My father is Yongzheng, and I am Qianlong?

Chapter 92 Hongli raises concerns about the hidden dangers of foreign trade surplus with Yongzheng

When Hongli heard Yongzheng say this, he grinned and revealed a sunny and cheerful smile.

Yongzheng suddenly patted his shoulder and said, "Su Peisheng isn't here. Come and give your father a massage. My shoulders and neck suddenly feel very sore after reading memorials for a long time."

"Whoo!"

Hongli then walked behind Yongzheng and began to massage Yongzheng's shoulders.

Yongzheng felt quite comfortable for a moment.

Hongli then said to Yongzheng, "Father, you probably have cervical spondylosis (a term used in traditional Chinese medicine). You should avoid looking down too much and pick up the memorials to read them."

Emperor Yongzheng was quite pleased by Hongli's concern, so he simply hummed in agreement and actually picked up the memorial, smiling as he said:
"It's clear that you must have learned a lot from your father, even understanding that rectifying the court is not a matter of inviting someone to dinner. The late emperor truly taught you everything he knew."

Clearly, Yongzheng was still pleased with Hongli's earlier statement that "rectifying the court and reforming abuses is not a dinner party," and began to share his own thoughts, even suggesting that Hongli's insight at his age was all thanks to Kangxi's teachings.

At this point, Yongzheng became even more certain that Kangxi's choice of him as the successor, regardless of his advanced age, was indeed related to Hongli.

Hongli did not deny it, but said, "This is all thanks to your blessing, Father."

“Father, you’ve bowed your head again.”

After speaking, Hongli suddenly pulled Yongzheng's shoulder back.

Emperor Yongzheng had no choice but to raise his head again, pick up the memorial, and show no anger.

Hongli smiled to himself.

He discovered that Emperor Yongzheng was the type who responded better to force than to gentle persuasion.

People like Lao Ba and Hong Shi showed him respect, but it was of no use at all.

On the contrary, when someone like the thirteenth prince dared to criticize Yongzheng and speak frankly, and when he made demands of Yongzheng under the guise of acting for Yongzheng's own sake and for the Qing Dynasty, Yongzheng didn't get angry at all.

Of course, this is on the premise that Yongzheng already had a good impression of this person.

"That old ninth brother! He actually makes tens of millions of taels of silver every year through maritime smuggling!"

After a while, Yongzheng suddenly became angry, but he was not angry at Hongli, but at Yintang.

The memorial he was currently reading was a report submitted by Xu Yuanmeng, the Minister of Revenue, concerning the total income generated by the servants and retainers of the Ninth Prince for managing maritime trade on his behalf.

As he spoke, Yongzheng patted Hongli's hand, stopping him from squeezing it any further.

Hongli then stopped.

At this moment, Yongzheng handed the memorial to Hongli, saying, "Take a look at it too. After you've read it, you'll understand why your Ninth Uncle is so generous to you all."

"Whoo!"

Hongli then actually started reading it.

After Hongli read it, Yongzheng asked him, "What are your thoughts?"

"Your subject does indeed have some doubts."

Hongli replied.

Yongzheng rubbed his eyes, picked up a cup of tea, took a sip, and said, "Tell me about it."

Hongli replied, "What I'm curious about is why these Westerners send so much silver, tens of millions of taels every year, to our Great Qing to buy our cotton cloth, silk, porcelain, tea, and sugar?"

Yongzheng smiled and said, "They do seem to be very wealthy and never lack money."

"What I still find perplexing is, are they really willing to sit idly by and watch their silver flow into our Great Qing in ever-increasing amounts?"

"Won't they try to sell us some goods that will make us a lot of money?"

"Unless, their silver is truly as cheap as dirt."

At this point, Hongli bowed to Yongzheng and said, "Father, please enlighten me!"

Yongzheng's face immediately hardened.

After a long pause, Yongzheng nodded slightly and pointed at Hongli, saying, "That's a very good question!"

"That's right. We must be vigilant against foreign barbarians, but we also cannot underestimate them or treat them like fools. They shouldn't be so obedient as to let our Great Qing earn all the money!"

clap clap!

Yongzheng suddenly clapped his hands.

Not long after, a guard came in: "This servant, Lin Zucheng, the stick-pole guard, requests instructions from Your Majesty."

"Take some men to Guangzhou and secretly find out what foreign goods are currently the most fashionable in the city's foreign goods trade."

Yongzheng gave instructions to Lin Zucheng.

"Whoo!"

Yongzheng then waved for Lin Zucheng to leave.

Subsequently, Hongli also took his leave of Yongzheng.

Because he still had to go to class.

The only political matters he can participate in now are limited to reminding Yongzheng to be aware of potential future problems.

For example, it could make Yongzheng realize that the increasing trade surplus of the Qing Dynasty would make foreigners dissatisfied and try to dump some of their goods on the Qing Dynasty, which could generate huge profits for them.

He recalls that the Qing rulers recognized this hidden danger—the impact of opium—something that would have taken much longer to realize in history.

He is revealing this now in the hope that Yongzheng can take precautions as soon as possible.

However, to Hongli's surprise, before he had even finished his lessons, the Empress sent someone to summon him back. The reason was that the Empress Dowager had suddenly fallen ill.

The Empress wanted to take him to the Palace of Tranquil Longevity to see the Empress Dowager.

