The swansong of the swansong

Chapter 29: Seating

"Xiao Suzi, it's enough to have you waiting for me at the door." Yinyu's words were thought-provoking and lingering.

The fourth brother was an extremely suspicious person, and it was extremely difficult for him to gain the trust of even the eunuchs who had served him for many years.

However, Su Peisheng is an exception.

With the existence of the Sixteenth Prince as an insider, Yinyou knew better than anyone that Su Peisheng was the Fourth Prince's clone, and no matter how much he emphasized his importance, it was not an exaggeration.

After the fourth prince ascended the throne, Su Peisheng's power in the palace was so great that it could not be described as "covering the sky with one hand".

In a nutshell, when Yinyou came to take office today, the fourth brother specially arranged for Su Peisheng to wait outside the gate to greet him, which really gave him enough face.

Su Peisheng leaned sideways and accompanied Yinyou into the Ministry of Revenue.

"Greetings, Master Fifteen." The servants in front of the household department all bowed and greeted him.

Yinyu raised his folding fan and said calmly, "Get up."

The status difference between the officers and Yinyou was extremely large, so there was no point in saying more. Instead of making trouble for each other, it was better to let each other go.

After passing through several doors, Su Peisheng led Yinyou to the door of the Second Hall of the Ministry of Revenue.

From a distance, Yinyou saw the fourth brother standing at the door, and six officials in red hats standing behind him in an orderly manner.

Yinyu walked quickly to the front of the fourth brother, took the initiative to bow and greet him, and called him affectionately: "Younger brother Yinyu, please be well, fourth brother."

"Fifteenth brother, I've finally got you here." After the fourth brother clasped his fists in return, he took Yinyu's hand affectionately and said, "Come, let me introduce you. This is Kaibu Tang..."

"Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, I am Kaiyinbu, paying my respects to the Fifteenth Master." Kaiyinbu hurriedly bowed and knelt on the ground.

Kaiyinbu was not only a favorite of Kangxi, but also a first-rank official. Yinyou did not dare to neglect him and followed suit, bowing and returning the greeting.

After the cumbersome reception etiquette, the fourth brother led everyone into the lobby of the Ministry of Households.

After the fourth brother sat firmly on the seat of honor on the left, he wanted to invite Yinyou to sit on the seat of honor on the right.

But Yinyou was so smart that he didn't wait for the fourth brother to open his mouth and sat directly on the first chair to the left of the fourth brother.

The seating arrangements these days are quite particular and have a lot of connotations.

In the Qing Dynasty, the seats facing the main door were all the seats of honor. Also, the left seat was the most honorable, followed by the right.

The position where Yinyou sat was neither conspicuous nor closest to the fourth brother, which was just right.

"Fifteenth brother, this is your seat." The fourth brother calmly pointed to the second seat next to him, wanting Yinyou to move.

Yinyu waved his hand and said, "Fourth brother, I am tired from walking. Can I sit down and rest my legs?"

This is a bit arrogant and unreasonable!
However, it also made Yinyu's attitude clear: he came to the Ministry of Revenue to work only as an assistant to the prince.

As the saying goes, there is no two masters in a country, and no two suns in the sky.

Yinyou's position was very upright, and the Ministry of Revenue was still the one where the fourth brother had the final say.

The fourth brother glanced at Yinyou with great satisfaction. He was not wrong. Yinyou was indeed law-abiding and knew his limits.

Others may not know the fourth prince's temper, but how could Yinyou not know it?

It is true that only those who know when to advance and when to retreat are likable.

In the current Ministry of Revenue, in addition to the Manchu Minister Kaiyinbu and the Han Minister Xu Chao, there are four other Manchu and Han left and right assistant ministers. These six people are the head officials of the Ministry of Revenue.

Before today, Yinyou, who was mixed in the crowd, had seen Xu Chao, who served as the lecturer in the imperial lectures, many times.

It was just that Yinyu knew Xu Chao, but Xu Chao didn't know him, a little-known prince. Before that, they had no contact with each other. Yinyu knew very well that Xu Chao not only worked in the Ministry of Revenue, but also served as the president of the Hanlin Academy.

