If you really think about it, the Crown Prince and the First Prince have been involved in politics for several years now. Some people admire them, while others are just observing.

However, seeing how much the emperor valued the two princes, no one in the entire court voiced any dissent.

In any case, the princes will have to enter the court to deal with matters sooner or later. It's just that two of them are a little earlier. Only the maternal families of the remaining princes may be a little anxious. After all, it is not good for their grandsons if the first two princes gain the upper hand!

Aside from their respective maternal families, either they were considering marriage alliances with them, hoping to get the Crown Prince or their elder brother to marry their daughters, or they were looking for other princes to support them.

However, the eldest prince and the crown prince are capable, except that they are sometimes a bit rash in their actions.

Just like when they exposed that corrupt official, they could have stopped there, but they insisted on digging out the corrupt official's protectors in the capital...

That corrupt official was stationed in Shandong, a fertile region since ancient times with prosperous people. How could an official go to such a place without any connections?

It's obvious that they must have someone protecting them, perhaps even a very large family. If someone who's been in officialdom for a long time or doesn't have such deep roots were to get involved here, they probably wouldn't dare to continue the investigation and would stop here.

If the water is too clear, there will be no fish. Where in officialdom is there a truly clean place? It's just that some people turn a blind eye to things, preventing them from going too far!

His background in the capital is quite powerful, and if he didn't have such a background, he wouldn't have been able to work as a laborer in the provinces for so many years!

Ultimately, it's the young people who are reckless and don't know any better than to have a backup plan. If it were the seasoned veterans or smarter officials, they would know to stop the investigation here.

But the two were incredibly stubborn and insisted on investigating to the end, eventually bringing down a high-ranking official in the capital!

This was only because a family in the capital made a tough decision, sacrificing this high-ranking official position, to avoid being exposed. Even though the two princes were indeed very talented, they were still young and didn't know how to be flexible in their actions, which caused a great deal of discussion at the time.

This kind of attitude, where nothing is more important than a grain of sand, still frightens many people and makes them hesitate to approach.

Seeing that things had calmed down in the last two years, many people thought that the two princes had finally restrained their tempers after the Emperor's guidance.

But after only a few years of restraint, they've already caused such a huge incident. What are the Crown Prince and his ilk planning? Are they going to target the Eight Banners nobles?

This is truly a case of "silent until the moment of truth, then a stunning attack"—they're actually trying to turn the blade upside down on them!

Suddenly, everyone was restless, and after the memorial was read aloud, the scene descended into chaos.

“Your Majesty, the Eight Banners nobles are the foundation of the Qing Dynasty. The Qing Dynasty has been established for less than a hundred years, and the Dzungars are still eyeing us covetously. If the Eight Banners nobles are shaken, the Qing Dynasty will be in danger! The most important thing for us now is to defend our territory rather than engage in internal strife!” At this moment, an official stepped forward. His words made it seem as if implementing this memorial would shake the Qing Dynasty and bring it to its end!

“Your Majesty! Although Lord Tongjia’s words are extreme, they are indeed true. The Eight Banners nobles were all people who helped the late Emperor establish the empire in the past. If we were to target them now, we would be criticized and condemned as ungrateful…” An elderly man with a white beard stepped forward and spoke tremblingly. He was of high seniority and old age, and he spoke without any restraint at this moment.

Emperor Kangxi remained silent. His eyes surveyed the people below, many of whom he had watched grow up since childhood… He genuinely respected these people, but the more he served as emperor, the more he felt that some had truly been spoiled and inflated, much like the former Ao Bai. There were such parasites in the court now, perhaps not as arrogant as Ao Bai, but the damage they inflicted on the Qing treasury was considerable!

When he was young, many ministers were regarded as his pillars of the state by Emperor Kangxi. They had devoted themselves to the Qing Dynasty. There were many ministers with such high positions and great power. Indeed, many of them were the ones who helped to establish the empire. Emperor Kangxi was very tolerant of them, even though they had made some small moves in recent years.

But even if they continue to tolerate it, there are bound to be limits. And even if they are relatively restrained in their actions, their descendants are not.

They are ultimately a hidden danger. They may not have become rotten flesh yet, capable of corrupting the Qing Dynasty, but they have already begun to deteriorate and smell foul. If this piece of flesh isn't removed quickly, it will eventually become a malignant tumor, and the price to pay for going abroad at that time will be far greater!

They once made outstanding military achievements and contributed greatly to the Qing Dynasty, but their grandsons and descendants are not so; many have become rotten teeth of the Qing Dynasty.

Emperor Kangxi knew that this was because of the land they had enclosed years earlier, land that had been acquired based on their own military achievements and prestige. Emperor Kangxi couldn't say anything about it.

Moreover, this matter was indeed proposed by their ancestors of the Aisin Gioro family, so he naturally could not disobey their ancestors' wishes.

With that land, these people's descendants can live a carefree life without having to do anything. The days of being waited on hand and foot have long since corrupted them from childhood.

Unlike their ancestors, they did not emerge from the crucible of war.

How can such people become the backbone of the Qing Dynasty in the future? The current group of people in the court will eventually retire, and the next generation will take over. If this group of people cannot grow up, how can they become the foundation of the Qing Dynasty? Wouldn't the so-called Eight Banners descendants become a joke?

Emperor Kangxi had already realized that the soldiers selected from the Eight Banners bases in the last two years were far inferior in quality to those from previous years.

Of course, there were also a number of talented young people who were able to support the Qing Dynasty, but the existence of such people was like a thorn in the side of Emperor Kangxi.

He hesitated whether to cut out the piece of flesh, but to his surprise, his two sons were even more courageous and reckless than he was...

He closed his eyes slightly, frowned, and treated the angry rebukes from the audience as if they were just background noise.

Hearing those familiar words in his ears... many of them never uttered a sound in the court unless they were called upon, but at this moment they all suddenly appeared.

Sure enough, you only feel the pain when you get cut yourself, and that's when you start to panic.