The swansong of the swansong

Chapter 125

In the past, Yinyu was a powerless little prince. Every time the Empress Dowager celebrated her birthday, he only needed to spend a dozen taels of silver to show his small appreciation.

Anyway, no matter how much Yinyou gave, the Empress Dowager would never look at him. Moreover, he had no money at that time.

Things are different now. Yinyou is not only one of the most powerful landlords in the capital, but also a prominent and powerful prince. The birthday gift for the Empress Dowager must not be too small.

In order to prevent Kangxi from finding fault, Yinyou found a painting from the box he brought back from Jiangning: Yan Liben's "Eighteen Scholars of the Qin Palace".

Giving birthday gifts to the Empress Dowager is actually a profound art.

The amount of birthday gifts can increase year by year, but they can never be like Wang Xiaoer’s New Year, which gets less and less each year.

More importantly, the birthday gift given to Kangxi could not be much lower in quality than that given to the Empress Dowager, so as not to arouse suspicion of filial piety.

Fortunately, the Jiangning Lin family and the Wuxi Fang family are both great Confucian families with a history of nearly a thousand years.

The two families collected hundreds of famous paintings and name cards, enough for Yinyu to carry on until the 13th year of Yongzheng's reign.

A prominent landlord met a super gangster and had no choice but to accept defeat and be eaten till not even a bone was left.

All the precious calligraphy and paintings passed down from the Lin and Fang families, along with Lin Qianqian, were packed up by Yinyu and taken back to the capital.

On the Empress Dowager's birthday, the happiest people would be the corrupt officials in the Imperial Household Department. Hehe, the opportunity to take advantage of the emperor has come again.

In the early morning, Yinyou reluctantly left Lin Qianqian's fragrant body, got up, changed clothes and washed, hurriedly finished his breakfast, then went out and got on the sedan chair to Xihuamen.

At this time, in front of the Beile Mansion, because it was still dark, the entire traveling ceremonial team held a large lantern each.

At the front of the team, there were three Sauron warriors leading the way, holding high in their hands long lanterns representing Yinyu's identity.

On the lantern on the left, there was a row of eye-catching black characters running vertically: In charge of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of War, and on the lantern on the right, it was written: Duolo Yu Beile.

It is worth mentioning that on the lantern in the middle, the black font is particularly bold and eye-catching: Managing the affairs of the three flags of the Bordered White Banner.

The Qing Dynasty was the Qing Dynasty of the Bannermen, and the princes and nobles who had the actual power to manage the Bannermen were the real masters of the field.

Following closely behind were sixteen warning signs that listed Yinyu's many identities and titles.

Following the 20 Sauron knights armed to the teeth were various imperial forbidden objects such as the golden gourd, golden axe, golden hatchet, golden hammer, yellow umbrella, and large green fan.

After Yinyou boarded the eight-man sedan chair with a silver top, red canopy and golden curtain, Wulin shouted softly, "Open the sedan chair!"

At this time, four third-class guards were seen riding their horses to the front of the entire team.

They brandished the long whips in their hands and slammed them heavily on the bluestone pavement, making terrifying noises, "Snap! Snap! Snap!"

After hearing the whip sound in Jing Street, all officials and common people must take the initiative to avoid it in advance.

After Yinyou's large group turned from the alley onto the main street, their pace did not slow down.

This was because the officials of all ranks that they met along the way had already tactfully retreated to the small alleys beside the street.

The supreme imperial authority was fully demonstrated at this moment.

The sedan chair landed in front of Xihua Gate. As soon as Yinyu's feet touched the ground, he saw the guards and imperial guards in front of the gate, all squatting down and saying respectfully, "Greetings, Fifteenth Master!"

"Get up."

Yinyou didn't look at them, and walked into Xihua Gate with Wulin, Xiaojinzi and Hahazhuzi.

After Yinyou sat down in the signing room of the Imperial Household Department, only half a cup of tea had passed when several powerful doctors from the Imperial Household Department came to find him.

"Fifteenth Master, according to the old custom of the Holy Birthday Festival in previous years, we should build a big birthday tower."

Yinyu picked up the teacup, took a sip of the warm tea, and asked slowly, "How much silver do you need?"

"My Lord Fifteen, due to the soaring prices, I have racked my brains to calculate carefully. No matter how frugal I am, I will need at least 300,000 taels of silver."

Yinyou thought, a mere wooden longevity pagoda, not a permanent building, actually costs so much silver. Could it be made of gold?
However, Yinyou had been in charge of the Imperial Household Department for quite some time, and he was no longer surprised by all kinds of strange and outrageous things.

"Well, calculate the wages and give it to me as soon as possible."

Yinyou’s attitude was very clear: the Qing Dynasty was Kangxi’s Qing Dynasty, and he was just a steward.

The people in the Imperial Household Department wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to make a fortune, and Kangxi acquiesced to it. What does it have to do with the housekeeper?

Just report it truthfully!

As for the fact that Kangxi thought the money was too expensive and refused to approve it, it was not because Yinyu wanted to block everyone's financial path.

If you have any objections, just go to Kangxi and present the facts and reason with him!
In his later years, Kangxi did show many signs of building large buildings, enjoying a leisurely and enjoyable life, and leading an increasingly extravagant lifestyle.

There is no way. An emperor who has been in power for too long will inevitably become arrogant and extravagant when he sees that all the forces that check and balance his power have been eliminated.

This was true for Kangxi, and even more so for Qianlong!
However, Kangxi and Qianlong did not believe in the way to immortality and particularly hated alchemy. After the thirteenth emperor died of illness in the eighth year of Yongzheng's reign, Yongzheng seemed to have completely changed. Not only did he neglect his duties, he also became a collector of beauties.

