Secrets of Yuqing Palace

Yinreng flattered him, "Your Majesty is a kind and loving father. The concubine you chose for my fourth brother is excellent."

But I couldn't help but feel a chill in my heart.

【Tsk! 】

[The Emperor doesn't have much affection for any of his sons, he's always on guard and suppressing them.]

[The Nian family not only split Nian Gengyao and the Eighth Brother, but also split the Fourth Brother and the Eighth Brother.]

[Even the Nian family is a pure Han Chinese who joined the banner. Initially, they were only the lower five banners, the Baoyi Banner, and were promoted from the Baoyi Banner to the Han Army White Banner. Until now, with Nian Gengyao, there have only been three generations!]

[The Nian family's wealth is arguably even less than that of the Manchu bannermen. With Nian Xialing retired, they now only have Nian Gengyao as their capable advisor.]

[Even the Nian family, apart from Nian Gengyao, doesn't provide much help to the Fourth Brother. The most important thing is that Nian Gengyao is not sure if he will listen to the Fourth Brother as his master!]

If Nian Gengyao had not had two successive wives and the support of their families, he would not have been able to rise so quickly. Coincidentally, both of his wives had close ties to the Nalan family.

[His first legitimate wife, Nalan, was Mingzhu's granddaughter and Nalan Xingde's legitimate daughter.]

[His second wife was a member of the imperial family, the great-great-granddaughter of Prince Ying Ajige.]

[Although the lineage of Prince Ying has gradually declined, a lean camel is still bigger than a horse, and their foundation is still not low, at least it is beyond the reach of the Nian family!]

[The families behind his two first wives were powerful and had provided considerable support in his career.]

Otherwise, with so many capable people in the entire Qing Dynasty, and the Manchus still in power, how could it be that Nian Gengyao, a Han Chinese with Han blood and a Han army under the Five Banners, rose to prominence so quickly?

[Especially since these two wives have a significant blood relationship.]

Because Yinzhi had always provoked him, Yinreng knew a lot about the forces behind Yinzhi, especially the Mingzhu family.

When the emperor mentioned it today, he remembered it as soon as he thought about it.

Therefore, Yinreng still had some impression of Nian Gengyao's family affairs.

Mingzhu's wife was the fifth daughter of Prince Ajige, and Nian Gengyao's second wife, Jueluo, was Ajige's great-great-granddaughter, so she was very closely related to Mingzhu's wife.

[After Nian Gengyao's original wife passed away, he was able to marry his current wife. Mingzhu and his wife played a significant role in this.]

[My outstanding eldest son has passed away, and his only daughter also died of illness shortly after giving birth.]

Mingzhu and his wife were worried about the son their granddaughter had given birth to, so they arranged a match for Nian Gengyao with his wife's niece's daughter.

[Thus, Nian Gengyao's bond with the Nalan family was profound.]

[Old Eight has now taken over the power of the boss's subordinates. Nian Gengyao is close to Old Eight, so it's not surprising that he wants to get close to Old Eight.]

[But the old man's arranged marriage completely disrupted everything!]

Yinreng suddenly felt a little gloating.

[I just wonder if the Nian family, as well as my fourth and eighth brothers, will be happy.]

But thinking of Yinzhen, Yinreng felt that the fourth brother should not be too opposed.

After all, Nian Gengyao was a bannerman under his own jurisdiction, but his heart was with the Eighth Brother, so he could not be happy at all.

Now that we can win over the Nian family to our side, even the smallest mosquito is still meat!

And from what the emperor said, Nian Gengyao was indeed on his list of people he wanted to use.

This is also a help to the fourth brother.

Although the old man's trick cheated many people, the fourth brother did benefit from it.

It's just that the benefits are not that big.

However, if the benefits of this arranged marriage to the fourth son are too great, I am afraid that the old man himself will be worried and unable to sleep.

Otherwise, when I suggested to give a Manchu noble princess to be my concubine, he would not have rejected it outright and not even allowed any objection.

[Tsk~ It's true that the older you get, the more suspicious you become.]

