The swansong of the swansong

Chapter 231 Chance Encounter
Old Seventeen cried bitterly and felt much better. He said in a sobbing voice, "The concubine has suffered a lot of grievances."

Yinyou was so smart that he knew as soon as he heard it that the Seventeenth Prince was blaming Shunzhi and Kangxi in disguise for treating Concubine Shuhui badly.

To resent the emperor or father was tantamount to giving others an advantage in the Qing Dynasty, where ethics and morals were strictly enforced.

There are almost no fools among the children in the palace!
Since the Seventeenth Prince was not afraid of Yinyu's slander, it meant that he really wanted to have a close relationship with Yinyu.

The Seventeenth Prince is not the Thirteenth Prince, so Yinyou could have a closer relationship with him.

Yinyu clapped his hands on Old Seventeen's shoulders and said sincerely: "Live your life better, and the Concubine Dowager will surely smile in her grave."

The dead cannot be resurrected, and Old Seventeen still has a long life ahead of him. Living a prosperous life is better than anything else!

After returning to the Rehe Palace, Yinyou's own identity was sensitive, so he did not personally recommend the Seventeenth Prince, but asked Wulin to collude with Wei Zhu in private.

Wei Zhu stayed by Kangxi's side all day long. As long as he found the right opportunity, he would say something to help the Seventeenth Prince, and it would definitely work.

Coincidentally, half a month later, Wei Zhu really found an opportunity to make suggestions.

At that time, when Kangxi was chatting with Wei Zhu privately, he kept lamenting that his right hand was not strong and he couldn't get anyone to help him mark the questions.

Wei Zhu seized the opportunity and whispered, "Your Majesty, the young masters in the Shangshufang, maybe they can help you?"

After being reminded, Kangxi immediately thought of the sixteenth prince all the way to the eighteenth prince.

After Yinyou was given an important position, it was not appropriate to let the Sixteenth Prince take on important tasks.

Old Eighteen is trustworthy, but he is only fifteen years old and can't be of much help.

Kangxi counted and calculated and found that only the seventeenth man, who was nineteen years old in lunar age, could be used.

A few days later, Kangxi issued an edict ordering the Seventeenth Prince to manage the affairs of the Shanpu Camp.

Shanpu is Buku, which means wrestling.

Kangxi captured Oboi by using the Buku boys around him. Later, these Buku boys formed a separate Shanpu Camp.

The treatment in Shanpu Camp is excellent.

The average monthly salary for an Eight Banners horse soldier was four taels of silver. For a soldier in the Shanpu Camp, the starting salary was thirty taels of silver.

The Shanpu Camp not only had a high income, but also only selected its personnel from the children of the Manchu Eight Banners nobles.

After taking charge of the Shanpu Camp, Lao Shiqi received a monthly dispatch income of 500 taels of silver, which greatly alleviated the financial crisis he faced.

In the past, the income of Old Seventeen was only a meagre two hundred yuan a year. With so many guests coming and going within the royal family, he had long been unable to make ends meet.

Lao Shiqi's maternal grandfather, Chen Bingzhi, had served as a frontier governor for more than twenty years and had accumulated a considerable fortune.

If it weren't for the fact that his uncle Chen Ximin loved his nephew so much and often gave money privately to help Old Seventeen, Old Seventeen would have gone bankrupt long ago due to his inability to make ends meet.

However, Chen Ximin’s talent was very average. Even after serving in the palace for such a long time, he was still only a second-class guard of the fourth rank.

To be honest, Yinyou and the Sixteenth Prince, whose biological mothers were Han women and who had no support from their maternal clan, should be the two poorest princes.

After finishing his shift that day, Yinyou "accidentally met" the Twelfth Prince on the road.

"Fifteenth brother, I'm unfamiliar with this place, so I can only come to your place for a drink." The Twelfth Brother seemed very friendly.

After all, Yinyou had worked with the Twelfth Prince many times, so being well-known must be a treasure.

The funerals held in the palace in recent times were all handled by the Twelfth Prince, with Yinyou assisting.

More importantly, the Twelfth Prince had no interest in the throne and had always adopted a strategy of self-preservation, which made Yinyou feel at ease.

"Twelve Brother, I've been drinking alone since I got home. I couldn't ask for you to accompany me!"

After Yinyou said this, the Twelfth Prince grinned, he was right about the person.

The Twelfth Prince is seven years older than Yinyou. So far, he has hardly ever handled any other duties except funerals in the palace.

It is impossible for someone to die in the palace every month. The Twelfth Prince spends most of his time in the Shangshu Room, which makes him physically and mentally exhausted.

The Seventeenth Prince went out with Yinyou, and soon after he came back, he got the good job of managing the Shanpu Camp.

Others may not be able to see the mystery clearly, but the Twelfth Prince could guess that it must be Yinwei who was secretly helping.

So, today's chance encounter happened.

When one is in a high position, who one can become close friends with and who one can stay away from depends not only on the changes in the situation but also on personal judgment.

Now that the Eighth Prince had clearly fallen out of favor and was getting further and further away from the throne, if the Twelfth Prince wanted to get a decent job, he would have to ask Yinyou for help no matter who he asked.

Old Seventeen is a vivid example!
As for Ma Qi's father-in-law, he didn't help the Twelveth Prince when he was the Prime Minister, let alone after he stepped down?

To be honest, the Twelfth Prince had long given up on Ma Qi, and would never visit the Fu Cha family unless he had nothing to do.

