The swansong of the swansong

Chapter 158: Managing Prime Minister
Yinyou really didn't want to get involved in the Tong family's affairs.

However, since Yinyou was present, Orondei could not allow himself to be too arrogant!

Orondei looked down on Fahai. That was the Tong family's internal affair and had nothing to do with Yinyou.

However, he cursed Yinyou viciously in front of him. Who was he looking down on?
As the saying goes, evil will be punished by evil!
Orondei, who was not afraid of Kangxi, was only afraid of Yinyou!

Seeing that Orondai did not dare to curse, Yinyu said coldly: "Drawing a knife to kill my brother is a taboo even if it is a commoner's family. Don't do it again."

Orondei hesitated for a moment and said, "Hmm." The voice was so soft that if you didn't listen carefully, you couldn't hear it at all.

Since Orondei had surrendered in disguise, Yinyou did not continue to force him to admit his mistake.

As long as Kangxi, who valued family affection, was still alive, Orondai could continue to dance happily. But after the fourth son ascended the throne, Orondai's good days came to an end.

After coming out of the Duke's Mansion, Liang Jiugong, who had been silent all this time, suddenly said, "Olundai, who is not afraid of anyone, is actually afraid now?"

Liang Jiugong was obviously trying to flatter Yinkui in a roundabout way, meaning that Orondei was not afraid of anyone except Yinkui.

Yinyou smiled indifferently. Liang Jiugong, a coward like him, would never say anything nonsense.

Recently, the guards and the chief eunuchs have been cooperating very happily under Yinyou's mediation.

The eunuchs resold jade pestles, while the guards secretly resold needles and thread. They did not interfere with each other and each benefited from their own efforts.

In the palace, most of the maids and aunts were poor.

At night, once the palace gates were closed, the maids and aunts would either eat with the eunuchs or sleep.

The needles and thread resold by the guards may seem insignificant, but in fact, they solved the long-term money-making problem for the maids and aunts.

Anyway, I'm just sitting there doing nothing, so I might as well use my free time to do some needlework and save up some money for my retirement after I leave the palace.

Nowadays, once the maids and aunts in the palace are released from the palace, they all face the big problem of making a living again.

Being good at needlework is obviously a technical job, which will ensure you have enough food to eat in the future.

In fact, although most of the guards received a fixed amount of crops, as long as there were new additions to the family, they would inevitably be unable to make ends meet.

Now, the guard resells some needlework, and the nanny and aunt do some needlework to save some money for their retirement. It's the best of both worlds and everyone benefits.

However, based on Yinyou's understanding of Liang Jiugong, this dead eunuch who only has money in his eyes must want to open up new monopoly sources of wealth.

For some things, it doesn't matter even if Yinyou turns a blind eye.

However, there were some taboos that Yinyou could not ignore.

After returning to Changchun Garden to report the imperial edict, Yinyu continued to help Kangxi deal with a large number of memorials of greeting.

The memorials that Kangxi had to deal with every day were mixed with a large number of memorials of greeting, and serious government affairs, which could be as many as more than a hundred or as few as dozens.

After entering the 50th year of his reign, Kangxi gradually became lazy in government affairs and was no longer willing to waste time on memorials of greeting.

To be honest, dealing with similar things every day for decades is mentally exhausting.

Yinyou gave Kangxi a small suggestion, which was to carve a small seal with only three words on it: Got it.

He knew the small seal and used cinnabar ink to stamp it on the letter of greeting, which saved Kangxi a lot of time.

If the emperor had a short reign and lacked prestige, the consequence of doing so would be that he would be criticized to pieces by the censors.

However, when Kangxi looked around the court, he saw that all the important officials were those he had promoted personally.

This lays the foundation for laziness!

In the current Qingxi Book House, the chief secretary Zhang Tingyu is responsible for compiling excerpts of important memorials for Kangxi to facilitate Kangxi's accurate comments.

Yinyou assisted Kangxi and stamped the greeting letter with a small seal that read "Got it".

Objectively speaking, with the assistance of Yinyou and Zhang Tingyu, it became normal for Kangxi, who was hiding in Changchun Garden, to sleep until he woke up naturally.

Over time, the cabinet, far away in the palace, gradually lost its decision-making power and became a mouthpiece for communication.

The real power of the prime minister was gradually jointly held by Yinyou and Zhang Tingyu.

Kangxi was certainly not stupid. In order to prevent the imperial power from falling into the hands of others, Zhang Tingyu, a Han minister who did not have military power, was mostly responsible for military and national affairs.

All the miscellaneous affairs of the inner court and the royal family were handled by Yinyu.

Kangxi's life is so comfortable now. He has plenty of time to sleep in, listen to operas, enjoy the scenery, hug beauties, and compose poems.

The problem of inaction in government affairs is almost universally present among emperors who have been in power for too long.

There is no way, laziness is human nature, and diligence is actually the exception.

When the cabinet of the early Ming Dynasty was first established, the Grand Secretary was only a minor official of the fifth rank, but he gradually usurped the real power of the outer court and became a cabinet minister who held the power to draft bills.

From the perspective of historical progress, the institutions of prime ministerial power, including the Prime Minister's Office, the Secretariat, the Three Provinces and Six Ministries, the Metropolitan Court, and the Cabinet, have shown a general trend of gradually weakening.

After the fourth prince invented the Grand Council, the power of the prime minister was completely tamed by the imperial power.

By the later years of Emperor Qianlong's reign, the so-called Zhongtang had become senior secretaries who knelt down to report his orders.

However, the power structure in the early Qing Dynasty was quite special, with the emperor and the banner owners sharing the world. In the reign of Emperor Kangxi, the banner owners and princes who controlled many Niulu were always the biggest enemies of the imperial power!