When Hongli arrived at Ningshou Palace with the Empress, Empress Dowager Renshou was already on her deathbed.

He had barely arrived when Yongzheng and the Fourteenth Prince followed suit.

"Your Majesty!"

Both of them wept bitterly and knelt before Empress Dowager Renshou.

Empress Dowager Renshou glanced at the two of them, then fixed her gaze on the fourteenth prince: "Don't be too sad. Your mother has lived to be over sixty. The only regret is that she didn't get to see you become even more distinguished."

Empress Dowager Renshou, who was over sixty years old, burst into tears as she spoke.

Then, Empress Dowager Renshou waved to Hongli.

Hongli then knelt down.

"Hongli, my good grandson, don't forget the late emperor's last words to you before his death, and don't forget the promise you made to me."

Empress Dowager Renshou replied.

Hongli nodded: "Don't worry, your grandson will never forget this."

"That's good. Your Majesty, Ninth Prince, can you bring him back?"

Empress Dowager Renshou then asked Emperor Yongzheng.

Hongli was surprised that Empress Dowager Renshou would suddenly mention Yinzhen, who was imprisoned in Jingling, so he looked over at Yongzheng.

Yongzheng bowed his head and said, "He must fulfill his filial duty to the late emperor. I also ask that Your Majesty not interfere in politics and take good care of your health."

"Fourth brother!"

"Empress Mother only wanted to plead for Ninth Brother, why did you have to say such harsh words!"

The fourteenth prince suddenly stood up and looked at Yongzheng.

Emperor Yongzheng did not reply.

Empress Dowager Renshou then looked at the fourteenth prince: "My son, don't be angry with your fourth brother. He was right. Apologize to your fourth brother and beg for forgiveness. He is not only your brother, but also your emperor and father."

"Whoo!"

After pursing his lips for a long time, the fourteenth prince finally knelt down before Emperor Yongzheng: "Your Majesty, please punish me!"

"That's it!"

After saying this, Yongzheng also kowtowed to Empress Dowager Renshou: "Please calm your anger, Your Majesty."

"I'm not angry, Your Majesty, please keep my funeral simple!"

"I have failed the late emperor and almost caused a great mistake. I am going to apologize to him."

As Empress Dowager Renshou spoke, she lowered her hand.

After the imperial physicians confirmed that the Empress Dowager had passed away.

In an instant, the fourteenth and fourth brothers burst into tears, and then everyone else started crying.

That evening, the Empress Dowager's coffin was placed in the Ning Shou Palace.

After taking charge of Kangxi's funeral arrangements, Prince Yintao, the twelfth son of Emperor Kangxi, continued to be in charge of the funeral arrangements for Empress Dowager Renshou.

This is mainly because he is a professional in this field.

During the Kangxi reign, he was famous in the capital for presiding over funerals.

However, even when Empress Dowager Renshou pleaded on her deathbed, Emperor Yongzheng refused to let the Ninth Prince return, which naturally disappointed many princes and ministers who sympathized with him.

The Fourteenth Prince's excessive behavior when Yongzheng rejected Empress Dowager Renshou was also related to his sympathy for the Ninth Prince.

Besides the fact that the Ninth Prince was, after all, Kangxi's son, it was also because the Ninth Prince usually treated the imperial family members and princes very well, especially the younger generation of the imperial family.

The so-called "poisonous snake Lao Jiu" simply means that Lao Jiu does some shady things behind the scenes.

But on the surface, especially in front of the royal family and princes, the ninth prince, who followed the eighth prince, was always very good at winning people's hearts.

Even Hongshi felt genuinely sorry for his Ninth Uncle, and couldn't understand why Emperor Yongzheng, while seizing the benefits from the Ninth Uncle, showed no mercy to him at all.

However, Hongli didn't feel much pity for the Ninth Prince, nor was he truly cold-blooded.

Instead, he was well aware that in this life, the Ninth Prince was only ordered to guard the imperial tombs and was not sent to the Northwest, which was already considered a mercy from Emperor Yongzheng, who did not intend to kill the Ninth Prince from the beginning.

Therefore, Hongli remained calm throughout the funeral of Empress Dowager Renshou, which pleased Yongzheng. However, he noticed that Hongshi seemed to be glancing at Hongli from time to time, his eyes revealing dissatisfaction.

Hongshi was indeed dissatisfied with Hongli!
But he didn't notice that Yongzheng was also looking at him. He only glanced at Hongli a few times because he felt that Yongzheng hated the Ninth Prince so much because Hongli had taken the initiative to tell them that the Ninth Prince had sent them money.

Therefore, Hongshi took the initiative to find an opportunity to spend time with the fourteenth prince and said to him, "Fourteenth Uncle, in fact, the reason why Ninth Uncle is in such a state is because of Hongli."

In Hongshi's view, this might create a rift between the fourteenth prince and Hongli, and also get the fourteenth prince to support him.

In this way, even if he is not currently favored by Emperor Yongzheng, he can still gain the support of more powerful princes and dukes.

After hearing this, the fourteenth prince turned around and looked at him: "What do you mean?"

Hongshi then spoke up.

Upon hearing this, the fourteenth brother suddenly grabbed Hongshi's collar and said fiercely, "Hongli did nothing wrong! On the contrary, you shouldn't have said this to your fourteenth uncle at this time. Your fourteenth uncle may have a bad temper, but don't treat your fourteenth uncle like a fool!"

(End of this chapter)