When a person dies, it is like a light going out. Yinreng could understand why Kangxi forgot about his deceased heroes, but he could not understand why Kangxi blatantly practiced double standards.

All the aristocratic families in the capital were related to the royal family, but Kangxi was partial to the Tong family.

If we go by Mingzhu's standards, the second and third generations of the Tong family, including Tong Guowei himself, are suspected of forming cliques for personal gain and selling official positions and titles.

However, Kangxi turned a blind eye to this.

He even helped Tong Guowei promote his students.

Compared with Tong Guowei, Mingzhu is Kangxi's cousin, and he is the grandson of Huang Taiji's uncle. According to the seniority system on Kangxi's side, Kangxi should even call Mingzhu his cousin.

But even this dual identity did not make Kangxi much more tolerant of Mingzhu.

On the other hand, Tong Guowei...

Tsk tsk tsk, just the fact that he allowed his children and grandchildren to roam around among the princes and took credit for being the emperor's followers would have exiled the entire family if it were anyone else.

But Kangxi still turned a blind eye to this.

Moreover, the only achievement that Tong Guowei could mention was that when Emperor Kangxi was pacifying the Three Feudatories, he led his troops to encircle and suppress Wu Yingxiong.

As for the rest of his achievements...they may only be attributed to his followers who run the court.

Mingzhu's achievements were not limited to pacifying the Three Feudatories. He also expelled Tsarist Russia and recovered Taiwan, all of which were praised by Kangxi in his early years. Mingzhu was involved in each of them.

If he had swapped identities with Tong Guowei, let alone selling official positions and titles, as long as he didn't rebel, Kangxi would have allowed him to remain in power until someone else took the throne.

But Mingzhu's situation before her death can be summed up in four words: a miserable old age.

Yinreng also disliked Mingzhu, but speaking objectively, Tong Guowei was less likable.

Who made Tong Guowei have such a smooth life since birth, so smooth that anyone would be jealous.

In later novels, Tong Guowei would be the chosen righteous man.

Kangxi frowned.

"Do you think I'm treating my meritorious officials unfairly?"

"That's not what my son meant. It's just that by comparison, you gave the Tong family too much... so much that they can't recognize their place."

Yinreng didn't know what had stimulated Kangxi to behave so depressed, but it didn't stop him from looking down on the Tong family.

The warm room fell into silence.

Yinreng picked up the peanuts on the table and started eating them with a "crunch crunch" sound.

It is said that this thing was promoted by him near Weihaiwei, and the locals called it "Luosheng".

After a long time, Kangxi sighed.

"Yes, I gave too much..."

Yinreng didn't know that his words had touched Kangxi's sore spot. He looked up at Kangxi strangely.

"The old man actually reflects on himself. Tsk, the sun is rising from the west?"

Kangxi seemed to be really hit hard. Yinreng's obvious complaints failed to arouse his anger. He just waved his hand tiredly at Yinreng and sent him away.

After Yinreng left, he was still confused.

Is it because the old man is old and his hormones are out of balance?

So baffling.

After Yinreng stayed in the capital for another two days and understood the whole story, he began to have some vague guesses about Kangxi's strange behavior that day.

In order to avoid being drafted into the army by Kangxi, Yinreng planned to find something to do.

But after he wandered around the capital, he found that he had nothing to do.

In the end, we had to focus our attention on the inner city and the imperial city.

As for the Forbidden City...

That place embodies the wisdom of our ancestors, so it’s better not to move it if you can.

Besides, emperors never lack people to serve them.

After thinking about it for a day in Yuqing Palace, Yinreng decided to move the sewage pipes between the inner city and the imperial city.

Anyway, we have cement now, so the hardness of the pipes is guaranteed.

Weihaiwei already has coal-fired water pumps, and water towers have been designed in military camps and military factories. Water pipes are also under design. I believe that it won’t be long before the technological level of the entire military base will far surpass other places.

I wonder if he will ever see gasoline cars and electric lights in his lifetime...

As the New Year draws closer, the atmosphere in the capital becomes slightly more relaxed.

At this time when everything was about "auspiciousness", no one would be so reckless as to cause trouble for Kangxi.

However, Tong Guowei's expression became increasingly gloomy in this festive atmosphere.

The reason was naturally his disappointing nephew.

Ever since the day Wang Xun openly impeached Orondei in the court, Tong Guowei has been busy cleaning up Orondei's mess.

At first things went very smoothly.

As long as he opened his mouth, no one dared to refuse. Even Prince Yong agreed to help Orondei cover up with a smile on his face.

This made Tong Guowei feel more relaxed, thinking that this time it would be the same as before and he would just let it go.

However, after a few days, those who had accepted the benefits he gave and promised not to serve as witnesses changed their minds one after another, as if they had colluded with each other.

He even returned the money and belongings he had given to the Tong family.

This caught Tong Guowei off guard.

Tong Guowei didn't understand what went wrong. He wanted to find someone to ask about the situation, but everyone avoided the Tong family as if they were the plague, and no one was willing to tell them the reason.

When has Tong Guowei ever been treated like this?

After being rejected several times, Tong Guowei stopped asking for trouble.

He began to look for people outside the Tong family to find out the reason.

It was not until New Year's Eve that Tong Guowei heard the answer he wanted from a student.

It turned out that someone paid a higher price to let them tell the truth.

However, Tong Guowei's students could not find out the identity of that person no matter how hard they tried.

Tong Guowei wanted to investigate, but the end of the year was approaching, so he could only suppress his anger and urgency in his heart and planned to deal with it after the new year.

After the Chinese New Year, Yinreng packed up his things and wanted to leave, but for some reason, Kangxi refused to approve Yinreng's petition to leave Beijing.

Yinreng had no choice.

I had no choice but to plunge into the sewage projects in the inner and outer cities.

Kangxi persisted for half a month, but seeing that Yinreng was determined not to stay by his side to handle state affairs, he could only sigh and let him go.

As soon as Yinreng left, Tong Guowei found out who was plotting against him behind the scenes.

Kangxi also received the news.

When they learned that the person who instructed Wang Xun to impeach Orondei was Fucha Mazi, their first reaction was that Tong Guowei's murder of Maska had been exposed.

Compared with Kangxi's sudden realization, Tong Guowei felt more angry than confused.

He didn't think there was anything wrong with killing Maska, but he was determined to let Ma Qi know about it.

But he already knew that the person behind the scenes was Ma Qi, so the next thing was simple...