My father is Yongzheng, and I am Qianlong?

Chapter 414 Dealing with the powerful clans of the South, what are you crying about? You're spineless!

"Jiang Mingren, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites."

"Zhou Wan, a senior official in the Ministry of Justice."

"Tao Dapeng, the Prime Minister of Taipu Temple."

……

"You have formed cliques for personal gain, disrupted the government, cultivated spies, and spied on secrets. Your evil deeds are too numerous to mention. Therefore, you are all dismissed from your posts, removed from your posts, and handed over to the Ministry for detention. When your relatives arrive, you will all be exiled to Ningguta, Heilongjiang City, and other places!"

"Appreciate this!"

Outside the Great Qing Gate.

A group of officials were brought here, kneeling under the bright golden sun, listening to the imperial decree.

After the imperial decree was read, some of them fainted on the spot, some fell to the ground and cried, while others looked lifeless as if they had lost their souls.

"take away!"

After reading the decree, Infantry Commander Eshan waved his hand.

So, several guards took these officials away.

These officials were all identified by Zhu Quan as family members representing several prominent clans in the south. They were instructed by Zhang Tingyu to persuade Zhang Tingyu to influence Hongli and get him to abolish the fire tax system.

They were not all high-ranking officials, but because they generally achieved high scores in the imperial examinations, even though they were Han Chinese, they served as officials in the capital with official titles.

It is impossible to confirm whether the fire at Zhang Tingyu's imperial garden was intentional or unintentional.

Therefore, the imperial court was unable to produce any evidence to convict anyone in this matter.

Those who dare to do this will not admit it.

The main goal is to make this event unworthy of being recorded in history, and even if it is recorded, it will be difficult to directly prove that it is related to political struggle.

However, Hongli could use other matters to make the Ciyuan Garden catch fire in order to threaten Zhang Tingyu, and also force Hongli to abolish the system of returning fire tax to the public.

That would be to directly use their alleged factionalism and misrule as a pretext.

Although this charge cannot be directly linked to murder or deceiving the emperor, it will not cost them their lives.

However, exiling these powerful southern clans involved to the border regions and letting nature decide which members of their families would die quickly on the way and in their places of exile, and which would survive in their places of exile, would increase the population base in the border areas and assimilate the local population, which would also be a good thing for Hongli.

"This is the Qing Dynasty!"

"The scholar-officials live worse than lackeys, and there are even scholar-officials who voluntarily become lackeys in the Qing Dynasty!"

"Back then, Wu Sangui should not have welcomed the Qing army into the pass! The southern sages should not have allied with the barbarians to quell the bandits, and they should not have surrendered Nanjing directly when Dodo marched south. Furthermore, they should not have supported the Liao people in raising bandits from the very beginning, and they should not have treated the Liao funds as a business!"

“Even supporting Li Zicheng is better than supporting the Aisin Gioro family. At least Li Zicheng is Han Chinese!”

"Our ancestors truly made the biggest mistake!"

"If they hadn't made such a big mistake, we Han Chinese officials wouldn't be in such a passive position now. We don't even dare to criticize the census of the southern regions; we can only be silently alarmed!"

"Therefore, if in the future a Han Chinese can regain the country and establish a Han dynasty, we Han Chinese must no longer regard foreign barbarians as saviors and welcome them in. We should also regard traitors as the most shameful people!"

After these officials from several prominent southern families who were to be dealt with were dismissed and detained, Mr. Wenshiwa, his face turning red and white, also began to denounce them in front of Luo Qiu.

Snapped!
After saying this, Mr. Ziwa threw the unfinished cup of coarse tea hard onto the ground, shattering it into a pile of white porcelain shards, like daffodils suddenly blooming everywhere.

Seeing this, Luo Qiu put her hand on his shoulder: "Mr. Ziwa, please calm down. It's pointless to talk about what happened back then. If we're talking about regretting supporting the Qing Dynasty, there's no scholar-official in the world who doesn't regret it, but what good is regret?"

Mr. Ziwa grasped one of her soft hands, his eyes brimming with tears, and sobbed, "I know it's no use, but I can't help thinking like this, I just can't help it!"

"Zhang Tongcheng has always advocated for light taxes and levies, but the Qing Dynasty was always strict and taxed heavily! On the contrary, previous dynasties were truly characterized by light taxes and levies!"

"If Emperor Chongzhen had always trusted the Donglin scholars, we Han people, whether in the north or south, could have united to resist the invaders, not clung to the old dreams of the Yuan dynasty, and even been willing to sacrifice our families for the country. How could we be in such a humiliating situation today!"

Mr. Ziwa let out a long sigh as he finished speaking, then leaned back in the old, creaking bamboo chair, gazing at the vast sky with his pale and thin face.

