanggan knelt down and kowtowed again at this point: "I only ask that Your Highness know that although my elder brother has indeed deceived the emperor, he has no intention of doing so!"

"Although Mr. Jingxuan has indeed deceived the emperor, he has no intention of doing so. I beg Your Highness to see the truth!"

"Although Mr. Jingxuan has indeed deceived the emperor, he has no intention of doing so. I beg Your Highness to see the truth!"

……

The other upright officials who followed also began to defend Sun Jiagan.

Hongli nodded after hearing this: "I see. I will go and speak to Father Khan to ask him to be lenient towards him!"

"Your Highness's benevolence is as vast as the heavens; we are deeply grateful!"

Sun Yanggan and the others kowtowed again.

Hongli then actually met with Yongzheng and showed him Sun Jiagan's handwritten manuscript, saying, "As expected, everything is under Father's control. Sun Jiagan changed his mind so quickly."

“Sun Jiagan was greedy for fame but not for money, but his greed for fame was ultimately for power. He even secretly developed a faction in order to become the prime minister of our Great Qing Dynasty in the future, and a prime minister with overwhelming power.”

"This can be seen as a further promotion of Han officials, allowing them to enter the Grand Council and participate in decision-making, which has its drawbacks."

"Therefore, Hongli, you should be more wary of ministers like this in the future."

Yongzheng then took this opportunity to carefully instruct Hongli.

Hongli nodded, gazing at Yongzheng.

Upon seeing this, Yongzheng became even more interested: "However, it's not that such people are unusable, or even unreliable; on the contrary, they can be highly valued, even more so than greedy officials."

"Because, who knows, if you employ them properly, you might turn them into virtuous ministers; and as you yourself said, whether they are virtuous or not is not up to them, the key is how the monarch uses them. When a monarch uses people, he never looks at whether they are virtuous or villainous. Sometimes, the people he appoints may not be virtuous."

"Father is right, I have benefited greatly from this!"

Hongli replied.

Emperor Yongzheng then stood up, stretched his limbs, and laughed, “As for Sun Jiagan, I will spare his life and allow him to work in the Ministry of Revenue’s treasury. He can be employed in the future, and he may still become a virtuous minister and capable assistant.”

Hongli had to admit that Yongzheng was indeed good at persecuting people. Knowing that Sun Jiagan was greedy for fame but not for money, he spared Sun's life and even sent him to work in the Ministry of Revenue's treasury.

Sun Jiagan soon received an imperial decree ordering him to work in the Ministry of Revenue's treasury.

Upon receiving this imperial decree, Sun Jiagan was lost in thought and then squatted down on the ground, covering his face and sobbing uncontrollably.

"Your Majesty is benevolent and wise; your humble servant admires you to the fullest!"

And here we are.

No one objected to Emperor Hongli compiling a general dictionary and phonetic textbooks anymore.

The officials of the Eastern Palace recommended by Song Shou and Liu Tongxun also cooperated in doing this.

Meanwhile, Hongzhou went to the Northwest to investigate Celing's embezzlement of money and grain. He also found out that the Deputy Commander-in-Chief, A-San, had hidden him, thus clearing Celing's name.

However, due to his oversight, Tsering was dismissed from his post as Grand General and demoted to Beile, and ordered to assist Marsai in managing Mongolian affairs.

However, Hongzhou was not promoted to prince as a result.

Because, according to Yongzheng's purpose, he wanted to confirm that Celeng was guilty of embezzlement.

After all, that way he could blame Hongli for his oversight, thus slightly dampening the spirits of the crown prince.

However, Hongzhou did not do that, which prevented Hongli from being suppressed.

Emperor Yongzheng, naturally unwilling to promote his uncooperative son to the rank of prince so quickly, simply restored his salary on the grounds of meritorious service in investigating the case.

But Hongzhou didn't care. He knew that he would be a prince sooner or later, and if not now, he would be next.

And almost at the same time.

Yue Zhongqi was also impeached by Deputy General Zhang Guangsi for being too biased towards the Manchu Chala in the past handling of the Chala desertion incident, which almost caused a miscarriage of justice. Emperor Yongzheng issued an edict to severely reprimand him, saying that he was careless and negligent in his work, treating the important military affairs of the country as trivial matters, and that his rewards and punishments were unfair and his orders were inconsistent. Therefore, he was dismissed from his post and ordered to retire.

At this point, the commanders of the Western Route Army and the Northern Route Army recommended by Hongli were all dismissed from their posts after the surrender of prisoners due to some mistakes.

Both armies were subsequently withdrawn to their original garrisons.

In the early part of the tenth year of the Yongzheng Emperor's reign, he did indeed hold a grand ceremony to present captured prisoners.

The two chief and junior chiefs were the main figures who were captured and handed over to the authorities.

