My father is Yongzheng, and I am Qianlong?

Chapter 429: Fu Hui is promoted to Beizi and presented with a large gold mountain!
After Hongli said this, Ortai could not say anything more and could only respond with a "Yes, Your Majesty".

Hongli's attitude of prioritizing results over personal feelings left the other man with no room for further discussion, and he could only proceed according to Hongli's wishes.

Both the government and the public were terrified upon learning of this.

They're going to raid all the homes of Henan officials all at once.

For many officials, this was not something a ruler of a prosperous era should do, and they did not understand why the emperor was being so strict.

Is it absolutely necessary to widen this road?
But Emperor Qianlong was determined to be strict and insisted on expanding the road.

Even if it causes many people to go bankrupt.

However, because of Hongli's strictness, it was these Henan officials who were ruined, not the many ordinary people.

In Weihui, Henan.

In a golden wheat field, harvesters are working diligently. They seem never to stand up, and their knives seem never to stop. Their heads, covered in black hair, form a continuous black line as they slowly cut down one stalk of wheat after another.

Not far away, on the construction site of the official road, heavy bluestones were being thrown high into the air and then slammed down with a loud bang, making the ground tremble. This was accompanied by shouts of "Hey!" from several sturdy laborers.

And there are many migrant workers who do this.

The entire construction site of the official road was almost endless.

Xin Youmai and several other laborers were tossing bluestone high into the air to solidify the foundation.

Fine beads of sweat had formed on his bronze skin.

Xin Youmai never expected that the Shuntian Prefecture man he met that day would be Prince Xun, who had come to Henan.

What he didn't expect was that he would end up doing this job and earning this money.

Yunti was also there at that time, watching with satisfaction as many migrant workers worked in front of him.

Since he refused to collude with the corrupt officials in Henan, such as Chang'an, and instead diligently supervised the project and reported the facts to Hongli, the Henan officials had no choice but to obey his orders. They stopped forcibly conscripting people to work on the construction site and began to pay the wages in full according to the amount stipulated by the Ministry of Revenue.

At the same time, Henan officials, in accordance with Yunti's request, provided compensation to the people who were injured or even killed due to the forced conscription, and also severely punished some clerks and runners who caused great public resentment.

Therefore, the expansion of the post station road achieved the result that Hongli and Yunti had hoped for.

Meanwhile, Henan officials like Chang An could only watch helplessly as much money flowed into the hands of migrant workers and ordinary people.

They were very anxious about this.

Because much of this silver was intended to be used as fire loss silver to maintain the necessary expenses of various government offices.

After all, much of the silver actually allocated to them by the Ministry of Revenue was never received; it had long been embezzled and intercepted.

Therefore, if this continues, it will cause serious deficits in their respective government departments.

The key point is that, not long before, they also learned that the emperor had issued an edict to confiscate all their property as punishment for not reporting the truth in a timely manner.

These Henan officials were therefore terrified and found it hard to accept.

The governor of Henan, Chang An, was filled with regret: "Prince Xun, your memorial has truly ruined us officials, big and small, in Henan!"

At this moment, Jin Guotai, the Henan Provincial Governor, also said with a tearful face, "We never expected that the master would only blame us for not submitting a memorial, and not blame the Ministry of Revenue for losing money and grain first."

"Why say all this? Just accept the consequences. After all, the officials from the Ministry of Revenue involved have already fallen to their deaths on the cliff, and the actual losses from the drifting are nowhere to be found. His Majesty has no legitimate reason to punish the officials of the Ministry of Revenue for this. On the contrary, we did violate the rules by not submitting a report."

"But on the other hand, this means His Majesty is very dissatisfied with our reliance on E Zhongtang and our outward compliance with but inward defiance of His Majesty's will!"

Provincial Surveillance Commissioner Fang Zhaolun then spoke with a wry smile.

Chang An said with a straight face, "But if it weren't for Prince Xun, things wouldn't have come to this."

Hongli was also aware that the fact that the local officials in Henan had not used the expansion of post stations and roads to persecute the people was inextricably linked to his appointment of Yunti, a member of the imperial clan, to supervise them.

