My father is Yongzheng, and I am Qianlong?

Chapter 84 Yongzheng's insight impressed Hongli (Sixth update)

After the Ninth Prince, Yin Tang, said this, the Eighth Prince, Yin Si, and Hong Shi both fell silent.

Seeing that both of them were silent, especially his beloved Eighth Brother, whom he had always admired, was also speechless after he had spoken to him.

This made him even more enthusiastic.

"So, myna bird, don't you think it's ridiculous?"

"He actually wants to be a Chinese emperor who truly rules over all the peoples of the world!"

"Many Han emperors didn't dare to think like this, but he, a Manchu emperor, actually dared to think like this. Really, this is the biggest joke I've ever heard in my life."

"Because even the Khan, when he was in power, never dared to think of such a thing."

"And he is truly naive to the extreme! If all ethnic groups in the Qing Dynasty were truly in harmony, would it still be the Qing Dynasty?"

"He's rebelling! He's trying to destroy our Great Qing Dynasty!"

"It's not just us Manchus who think this way; Han gentry certainly think the same way!"

"Otherwise, Han gentry would not be willing to bow down to us and help us suppress the anti-Qing and Ming restoration forces!"

At this point, the ninth brother asked the eighth brother again, "Eighth brother, don't you think so?"

The Eighth Prince sighed heavily, downed a glass of wine, and said with a serious expression, "Fourth Brother is cold on the outside but warm on the inside. He is kind-hearted and therefore wants to do good for the world. But this has indeed damaged the foundation of our Great Qing."

“Ninth Brother is right. The reason why our Great Qing was able to enter the Central Plains is twofold: first, the Manchus were able to be above the Han people; second, we were able to help the Han literati and officials to always be above the Han common people, so that the Han people could not rebel or disrupt the proper etiquette.”

"If he wants to make life better for the Han people and achieve true harmony between the Manchus, Hans, and all ethnic groups in the world, then the foundation of my Great Qing rule will be destroyed!"

Then, the eighth brother added, "I will try to persuade the fourth brother."

Then, Lao Ba looked at Hong Shi and said, "Hong Shi, you'd better not say these things to your father today. You know your fourth brother's personality. Besides, he has a prejudice against you now. If you say them, he'll easily blame you for trying to sow discord between your father and your uncles."

Hongshi trembled slightly, then stood up and cupped his hands in a gesture of respect: "Uncle is right, I will absolutely not say a word!"

"What's there to hide?"

"It's just a matter of losing your life!"

Old Nine disagreed, and continued to speak in a scathing, unyielding manner.

then.

Old Ninth even took out two pre-prepared contracts from his sleeve and slapped them down in front of Hongshi with a flourish: "Hongshi, take these!"

"This is the division agreement between my two businesses in Guangzhou, which I am now giving to you."

Fen Shu, or shareholding, is a form of business activity that emerged in the mid-to-late Ming Dynasty.

This situation still exists in the Qing Dynasty today.

After all, the rise of the Qing Dynasty was related to Shanxi merchants.

This was naturally a big surprise to Hongshi.

Hongshi was so shocked that he didn't even dare to accept it. He just stared at Lao Jiu in astonishment: "Uncle Jiu, how can this be? Everyone knows that your business in Guangzhou earns at least several hundred thousand taels of silver a year!"

"Giving it to you is better than letting Fourth Brother get it and giving this hard-earned silver to those lowly Han people!"

Old Nine, slightly drunk, waved his hand and said, "Take it!"

The eighth brother then took the contract back and stuffed it into the ninth brother's sleeve: "How can that be? Don't think that the fourth brother doesn't know how much property your ninth brother owns. If you dare to give it away so casually today, he will be even more ruthless towards you."

"Ninth Brother, there's no need to provoke Fourth Brother!"

Lao Ba then said something heavy.

The ninth brother then reached into his clothes and pulled out a membership ticket, smiling as he said, "I knew you would stop me, Eighth Brother."

Snapped!
Then, Lao Jiu slammed the voting ticket on the table, shook his hand and head, and said to Lao Ba, "Then can I just give you the money directly?"

“Hongshi, take this 100,000 tael bank draft. I brought it for you specially. You don’t want the contract, you have to take this bank draft.”

The Ninth Brother turned around and said to Hongshi.

Hongshi chuckled and said, "Ninth Uncle, you don't need to give me these things. I don't think I have any hope of competing with Hongli. Don't waste your time on me."

“I didn’t give this to you to support your fight for the top position; I only gave it to you because you are my nephew.”

"Your Ninth Uncle doesn't care about anything else now, he just wants to be happy!"

The ninth prince, Yin Tang, waved his hand.

Then, Lao Jiu pointed at Hongshi again: "Not only will I give you a large sum of money, but I will also give Hongli and Hongzhou a large sum of money." "I don't believe that his fourth brother would confiscate his own son's house! Take the money I've spent from his son's house and use it to subsidize those Han Chinese lowly people!"

Hongshi still didn't dare to take it, and only looked at Lao Ba.

The eighth brother's expression grew increasingly grim: "Ninth brother, you're drunk!"