What’s even more terrifying is that Yongzheng actually gathered a lot of evil Taoist priests, hid in the Old Summer Palace, and made elixirs unscrupulously.

However, after serving as the chief steward for a long time, Yinyou gradually felt the pulse of Kangxi.

The money that should be spent must not be saved. As for the money that should not be spent, Yinyu had the obligation to help Kangxi check and release part of the funds in advance.

The rats in the Ministry of Internal Affairs also knew this. Therefore, they tacitly increased the expenses several times, so that Yinyu could cut a few cuts and have the opportunity to show his merits to his superiors.

After some fierce bargaining, Yinyu and the people from the Ministry of Internal Affairs reached a basic consensus: the total expenditure of the Emperor's Birthday Festival must be controlled within the range of one million taels of silver, of which 100,000 taels would be decided by Yinyu.

Anyone who dared to spend more than the allotment would have to sell his house, wife and daughter to raise the money to cover the deficit.

Anyway, the meat will eventually rot in the pot, and it's your turn to take it out, and Yinyou won't stop you.

But there has to be a limit, right?

This is just like the purchasing agents in large supermarkets. The big bosses know that they cannot stop them from being greedy, so they can only find ways to control the level of corruption within an acceptable range.

Just after he had settled the dispute with the people from the Imperial Household Department, three commanders of the Bordered White Banner also came to find Yinyou.

"Fifteenth Master, it's almost the end of the year, but we still haven't received the silver reward from the Bordered White Banner last year!"

Yinyou knew what was going on. The Ministry of Revenue had already issued the rewards to the top three banners.

However, the rewards for the lower five banners were often delayed in payment by the Ministry of Revenue under various pretexts.

The Ministry of Revenue did not say that they would not give the money, but simply made excuses saying that the national treasury owed a huge amount of money and they had no money to give at the moment.

The Ministry of Revenue during peacetime was the living ancestor of all government offices!

If the lower five banners had not collectively failed to pay their rewards, given the close relationship between Yinyou and the fourth prince, they could have completely solved the issue of reissuing the rewards for the Bordered White Banner alone.

Unfortunately, everyone is tied together. If the Ministry of Revenue only reissues the bonus to the Bordered White Banner, the remaining four banners will definitely be in an uproar.

However, no matter what, this year is also the first year of festival rewards after Yinyu took charge of the Bordered White Banner, and a good start must be made.

"You guys should go back first. You can't rush some things. The more you rush, the harder it is to solve. I'll give you a definite answer after I discuss it with the Ministry of Revenue, okay?"

All three of them heard this and immediately felt that there was a way to reissue the bonus. The so-called consultation with the Ministry of Revenue, isn't it just to consult with the fourth brother who doesn't recognize any relatives?
Who doesn't know these days that Yinyu has an entire guest house with its own entrance and building in the fourth prince's mansion?

"Thank you, Master Fifteen. Everyone is counting on this little bonus to buy some meat!"

"Master Fifteen, if there was no other way, I would not dare to disturb you."

"Alas, my subordinates are all poor Mongolian bannermen. They can neither speak Chinese, nor sell horses, nor farm or do business. They are so poor that they don't even have food to eat the next day!"

Facing the complaints of his three generals, Yinyu thought to himself, "Don't you know what kind of life those common people who don't have any crops to farm live?"
However, the poverty of the Bannermen is really a systemic problem.

These days, it is easy to kill someone or raid their house.

For example, after the bandits entered the capital, how many houses of officials and gentry that the Ming court dared not touch did they rob?

However, it is absolutely impossible to affect the fundamental interests of the powerful bannermen!
The call for reforming the banner system began in the Shunzhi period and continued until the Qianlong period. It lasted for many years, but in the end, the only thing they did was to allow the Han army to leave the banner and become civilians, kicking the Han army out of the ranks of the hardcore farmers.

Qianlong, who regarded killing important officials as easy as killing chickens, did not dare to touch the interests of the Eight Banners of Manchu and the Eight Banners of Mongolia.

When it was almost time for dinner, Kangxi called Yinyou into the Qianqing Palace.

"I heard that everyone under the Bordered White Banner complained about not receiving last year's festival rewards?"

When Yinyu heard this, he knew that someone in the Bordered White Banner was secretly trying to deceive him.

Haha, Yinyou originally planned to discuss it with the fourth brother in private. Even if he didn’t give out all the rewards, he could give out part of it first.

Now, Yinyu naturally didn’t dare to bring up this issue again!

The logic is not complicated. Kangxi asked the fourth son to make up for his loss, but the fourth son refused. Yinyu said something in private, and the fourth son was given a bonus. How could this be tolerated?

Anyway, the bonuses for the lower five banners were all withheld by the fourth prince, and Yinyou was not in charge of the Ministry of Revenue, so why should he be so anxious?

"My dear Khan, my fourth brother is a man who only cares about money!" Yinyou spread his hands and completely shirked the responsibility.

"Fourth Prince, you have indeed gone too far. How about this? You go and discuss with him to see how much more money the Ministry of Revenue can spare?"

Yinyou almost laughed out of anger. Kangxi's nonsense was just like asking everyone to elect a new crown prince. Anyone who believed it would be a fool.

"Khan Father, how about this? I'll invite my fourth brother here so you can reprimand him in person?" Yinyu shrugged and pushed the conflict onto Kangxi again.

Yinyou’s rich work experience tells him that when the boss scolds the financial director for being stingy in front of you, it is 100% a lie!

PS: This is yesterday’s update, thank you brothers for your support!
(End of this chapter)