Luo Qiu, her eyes filled with heartache, said at this moment, "Then Qianlong intends to destroy the powerful families of the south and distribute land to the people, doing something even Li Zicheng didn't do. If things continue like this, the common people will only become more obedient." "Such a despicable plan, Qianlong really came up with it!"

"But the more this is the case, the more I hate the officials during the fall of the Ming and the rise of the Qing. Why didn't they think of distributing land and recruiting soldiers to protect the country?"

Mr. Ziwa looked pained and helpless.

After hearing this, Luo Qiu couldn't help but ask, "Is it too late to do this now?"

Mr. Ziwa smiled wryly: "If I was unwilling back then, how much more so now?"

"It's all because Zhu Quan was rescued by people in the palace, otherwise things wouldn't have turned out this way!"

Luo Qiu said helplessly.

"This is also Zhang Tongcheng's fault; he really wanted to be a loyal subject to the new emperor."

"And then there's Liu Tongxun! He also wants to be a loyal subject of the new emperor, and if he hadn't disrespected the powerful families in the south, Zhang Tongcheng wouldn't have parted ways with us to this point."

……

……

"How is Liu Tongxun's investigation in Shanxi regarding Shi Lin's alleged use of donations to amass wealth?"

The Hall of Diligent Governance and Kindness to the Worthy.

Emperor Hongli also inquired about Liu Tongxun's situation in front of Grand Councilors such as Ortai and Zhang Tingyu.

One of the important responsibilities of the Grand Council was to keep track of the progress of various matters issued by the emperor.

Therefore, the Grand Council had a responsibility to understand the relevant cases and then report them to the Emperor.

Ortai then replied, "Liu Tongxun is probably still investigating. Shanxi has always had many wealthy merchants, and behind these wealthy merchants are powerful and influential people. It will not be an easy task for him to find out that Jue Luo Shilin has been accumulating wealth and deceiving the emperor in Shanxi."

Because Liu Tongxun publicly humiliated Zhang Tingyu, Ortai took the initiative to say a few good words for Liu Tongxun in front of Hongli, so as to make the emperor more suspicious of Liu Tongxun, that is, to suspect that Liu Tongxun had become close to Ortai.

Hongli was not so easily fooled, so he remained very calm and asked again, "Have the imperial edicts confiscated from the Jiang, Zhou, Tao and other major southern families been sent out yet?"

"It has already been sent."

Zhang Tingyu then replied.

But Ortai, looking dejected, reported:

"The Left Vice Censor-in-Chief Sheng An submitted a memorial to plead for the Jiang, Zhou, and Tao families, arguing that the state should nurture scholars to uphold the Way of the Sages, and that the Jiang, Zhou, and Tao families should not be punished or their property confiscated simply because some of their relatives were causing trouble in the court, as this would contradict the ruler's advocacy of cultivating scholars with virtue."

"This is collusion with powerful clans in the south. If so, the entire clan shall be arrested and exiled to Ningguta and Heilongjiang City, but they shall not leave their banners and shall be used as ginseng gatherers outside the pass. They shall not be allowed to enter the pass without imperial decree!"

"As Manchus, they have picked up the bad habit of Han scholars and officials seeking fame and fortune, but they have not truly learned the Han people's education of putting the people first. It is a real pity! Perhaps things will only improve when the students after the reform of the Eight Banners official schools have become the backbone of the court."

Hongli did not show his anger; he simply said this calmly.

But Ortai was inwardly horrified.

Zhang Tingyu was also quite shocked.

They never expected the new emperor to be so ruthless, showing no mercy to the Manchu officials who pleaded for him.

At the end of that month, the governor of the south received the imperial edict and immediately dispatched troops to the homes of prominent families such as the Jiang, Tao, and Zhou.

Prince Heqin Hongzhou, the eighth prince Fuhui, Prince Pingjun Fupeng, and other members of the imperial clan were appointed as imperial envoys to supervise the confiscation of these families' property and to be responsible for distributing their land to the poor.

Because of the supervision of the imperial clan, the governors and viceroys of various provinces dared not protect those who wanted to.

"Hurry up, do you still think you're some young master or princess? If you don't leave soon, you won't get to Ningguta before winter."

"What are you looking at? That's not your land anymore. It's land that the government allocated to the poor. The rent is half of what you pay. It's not that the government is too kind; it's that you're too greedy. If you don't lower the rent, and a natural disaster happens, the government will have to pay for relief!"

"What are you crying for? You're so spineless! It's just going to the Northeast to farm and weave your own cloth. As long as you're diligent enough, two or three generations later, you might still be able to live a life where you're waited on hand and foot!"

(End of this chapter)