My father is Yongzheng, and I am Qianlong?

Chapter 430 Relocating the powerful clans of Jiangnan to the borderlands is a great favor from me!

As a chest of gleaming gold was carried in and placed on black gold bricks, the assembled courtiers were all dazzled by its brilliance.

Xu Ben's mouth dropped open.

Even Zhang Tingyu, who was usually calm and reserved, showed a look of surprise.

None of them expected that so much gold would actually appear.

"Reporting to Your Majesty, it is indeed exactly twenty thousand taels of gold!"

After Hongli had the officials of the Ministry of Revenue verify the weight on the spot, Haiwang reported the amount weighed.

Twenty thousand taels of gold.

Although it would only amount to 200,000 taels of silver.

However, in the Qing Dynasty, where pure gold was already scarce, 20,000 taels of gold was still a considerable sum.

After all, gold is in high demand but not readily available in this era.

At the very least, Hao Yulin wouldn't be able to gather 20,000 taels of gold so easily within a year.

It wouldn't be too difficult for him to raise 200,000 taels of silver.

But 20,000 taels of gold is not so easy to obtain.

Therefore, the court officials had no choice but to believe that Hao Yulin and others had likely unearthed a large gold mine in Jinguashi, Taiwan.

"Your servant congratulates you, Master! This is a blessing from Heaven upon our Great Qing!"

Ortai immediately expressed his opinion.

"This servant congratulates my master!"

"Your Majesty, I congratulate you!"

Other court officials responded in kind.

As Hongli looked at the court officials who congratulated him with a hint of surprise, he couldn't help but smile slightly.

All he could say was that open-book exams did indeed save him, the emperor, a lot of trouble.

Otherwise, he would have faced many frustrations, just like Emperor Qianlong in history, during his early, ambitious period.

"I have said before that we should trust our colleagues."

"He, Hao Yulin, wouldn't lie so easily that it's hard to cover up."

"By imperial decree, Hao Yulin shall be awarded a single-eyed peacock feather and promoted one rank in his official appointment. All officials in Taiwan shall be promoted one rank in the same manner."

Emperor Qianlong also announced a reward for this.

Although it was actually Emperor Hao Yulin who first proposed that the Great Gold Mountain in Taiwan be mined, since he claimed that it was reported by Taiwanese officials, he naturally gave them a reward.

"Whoo!"

"What else do you have to say, my Lords?"

Hongli then had his ministers present other matters.

At this moment, Minister of War Yue Zhongqi stepped forward and reported: "The matter previously reported by General Bodi of Heilongjiang, concerning the beating and killing of merchant Jin Chengli and herdsman Darhu by Russian soldier Tuliwan and Oroqen people, has been investigated and confirmed. Tuliwan was the mastermind, intending to cross the border to steal, plunder people and livestock, and disrupt our border. After deliberation, the Ministry of War believes that the Russians should be held accountable for the crime and beheaded, so as to warn the local Russians!"

"The Great Qing is a Celestial Empire, how can a Celestial Empire pay for it with a single life?"

"I hereby order General Bodi of Heilongjiang to convey to the local leader of the Russian Kingdom that he shall compensate ten times the amount of damage caused to the area and hand over Tu Wanli; otherwise, I will order the local officials to punish him for killing ten times the number of my people, in order to uphold the dignity of my superior nation!"

Hongli then announced his decision.

At this moment, Grand Secretary Xu Ben stepped out of the court and said, "Your Majesty, please reconsider!"

"To demand tenfold compensation for the deaths of a merchant and a herdsman is not the way of a magnanimous nation to show tolerance to its neighbor. Doing so will anger the Russian Kingdom and will not be conducive to the long-term peace between the two countries!"

"Would I be afraid of angering the Rakshasa Kingdom?"

"Besides, before I angered the Rakshasa Kingdom, did the Rakshasa people know how to live in harmony with the people of my Great Qing?"

Emperor Hongli then asked Xu Benlai in a deep voice.

He detested the idea that one should not do evil first. Historically, neither Russia nor Japan refrained from bullying China because China did not do evil first. They would not hesitate to do evil first.

For Hongli, civilization should only be discussed internally; externally, the law of the jungle should prevail. It shouldn't be the other way around—emphasizing survival of the fittest among one's own people while advocating civilization to foreign powers. Xu Ben, however, pressed his hands firmly against the gold brick and said, "Your Majesty, please understand. As the saying goes, 'One should be lenient when possible.' Our Great Qing is a celestial empire; we should not waste time on trivial matters of honor and disgrace, lest we incur resentment from our neighbors and cause unrest for future generations!"

"Now that the Great Qing is strong, the Russian Kingdom has no time to look eastward. Even if Your Majesty does this, the Russian Kingdom can only endure it. But what about the future? What if our country is weaker than Russia, or Russia's situation is superior to our Great Qing? Wouldn't today's grievances become Russia's excuse to launch an attack tomorrow?"

