The swansong of the swansong

Chapter 208 Settling Trouble
At the command of the official in charge of ceremonies, more than a thousand old men performed the ceremony of three kneelings, nine kowtows and six solemn bows.

Kangxi said proudly: "I have been on the throne for more than fifty years, and the world is peaceful and at peace..." He boasted about his achievements endlessly.

"The Three Feudatories rose up in rebellion, and I suppressed them. Tai and Zheng attempted to secede, and I conquered them. Galdan dreamed of restoring the former glory of Genghis Khan, and I forced him to commit suicide..." Kangxi, who was in his sixties, would never stop nagging once he started.

Yinyou had already developed calluses in his ears, but he still had to listen to Kangxi's nagging patiently.

Finally, when Kangxi finished his nagging, two white-haired old men collapsed in front of the Hall of Supreme Harmony.

If it weren't for Yinyou's experience, he would have guessed that they were probably suffering from hypoglycemia and ordered people to feed them porridge.

Otherwise, someone would definitely die on the day of the Banquet of a Thousand Elders!
Finally, after Kangxi finished his boastful chatter, the Banquet for a Thousand Old Men officially began.

It was not until this moment that Yinyou breathed a sigh of relief. Although the steamed bun was cold, it was rich in carbohydrates, which was just the right amount to adjust his low blood sugar caused by hunger.

While eating, Kangxi looked at His Royal Highness Taihe with satisfaction. Well, there were popular hotpot restaurants everywhere, all thanks to Xiao Shiwu!
For today's shabu-shabu mutton, Yinyu specifically ordered the chef in the imperial kitchen to cut the mutton as thinly as possible.

The extremely thin lamb slices are picked up with chopsticks, put into the clear soup in the copper pot and boiled for ten times, then quickly scooped out and placed in a sauce dish, dipped in braised shrimp oil, pepper oil, Sanhe oil, sesame paste and other sauces.

Hehe, Kangxi ate more than ten chopsticks and wanted to eat more, but was stopped by Yinyou.

Yinyou whispered, "Khan Ama, mutton with fish soup tastes delicious, but it is not advisable to eat too much. I have always been looking forward to hosting a grand centenary banquet that will attract worldwide attention in the future!"

Qi Yi refers to an old person who is over 100 years old.

Kangxi was very pleased with the praise and felt relieved, so he listened to Yinyou's advice and started eating hot pot vegetables instead.

Yinyou could also see that Kangxi was in a very good mood.

However, among the several old men who fainted in front of the Hall of Supreme Harmony, one was a step slow in drinking the porridge and fainted and died.

On such a happy day, even if Yinyu knew about such an unlucky thing as a death, he did not dare to report it to Kangxi.

There is no way. From the time the Banquet for a Thousand Old Men was being prepared, similar tragedies were bound to happen.

In the end, it’s just a matter of whether a group will die or a few will die.

Kangxi ordered Yinyou to return to manage the Imperial Household Department with the fundamental purpose of making the Banquet for a Thousand Old Men extremely grand and giving him face.

Since someone had died, Yinwei privately instructed everyone not to say that the person died in the palace, but to say that he had returned home and died of old age in bed.

After the banquet was over, Yinyou first sent Kangxi back to the Qianqing Palace, then hurried out of the palace and called the deceased's family into the Prince's Mansion.

The deceased was named Liu Tai, and he once worked on the Tea Horse Road in Shaanxi.

As we all know, in the Qing Dynasty, the most profitable monopoly businesses were salt and tea.

Among them, salt was sold to the common people in the Central Plains, while tea was mainly sold to the Mongols to make huge profits.

Mongolian food is too greasy, so they must drink tea to relieve the greasiness. This is a basic need.

The official road from Zhangjiakou to the capital, which was monopolized by Yinyu, was mainly collected tolls from Shanxi merchants.

Against the backdrop of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce, the Qing Dynasty's agricultural taxes were sky-high due to layers of exploitation, making it almost suffocating for the self-cultivating farmers.

However, the commercial tax in the Qing Dynasty was only 5% of the total value of goods, which was shockingly low!

Both Jiangnan and Huguang produce tea, and the terminus of the Grand Canal is Tongzhou, so the toll monopoly by Yinyu is an excellent business with huge profits.

"Master Liu, your father was over 60 years old and unfortunately passed away due to old age and frailty. It can be considered a happy funeral!" As soon as Yinyu opened his mouth, he set the tone. Liu Tai's death was a natural death and had nothing to do with Kangxi's mischief.

After all, Young Master Liu's father had died, and he felt somewhat dissatisfied, so he retorted.

"To be honest with you, Prince Yu, my father has always been in good health. If he hadn't traveled thousands of miles to the capital, enduring the exhausting journey by boat and horse, how could he have ended up like this?" Young Master Liu complained indignantly.

Yinyou knew in his heart that in this matter, the royal family was definitely in the wrong.

But who made Kangxi the emperor?
As an emperor, his orders must be correct. Even if a disaster occurs, it is because his subordinates failed to carry them out properly!
Forcing the emperor to admit his mistake, hehe, I guess you don’t want your head anymore, right?
"Master Liu, I must remind you that your father left behind many bad accounts when he was in charge of the Tea-Horse Road. If the court sends someone to investigate, huh, confiscation of property and exile would be the least of his punishments." Yinyu deliberately threatened Master Liu.

In the Qing Dynasty, if you served as an honest prefect for three years, you could surely earn 100,000 taels of silver, not to mention the Tea-Horse Road of an entire province.

"Prince Yu, my father is an honest official and has never taken any illegal actions to gain money!" Young Master Liu was so enraged that he actually fought back.

