The swansong of the swansong

Chapter 203: King and Ministers Have Fun Together
On the main day of the New Year's Day, people were coming and going in Yinyou's Prince's Mansion.

According to the rules of the Bannermen, it is the duty of the bondservants to pay respects to their master on New Year's Day!
However, the bondservants in each household were real household slaves and had no right to pay their respects to Yinyou.

Under Yinyou's six Niulu, there was a total of one Canling and six Zuoling.

Among them, the Canling was a floating official who was replaced every three years, while the Zuoling was hereditary from father to son or from elder brother to younger brother.

"Servants, greet the master, and wish the master good luck on the New Year."

Led by Canling Decheng, six lieutenants knelt behind him and congratulated him on the New Year.

"Forget it, sit down and talk." Yinyou could unscrupulously win over his servants without worrying about Kangxi's suspicion.

Because, except for the bondservants Aha, all the six Niulu under Yinyu were considered his family members.

They are not the family of important officials of the imperial court, so no matter how close they are, it is not taboo!
After Decheng got up from the ground, he bent over and said very modestly: "How can servants have a seat in front of the master? If you really break the rules, the servants will be whipped."

Yinyu deliberately put on a stern face and scolded: "My Lord told you to sit down, so sit down. If you dare to talk too much again, be careful of being whipped."

"Yes." After Decheng bowed deeply to express his gratitude, he led the captains to sit down obediently.

Within the Eight Banners, there was still a very barbaric semi-slave system, and the master was the heaven for the slaves.

The master was so angry that he whipped his servant. As long as the servant was not beaten to death, it was a waste of time!

In the past, when I first established the Later Jin Dynasty, it was the happiest time for the banner owners and lords.

At that time, if the flag owners and lords slept with the beautiful wives of one of their bannermen, they would actually think highly of him.

After the Qing army entered the pass, they quickly assimilated into the Han culture, and the absolute slavery within the Eight Banners changed into a semi-slavery system.

At least, the banner owners and lords would no longer be able to massacre the bannermen at will.

"Master, thanks to your great blessing and God's blessing, the crops in the fields have a bumper harvest. According to the old custom, we servants have brought some small gifts to show our filial piety to you. Please accept them!" Decheng knelt on the ground and held up a gift list in both hands.

Yinyu sighed and said, "I appreciate your filial piety. However, it is not easy for all of you. Most of you don't have a stable crop to earn, and you can't eat meat buns for a few meals a year. What's worse, some families are so poor that they can hardly afford to eat. Alas, it's really too hard!"

If the master does not accept gifts, the servants must persuade him hard to show their sincerity.

After a few rounds of arguing, Yinyu got angry, slammed the table, and said sternly: "My words are of no use?"

Decheng and the captains were so frightened that they knelt down, not daring to breathe.

To be honest, after the Qing army entered the pass, the only way for ordinary bannermen to survive was to join the army and work for the emperor.

However, the total number of the Eight Banners Army under the imperial court was limited, and it was impossible for every bannerman to have a guaranteed income.

As time went on, ordinary bannermen families with many people were basically in a difficult situation, worrying about their next meal after eating the previous one.

However, for a small banner leader like Yinyou, the life was simply as happy as that of a god!

During the pre-Ming dynasty, the court reduced the treatment of the princes and royal families again and again. As a result, some royal family members not only colluded with the Mongols to invade the south, but even set fire to the government office.

When the Qing dynasty fell, many of the garrisoned Eight Bannermen in various places were severely retaliated. However, most of the ordinary bannermen in the capital were very happy. They were finally freed. If they wanted to do business, they did business; if they wanted to farm, they did farm; if they wanted to sell antiques, they did antiques.

Until the collapse of the Qing Dynasty, the contradiction between the emperor and the bureaucratic class, and their wanton oppression of self-cultivating farmers, was the main internal contradiction of all dynasties!
The self-employed farmers went bankrupt one after another, and the dynasty came to an end, and the cycle continued over and over again!
Decheng and the captains said that Yinyou deserved to die, but they were very grateful to him in their hearts.

They are not stupid, and they all know one fact: Yinyou's temper is fake, and his consideration for everyone's difficulties is real!

"Listen carefully, all of you. No matter what happens, you are not allowed to exploit the bondservants under your command. I have no control over other bonds, and I don't want to control them. If you have dirty hands and feet, I won't bother to whip you. I will send you directly to the dark water dungeon of the clan residence, so that you can enjoy the wonderful feeling of soaking your feet every day!"

As the most powerful prince of the time, who would dare not take Yinyou's blatant threats seriously?

"Yes." Decheng and the captains knelt together.

However, Yinyou was born into a family of old bureaucrats, and he knew better than anyone that it was harder than climbing to the sky to change a dog into eating shit!

Give a candy as a reward after hitting him with a stick is the way to win over the bannermen in the long run.

"From now on, the seven of you will go to my account office every New Year's Day to collect your money. A clerk will receive 300 taels, and an assistant commander will receive 200 taels. Everyone will get a share, and I will not cheat anyone, young or old."

Yinyou was so generous that Decheng and the others all cheered and flattered him.

"Master, you are such a good master to your servants..."

"Master, if you give me an order, I will obey you till my death!"

