flstandardbreds Chapter 137 Yinzhen: After I Became Emperor
Chapter 137 Yinzhen: After I Became Emperor
Lin Ke continued, "After the third prince knelt down to pay his respects, the other princes followed suit. Later, Yongzheng recalled: 'If it weren't for my father's edict, would the eighth and ninth princes have been so obedient in paying their respects?'" (Dayi Juemi Lu)
"The fourth prince's explanation was also in response to the popular belief that he had usurped the throne, but this explanation has been questioned by some scholars in later generations."
"First of all, why did Kangxi only summon Longkodo?! There were so many ministers in the court!"
"The explanation given here is that after the crown prince was deposed, Longkodo was considered one of Kangxi's favorite ministers for about ten years."
"Moreover, this minister held five battalions of the capital's infantry in his hands. Perhaps Kangxi was ultimately afraid of trouble arising from this."
"Secondly, were the third, eighth, and ninth princes really that honest? In Yongzheng's later memoirs, he wrote that the ninth prince once glared angrily at the fourth prince, and the third and eighth princes also lowered their heads and said something. But this is actually nothing, after all, the fourth prince became the emperor!"
There's a saying: "It doesn't matter what kind of cat it is, as long as it catches mice, it's a good cat!"
Emperor Yongzheng of the Qing Dynasty: ...
"The last point of contention is also the most controversial, because this time Kangxi left behind an oral edict, not a will. So this is part of the reason for the controversy about whether the fourth prince usurped the throne."
"I don't know what Kangxi was thinking, but isn't this obviously making the fourth prince controversial? He only agreed to establish a crown prince when he was almost four!"
"Therefore, many people suspect that Longkodo may have switched the edict. After all, he still has a relationship with the Fourth Prince. However, even someone as dissatisfied as the Ninth Prince back then couldn't find any evidence to overthrow the Fourth Prince, so it's even less likely that someone later could. Therefore, this edict should be genuine."
"The reason for the imperial edict, I think, is that Kangxi never expected that he would pass away more suddenly than he imagined. But we can't deny that the old man was getting old and his mind was becoming senile!"
Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty: ...
Emperor Zhao Kuangyin of the Song Dynasty: Even at the end, he still had to pose a difficult question!
A scion of a prominent family in the Ming Dynasty: Perhaps he didn't even realize he was gone!?
……
"I've already mentioned how Yongzheng dealt with the princes, so I won't go into details again. In any case, Kangxi still tricked the fourth prince before he died. If it weren't for his imperial edict, the fourth prince wouldn't have been criticized and the court wouldn't have been unstable."
"Moreover, the struggle for the throne among the nine princes was also due to Kangxi's influence. In addition, I would like to add that no matter which timeline you are in, Consort De, although I do not know why you dislike this eldest son, you should still dote on him if you have the chance!"
"The fourth prince's life has been difficult. Because Uya refused to be made empress dowager and died prematurely, there were many rumors about him, such as that he forced his own mother to commit suicide."
"But judging from what he said in 'The Record of Awakening from Delusion,' his birth mother loved him very much, so she must have cared about Uya Shi very much. And no evidence of so-called favoritism has been found in history. But we still hope that Uya Shi can care about him more."
"Hey, if that's how Uya thinks, you're the most powerful woman in the entire harem, and your son is filial and is the emperor. What's wrong with that?! Why do you have to be buried with that central air conditioner Kangxi?"
"You should know that among all the emperors of the Qing Dynasty, he had the most concubines, probably more than eighty! What are you still thinking about!"
"Moreover, although Uya gave birth to six children, only the fourth and fourteenth sons survived."
Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty: ...
First Emperor: It's incomprehensible that he still had time to favor so many people in his harem!?
Big-Handed Liu Zhuzhu: How many babies would that be?!
Da Tang Li Erfeng: Hahaha, the First Emperor spent all his time on his career, didn't he!
……
The thirteenth year of the Kangxi reign of the Qing Dynasty
At this time, Lady Uya had just given birth to Yinzhen, and Emperor Kangxi had not yet given him to Consort Tongjia to raise.
But when she heard Lin Ke's words, the hand holding Yinzhen in his swaddling clothes tightened involuntarily, and the slight tremor in her hand revealed the unease and tension in her heart.
If she could, she wouldn't want her child to be raised under someone else's care, but it was an ancestral rule, and she knew she couldn't disobey it.
Besides, His Majesty would never defy this ancestral rule for her sake.
Wuya thought of Wei Shuangjie, whom he later called a "lowly woman" repeatedly. She smiled self-deprecatingly. Perhaps Miss Lin was right. No matter what, she shouldn't make things difficult for her child.
Did only two of her children survive?
……
Lin Ke continued, "Now that we've finished talking about the struggle for the throne among the nine princes, let's talk about the achievements of the fourth prince after he became emperor."
"First, we need to know what kind of mess Kangxi left for Yongzheng that caused the fourth and thirteenth princes to work themselves to death."
"First of all, although the fourth prince became emperor, the eighth prince, supported by the Manchu nobles, still had some power. After all, what Kangxi left behind was an oral edict, and no one could say for sure whether the edict was real or fake."
"Therefore, at the beginning of Yongzheng's reign, there were still forces in the court who were dissatisfied with him."
"Subsequently, the national treasury became empty, with the Ministry of Revenue owing millions of taels of silver over the years. No one knew where the money went!"
"Finally, there are some issues with the military, and what is most needed for war is money, so the military and the national treasury are actually linked."
"More importantly, these problems are only on the surface. There are deeper contradictions beneath the surface, such as tax chaos and official corruption."
"So the fourth prince inherited a mess right from the start. Did he really think being emperor was easy?!"
A young man from a prominent family in the Ming Dynasty: So these guys are fighting so hard over this mess?
Emperor Yongzheng of the Qing Dynasty: ...
A spoiled young master from the Song Dynasty: LOL, they thought it was some kind of golden age, but it's just a mess!