However, when Yinyu was about to start the feast, Old Seventeen suddenly came uninvited. Since he was here, he couldn't just chase him away, so Yinyu personally went out of the courtyard and led Old Seventeen into the dining hall.

When they sat down, before Yinyou could say anything, the Twelfth Prince took the lead and sat in the host's seat.

Old Seventeen was not stupid either, and he took the second passenger seat.

Since his brothers were all very considerate of him, it was naturally impossible for Yinyou to sit in the middle, so he simply sat in the first seat at the bottom.

This way, no one needs to worry about seating arrangements.

When the three brothers were drinking, Kangxi suddenly came with Wei Zhu.

When Kangxi entered the room, he saw the three brothers drinking heavily and acting in an ugly manner.

Yinyou was not wearing a Liuhe hat, the front of the Seventeenth Prince's shirt was wet with wine, and the Twelfth Prince rolled up his sleeves, looking like a street hoodlum.

Kangxi came so suddenly that the doorman had no chance to report. As a result, the three brothers all made a fool of themselves in front of the emperor.

"I'm hungry!" Kangxi stood at the door, glanced at his three sons, and suddenly said this confusing sentence.

However, Yinyou knew that Kangxi wanted to go to the market town of Shangying in Rehe to walk around, have a look, and eat and drink.

Security was a big problem when Kangxi traveled.

The more people you accompany, the easier it is to attract other people's attention.

However, if the twelfth and seventeenth brothers were left here, if the news leaked out and something unexpected happened, Yinyou would be highly suspected!
"Khan Father, how about this? We, the ministers, will accompany you to eat barbecue skewers together?" After all, Yinyou had served Kangxi for many years, and he was a scoundrel by nature, so he boldly made the suggestion.

Kangxi only loved the second and fourth sons, and didn't care much about the twelfth and seventeenth sons. He shook his head and said, "As long as you accompany me, it's fine."

Yinyu had no choice but to bite the bullet and told the Twelfth and Seventeenth Brothers: "There will be plenty of wine and food, drink to your heart's content, and don't leave tonight."

After Yinyou said this, the twelfth and seventeenth princes felt much better.

In fact, under the heavy siege of the guards, it was impossible for the twelfth and seventeenth brothers to leave the villa!
After Yinyou followed Kangxi out of the door, the twelfth brother raised his wine cup and said with a smile: "Come on, Seventeenth Brother, today, we won't stop until we are drunk!"

The Seventeenth Brother knew what was going on, and like him, the Twelfth Brother felt somewhat disappointed at being ignored by Kangxi.

They were all princes, and even though Yinyou had helped to pass on the message, the twelfth and seventeenth princes were still ignored by Kangxi.

The truth hidden behind this is particularly chilling!

Kangxi said nice things, but deep down he doted on whoever he loved and kept them by his side!
As the carriage sped along, Kangxi asked Yinyu seemingly nonchalantly, "Little Twelve and Little Seventeen, do you often play with them?"

Yinyu pretended not to know and explained with a smile: "My dear Khan, my twelfth brother has more opportunities to preside over funeral ceremonies, and you always ask me to assist him in his duties, so we have more interactions. I, your seventeenth brother, had almost no personal relationship with you before. It was only last time when you asked me to take your seventeenth brother to the Eastern Tomb to worship our ancestors that we started to interact with each other a little bit."

"Hmm." Kangxi snorted lightly and stopped asking questions.

Yinyou knew in his heart whether what he said was true or not, Kangxi must have known it long ago.

When dealing with Kangxi, Yinyou's strategy can be summed up in four words: treat him with sincerity.

Objectively speaking, there were too many people who said one thing and did another, and who pretended to obey but secretly disobeyed others, during Kangxi's more than 50 years as emperor!
Even if a woman is tricked into bed too many times, she will tighten her belt very much!
What’s more, he is the king of a country?

The impression that Yinyu gave to Kangxi was that no matter how ugly the matter was, as long as Kangxi asked, Yinyu would dare to tell the truth.

Even if it was about his affair with Cao Jia, Yinyou would confess the truth as long as Kangxi asked.

It was because of this that Kangxi took the initiative to embrace the bastard Fu Peng.

The word "sincerity" is easier said than done, and it is extremely precious!
Now, Kangxi and Yinyou seem to be friends regardless of age difference!

After about half a quarter of an hour, Kangxi suddenly thought of something and asked Yinyu: "The Imperial Road from Beijing to Zhangjiakou has yielded a lot of rewards, right?"

Yinyu smiled and said, "It's not that big. The net profit last month was only 100,000 taels of silver."

There was no need for Yinyou to hide anything about the money, so he told it all.

Kangxi looked at Yinyu deeply, and suddenly sighed softly: "It would be great if your mother was a bannerman!"

To be honest, Kangxi and the fourth brother were both people with extremely rich emotions.

The only difference is that Kangxi neither bothered to pretend nor needed to pretend.

As for the fourth brother, he hasn’t even taken the throne yet and still needs to pretend.

If Kangxi really wanted to pass the throne to Yinyou, he could have directly promoted Concubine Mi to the upper three banners of Manchuria. Why would he pretend to be regretful?
Yinyou had a perfect grasp of Kangxi's temper. As long as Yinyou did not form a clique and did not threaten the imperial power, Kangxi would not do anything to him even if he was angry.

Kangxi was just expressing his emotion without meaning it, and he regretted it as soon as he said it!

"Khan, I think the current situation is good. How about you take me to taste all the delicacies in the world?"

Yinyou's answer just relieved Kangxi's embarrassment.

PS: There is one more update!
(End of this chapter)