I, Kangxi, am here to overthrow the Qing and restore the Ming!

The grand court assembly on the eighth day of the first lunar month has ended.

The lingering effects of the rewards for meritorious service still echoed in the capital, but for the Manchu nobles, the numerous Han Chinese bestowals on their titles and honors were more painful than the cold wind from beyond the Great Wall.

As night fell, in a side hall of Suo'etu's residence, the silver charcoal in the brazier burned brightly.

Several burly figures sat together, all of them Manchu nobles.

"First-class duke...heh, a duke with an iron cap."

Wadai, the commander of the Bordered Yellow Banner, sneered, slamming his teacup down heavily. His eyes were so sinister they looked like he wanted to devour someone: "Zhao Liangdong, Wang Jinbao, what are these Han Chinese? Back then, they were nothing but slaves kneeling before our horses, and now they're riding on our necks and defecating!"

"These generals command large armies, and Zhao Liangdong has built an impregnable stronghold in the southwest; we cannot easily touch him."

Another Manchu nobleman lowered his voice, his tone revealing a deep sense of apprehension: "The Emperor is currently favoring them like a newlywed concubine. It's not worth it for us to risk offending him."

Soetu sat to one side, his eyelids slightly lowered, fiddling with the prayer beads in his hand. After a long while, he finally uttered a soft, murmured sentence:

"If we can't touch the generals, what about those who manufacture firearms?"

Upon hearing this, everyone's eyes lit up.

In the eyes of the Manchu nobles, Dai Zi was an anomaly.

This young man is only twenty-three years old this year. He has the typical appearance of a scholar from Jiangnan, unkempt, and even a bit of a tech geek.

But this "homebody" slapped the faces of the Manchu generals hard on the battlefield of suppressing the Three Feudatories.

Dai Zi once built a rocket in eight days, something that Nan Huairen had been struggling to perfect for a year. The emperor personally bestowed upon it the name "General Weiyuan".

They even managed to replicate the Dutch musket within a short period of time, alarming the Dutch envoy who thought their own blueprints had been leaked.

"The Shenji Battalion was wreaking havoc on all sides at the front, all thanks to this kid's firearms."

Wadai gritted his teeth, a hint of fear flashing in his eyes: "If every Han Chinese had such a weapon, what use would our Eight Banners' cavalry archery be?"

The Manchus entered the pass by relying on fast horses and curved swords, and on military force.

If the technological gap were closed or even surpassed by the Han people, then the foundation of the Manchu rule would be completely rotten.

Soetu sneered: "How can we let the Han people ride on our Manchu heads? Let's start with Dai Zi! Perfect timing, that foreign devil Ferdinand Verbiest hates him to the bone too."

The next afternoon, at the cannon foundry.

Dai Zi was squatting in front of a cannon barrel, his face covered in oil as he checked the rifling.

For him, the cold, hard feel of metal was far more interesting than the flattery in the imperial court.

"Lord Dai, you've got quite the airs!"

Vadai, accompanied by a squad of personal guards, stormed in.

He swaggered up to Dai Zi and kicked a nearby part with his leather boot: "The Emperor put you in charge of casting cannons because of the Manchus. Hand over the blueprints for the 'repeating firearm' so we Manchus can take it back to the camp to study it."

Dai Zi didn't even raise his head, his voice cold: "That's a crucial military weapon. The blueprints are with the Emperor; I don't have them here."

"Are you fucking kidding me?"

Wadai, with his fiery temper, grabbed Dai Zi by the collar.

This rough-and-tumble man, hardened by battle, held the utmost contempt for weak, scholarly types: "You're Han Chinese, but the Qing Dynasty was conquered by us Manchus. Your skills belong to us Manchus, understand?"

Dai Zi looked him straight in the eye and said, word by word:

"The Qing Dynasty belongs to the Emperor, not to you, Wadai. If you want the blueprints, bring me the imperial decree."

"Snapped!"

Wadai slapped Dai Zi across the face: "You dog, you really think you're a human being? You're nothing but a dog of the Manchus!"

Dai Zi didn't back down.

Although this scholar was of average build, he possessed the unyielding spirit of a scholar from Jiangnan.

He grabbed the hammer next to him and, before Wadai could react, smashed it into Wadai's shoulder guard.

Wadai was caught off guard and winced in pain: "Rebellion! The Han people are attacking the Manchus! Guards, there's a rebellion!"

The brawl quickly escalated into a political event.

