The swansong of the swansong

Chapter 53 Good things keep coming
Yinyou was a free and easy person. Seeing that the fourth brother was sincere, he thought about it for a while and proposed a compromise plan.

"Fourth brother, your family is big and you have a lot of money to spend. If you give me half of it, how can we still make ends meet? How about this? Just give me 500 taels of silver every year."

Taking advantage of a favor to repay it is a big taboo in life!
Moreover, great kindness can be likened to great hatred, which is a universal law.

For example, Xu You, who helped Cao Cao burn Wuchao and defeat Yuan Shao, always talked about his old merits and complained that Cao Cao's rewards were unfair.

As a result, the ignorant Xu You was beheaded by Meng Degong, who could no longer tolerate him, and used his head as a ball.

In order not to repeat Xu You's mistake, Yinyou deliberately softened his offer and only asked for 500 taels of silver.

However, the more Yinyou acted like this, the more reluctant the fourth brother was to treat him unfairly.

"I'll give you two thousand taels. If you keep nagging me, I'll really get angry!" The fourth brother had a dark face, and it was obvious that he was serious.

According to the rules, the annual salary of a prince was six thousand taels of silver, plus six thousand hu of rice.

The fourth brother was very generous and gave one third to Yinyou. To be honest, it was very generous of him!

Even if the fourth brother refused to share the one or two taels of silver, Yinyou could only watch helplessly.

After all, it was Kang Mazi himself, not the fourth brother, who treated Yinyou unfairly.

The cat was in the corner, and Su Peisheng, who was bending over to serve, felt his heart was like a turbulent sea.

At this moment, Su Peisheng admired Yinyou to death, but at the same time, his heart was trembling with fear.

Fifteenth Master, Fifteenth Master, you really understand our master's thoughts!

The fourth brother’s temper has always been that he would rather be soft-hearted than hard-hearted.

Whether in the Ministry of Revenue or in the Prince's residence, anyone who dares to confront the Fourth Brother will be in trouble sooner or later!
As expected by Yinyu, just before the imperial court was about to close the twelfth lunar month, a big commotion broke out in the palace.

Yinyou's maternal grandfather, Wang Guozheng, was rated as outstanding in the Ministry of Personnel's regular "major projects".

By special decree, Wang Guozheng was promoted from seventh-rank county magistrate to Deputy Director of Fengchenyuan of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, with the title of Shaoqing of Guanglu Temple.

The Shaoqing of the Guanglu Temple was a fourth-rank official, which just met the minimum qualification for female relatives to enter the palace to meet the emperor.

Similar cases of low position but high title include Li Xu, the Suzhou Weaving Supervisor, who held the title of Dali Temple Minister, and Cao Yin, the Jiangning Weaving Supervisor, who held the title of Tongzhengshi.

The main responsibility of the Fengchenyuan of the Imperial Household Department was to manage and repair the royal gardens, which was definitely a good job with little work and high pay.

Yinyou knew what was going on, and Kangxi thought that with such a favor from heaven, he could just get rid of him!
However, Yinyu didn't care about Kangxi's reward at all. As long as the fourth brother really had him in his heart, everything would be enough!

Kangxi did not kill his sons, but the only son he truly valued was the fourth son.

Throughout the middle and late Kangxi period, the fourth brother was like a firefighter. Wherever there was a fire, the fourth brother would lead a team to put it out.

The fourth brother almost took on all the hard, dirty and tiring jobs by himself.

In Kangxi's eyes, except for the crown prince and the fourth son, the other sons were no different in essence from passersby.

There was no way Kangxi would give Yinyou the military power that he valued the most.

Instead of flattering Kangxi, it is better to gain the trust of the fourth brother.

It is no exaggeration to say that after the fourth brother ascended the throne, he was really willing to give up power.

The Thirteenth Prince was the executive vice emperor who had no control over anything. The Sixteenth Prince was shamelessly forced to be the heir to Prince Zhuang, and got the great advantage of a hereditary prince for nothing. Nian Gengyao was a first-class duke and general of Fuyuan, commanding an army of more than 100,000. Longkodo was the minister of prime ministerial affairs, the minister of the Ministry of Personnel, and the commander of the infantry.

