The swansong of the swansong

Chapter 174 Kangxi’s Knowledge Is Really Insufficient

When it was bright, Yinyu stepped on the time when Kangxi sat down in the study and handed in a sign to enter the Qingxi Study.

"Report to Khan Ama, Tohaqi died of illness in the clan residence last night."

In the Qing Dynasty, the less you talk, the bigger the trouble will be.

On the contrary, the longer and longer something is, the less important it is.

Kangxi said without hesitation, with a dark face: "Tuoheqi is a man who deserves death. Even if his bones are crushed and his ashes are scattered, I still cannot quench my hatred!"

The so-called "his heart is worthy of death" contained three meanings according to Yinyu's understanding: alienating the father and son of the royal family, forming a clique, and plotting evil.

To be honest, the first two are definitely true!

However, Tohazi does not have the courage to commit any evil deeds for the time being.

Although there were more than 30,000 soldiers in the Infantry Command Office, they were all infantry without horses.

Moreover, all the major city gates of the capital were guarded by the Cavalry Battalion.

Even if Tohaqi wanted to rebel with the support of the prince, he would be doomed to fail.

Because there were more than 10,000 armed guards in the palace. They only needed to close the palace gate and guard it for half a day.

Outside the city, there is the Miyun Camp to the north and the Tongzhou Camp to the east.

When the troops arriving to support the king arrive, the Cavalry Battalion only needs to open the city gates, and more than 6 Eight Banners troops will pour into the capital.

With Tohaqi's bones being crushed to dust, the end of the Crown Prince of the Eastern Palace is not far away!

The grand battle for the throne among the nine dragons is about to officially begin.

Yinyu, who was off duty, returned home in a carriage. He had just picked up the eldest princess and kissed her when he heard the doorman come to report.

"Master, Prince Shoude is here again, waiting to see you outside the door."

Ever since their last contact, Shoude has been like a dog-skin plaster, clinging to Yinyou.

Yinyou initially thought that after giving Shoude the cold shoulder a few times, Shoude would give up.

Who would have thought that for half a month, Shoude had to sit in the gatehouse of the Prince's Mansion, waiting for an audience with Yinyu.

It is obvious that Shoude is determined to become Yinwei's disciple.

Yinyu was too lazy to pay attention to Shoude. He held the eldest princess in his arms and played with her affectionately.

However, the eldest princess was still too young, and while she was blowing bubbles from her mouth, she actually wet the front of Yinyu's clothes.

Huixiang was worried that Yinyu would be unhappy, so she quickly explained, "Master, wait until the eldest princess is a little older before you hold her."

"This is my own daughter, what should I be afraid of?" Yinyu handed the eldest princess to the wet nurse and got up to go to the bathroom.

Huixiang also noticed that the man didn't show any sign of being angry and really liked the eldest princess.

After taking a bath and changing into a dry casual coat, Yinyu held the eldest princess, who had changed into a new diaper, on his lap and chatted with Huixiang about family matters.

"Master, if it weren't for you, my brother would never have been able to take over my father's position as the military governor." Huixiang was grateful to Yinyu from the bottom of her heart.

Yinyu smiled slightly and said, "I have never formed a clique and have always been a lone minister. Therefore, I will petition to promote my own eldest brother-in-law. Khan Ama will have to give me some face, no matter how small."

Huixiang also knew that men really didn't form cliques, they just pretended not to.

The most powerful prince of the Qing Dynasty doesn't even have a legal advisor in his mansion, which is enough to explain a lot of problems.

Look at the third brother’s house. He has at least a dozen advisers and retainers.

"Master, my brother-in-law doesn't form a clique either." Huixiang nodded implicitly.

Yinyou couldn't help but laugh. Huixiang's brain was extremely sharp and she could understand many things at a glance!
After the mountain tomb collapses, Huixiang will definitely have to do her best to maintain the relationship with the new queen!
On the contrary, after the Crown Princess was deposed, Cui Qing had to go to the palace as little as possible to avoid offending others.

Objectively speaking, after the fourth prince ascended the throne, not only did he not kill the deposed crown prince, he also promoted Hongxi to the rank of Prince Li as soon as possible, which was very considerate!

Almost all the deposed crown princes in history died.

According to archaeological discoveries, the burial specifications of the deposed Crown Prince Li Chengqian were shockingly simple, and it was obviously not a good end.

The widespread fabrication of false history began with Li Erfeng.

"Master, it was almost dark, Shoude just left." Wulin reported Shoude's latest developments to Yinyou.

Yinyou nodded secretly. Although Shoude was a villain, he understood the essence of surrender.

Given Yinyou's power and status, Shoude actually had nothing to give him.

However, Shoude insisted on coming to the Prince's Mansion and sitting on the bench just to tell Yinyou that he was sincere in wanting to surrender.

Many people don’t understand that the real superiors care most about sincerity.

Are money, beauties, and land important? They are indeed important.

These things represent your filial piety.

However, those who want to send these to the superiors can line up for miles.

Money and property must be given, but if one wants to gain the true appreciation of the superior, it is far from enough to just send money! Just after May, Changchun Garden issued an imperial decree, and was about to set off with the Empress Dowager to go to the Rehe Palace to escape the summer heat.

In the absence of air conditioning and electric fans, the capital city is extremely hot and stuffy in midsummer.

Objectively speaking, the emperor, who was wearing many clothes, was indeed prone to heatstroke.

Unlike modern times, when the emperor summons his ministers, the dignity of the monarch and father must not be lost.

Even in the hottest days of summer, from Kangxi to Yinyou, they had to wear at least five layers of clothing.

You can imagine how hot it is?