In the Qing Dynasty, the president of the Hanlin Academy, although his position was not high and his power was not great, had great potential influence.

This was because Xu Chao often taught classes to the scholars in the Hanlin Academy, and these people were considered his students.

After the six officials from the Ministry of Revenue, as well as the fourth prince and Yinyou, had all sat down, the servants came in and served tea.

The fourth brother picked up the teacup, took a sip, and said calmly, "Kaibu Tang, how is the progress of recovering the silver owed to the national treasury?"

In the Ministry of Revenue, subordinates respectfully called the Shangshu the Da Situ and the Shilang the Xiao Situ.

However, the fourth prince is both a prince and a beile, so his title is naturally different.

Kaiyinbu raised his butt slightly, leaned forward, and said with his hands clasped, "In reply to the Fourth Master, those who owe the court money are not only numerous, but also have real difficulties. I am afraid that they will not be able to raise enough money to return it to the treasury at the moment."

Yinyou didn't look at Kaiyinbu, he just lowered his head to sip his tea with his mouth tightly closed.

The old TV series "Yongzheng Dynasty" has a lot of drama about debt collection. However, almost everyone, from the crown prince to the minor officials, has borrowed money from the national treasury.

Objectively speaking, it would have been impossible for officials to borrow money from the national treasury without Kangxi's tacit approval.

The fourth prince asked Yinyu to come to the Ministry of Revenue to help with his work. Even if he didn't say it, Yinyu knew the main reason, which was to help collect the silver owed to the national treasury.

Before coming to the Ministry of Revenue, Yinyou had done his homework. He knew very well that as long as there were no wars, no major construction projects, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs was not overly wasteful, the deposits in the national treasury would continue to grow steadily.

In the 2605th year of Emperor Kangxi's reign, the national treasury had accumulated 4000 million taels of silver. Since then, the national treasury has continued to rise and has remained stable at million taels of silver.

Life in the Ministry of Revenue is actually not difficult nowadays.

Therefore, the six officials of the Ministry of Revenue, including Kaiyinbu, did not want to offend anyone. However, they did not dare to offend the fourth brother openly, so they kept delaying and perfunctorily doing it.

Today, Yinyou just came to the Ministry of Revenue to take office, and the fourth brother took the lead in making trouble. It was obvious that he wanted Yinyou to express his position in public: Who do you support?

Yinyou must express his stance, but he definitely would not be so childish as to show off his chariot and horses before the show has even begun.

After all, the fourth brother was an extremely difficult and suspicious person, and it would be difficult for Yinyou to get into his heart in a short period of time.

You can't eat hot tofu in a hurry, you have to take it slow!
The fourth brother knew what was going on. The old fox, Kaiyinbu, once again used his ultimate trick of giving up.

Yes, the officials did owe the state treasury a lot of money. But the money had long been spent, so could they still be forced to death?

In order to collect debts, he actually forced a court official to death. Doesn't this bring disgrace to the holy emperor Kangxi?

Anyone who dares to upset the emperor will definitely have a hard time in the future. Kaiyinbu firmly believes this.

"Xu Butang, what do you think?"

Xu Chao was a Han official, and he had always been in opposition to Kaiyinbu. Therefore, the fourth brother always treated him with respect in public.

"Fourth Master, in my opinion, you must not act too hastily!" After Xu Chao stood up and saluted, his slow and methodical approach made the Fourth Master hit a snag.

After all, among the officials who lent money from the national treasury, there were not only many Manchu officials, but also many Han officials.

During the reign of Emperor Kangxi, none of the successive Ministers of the Ministry of Revenue were fools and all of them knew how to do the math.

In order to recover the silver owed to the court, he offended countless Han officials and colleagues. Even if Xu Chao was stupid, he would never do such a stupid thing.

Although the fourth prince was the one in charge of the Ministry of Revenue, that is, the emperor of the Ministry of Revenue, what he wanted to do was secretly resisted by the two ministers of Manchu and Han, and the result was that he would be unable to move forward.

In the officialdom of the Qing Dynasty, the basic rule was that the county magistrate was not as good as the current manager.

(End of this chapter)