Yinyou smiled but said nothing, but in his heart he agreed with the fourth brother's idea of returning the fire consumption money to the public and the money for maintaining integrity.

In the current era where all officials are corrupt, it is completely unavoidable that bureaucrats rely on the power in their hands to make huge profits without restraint.

Without high salaries, it is impossible to maintain integrity.

Even with high salaries, it is impossible to eliminate corruption.

However, high salaries can help those bureaucrats who do not want to be corrupt to maintain the bottom line of society. In the final analysis, from the emperor to the county magistrate, they all hold unchecked power and can torment the common people as they please.

Yinyou had long wanted to reform the banner system. If he didn't, the bondservants under his command would never follow him.

Today, Yinwei not only has tremendous power, but also has the ability to give money to the lieutenants and assistant leaders to reduce the burden on the bondservants.

No matter what others think, Yinyou himself has always been clear-headed. He expects the lieutenants and assistant commanders who have stable jobs to work for him to fight for him, which is purely his own wishful thinking.

When it comes to the critical moment, the people who are really useful must be the ordinary bondservants who are living a hard life.

"You should return the things you took from someone to that person's home." Yinyu said calmly, "If the things are not returned to their original owners, don't blame me for being cruel and ruthless, understand?"

"Yeah." Decheng and the captains also understood that Yinyou was definitely not pretending, but was serious.

After sending Decheng and the others away, Yinyou kept Turichen to play mahjong with him.

As for the huge crowds of people in front of the door, Yinyu treated them as just air.

Gambling has always been banned in the Qing Dynasty. Yinyou and his friends played mahjong but they didn't gamble for money. The loser would have a small note stuck on his face as a necessary punishment.

Unexpectedly, the effect of sticking the notes stimulated the desire to win of Old Sixteen and Old Eighteen more than gambling.

Damn, a prince has something dirty stuck on his face. This is more worrying than losing money.

In fact, when it comes to gambling, no matter how badly the Sixteenth and Eighteenth Princes lost, they were all losing Yinyou's money.

Moreover, even if he had eight hundred guts, he would not dare to win if he was forced to gamble with Turichen.

In the past, Yinyou had a female classmate who was quite pretty and worked as an administrative staff member in a hospital.

The dean gave her a task: to lose money at the card table every day, the more she lost, the better.

As a result, when Kangxi entered the room, he was shocked to find that the faces of Yinyou, the Sixteenth Prince and the Eighteenth Prince were all covered with small notes.

"Your Majesty, I respectfully wish you the best of the world."

"Your servant Tulichen greets you respectfully."

The supreme ruler of the world had arrived. Yinyou and the others hurriedly got off the kang and knelt down to pay their respects.

Kangxi walked up to Old Eighteen, leaned over and raised his hand to peel a small piece of paper from his face. When he looked carefully, it was just a piece of white paper, nothing special about it!
"What are you doing?" Kangxi had actually seen the mahjong cards on the table, but he deliberately asked Yinyou.

"My Lord Khan, several of my men are playing Mahjong. The loser has a piece of paper stuck on his face. If his face is covered with paper, he just needs to bark like a dog a few times, then the paper will be peeled off and we can start over again." Yinyu knew that Kangxi was very averse to gambling, so he explained it briefly.

"Very good. Not gambling is the rule of the Qing Dynasty. You have done a great job!" With this, Kangxi completely wiped out the prince's misconduct.

There were three of Kangxi's biological sons in the room, and they were not gambling. They were just sticking notes behind closed doors.

Originally, Yinyu thought that Kangxi would not stay long, but who would have thought that Kangxi would be in a good mood and actually sit down at the kang table, waving to them to play mahjong with him.

"Let's not gamble, just post the note!" Kangxi set the tone, who dared to disobey?

However, after the mahjong game started, Yinyou and his friends were not stupid, so who would dare to stick a note on Kangxi’s face?
As a result, Kangxi won dozens of games in a row, and the faces of his three sons were covered with notes.

"Haha, I am very pleased. Since you are all very filial, I will reward each of you with 5,000 taels of silver!"

"Shekhan Amma Grace!"

Yinyou had no shortage of money to spend, and the Sixteenth Prince secretly helped the Fourth Prince do the dirty work, so he was not short of money either.

Old Eighteen was so happy that he couldn't stop smiling, and said happily: "My father is so wise!"

During the Chinese New Year, the emperor, his subjects, fathers and sons should enjoy themselves together.

"You guys continue to have fun, I'm going to go check on the third brother."

Everyone in this room knows that Kangxi actually likes the well-mannered third brother.

After the eldest and second sons were imprisoned, the third son became the de facto eldest son of the emperor.

In the atmosphere of the eldest son being crowned as the heir, the calls for the third son to take the position of crown prince are growing day by day!

When the three brothers escorted Kangxi out of the back door, Kangxi suddenly called Yinyu to his side and whispered, "It's unsightly for the prince to post a note. You can't do it in public. Do you understand?"

Yinyou secretly found it funny. When their faces were covered with notes, Kangxi clapped his legs with joy.

Now, Kangxi said seriously again that posting the note was against the rules. Alas, who could he go to for justice?

There is no one who is not double-standard. Kangxi is like this, and so is Yinyou!

Anyway, as long as you have power, there will be crooked-mouthed scholars to argue for you!
(End of this chapter)