Neither of them expected to become victims because of Galdan Tsering's ambition.

"I hope I won't have to participate in wars in my next life!"

Even when Emperor Yongzheng ordered Da Ce Ling Dun Duo Bu to be executed, he uttered such a sentiment.

Xiao Ce Ling Dun Duo Bu simply said, "If it weren't for Hongli overseeing the country, we might not have lost!"

"Why say all this? You've already lost to Hongli, so be prepared to admit defeat!"

Both were eventually executed.

They were originally supposed to be executed by slow slicing, but Emperor Yongzheng granted them special mercy and changed it to immediate beheading, to show his leniency.

Zeng Jing and Zhang Xi were also executed by order of Emperor Yongzheng, who, in order to show his benevolence, only issued an edict for their immediate execution.

Because, in principle, these two should also have been subjected to the death by a thousand cuts.

However, in this life, because Hongli made Yongzheng understand that the stance of a class cannot be changed, Yongzheng did not choose to spare the lives of the two men.

As Zeng Jing was being led to the execution ground, she gave Zhang Xi a bitter smile.

Zhang Xi was extremely frustrated: "Master, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have betrayed you."

Zeng Jing smiled again and said, "It's alright, this is a way for us to make a name for ourselves in history."

"You've made your mark in history!"

Zeng Jing sighed and looked up at the sky. Then, she and Zhang Xi were beheaded at the execution ground.

In July of the tenth year of the Yongzheng Emperor's reign, besides organizing his close advisors in the Eastern Palace to compile a common dictionary and phonetic notation, Hongli was also ordered to take imperial funds to comfort the Eight Banner households who had been injured or killed in the Northwest War.

On this day, after paying his respects at the garden, Hongli rode in an eight-bearer sedan chair to the consolation route arranged by the Eight Banners Commander's Office to comfort the Eight Banners households whose members had been injured or killed.

Although it was a gloomy and rainy day, the presence of the city guard battalion and auxiliary defense battalion meant that the area around Donkey Meat Alley in Xizhimen was still free of a pungent stench.

However, the roads inevitably became muddy and difficult to navigate, and this became even more pronounced the closer one got to the lower- and middle-class Manchu households.

Because the upper-class bannermen would also lay stone slabs in front of their houses to show some respect.

Before alighting from his sedan chair in front of a Manchu family whose members had been injured or killed, Emperor Hongli heard a series of mournful sounds. After getting out of the sedan chair, he saw that white banners had been hung in front of the family's gate.

Looking around, Hongli saw that in the entire area of ​​Donkey Meat Alley where the Plain Red Banner was concentrated, there were a few banner households with white decorations, which stood out among the green tiles and blue bricks!

Fortunately, there weren't rows of white banners, and the victorious charge made the atmosphere less somber.

Hongli entered the house in front of him and saw a young woman kneeling under a large black character for "offering sacrifice".

The young woman looked utterly dejected, as thin as a sheet of paper, as if she would collapse at the slightest touch; her eyes were swollen to the size of walnuts.

Behind the young woman, a child dressed in hemp cloth was taking advantage of her inattention to get up and knock on the dark coffin.

Another young man knelt to the side of the young woman and kowtowed to Hongli, saying, "Niohuru Changbaojia, the fourteenth Zuo Ling of the Second Battalion of the Manchu Plain Red Banner, greets Your Highness!"

"no."

"The fallen are yours?"

Hongli raised his hand and asked.

"Your Highness, it is my younger brother!"

He replied in a low mood.

Hongli nodded, and then personally stepped forward to offer three sticks of incense to the deceased.

This scene brought tears to the eyes of Chang Bao and even the Manchus present, and the young woman couldn't help but sob.

Hongli then simply had someone hand over the extra pension funds allocated from the imperial treasury and asked a few questions about the family's situation.

Afterwards, Hongli went to another house, which had no dead, only wounded.

The wounded man, dressed in a maroon cloth shirt and pale-faced, was being helped by his family to walk outside. They had just passed a brick wall where cotton armor was hanging.

"Shumulu Dexiang, the 14th Zuo Ling of the Second Battalion of the Manchu Plain Red Banner, pays his respects to His Highness the Crown Prince!"

When Hongli saw the family performing the thousand-step salute to him, he saw that the wounded man of the family was performing the thousand-step salute to him with his two bare arms, which had no palms and were wrapped in cloth.

Hongli immediately came over and helped him up: "Get up, both of you."

then.

Hongli asked a few questions about how the man got injured and the extent of his injuries, and then instructed him: "If you have a fever, do not try to tough it out; seek medical attention immediately."

"Yes, Your Highness! Thank you for your instructions!"

Hongli nodded, and then had the silver presented. The head of the household, Dexiang, burst into tears and knelt down, saying, "Your Highness's kindness is something we can never repay in several lifetimes!"

(End of this chapter)