The swansong of the swansong

Chapter 105: Kangxi Rolls His Eyes

After Kangxi arrived in Rehe, the entire Qing Dynasty court organization was divided into two.

Among the six officials of the Ministry of War, the one who came to the palace was the Left Vice Minister Sun Lang.

According to the rules of the imperial court, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of War was in charge of the appointment, dismissal and assessment of Green Camp military officers across the country.

As we all know, officials in charge of hats, whether civil or military, are all important figures of real power.

Because Yinyou was a prince in charge of the ministry and Sun Lang was in the Rehe Palace, Sun Lang brought a list of adjustments to the Green Camp military officers and went to the signing room of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to meet Yinyou.

The temporary office of the Ministry of Internal Affairs was located on the right side of Dehui Gate.

After all, Sun Lang was a second-rank minister, so Yinyou did not let him wait outside the door for long and soon met him.

"I am Sun Lang, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of War. I am here to pay my respects to the Fifteenth Master." Sun Lang was a Han official, so he just bowed deeply to the ground.

"No need to be polite." Yinyu stood up to greet him and said politely, "Young Sima, please sit down and talk. Someone, bring the tea."

After the host and the guest were seated, Sun Lang went straight to the point and explained the purpose of his visit in detail.

Yinyu nodded and said, "I think Shao Sima also knows this. I just took over the Ministry of War and am not familiar with many situations."

Sun Lang immediately understood Yinyou's hint, and he bowed and said, "Then I will give you the list and wait for your instructions."

Yinyou had exactly this intention, so he readily agreed.

After finishing the official business, Sun Lang did not rush to say goodbye, but picked out a few important things and told Yinyou a few of them.

Yinyou understood instantly that Sun Lang was trying to show his goodwill to him.

Among the six ministries of the Qing Dynasty, the Ministry of War was only slightly cleaner than the Ministry of Rites.

However, even the most humble government offices have their own important positions. For example, Sun Lang himself is one of the most powerful officials in the Ministry of War.

To put it bluntly, as long as the news spread, the court would mobilize the officers of the Green Camp in various places. Even if Sun Lang sat at home and did nothing, he would still make a fortune.

To be honest, in the Qing Dynasty, the officers of the Green Camp were generally more than ten times richer than the officers of the Eight Banners.

Because the Eight Banners soldiers were hereditary positions, and everyone had a fixed salary that had to be paid every month. Even if the generals, assistant commanders, and assistant commanders wanted to eat empty salaries, they didn't have the courage to do so.

This is because people rely on these few crops to make a living. If they receive less money, they will complain and make a big deal out of it.

Because of this, after the 40th year of Emperor Kangxi's reign, as there were no major wars on the border, many officers of the Eight Banners who came from poor families actually took the initiative to apply to be transferred to the Green Camp to serve.

This is because the Green Camp’s practice of collecting empty salaries is a family heirloom passed down from the Ming Dynasty.

Yinyou had also heard that the Green Camp officers who only took 30% of their salary were already considered good officials with a good conscience.

In the past, there was a rumor that the treatment of the Green Camp soldiers was not as good as that of the Eight Banners soldiers.

In fact, whether it was the Green Camp soldiers or the Eight Banners soldiers, the corresponding military pay was the same. For example, ordinary vests were paid three taels of silver per month.

From Shunzhi to Kangxi, they were not that stupid. The total military strength of the country was only more than 800,000, of which the Green Camp soldiers accounted for the absolute majority.

Those who openly discriminate against the Han people and are holding knives legally are afraid that it will be too late to roll back to the outside of the Great Wall!

It’s just that, because of a big bug in which the superiors tacitly allowed the Green Camp officers to draw salaries without working, their income was N times higher than that of the Eight Banners officers!

Yinyu was naturally optimistic about Sun Lang's initiative to show goodwill.

The important thing that Yinyou had to do in the Ministry of War was the same: to quietly cultivate low- and middle-level Green Camp officers ten years in advance, and it would be better to be slow than to alert the enemy.

After chatting with Sun Lang for a while, Yinyou gave him enough face and then served tea to see the guest off.

After Sun Lang left, Yinyou carefully studied the transfer list and felt that he was lucky and there was indeed great potential for him.

After all, Kangxi was not a cosmic being. At most, his attention was limited to the Green Camp governors of various provinces and some generals of important towns with outstanding abilities.

The remaining Green Camp officers, including generals, deputy generals, lieutenant generals, guerrillas, etc., would depend on Yinyou and the officials of the Ministry of War to keep watch.

Based on Yinyu's understanding of Kangxi, he knew that the Green Camp governors of each province were being watched too closely, so he simply PASSED them.

Instead of secretly winning over these powerful people, it is better to shift the focus to the lieutenant generals, guerrillas and military commanders.

During the Seoul Spring, although Zheng Shenghe and Zhang Taiwan held important military positions, they lost miserably because General Quan had a large number of regiment, battalion and company commanders under his control.

When the time came to really fight with knives, the soldiers with knives only listened to the orders of these middle and low-level officers.

To put it bluntly, when the tide turns, a loyal guerrilla with 300 soldiers is much more useful than an admiral or general who is hesitant and cautious.

In the Wuchang Uprising, squad leader Zhang Zhenwu played a crucial role.

Just when Yinyou was comparing the list given by Sun Lang and had figured out some ideas, Suoheli, a doctor from the Construction Department of the Imperial Household Department, came to find him.

After Suo Heli entered the room, he bowed and said servilely, "Fifteenth Master, the palaces that had a fire last time are still standing there in such a mess. Isn't this causing trouble for the Emperor?"