[While trying to split the relationship between me and Lao Si, and to raise Lao Si to fight me, he was also on guard against Lao Si.]

[But the Han Army Banner is good. Although the Nian family is a bannerman, they are Han Chinese.]

[A child born in this way poses no threat to the descendants of the Manchu army.]

[The old man did a good thing for me.]

[However, the old man is now eager to lift up the fourth brother, and I am afraid that his fear of me has risen again.]

[Tsk! What a hassle!]

[Looks like we need to bring up Old Eight as well.]

After Yinreng quickly made a plan in his mind, he continued to discuss the matter of taking a concubine for his fourth brother with the emperor without any expression.

After returning to the West Garden from Qingxi Study, Yinreng asked his men to secretly convey the old man's intentions to the Old Summer Palace.

It was first delivered to Concubine Mu through a secret channel, and then handed over to Prince Yong Yinzhen openly.

After Yinzhen asked his trusted eunuch Zhang Qilin to arrange for people from Yuqing Palace to leave, he immediately summoned his staff to discuss the emperor's intentions.

After Wanlin of Natural Painting received the secret message, the urgency of the thing she had been thinking about was about to happen finally disappeared.

However, she had already made preparations and was not worried about Nian entering the house.

Instead, she felt that she should enter the mansion earlier and let everything settle down so that she could act according to circumstances.

.........

Ever since the last time the Emperor and the Crown Prince mentioned the matter of granting Prince Yong a concubine at Qingxi Book House, the Emperor has shown that he values ​​Prince Yong even more.

However, what is surprising is that while the emperor valued the prince, he also did not forget to suppress the prince's power.

In particular, Yinreng cultivated the middle-level forces for the future to prevent a lack of successors in the future.

Most of them are sons of current or former Grand Secretaries and Chancellors.

Yidushan and Yiduli, sons of former Grand Secretary Yisan'a (son-in-law of Soetu), Wang Kechang, son of former Grand Secretary Wang Xi, Song Junye, son of former Grand Secretary Song Deyi, and others.

They are all very knowledgeable and intelligent young students with certain influence behind them.

Because of their knowledge and the different forces they represented, Yinreng arranged different positions in the court after they defected to him, and was willing to promote them to become the backbone of the future.

Whether for oneself or for Hongli's future, it will be of great benefit.

But the emperor noticed it and suppressed the man without leaving any trace.

Originally, Yinreng wanted to completely muddy the waters in the court.

In addition, the emperor did not expose the ambitions of the baoyi, so everyone only knew about the baoyi's corruption, and did not know that the baoyi were plotting against the emperor's heirs and the throne.

Even though the emperor now dislikes the sons born to bondservants, his own brothers do not know about it.

So Yinreng pushed Yinsi out. He wanted to see if the emperor would still be so wary of him when Yinsi showed up.

After all, the power behind the Eighth Prince is not much weaker than his own, and he is even the most active among the bannermen heirs.

But Yinreng was soon amused by the emperor's actions.

Unexpectedly, the emperor really accepted everyone who came to him, and even cooperated with Yinsi and others in the court to suppress people from his own faction, and was partial to Yinsi and others.

Generals Eshan, Yatu, Yangdai, Suman, Bandi, deputy generals Shi Wengui, Ding Zaobao and others were all suppressed to varying degrees in the previous dynasty.

Yinreng now had to admit that the elderly emperor only had his throne in his eyes.

Everything else means nothing to him.

He thought that after exposing the Baoyi disaster, the emperor would attach more importance to the future of the Qing Dynasty.

However, he did not expect that a suitable successor and the stability of the court could not compare to the importance of his throne.

Compared to his fear of himself, he could even let go of the danger of the bannermen so easily.

Yinreng smiled bitterly.

[Heh~]

[It seems that I lost after all. ]

What finally made Yinreng make up his mind was the secret letter sent back from Guangzhou by Shi Liha at the end of October.

(Note: Nian Gengyao's family background and the relationship between his two wives can be found on Baidu, but the reason why Jifujin married Nian Gengyao is a personal creation of the author.)