My father is Yongzheng, and I am Qianlong?

Chapter 368 What principles will Emperor Qianlong uphold to become the most unyielding emperor of the Qing Dynasty!

After bowing his head, Yu Hongtu trembled uncontrollably in front of Yin Jishan.

Despite the blazing fire in front of him.

However, the newly appeared post truly made him tremble with fear.

Yin Jishan frowned: "What does this have to do with the Crown Prince?"

He has now also received such a notice and is planning to report it to the imperial court.

However, after Yu Hongtu said that, he still asked him a question.

Yin Jishan asked this question because what Crown Prince Hongli was doing was not nominally aimed at the scholar-officials.

First of all, the post was an anonymous exposé.

Secondly, distributing cotton-padded clothes and other items to the people was also done under the guise of benefiting the people, so that they could listen to lectures and learn proverbs.

Finally, the order to have children sing newly composed nursery rhymes and for the common people to listen to dramas was not issued by the Crown Prince, but rather was spontaneously participated in by bondservants under the Imperial Household Department.

Can we say that Crown Prince Hongli was targeting the scholar-officials?
Of course it's impossible.

This is similar to how Hongli couldn't directly say that the slanderous accusations against him were the work of scholar-officials.

After Yin Jishan asked him that question, Yu Hongtu realized that he had spoken out of turn.

However, this only made him look more frustrated, and his facial muscles twitched several times, but he couldn't utter a single word.

He had never felt so frustrated!

Because as long as he couldn't challenge the Crown Prince, he could only watch helplessly as the Crown Prince rallied the people to persecute them, while he couldn't utter a single word of complaint.

After a long pause, Yu Hongtu finally gritted his teeth and knelt down, pleading, "Please, Your Excellency, save me!"

"What are you doing?"

"Get up quickly."

Yin Jishan immediately said.

Yu Hongtu stood up.

"A person with an upright character has nothing to fear. As long as you haven't accepted bribes, what is there to be afraid of if someone exposes you?"

Yin Jishan then said this.

Yu Hongtu gritted his teeth again, his face turning red, but he couldn't say anything.

Yin Jishan gave a cold laugh.

"I'll take my leave!"

Yu Hongtu didn't say anything more, and then bowed and left Yin Jishan's place.

……

"Your Highness, a letter from Governor Yin Jishan of Henan mentions that the officials and gentry of Henan are becoming increasingly uneasy or furious because of the numerous posters about them that have appeared in Kaifeng, Luoyang, Guide and other places. They are constantly demanding that the government allow them to arrest the people who posted the posters and those who incite trouble."

Yuqing Palace.

When Emperor Yongzheng was determined to strengthen tax administration and crack down on smuggling, in order to accumulate more wealth for Emperor Hongli.

Songshou reported to Hongli on the situation of the "public opinion war" from Henan.

Upon hearing this, Hongli smiled knowingly, picked up a jade ruyi from the table, and stroked it gently, saying, "In accordance with the Crown Prince's decree, warn Yin Jishan that he must cherish the people and must not use the power of the government to harass them or condone the powerful and influential."

"Although he is a Manchu official, he also has the responsibility to protect the land and its people! He must be benevolent and control the abuse of power!"

"Whoo!"

Liu Tongxun then stepped forward and said, “Your Highness, many corrupt officials in Henan, such as Sheng Mingkun, have been arrested because of conclusive evidence, and officials like Yu Hongtu have been imprisoned because of conclusive evidence of bribery. Their relatives and friends have come to me, begging Your Highness to have mercy and save them.”

"Then tell them that I will not save a single corrupt official or gentry with a bad record. To do so would be to betray the country and its people!" "They are only waiting for the Emperor's grace!"

Hongli responded in a deep voice.

Liu Tongxun said, "Their relatives and friends have expressed their willingness to sacrifice their families to help the Crown Prince to benefit the people and spread benevolence!"

Hongli could tell that these people wanted to use Liu Tongxun to show him that they were willing to spend money to avoid trouble.

Do I look like someone who's short of money?

Hongli then asked Liu Tongxun a question in response.

"I am a woman of principle. I will not accept the all-encompassing wealth of officials and gentry of such despicable character!"

"Principles, do you understand?"

Liu Tongxun bowed deeply, his face full of admiration, and said, "Your subject understands!"

Hongli didn't say anything more.

He is indeed a man of principle.

He won't let anyone who dares to mess with him off easily.

He also needs to teach these people a lesson: some things, once done, cannot be settled simply by spending money.

Besides, as the crown prince, if he really needed money, plenty of people would give it to him willingly. He didn't need to compromise for anyone's family fortune.

After all, the Qing Dynasty was a society based on power, where having power was more effective than anything else.

These scholar-officials, in order to maintain their privilege of controlling knowledge and information, secretly used anonymous posts to slander him.

Emperor Qianlong wanted to increase the literacy rate of the people in order to make himself more powerful, so that he could mobilize a larger scale of human and material resources to influence the world, rather than just wanting to become extremely powerful in China.

Therefore, unlike Emperor Qianlong in history, he would not suppress Han gentry to maintain his authority while simultaneously winning them over, working with them to keep the people ignorant, supporting them in further exploiting the populace, and accepting benefits to act as a protector of their evil deeds. For example, he would initiate the system of "negotiated fines" to completely turn his imperial power into a tradable asset.

More than half a month later, Sheng Mingkun learned from Yu Hongtu in prison that the Crown Prince refused to accept their money in order to let them go.

This made Sheng Mingkun even more frustrated and dejected: "So this young master really holds a grudge against us! He doesn't care about the money at all in order to save face."

"To put it bluntly, he is, after all, the crown prince of the Qing Dynasty. In the Qing Dynasty with the Eight Banners, he doesn't need to care about the feelings of us scholar-officials. Besides, he has a good father who works hard to save money for him, so naturally he can be indifferent to money."

Yu Hongtu sighed and said, "I was also exposed by a denunciation notice, for those things that the Education Commissioner's Office did! But these things are fine if they are not brought to light, but once they are brought to light, in the Qing Dynasty, they will naturally be sentenced to death, especially in the present Qing Dynasty!"

Yu Hongtu's expression also revealed despair.

"I suddenly feel so much hatred, so much hatred for those Han Chinese who supported the Qing Dynasty's entry into China!"

Sheng Mingkun suddenly burst into tears and uttered some heartfelt words.

……

"The Ministry of Justice has reached a decision."

“Sheng Mingkun raped and murdered his aunt, which is a violation of human ethics, an insult to his elders, and a heinous crime. He should be sentenced to death by a thousand cuts.”

"Yu Hongtu accepted bribes from powerful and influential families in Henan. He only admitted sons of these families to the provincial examinations, leaving those from poor families with no hope. This ruined the imperial court's talent selection ceremony, damaged public morale, and fueled resentment among scholars. He should be executed immediately, and his family's assets from bribery should be confiscated!"

In February of the eleventh year of the Yongzheng Emperor's reign, as spring returned to the earth, the snow on the vermilion eaves of the Forbidden City began to melt.

As the weather warmed up, Emperor Yongzheng felt more energetic and came directly to the Grand Council almost every day to listen to reports and then convey edicts to the Grand Council ministers in person.

On a sunny morning that month, Fu'erdan, who was in charge of all matters in the Ministry of Justice, reported to Emperor Yongzheng on the situation of two recent cases.

Emperor Yongzheng knew that this was the work of Crown Prince Hongli.

But he didn't try to stop it, only replying calmly:
"All approved! The Qing Dynasty will not tolerate the existence of such perverse officials and gentry who undermine the very foundation of the court!"

"Whoo!"

(End of this chapter)