Therefore, every early summer, I have to go to Rehe to escape the heat, which has long become a fixed itinerary.

According to the meaning of the imperial edict, the Crown Prince and the Eighth Prince will definitely accompany him to Rehe.

The third brother was in charge of supervising the country, while the fourth and fifth brothers stayed in the capital to provide assistance.

To be honest, ever since Yinyou took charge of the Imperial Household Department, the amount of wrangling over various supplies on the way to Rehe has decreased dozens of times.

Following the practices of modern large supermarkets, Yinyou sent people to purchase vegetables, pork and other supplies along the way, and then had dedicated personnel distribute them.

Apart from the needs of Kangxi and the Empress Dowager, which were likely to be adjusted at any time, everyone else had to make planned allocations based on the total amount of purchased materials.

Many temporary palaces were built on the way from the capital to Rehe, where Kangxi stayed overnight.

According to the rules, when the emperor traveled, a special imperial road had to be built.

These imperial roads, like the Qinchi Road, actually serve as highways.

As the saying goes, if you want to be rich, build roads first.

After Kangxi passed by, these imperial roads became shortcuts for merchants to transport goods.

In the Qing Dynasty today, the two most important trading ports were Zhangjiakou’s trade with Mongolia and Guangzhou’s trade with foreigners.

In the Miyun Palace, after dinner, Kangxi did not want to rest too early, so he called Zhang Tingyu and Yinyou to chat about family matters.

Kangxi sighed and said, "In recent years, money has been spent like water. Money is needed everywhere..." and he complained a lot.

Zhang Tingyu was very meticulous and good at plotting and scheming. However, his inherent knowledge of farming constrained his thinking. He only knew how to save money but had no idea how to increase income.
Yinyou was different. He was fully aware of many charging practices that are rampant in modern times.

"Khan Ama, in my opinion, we can send soldiers to set up checkpoints and collect fees on the imperial road and official road to Zhangjiakou." Yinyu said confidently, "Khan Ama once issued an order that no additional taxes will be imposed. However, collecting tolls is not an additional tax, so we can do a pilot project."

The main taxation in the Qing Dynasty was land tax, so the heavy burden basically fell on the self-cultivating farmers.

However, the commercial tax in the Qing Dynasty was an outrageous 5 in , which was only %.

To be honest, as a businessman in the Qing Dynasty, except for the low social status, everyone lived a very comfortable life.

"The court promised the Shanxi merchants that it would not impose too much tax." Kangxi deliberately reminded Yinyou that the court relied on the Shanxi merchants' caravans to help transport food and supplies during the war, and they could not easily offend them.

Objectively speaking, the connection between Shanxi merchants and the Qing Dynasty can be said to be very long.

As early as the reign of Huang Taiji, there were many Shanxi merchants who only cared about money. With the support of border guards, they sold various strategic materials to Liaodong on a large scale.

"Khan Father, the commercial taxes have not been increased, but the tolls must be paid to the Ministry of Internal Affairs." Yinyu understood Kangxi's thoughts and made suggestions that suited his taste.

Only if the tolls collected went into Kangxi's private treasury would he agree to conduct a pilot project.

In fact, there was already a precedent for Kangxi blatantly accumulating private money.

The famous Guangzhou Customs Supervisor and the three Jiangnan weaving doctors had to be appointed by Kangxi himself. One can imagine how huge the interests hidden in it were.
Zhang Tingyu, who was standing by, realized immediately after listening to Yinyou's introduction that this was a brilliant plan!
Under the premise of neither increasing taxes nor levies, as long as tolls are collected, it is equivalent to the emperor's southern treasury, which will bring an additional unexpected fortune.

Kangxi was still a little hesitant, so he asked Yinyu: "Are you worried that you won't be able to collect much toll?"

Yinyu smiled and explained, "Khan Ama, if it is about collecting fees, I will take care of it. I can guarantee that I will hand over at least 500,000 taels of silver to the inner treasury every year. If I cannot do that, you can use the income from my imperial farm and my salary to make up for it."

Kangxi knew that Yinyou now had a total of 20,000 acres of imperial farmland, and his annual income was at least 30,000 taels of silver.

Thirty thousand taels of silver may not seem like much, but it was the vast majority of Yinyu's income.

This is mainly because Yinyou's resolute attitude made Kangxi see his full confidence.

What is sincerity?
No joking in front of you!

Yinyou used most of his income as collateral, which really moved Kangxi.

"If we hand it over to the Ministry of Internal Affairs to collect the fees..." Before Kangxi could finish his words, Yinyu said, "Khan Ama, the Ministry of Internal Affairs is only responsible for collecting the money and putting it into the warehouse. We must not let them interfere with the collection of fees."

After hearing what Yinyou said, Kangxi couldn't help but laugh out loud.

How could Kangxi not know about the extreme greed of the Imperial Household Department, which was to take advantage of others?
"Well, we need money to repair the Baohe Hall, expand the Rehe Palace, and build the Mulan Paddock." Kangxi changed the subject and stared at Yinyu and asked, "Are you sure you can hand over 500,000 taels of silver every year?"

Yinyou almost laughed out loud. Kangxi's hesitation really showed that he lacked experience.

To put it bluntly, as long as Kangxi allowed Yinwei to have the exclusive monopoly on the toll collection rights on the imperial road and official road from the capital to Zhangjiakou, hey, he could collect at least two million taels of silver a year.

"Khan Father, as long as the personnel collecting fees are decided by me, I will be sure that I will be able to fulfill my mission." Yinyu said in a loud voice.

PS: I got back late from an important social event and I’m very tired. I’ll update next time. You can read it in the morning. I need a good sleep.

(End of this chapter)