"I'm not drunk!"

Old Nine waved his hand, then grabbed Hongshi: "Are you going to accept it or not? If you don't, you won't give your Uncle Nine any face!"

Hongshi continued to look longingly at Lao Ba.

He really wanted to take it, but he didn't know whether he should or not.

Old Eight nodded at this point.

Hongshi quickly took it and said to Lao Jiu with a sheepish smile, "Uncle Jiu, I'll take it!"

"That's right!"

The Ninth Prince released Hongshi and beamed with joy. He then chuckled to himself, saying, "Fourth Brother is generous to the Han people, but I'm different. I'm only generous to us Manchus, especially to the Aisin Gioro family!"

……

……

"I am not being generous to the Han people; I have no choice but to do this for the sake of the Qing Dynasty!"

"If the Qing Dynasty is not made into a Qing Dynasty belonging to all the people of the world, then whether the Qing Dynasty perishes or not will be none of the people's business!"

“Thirteenth Brother, Sixteenth Brother, you just said that you were afraid this would cause the Qing Dynasty to lose its foundation. But can the foundation of our Qing Dynasty last forever?”

"The very foundation of my Great Qing Dynasty has always been rotten and decadent!"

“If things continue like this, how can we expect the Han gentry to continue to acknowledge you as their masters? In the future, once all the Manchu bannermen have fallen into depravity, they will abandon you without any more hesitation than they would abandon the Zhu family!”

The Hall of Nourishing Heart.

Yongzheng also hosted a small banquet upstairs in the East Warm Pavilion, inviting the thirteenth and sixteenth princes. He also used the pretense of a family banquet to have Hongli accompany him and serve wine to his two uncles. But in reality, he wanted Hongli to hear his inner thoughts while keeping others away.

Since the unpleasant meeting with the Ninth Prince last night, coupled with the recent uproar over the matter of making up for the deficit, Yongzheng had no choice but to work on his own people, especially the Thirteenth Prince and the Sixteenth Prince, who were closest to him among the imperial clan.

Therefore, it was at this time that Yongzheng explained his reasons for doing so to the thirteenth and sixteenth princes.

When Emperor Yongzheng spoke of how if the Eight Banners descendants of the Qing Dynasty continued to degenerate, they would be abandoned by the Han gentry just as the Zhu family had been abandoned, he specifically pointed in the direction of Jingshan Park: "Don't forget, the crooked tree where Emperor Chongzhen hanged himself is still there!"

Then, Yongzheng looked at the thirteenth and sixteenth princes: "Do you also want members of my Aisin Gioro family to one day hang themselves there, with no one even to collect their bodies?!"

"They didn't even give Chongzhen, a Han Chinese emperor, much respect. If our Great Qing Dynasty falls, how much will they give to our Aisin Gioro family?!"

After Yongzheng asked the question with great excitement, both the thirteenth and sixteenth princes remained silent.

Hongli looked intently at Yongzheng, poured him a cup of wine, and intentionally encouraged him to continue.

Knowing the historical context, he believed that Yongzheng was right, and for this reason, he poured Yongzheng another cup of wine.

"Moreover, you should know that the atrocities committed by our Great Qing after entering the pass were too great!"

"Therefore, making life better for all ethnic groups is at least accumulating good karma for our Great Qing Dynasty and repaying the blood debts incurred at the beginning of its conquest of China! Even if the Great Qing Dynasty is destined to perish after many generations, it will be doomed to perish!"

"That way, people will still remember your contributions and give my Aisin Gioro family descendants some dignity!"

Yongzheng continued speaking with great emotion and conviction.

After saying this, Yongzheng drank another cup of wine, and then his tone softened a bit as he said, "If you always consider yourself an outsider and refuse to truly commit to the unification of all ethnic groups and the formation of a new ethnic group where everyone is a compatriot, then people will not even leave you with your roots, and they won't even let you return to your hometown!"

"They will also blame the decline of the world and the collapse of social order on my Aisin Gioro family, especially those Han Chinese scholars and officials!"

"In order to wash away the sins of their ancestors, they will not hesitate to attribute the sins of their ancestors, as well as the sins they themselves have committed against the people, to my Aisin Gioro clan!"

"Back then, they pinned the same blame on the Zhu family, and they'll pin it on us in the same way, and it'll be even easier to pin it on us!"

Hongli couldn't help but applaud Yongzheng!
Knowing the history that followed, he understood that what Yongzheng was saying at that moment was not just empty talk, but a true insight into the future!

Historically, the common people went from being indifferent to the Qing Dynasty to supporting the Qing and eliminating foreigners, and then to opposing the Qing and overthrowing the imperial system, all because they were completely disappointed with the Qing Dynasty.

At this point, Yongzheng couldn't help but slam his fist on the table: "But that Ninth Prince just wouldn't understand. He arrogantly and rudely sat down on the floor in front of me, saying that today I would either throw him into prison and execute him, or I shouldn't expect him to hand over Haili voluntarily!"

"Is this something a member of the royal family should say?"

(End of this chapter)