Yinyou was almost amused by Suoheli's words. This dog slave wanted to get rich again and even dared to use Kangxi's name as his own!
However, it has long been a clear rule of the Imperial Household Department to say the most high-sounding words, do the most filthy things, and take the opportunity to make dirty money. Yinyu has been in the Imperial Household Department for quite some time, so he naturally understands what Suoheli means.

As long as Yinyou didn't take it, even if Suoheli dared to make money, he wouldn't dare to make too much.

The problem is, Yinyou really doesn't want to take it.

During this period of time, Kangxi has rewarded Yinyou with a lot of silver and imperial farms. Yinyou doesn't want to form a large-scale party, nor does he want to invest. Even if he wants to squander his money quickly, he doesn't have that opportunity, right?
Besides, after the mountain tomb collapsed, the ninth brother, who had nearly 10 million taels of silver in his pocket, was killed by the fourth brother as easily as crushing an ant.

If you have money, it is probably extra income accumulated for others.

Only with power can you keep wealth and beauty.

"Suoheli, don't be too greedy. You have served me for quite a while, so you should know what my temper is like, right?" Yinyu picked up the teacup, took a sip of the tea, and said slowly, "I must remind you that if you dare to harbor evil intentions and try to drag me down, I don't mind chopping off your head and confiscating all your property."

"Fifteenth Master, my Fifteenth Master, I only want to earn a few taels of silver for my subordinates to support my family. How dare I harbor any evil intentions?" Suo Heli was so scared that he knelt on the ground and kowtowed repeatedly, and soon his forehead turned red.

"Stand up and talk, don't move around, or you'll break your head!" Yinwei was also very mean, and even found a reason for Suo Heli to break his forehead.

Suo Heli stood up, bent his waist deeply, and listened to the lecture obediently.

Yinyu put down the teacup in his hand and said calmly, "In the future, don't bother me with this kind of thing, understand?"

Suo Heli was indeed frightened, and quickly shook his head and said, "I've made a note of this. For similar matters, I'll ask for instructions from Chief Steward Ling when he's on duty."

Yinyou smiled slightly. Suoheli actually had no bad intentions. It was just that these rats really needed to be beaten from time to time to prevent them from making too much money.

Kangxi condoned the corruption in the Imperial Household Department, but there must be a limit.

"Well, go ahead. I don't know anything." After Yinyu said this, Suo Heli didn't care about the pain in his head anymore and said in an extremely flattering way, "I only hope that I can serve you, the fifteenth master, forever."

This is a very well-spoken statement.

The subtext is: Everyone in the Imperial Household Department, from top to bottom, is under Yinyou's control.

"You little dog slave, you're already out of breath just because I said you were fat? Get out of here!" Yinyu smiled and drove Suo Heli away.

In the afternoon, Kangxi called Yinyou into the palace.

"The Fifth Prince is back. However, due to his negligence on the way, he allowed the envoy of Dzungar to slip away during the chaos!" Kangxi seemed very angry.

If it was the eldest brother, Yinyou would definitely be happy to see him get into trouble and be punished.

Since he is the fifth son, Yinyou naturally has to say a few good words for him.

"Khan, the Dzungars have always been harboring evil intentions and are ready to make moves. Sooner or later, there will be a decisive battle with the Qing Dynasty. The envoy has escaped, so it's a good opportunity to go back and tell Tsewang Arabtan that the Qing Dynasty has plenty of thunder-like methods and can easily cut off the root of evil on the grassland." Yinyou didn't mention the fifth brother at all, but when Kangxi thought about it carefully, he felt that it made sense and slowly calmed down.

Wei Zhu, who was leaning against the pillar, admired Yinyou from the bottom of his heart.

Look at the Fifteenth Master. With just a few words, he turned a bad thing into something normal that the His Majesty could accept.

In those days, no matter how big the event was, as long as Kangxi did not want to pursue it, it would be a trivial matter that was not worth picking up with chopsticks.

"So you're going to let Fifth Prince go so easily?"

Kangxi was not a tyrant, so it was impossible to manipulate him at will.

"Khan Ama, the fifth brother has indeed made a mistake and he must be punished." Yinyu always liked to discuss things based on facts and did not protect the fifth brother.

"If I punish him too harshly, the Empress Dowager will definitely plead for the Fifth Prince. Well, forget it, I'll just fine him for half a year!"

After the dust settled on Kangxi's punishment, the fifth brother who had made the mistake was actually treated as if he had not been punished at all.

If the princes with titles these days relied solely on that little salary to make a living, they would have been so poor that they couldn't even afford to eat.

The bulk of the income for the princes with titles came mainly from the profits on the imperial farms.

As long as the imperial estate awarded by the palace is big enough, the salary fined is not worth mentioning at all.

This is mainly the imperial farm, where not only crops are grown, but also chickens, ducks, pigs, sheep, vegetables, etc. are raised.

Now that the fifth brother has returned, the show-off ceremony that Kangxi has been preparing for a long time is about to officially take place.

Generally speaking, whenever Kangxi arrived in Rehe, he would hold a banquet for Mongolian princes and nobles in Dolon Nor, organize some entertainment activities, and chop off the heads of a few ambitious people.

Since these had nothing to do with Yinyou, he wanted to take his leave and leave.

However, when Kangxi summoned his trusted ministers to discuss matters, he forced him to stay.

It didn't matter that he stayed, as Yinyu witnessed the wonderful performance of Ma Qi and Ma Zhongtang with his own eyes.

"Your Majesty, how can you chop off only one head? At least, you have to chop off eight or ten. If you are reluctant, I will be happy to serve you." Ma Qi was famous for his hot temper. As soon as he opened his mouth, Kangxi rolled his eyes.

PS: I overslept, sorry. As long as the number of votes is not too far behind, Sikong will be very motivated to stay up late and update more!

(End of this chapter)