On Songgotu's case file, there were piles of petitions impeaching Dai Zi.

Nan Huairen even personally joined forces with a group of officials who had been "technically outmatched" by Dai Zi to fabricate a shocking case.

Charge 1: Colluding with Japan. Dai Zi’s father was a Ming army officer, and the father and son attempted to “beg for help from Japan to restore the Ming Dynasty”.

Second charge: Disrespect for ancestral rules, claiming that the promotion of firearms was intended to abolish the Manchus' fundamental art of horsemanship and archery.

Third charge: He harbored ulterior motives and refused to share firearms technology, intending to incite a rebellion.

Looking at the drafts prepared by his subordinates, Songgotu dipped his pen in thick ink and wrote four large characters on the folded paper: "Defending against the Han is more important than defending against the foreigners."

His logic was simple: foreigners wanted money, while Han Chinese wanted their lives. He would rather let the Qing Dynasty's technology stagnate than let Han Chinese master this world-destroying power!

Therefore, it is proposed that Dai Zi be stripped of his title and his entire family exiled to Ningguta!

......

Inside the Hall of Mental Cultivation, Hong Xiguan looked at the stack of folded documents presented by Suo'etu and laughed in exasperation.

"It's more important to guard against Han Chinese than against foreigners..."

As a time traveler, he knew all too well what those words meant.

In the original history, Dai Zi was indeed exiled by Emperor Kangxi and spent the rest of his life in poverty and hardship in the icy wilderness beyond the Great Wall.

With the passing of Dai Zi, the golden age of firearms research and development in China came to an abrupt end.

During the reign of Emperor Kangxi, the Weiyuan General Cannon, invented by Dai Zi, swept across the frontier.

However, by 1840, the Qing army was still using artillery stockpiled from the Kangxi era to fight against the British army.

Emperor Qianlong, that arrogant tyrant, locked the technology left by Dai Zi in a warehouse and even deliberately destroyed a large number of documents that could have changed his fate.

"Preventing Han Chinese from entering the country was more important than preventing foreigners from entering... This was the national policy of the Qing Dynasty!"

A wave of sorrow welled up in Hong Xiguan's heart.

The Manchu rulers had a narrow vision, always seeing themselves as plunderers of this land and endlessly exploiting the Han people.

In order to maintain the interests of the Eight Banners, they did not hesitate to cut down the entire nation's technological development, guarding against the Han people as if they were thieves, fearing that the Han people would grow stronger.

In the Qing Dynasty, there were one Manchu and one Han minister in the Six Ministries. The Manchu minister held the seal of office, while the Han minister did the actual work.

This is a typical example of checks and balances in power, rather than for the sake of national strength.

Even though Kangxi was historically Hong Chengchou's son, because the Eight Banners were too powerful, Kangxi could only consider himself a Manchu and was afraid that others would know he was Han Chinese. Therefore, literary inquisitions were most prevalent during Kangxi's reign, and he tried his best to eliminate unofficial histories from the public.

During the reign of Emperor Qianlong, things went even worse. He directly destroyed a large number of Han Chinese documents and recompiled the Siku Quanshu (Complete Library of the Four Treasuries), completely destroying them!

Emperor Kangxi also had to protect the interests of the Eight Banners and suppress the Han people, because he needed to preserve his throne!

"Do you want to wage a literary inquisition? Do you want to destroy documents? Do you want to keep the people of this land ignorant?"

Hong Xiguan stood up, his eyes gleaming with an unprecedented coldness: "I will not agree!"

"Summon Soetu, Wadai, and Ferdinand Verbiest to the palace."

When the three people entered the main hall, they were still unaware of the seriousness of the problem.

Wadai, in particular, clutched his shoulder, which had been bruised by Dai Zi, and was preparing to put on a good show of "a loyal minister being humiliated" in front of the emperor.

"Your Majesty, that Dai Zi is simply..."

"Shut up!"

Hong Xiguan suddenly slammed the stack of folded papers onto Wadai's face. The papers flew everywhere, and Wadai was so jolted that he staggered and fell to his knees on the spot.

"When I was fighting in the south, why didn't I see you all so energetic?"

Hong Xiguan stepped down the stairs and scolded him like a dog: "Ferdinand Verbiest, you foreign devil! I ordered you to build new cannons, and you've been working on it for a year with no progress, while Dai Zi built them in eight days. Are you jealous? You want to play those baseless accusations?"

Ferdinand Verbiest was so frightened that his face turned ashen and his whole body trembled.