The Han officials who had no military power were all vassals of the emperor.

Some people with bad mouths secretly gave Yinyou a very powerful nickname: Guan Xiang.

To be honest, the nickname "Guan Xiang" aptly describes Yinyou's prominent position of being in charge of almost everything.

"Little Fifteen, things are not peaceful in Prince Xian's mansion. Go and check it out for me!" Kangxi was very good at using Yinyou.

Whenever there were conflicts among the royal family, when the external relatives resorted to violence, or when the Manchu nobles were dishonest, Kangxi only had to send Yinyou, and there would be no problem that could not be solved!
The current Prince Xian, Yanhuang, is the great-grandson of Prince Su Haoge, and the nephew of Yinyu.

Kangxi lived too long, and although Yinyou was young, his seniority was ridiculously high.

When it comes to dealing with internal conflicts within the royal family, having a higher seniority means you have an advantage!
There were thirteen brothers in Yanhuang's generation, nine of whom died young, and only four are still alive.

Among them, Yanhuang's ninth brother Xiangde was deliberately adopted by Kangxi to his sixth uncle Jialanbao.

This time, the conflict was between Yanhuang's ninth brother Xiangde and seventh brother Yande. The cause was also ridiculous: it was over a red-collared green parrot.

In the Qing Dynasty, parrots in cages were a must-have item for the Eight Banners descendants when they went out.

Among them, the Red-collared Green Parrot is a magical artifact among magical artifacts and is extremely rare.

Yande actually stole Xiangde's red-collared green parrot just to show off his skills among the Eight Banners dandies.

As a result, the parrot that was stolen away was alive, but what came back was a dead parrot.

You know, in the capital these days, the red-collared green parrot has been hyped up to a sky-high price of one thousand taels of silver.

Xiangde naturally couldn't bear such a big loss in silence, so he held on to Yande and refused to let go.

As a result, the two brothers became more and more excited as they talked and even started fighting.

Yan De was hit on the head by the angry Xiang De, and he bled a lot and lay on the bed dying.

The imperial physician who was invited did not dare to take the responsibility, and after leaving Prince Xian's mansion, he notified the clan affairs office.

As it was a major event for the family of the leader of the Bordered White Banner, the clan affairs office did not dare to be negligent and quickly reported it to Kangxi.

Kangxi dreamed of weakening the power of the banner owners, so he deliberately sent Yinyou to see if there was any opportunity to seize a few Niulu.
As soon as Yinyou's sedan chair carried by eight people entered Xizhimen, he ran into the left clan member of the clan affairs office, Duke Zhenguo Zharbu, who was waiting for him.

Duke Zarbu of Zhenguo was the great-grandson of Prince Yu Duoduo, and was considered Yinyou's cousin.

"Greetings, Fifteenth Master!" Zharbu did not dare to be arrogant at all and greeted Yinyou Zhaqian honestly.

Although Zharbu's title was far lower than Yinyou's, they were cousins of the same generation after all, so Yinyou quickly moved aside.

As the saying goes, too much courtesy is never a problem.

As for etiquette, unless there is a problem of exceeding the rules with clear regulations, no matter how you talk about it, it all makes sense, and the core is about status and power.

The Ministry of Clan Affairs seemed to have great power, but in fact, everything had to be approved by the emperor.

Even a fool knows that the Clan Court is just an execution tool used by the current emperor to crack down on the royal clan members, and it does not have any decision-making power.

Yinyou was different. As the emperor's biological son, he always represented the emperor in dealing with internal conflicts within the royal family. His attitude directly affected the emperor's decision-making.

Otherwise, wouldn’t he be called Prime Minister in vain?
However, Yinyou and Zharbu performed all the etiquette of the powerful in the street, but the officials, businessmen and common people entering and leaving Xizhimen were miserable.

In fact, when Zharbu arrived at Xizhimen, he had already sent someone to inform the people in the Infantry Yamen that he wanted to wait for Yinyou.

The people in the Infantry Yamen were not fools. They waved their swords, guns and sticks, drove the officials and civilians away into the nearby alleys.

Merchants and common people who could not escape in time could only kneel down and wait obediently.

At that time, the entire avenue leading in and out of Xizhimen was cleared and the street was closed.

After Yinyou and Zharbu finished explaining the etiquette of the bannermen, they got on their sedan chairs and left one after another. The area in front of Xizhimen, which is located on a major transportation route, was already crowded with people.

In the cannibalistic Qing Dynasty, people had the right to be happy and had no right to suffer, and this was the underlying tone of the entire society.

The guards in front of Prince Xian's mansion saw Yinyou's ceremonial guard and hurriedly reported it.

After Yinyou got off the sedan chair, Prince Xian Yanhuang had already come down the stairs to greet him.

"My nephew Yanhuang greets my fifteenth uncle!" Yanhuang bowed without hesitation.

Yanhuang was a hereditary prince, and his title was much higher than Yinyou's. According to the rules of state etiquette, Yinyou, the young prince, should have been the first to perform the salute.

However, Yanhuang, who had to look to Yinyu for everything, did not have the courage to act like a prince.

Anyway, as long as you are strong enough, the free conversion between family etiquette and national etiquette is not a big deal at all!

In the Qing Dynasty, if a person of low position or little power did not have a good eye, he would be punished and in trouble!
Yinyu was so smart that he naturally didn't want to give anyone a chance to criticize him. He quickly moved aside to avoid Yanhuang's greeting, bowed his head, and said respectfully, "Beile Yinyu, I wish Prince Xian good health."

Yan Huang took the initiative to hold Yin Yu's arm, and deliberately complained: "Fifteenth Uncle, please don't make your nephew suffer!"

PS: I have some time today, and the monthly tickets are over 3000, so there will be at least three updates, and this is the first one!
(End of this chapter)