Hehe, political investment, taking a stand, must be worthwhile!

While sipping tea, Yinyu waited for the fourth son to come to him. After all, the fourth son would definitely come to congratulate Yinyu's mother's family for their happy event.

As expected, the fourth brother came with Su Peisheng not long after.

"Fifteenth brother, congratulations, three good things have come to you." The fourth brother started shouting while he was still in the yard.

Yinyu walked quickly to the door of the room and met the fourth son with a smile on his face. He said, "The Ministry of Internal Affairs worked very hard and finally managed to renovate the Ci Mansion for you before the New Year. You must have a treat to celebrate your new home!"

These days, Yinwei has been focusing on the important matter of sorting out the account books of the Ministry of Revenue and has no time to take care of the trivial matters in the new house.

In other words, everything about the new house was almost entirely handled by the fourth brother!

"I won't go into the house. Let's go and see your new house." The fourth brother was very domineering. He pulled Yinyou and went straight out and got into the car.

Yinyu's new house was located in the old Tao Beizi Mansion in Qingshuiqiao Hutong, which was later the site of the private Fu Jen Catholic University.

After arriving at the place, the fourth brother enthusiastically led Yinyou to visit the house side by side.

When he walked up the steps and entered the door, Yinyou deliberately stopped, pretending to be curious, and looked carefully at the door nails on the door.

According to the regulations of the Qing Dynasty Code, there are 9981 door nails in the Forbidden City, except for the Donghua Gate.

The fourth brother saw Yinyu's worry, so he smiled and explained: "Don't worry about violating the rules. I have already asked for an imperial decree. The platform and door nails will follow the rules of the Beizi Mansion. But there is no way for the main hall..."

After all, Yinyou had no title, and even though there were forty-nine copper door nails on the front door to help make it look more presentable, it could not hide the shabby reality that his family could not have a main hall.

Perhaps sensing that Yinyou was a little depressed, the fourth brother raised his hand and patted his shoulder, saying with extraordinary sincerity: "Based on your unparalleled talent, there will be sixty-three large copper nails here in the future."

The fourth brother's words took more than a dozen twists and turns, and people who didn't know the inside story couldn't understand them at all.

Hehe, in the Qing Dynasty, only the gate of the prince’s palace was equipped with sixty-three copper door nails!
Starting from the steps outside the gate all the way to the main house in the courtyard, the entire way was filled with kneeling male servants and female maids.

These servants were originally the old people who served Prince Tao. They were all bondservants affiliated with the Imperial Household Department.

In the Qing Dynasty, baoyi were not slaves, but ordinary bannermen who served the emperor or royal princes.

The daughters of the bondservants of the upper three banners, when they reached the age of thirteen, had to be selected by the Imperial Household Department as beautiful girls of the bondservants of the upper three banners to become palace maids.

For example, Yinwei's adoptive mother, Concubine De, was a palace maid who was born into a family of concubines from the three banners of the Baoyi clan and was sent to serve the imperial concubine Tong Jia.

The Imperial Concubine Tong Jia entered the palace as a lady from the Eight Banners, because her biological father was Tong Guowei, a first-class duke and a minister of state.

Baoyi Aha were the real lowly slaves. They could only be slaves for generations, and their daughters were not eligible to participate in the selection of palace maids.

What’s more interesting is that Prince Tao was stripped of his title and imprisoned in the clan house, where he died inexplicably.

Some of the bondservants left behind by Prince Tao were sent by the Ministry of Internal Affairs to serve elsewhere.

The remaining people from the Ministry of Internal Affairs knelt on the ground to welcome the arrival of the new master.

Before entering the main house, Yinyu pointed to a silver fir tree in the courtyard and sighed, "Thank you for your trouble, fourth brother!"

Due to excessive deforestation, the extremely rare silver fir tree has become extremely rare in the Qing Dynasty.

Now, a silver fir tree suddenly appeared in Yinyou's new house. No doubt it was arranged by the fourth brother.

The fourth brother didn't look at Yinshan, and asked Yinyu calmly: "You actually told me that you were worried?"

(End of this chapter)