Yinyu said calmly, "Master Liu, I am kindly reminding you. I advise you not to forget how Dai Mingshi lost his head in the Nanshanji case last year."

Among the bannermen, there is no such thing as a written crime; only the fault of seizing power is one's own.

However, due to the instigation of the Han official Zhao Shenqiao, Kangxi deliberately launched a large-scale literary case in order to find faults in order to intimidate the Han officials and Confucian scholars in Jiangnan.

Just be quiet, understand?

Yinyou used his braking mace, and Master Liu instantly wilted.

Because, although Liu Tai did not make money, he wrote several books because of his talent and published them. If Yinyu was really annoyed and insisted on finding faults in the books, the heads of the Liu family would be chopped off!

"Master Liu, you must control your foul mouth and do not endanger the lives of our entire family. Remember, remember, remember!" Yinyu deliberately said "remember" three times in a row, which means to use courtesy before force.

To put it bluntly, the essence of this matter is: the Liu family dared to tarnish the reputation of Kangxi as a holy emperor, and Yinyou, the number one thug of the time, dared to find an excuse to destroy the entire Liu family.

After scaring off Master Liu, Yinyu immediately went about dealing with the families of several other victims.

In a nutshell, your biological father died. It had nothing to do with Kangxi. He simply died of old age.

In the Qing Dynasty, could an arm be stronger than a thigh?

As a result, all the families of the deceased were privately settled by Yinyu!

In fact, Kangxi already knew that someone had died in front of the Hall of Supreme Harmony during the Banquet for a Thousand Old Men.

However, not a single rumor was heard inside or outside the capital, which showed that Yinyu had done a very good job in keeping the people silent!

"Little Fifteen, you must have invested a lot of money yourself, right?" Kangxi looked at Yinyou with joy.

Yinyu bent down and whispered, "As a son, it is my duty to share the worries of my king and father. Not to mention that I only gave them a small amount of money, even if it emptied my family's wealth, I would not feel sorry at all."

Yinyou not only helped Kangxi eliminate the negative impact, but also secretly paid him nearly ten thousand taels of silver without saying a word.

Kangxi couldn't help but feel very pleased. Little Fifteen is such a filial and good son!

"Little Fifteen, I can't let you suffer for nothing. Here, I'll give you 100,000 acres of the imperial farm in Daxing County!"

One hundred thousand acres! This was too much. Yinyou was about to refuse, but was stopped by Kangxi with a wave of his hand.

"Your filial piety has moved me. This is what you deserve. Don't refuse it anymore." Kangxi made the final decision, and Yinyou naturally didn't dare to say anything more.

"Your humble servant thanks my Khan for his grace!" Yinyu knelt down to express his gratitude.

Kangxi personally pulled Yinyu up, patted his hand and said, "As long as you have Ama in your heart, Ama will never treat you badly!"

Yes, it doesn’t matter if there are hungry soldiers. Any qualified emperor knows this truth!
In the past, after the Donkey Cart God of War captured Taiyuan, he not only failed to fulfill his promise, but forced the three armies to attack the Youyan states.

The result, naturally, was that the emperor broke his promise and the three armies lost their will to fight, which was a tragic outcome.

The donkey cart god of war was shot in the buttocks. If he had run half a step later, he would have almost rewritten history.

When Yinyou saw Sister Tian again at Concubine Mi's place, wow, Sister Tian seemed like a different person, and had nothing to do with Matchstick at all.

Although Concubine Mi was somewhat protective of her natal family, she was kind-hearted after all and greatly improved the food structure for Sister Tian.

To be honest, Sister Tian is in the period of growth. As long as her diet structure is reasonable and her nutrition is adequate, there is no reason why she would still be so skinny.

"Brother, the imperial concubine treats me very well. Three meals a day include meat, eggs, fish, and a lot of vegetables..." Sister Tian stared at Yinyou with stars in her eyes as if she had seen a savior.

Concubine Mi also saw Tian Jie'er's gratitude towards Yinwei, and she was very satisfied.

If it happened in the common people, as long as they were not brother and sister, I'm afraid they would have to perform the old drama of pledge of love, right?
Old Eighteen said with a smile: "Sister Tian is really a big eater, she eats at least half a pound of mutton for every meal!"

Yinyou smiled silently. If he was afraid of being hungry, wouldn’t he have to eat a lot?
When you get tired of eating big fish and meat, you should just eat vegetables!

In the past, when Yinyou was a child, worthless frogs, turtles and other things became people's favorite delicacies.

Lao Shiba comes to visit Sister Tian almost every day, mainly because he also needs a good sister.

This guy, whatever he lacks, he thinks about it, he is really not lying to me!
With Yinyou's current status, he has everything from power to position, but what he really lacks is a caring and good sister.

So, in the blink of an eye, Sister Tian had three brothers who loved her very much.

Wu Lin, who was standing aside, sighed repeatedly, saying that Sister Tian had a very good life!
If it weren't for Yinyou's sympathy, the best scenario for Tian Jie'er would be to marry an unknown Mongolian prince.

Except for one, all the Qing princesses who completed the mission of pacifying Mongolia became obscure.

Now, based on Wulin's understanding of Yinwei's temper, Sister Tian will most likely stay in the capital and enjoy a good life in the future!

Except for Princess Wenxian and Princess Xujing, all the other princesses of Kangxi were married off and sent to Mongolia, where they ate sand every day and lived a hard life.

The Mongolian princess sounds quite respectable, but in fact, it is not the case at all.

Most of the Mongolian princes were illiterate and had no idea about Chinese characters.

After the Qing princess married into the Mongolian kingdom, it was impossible for her to find common language with her Mongolian husband.

PS: I still owe 5,000 words. I will make up for it tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. Please give me your monthly votes!

(End of this chapter)