Getting Rich from Legend of Zhen Huan

The palace examination was over, but Kangxi's busy schedule had just begun. He spent the whole day invigilating and had not yet reviewed all the accumulated memorials. Kangxi processed the secret memorial presented by Cao Yin, which contained an answer to Kangxi. Since the first champion in the third year of Shunzhi, a total of 19 imperial examinations have been held, with one from Shandong, one from Hubei, two from Manchus, and fifteen from Jiangnan. Two of the Manchus were the champions specially selected by Shunzhi during the Manchu list. After the list was cancelled, no Eight Banners children achieved such an achievement.

In the letter, Cao Yin gave a detailed introduction to the origins and reputations of previous top scholars, but most of them served in the Imperial Academy in Beijing, so Cao Yin was not fully aware of their news after entering officialdom. Kangxi was very satisfied with the information Cao Yin presented, especially Cao Yin's sense of propriety, and did not use the monitoring facilities Kangxi gave him to inquire about the news in Beijing. He read it and said to himself: "When will the children of the Eight Banners be able to make a difference!"

Kangxi took out Shen Tingwen's information. His eyes were deep in the candlelight. He commented: "You have done nothing, but you dare to protect a fellow student. You have only been an official for a few years, but you have forgotten the hardship of studying? You should retire as an editor!" Why not dismiss him directly? Kangxi had to maintain his reputation as the top scholar he had chosen.

Kangxi looked at the list again and again and understood why Shunzhi wanted to set up a separate Man list, but he also understood that Shunzhi finally abolished the Man list because it was really out of date. The Eight Banners were used to earning merits on horseback, and the emperor was also interested in maintaining the combat effectiveness of the army, so it was impossible to invest a large number of people in the effort of writing to add icing on the cake.

How many Manchus are there? If they all read Han books, in less than 50 years, will they still be considered Manchus? Moreover, since the Manchus entered the pass, they have always maintained deep hostility and vigilance towards the Han people. These Han people are very bad-minded and will be tricked back home if they are not careful, so they naturally have an attitude of suppression. Otherwise, which of the previous top scholars is not well-read? They cannot be pillars of the court, but they are not only qualified to do clerical work, which is too insulting.

Of course, from Kangxi's perspective, suppressing the Han people is politically correct. He would be wary of the fact that all the candidates for the imperial examination were from the south, and he would quietly exclude them from the political center, and someone below would naturally understand and deal with them. Even Li Guangdi was "not of my race, so his heart must be different". Jiang Chen's appearance solved Kangxi's urgent need, especially the way he appeared was so wonderful. He was a young talent, and he was the first since he took the exam.

The most wonderful thing is that he is a bannerman, so there is no need to worry about promoting him to elevate the status of Han officials, nor to worry about causing disputes between Manchu officials and Han officials, and suppressing the reputation of Jiangnan literature. In this way, the auspicious significance brought by the sixth place is actually the most insignificant. Killing two birds with one stone, how could Kangxi not be happy? He likes this kind of officials who can get things done.

Speaking of Jiang Chen, Kangxi remembered the boy he observed when he was invigilating. The boy was only 19 years old, and his body was not as strong as an adult. This was not acceptable. We Manchus conquered the world on horseback, so how could we not be good at martial arts? However, his expression was firm, his eyes were resolute, and his words and actions were just right. He had achieved so much at such a young age, and he was not arrogant but not overly humble. Li Guangdi taught him well!

Kangxi looked up and asked Liang Jiugong: "What is the situation of the Jiang family?"

This matter should have been presented to Kangxi when Jiang Chen won the title of Jieyuan last autumn, but it involved the disappearance of the eldest daughter of the Jiang family and the accidental death of Jiang's father, two things that require more time to investigate. Both of these things happened fifteen or sixteen years ago, or even twenty years ago, so they are indeed difficult to investigate.

