Time flies, and soon it is February.

Apart from New Year's Eve and the first day of the Spring Festival, which had some connection with Yinreng, the other lively events had nothing to do with Yinreng.

After he paid his respects to the Cining Palace that day, he heard Yinzhi mention the imperial examination and learned that the capital had already started preparing for the examination.

The ninth day of the second month is the first session of the imperial examination. Counting the days, it is only two days away from today.

The palace examination will be held about a month after the three provincial examinations.

Then it has only been two months since the incident between Mingzhu and Yu Guozhu.

Looking at Yinzhi who looked silly and cheerful all day long, Yinreng sighed.

In his previous life, Mingzhu was captured in the twelfth month of this year. At that time, Yinzhi had just gotten married, and Kangxi had already approved him to set up a government office and also allowed him to enter the court.

But it just happened to be such a coincidence.

When Yinzhi was at the peak of his career, Kangxi dealt him the most fatal blow.

For Yinzhi, Mingzhu was not only a subordinate who supported him in ascending to the throne, but also one of his closest elders who raised him from childhood to the age of six.

Yinreng remembered that when he came out of the study that day, it was already 3 p.m. He was planning to go to the archery pavilion to practice riding and shooting, but he ran into Yinzhi as soon as he went out.

Although it had been thirty years, Yinreng still remembered Yinzhi's disheveled beard and dejected face.

That was one of the few times Yinzhi acted in an indecent manner in front of him.

The relationship between the two was not very good at that time. However, in order to plead for Mingzhu, Yinzhi tried all possible means and finally came to Yinreng for help.

Yinreng knew clearly that Yinzhi would not listen to any advice at that time.

So I rejected him outright.

Mingzhu and Yu Guozhu sold almost all the scholar positions in the cabinet. As long as they paid money, Mingzhu and Yu Guozhu could submit a petition to promote second-rank officials to the cabinet, causing chaos in the cabinet. Mingzhu's words were even more effective than Kangxi's.

In other words, although Mingzhu was greedy, he was still capable, which was why he kept Kangxi in the dark for several years.

The advice and suggestions put forward by the cabinet were all very useful, otherwise, with Kangxi's cleverness, he would have noticed the trick long ago.

Here we have to mention the cabinet system at that time. There were two grand secretaries, two assistant grand secretaries, and ten bachelors in the cabinet.

Soetu retired due to illness in the 19th year of Kangxi's reign, and is now the Minister of the Imperial Guard. The power of Prince Yinreng in the court depends entirely on Soetu, so even if Soetu has not entered the cabinet at this time, with the support of most Han officials in the court, he is enough to compete with Mingzhu.

What Mingzhu was selling was not some insignificant official position, but an important position as the emperor's eyes and ears. If it were Yinreng, he might have directly dragged Mingzhu out and tortured her to death, and then confiscated her property and exterminated her clan.

He thought so in his heart, but did not say it to Yinzhi.

He just told him rationally and calmly that what Mingzhu did was shaking the foundation of the Qing Dynasty. If he was not severely punished, those Han scholars outside the Forbidden City might destroy the prestige accumulated by the Aisin Gioro family for decades with just a word of their mouths.

Yinreng did not expect Yinzhi to listen to him. After all, if he remained indifferent to Mingzhu's misfortune, no one in the court would follow him.

Yinzhi knelt in the snow in despair and begged for two hours, and finally fainted, but Kangxi ignored him.

Just when everyone thought Mingzhu was doomed, Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang passed away.

Kangxi was in great grief and had no energy to care about anything else.

In the end, Nalan Mingzhu stayed in prison for half a year. When Kangxi remembered him, his anger had almost subsided. Considering that Mingzhu had made many contributions since the Manchus entered the pass, he showed mercy and let Mingzhu go.

They only stripped him of his official position and confiscated his property.

As long as the rest of the Nalan family did not commit any serious mistakes, they would continue to serve in the court.

In fact, according to seniority, Mingzhu was not only Yinzhi's great uncle, but also Kangxi's cousin.

Yinreng guessed that Kangxi spared his life out of consideration for their kinship.

It was found that the accomplice Yu Guozhu committed the serious crime of selling official positions and corruption because of Mingzhu's coercion. In the end, he was only stripped of his official position, his property was confiscated, and he was sent back to his hometown. His descendants for three generations were not allowed to be employed.

Yu Guozhu was also pitiful. He served in the court for a total of 36 years. In the first 32 years, he was an honest and upright official and made great contributions to the court. However, in order to save an unpromising young son, he not only sacrificed his reputation for a lifetime, but also ruined the future of three generations of his descendants.

I don’t know how Yu Guozhu finally punished his youngest son.

However, Yu Guozhu himself was not someone who could resist temptation. After rescuing his young son, he did not persuade Mingzhu to stop, but instead became involved with him. His appetite grew day by day, and last year some people jokingly called him Yu Qinhui.

Yinreng's eyes darkened.

Yinreng originally thought that the direction of this life would be the same as his previous life, so he continued to eat and sleep, and did not take the imperial examination seriously at all. After all, he was just a thirteen-year-old kid, and even if he wanted to, he could not change anything.

but……

Ten days after the palace examination, Zuo Qianduyushi Guo Xiu openly impeached Yu Guozhu, the assistant minister of Zhonghe Hall, and Nalan Mingzhu, the minister of Wuying Hall, for colluding with each other. He requested Kangxi to severely punish Nalan Mingzhu, Yu Guozhu and their cronies on the grounds of several serious crimes: abusing power for personal gain, forming cliques, buying favors and bribing, and selling official positions and titles.

All officials in the court and the country were shocked.

Almost everyone was dumbfounded.

Several cabinet ministers who usually claimed to be Kangxi's confidants were all bewildered.

My dear, there is more to this chapter. Please click on the next page to continue reading. It will be even more exciting later!