Xu Ben asked Hongli earnestly.

"Be bold!"

Hongli suddenly shouted, then retorted to Xu Ben, "Are you saying that my Great Qing Dynasty will not remain peaceful and stable forever, but will decline?!"

“These are all my heartfelt words.”

Xu Ben replied sincerely once again.

Hongli chuckled and said, "I think you don't treat your people like human beings."

"I ask you, were the murdered Han merchant Jin Chengli and the herdsman Dalf human beings?"

"Are they?"

Hongli pressed for an answer.

Xu Ben answered without hesitation, "Of course it's a person!"

"It's good that you admit it. Since you admit it, then put yourself in their shoes and think carefully about whether I should be so harsh in my criticism."

Hongli said coldly.

Xu Benze solemnly replied, "From their perspective, it is indeed wrong! It is precisely to avoid further resentment! It is wise to wrong one's own wife rather than offend outsiders!"

Xu Ben's answer surprised many of the ministers present.

Even Ortai couldn't help but glare at Xu Ben, intending to reprimand him.

"I see you're not just being stubborn, you're just not feeling the pain because you haven't been punished yourself!"

"This is a common bad habit of you southern scholars—you often ignore the feelings of your compatriots outside the Great Wall!"

But then Hongli spoke up.

Then, Hongli instructed, "Hengchen, draft the imperial edict!"

Zhang Tingyu then stepped forward.

"Xu Ben is complacent and conservative, flattering the barbarians without any sense of shame, but rather taking pride in it; during the reign of the retired emperor, he was often criticized for his hypocrisy, cunning, and selfishness; now it seems that he was right after all!"

“However, considering his many years of dedication and his outstanding talent and character, he was allowed to remain in his original post in the hope that he would repent; his entire clan was simply moved to Miaotun, and his ancestral graves were also relocated.”

"I hereby declare to the officials that I am not here to confiscate their property or seize their assets, but only to make them realize their mistakes and truly stand with the border people, to empathize with them!"

"Therefore, regarding the original properties, such as the fields owned by the Xu family in Jiangnan, Li Fu shall allocate an equivalent amount of official land in Miaotun as compensation. All of the Xu family's properties and shops in Jiangnan that cannot be moved shall be compensated by the government in silver, and the Xu family shall be ordered to take them to Miaotun. The Xu family's antiques, jade artifacts, grains, cotton, raw silk, tea, calligraphy and paintings shall also be escorted by troops dispatched by the various government offices!"

"Issue an edict to all government offices: This is not a matter of confiscating property, but rather an act by me to reform ministers and relocate their clans. Therefore, their property must not be reduced, and their graves must not be disturbed. Those who reduce their property will be investigated, and those who disturb it will be punished. Correspondingly, the rank and status of virtuous officials must be maintained."

"The children's academic achievements should also be preserved, and their school registration should be transferred to the Miaotun official school. However, I remember that there is no official school in Miaotun yet, so let's set up an official school in Miaotun and order Li Fu to temporarily select a virtuous person from his clan who is suitable for teaching to serve as the school official."

"Only unmarried women are permitted to get married as soon as possible, and will be temporarily raised in their husband's family, or may be allowed to return to the south to marry in the future."

Emperor Hongli then issued an imperial decree to relocate the Xu family.

The Xu family is a prominent official family in Hangzhou for generations. Xu Chao, the father of Xu Yixuan, was the Minister of Revenue and the Grand Secretary of the Hanlin Academy during the reign of Emperor Kangxi. His younger brother, Xu Qi, served as the Governor of Shaanxi. Xu Yixuan is currently the Director of Studies at the Imperial Academy.

Now, Hongli ordered his entire clan to relocate to Miaotun, which in later generations was near Sakhalin Island. This could be considered an exile.

But Hongli insisted that he was not exiling the Xu family, but rather relocating their entire clan, and he specifically emphasized that it was not to seize their property, so others naturally did not dare to say that it was exile.

Xu Ben himself couldn't quite call it exile, but after his muscles clenched violently, he kowtowed and said, "I am old and have spoken foolishly, which has led to this grace of relocating my clan. I can only repay even a fraction of this grace by serving you diligently. However, my mother is old and I humbly request Your Majesty's grace not to relocate her to Miaotun."

"I grant you permission to leave the old lady in the capital until her death, after which her coffin will be escorted back north."

Hongli looked at Xu Ben and replied.

Xu Ben then kowtowed with tears in his eyes: "Your Majesty, I thank you for your grace. I also beg Your Majesty to allow me to retract what I just said and instead retaliate against the Russian Kingdom in kind, so that it will not dare to look south!"

"Especially in the Miaotun area, we must order strict defenses, and any foreign bandits who secretly enter and occupy the area should be completely wiped out."

(End of this chapter)