Kangxi knew about Jiang Chen's experience of studying with Li Guangdi over the years, as well as taking care of his mother and supporting the family. Seeing that there was nothing wrong with these experiences, he was not in a hurry to investigate the past. If Jiang Chen was willing, it would not be too late to show him a favor.

Liang Jiugong replied to Kangxi: "Your Majesty, I have found some clues, but..."

Liang Jiugong's hesitation gave Kangxi a bad feeling. He frowned and motioned Liang Jiugong to continue.

Liang Jiugong did not dare to delay and reported directly: "My men found out that the one who killed Jiang's father was a well-known kidnapper in Beijing. They did it in a covert manner, but they could not resist someone following them and trying to use it as leverage."

"Isn't it enough to just arrest the person and interrogate him?" Kangxi was even more dissatisfied.

Liang Jiugong was afraid that Kangxi would be angry, so he hurriedly continued, "Those two people had been dead for more than ten years when we found them. People who knew about it thought that they had offended someone and fled the capital with their belongings, but our men found their bodies in the deserted backyard. Their necks were broken by someone."

"Do you know which family it is?" How could Kangxi not know who was behind this after hearing this? There were only a few families in Beijing who could commit such a crime so brazenly.

"We found out that most of the people abducted by these two kidnappers were taken to Hesheli Mansion and... and..." Liang Jiugong knelt on the ground and dared not say anything more.

Who else could not dare to say more than the prince's mother's family? Kangxi had the answer. Of course, it was the current emperor's mother's family! ! ! He wanted to hold back his anger, took a few deep breaths, and finally overturned the table. Papers stained with ink flew around, and various ornaments crackled and shattered all over the floor.

Kangxi stood there, his clothes also stained with ink. He asked in confusion: "Aren't these two families prominent enough? How could they do such a shameful thing?"

Kangxi was not ignorant of the suffering of the people. He had seen people selling their children to survive, and he had also seen people selling themselves to survive. Of course, he also knew that there were many people who were harmed by kidnappers and whose families were broken up. But he didn't understand why the Hesheli family and the Tong family, who had no shortage of gold, silver and jewelry, would do such a wicked thing?

Liang Jiugong explained: "The two families have many descendants who love beauty. Han women in Beijing do not go out and value their reputation for chastity, so they cannot be provoked casually. These descendants somehow learned about the kidnapper, so they asked them to search the whole country for beautiful women, regardless of gender."

After such persuasion, Emperor Kangxi calmed down. Both the Hesheli and Tonggiya clans were prominent families, and it was unknown which branch had caused the trouble. So he asked, "Does the head of the family know?"

"The Hesheli family is not more than five generations away from Lord Suo, but their relationship is indeed not close. But he is lustful and has dozens of concubines at home, many of whom are abducted and trained girls. The Tong family's... is the Third Master!" Liang Jiugong knew he couldn't avoid it, so he said it directly.

Kangxi was so angry that he wanted to smash the cup, but the table was overturned, so where was the cup? How many years had her cousin (Empress Xiaoyiren, Tong Jia) been gone? Her brother was so useless!

"Did you check it wrong?" This was Kangxi's cousin, and he didn't want to believe it.

"A few years ago, the Third Master robbed Lord Hesheli's new nineteenth concubine, who was said to be named Li Si'er. His subordinates investigated and found out that the Third Master had also played with a few others, but after taking Li Si'er, he seemed to have changed his mind and didn't pick anyone else. After these two kidnappers got into trouble, they were afraid of attracting attention and never did it again," Liang Jiugong explained.

Kangxi pondered for a long time, asked Liang Jiugong to pack up, and reminded him: "If Jiang Chen investigates this matter, push it to that Hesheli family." This Lord Hesheli had a close relationship with Soetu, so if something happened, he could also give Soetu a warning, and by the way, cut off the possibility of Jiang Chen being won over by Soetu.

As for Longkodo, he is his cousin after all. He was led astray by others and made some minor mistakes. He has acknowledged his mistakes and is able to correct them. What else can Kangxi ask of him?