This is the principle of checks and balances.

The checks and balances between the imperial family and the bureaucracy.

of course!

The prerequisite was to use the right members of the imperial clan—those who were unwilling to collude with officials, or at least in some respects. The land redistribution in Jiangnan proceeded smoothly thanks to the supervision of the imperial clan, allowing the land belonging to several powerful southern clans that had committed offenses to be distributed to the poor.

"Hengchen, draft an imperial edict to reward Prince Heqin Hongzhou and Prince Heping Fupeng with double salaries for one year for their merits in the land distribution, and to promote Fuhui to Beizi and grant him a Beizi residence."

Emperor Hongli therefore generously rewarded the members of the imperial clan who went to distribute land.

"Whoo!"

While the land distribution proceeded smoothly, Li Wei, the Minister of Justice, was ordered to go to Suzhou and actually beheaded Governor Fu De in the bustling city center.

Jiang Guopeng was also escorted to the capital along with former Governor-General Zhao Hongen after surrendering himself.

After witnessing Fude being beheaded and Zhao Hongen and Jiang Guopeng being escorted to the capital, Fu Hui couldn't help but purse her lips.

"Fifth Brother is right. It was Fourth Brother who was able to get us out of danger so quickly."

At the same time, Fu Hui also said this to Hong Zhou.

Hongzhou smiled faintly, then suddenly frowned and asked Fuhui, "Do you think there really is a Golden Mountain in Taiwan?"

"There should be, right?"

"Could it be that Fourth Brother is trying to deceive the world?"

"The matter of lighting the beacon fires to amuse the feudal lords is no joke. The most important thing for an emperor is his prestige, and prestige is often derived from credibility."

Fu Hui looked at Hong Zhou with a suspicious expression.

Hongzhou sighed slightly, then suddenly asked Fu Hui, "Perhaps others wouldn't dare to do this, but Fourth Brother might, because he's the kind of person who dares to do anything."

"Those who are dissatisfied with the land distribution cannot strongly oppose it because of the sage's righteousness, after all, they are afraid that Fourth Brother will take drastic measures under the guise of the sage's righteousness!"

"But Fourth Brother's spending is becoming increasingly reckless. Sooner or later, it will cause officials who are dissatisfied with the land distribution to take advantage of the fact that officials in the court are unhappy with Fourth Brother's misuse of money and grain to cause trouble as well."

"No one is criticizing Fourth Brother for misusing money and supplies now, because everyone is eyeing Taiwan's gold mine."

After Hongzhou said that, Fuhui nodded, also filled with curiosity about the Taiwan Jinshan matter.

After Hao Yulin sent laborers to excavate in the Jinguashi area, they actually found a gold mine not long after, and discovered that the reserves were indeed substantial and very easy to mine.

"My God!"

"Could there truly be a master with uncanny foresight by his side?"

Hao Yulin stared in astonishment at the large quantity of bright orange gold ore that had been mined, his eyes wide with surprise.

He even couldn't resist the idea of ​​swallowing the entire gold mine.

But he quickly dismissed the idea.

After all, the emperor's eyes and ears are everywhere.

A year later, as the Little Ice Age gradually ended, the climate began to warm up.

Therefore, the summer of the second year of Qianlong's reign was even hotter than the previous year.

Hongli tugged at his clothes, trying to vent the anger in his chest more quickly.

When he held court, princes and ministers, represented by Fu Min and Xu Ben, once again directly advised him that he was using too much money and grain, which made him even angrier.

These people continued to impeach Hao Yulin from Fujian and Zhejiang for deceiving the emperor.

Emperor Hongli could no longer defend Hao Yulin, so he ordered Hao Yulin to be suspended from his post and to come to the capital to make his statement.

But as soon as Hongli finished speaking, Wuge, the Grand Minister of the Imperial Guard and First-Class Duke, strode in and said, "Your Majesty, Governor-General Hao of Fujian and Zhejiang has had a huge box of gold brought back."

The courtiers present were all invigorated upon hearing this.

Hongli, on the contrary, was more composed: "Then let them carry it in, so everyone can see it."

"Whoo!"

(End of this chapter)