Chapter 177 Literary Inquisition Yinzhen returned in the evening, and Qi Buchen brought out...

When Yinzhen returned in the evening, Qi Buchen brought out the apple he had specially reserved for him and said, "Try this."

He bit the thing she fed him, chewed it, and swallowed it. "It tastes good. What is it?"

"If it's good, eat more. I saved this for you." Qi Buchen beamed. "Xie Hanshan is back today. This is a new fruit he found. I named it apple. The seeds have been sent to the farm to be cultivated, but it will probably be several years before we can eat what we grow ourselves."

Yinzhen paused while eating and lowered his voice: "Did they send it to the palace?"

"Uh..." Qi Buchen was stunned. She had forgotten.

But then he remembered something and explained, "Xie Hanshan brought it all the way back from Guangdong. Although the journey wasn't too long and he took steps to preserve it, the quality of the food is already quite poor. We don't mind eating it, but it's not suitable for the palace."

What Yinzhen saw were small pieces of apples that had been cut into pieces. He had never seen the real appearance of an apple, so he asked this question. Now that Qi Buchen had explained it to him, he understood and continued to eat it with peace of mind.

"I'll tell Xie Hanshan later to get some mature fruit-bearing trees to raise along the way, and then pick out the best ones to send to the palace," Qi Buchen said.

Yinzhen thought for a moment and said, "If it costs too much, there's no need. Let's just build a fence and keep the news from leaking out."

Qi Buchen agreed neatly: "Don't worry, I know what I'm doing."

Kangxi became more and more sensitive as he grew older. Although he never said it explicitly, his actions in recent years showed that he especially demanded filial piety from his sons. Although Qi Buchen felt that he should not be so stingy as to think his sons were unfilial because of a bite of food, it is always better to be safe than sorry.

After eating the apples, the two of them flipped through the new book that Xie Hanshan brought back for a while before going to bed.

When he was about to put down his pen before the New Year, Yinzhen's expression became more and more solemn. Qi Buchen asked him what was wrong, and he just said it was a business matter without giving any details.

Qi Buchen thought it was a secret and did not ask any further questions. He was busy dealing with the New Year gifts, but he discovered an impossible name - Longkodo.

He went to Yinzhen with the gift list in hand and asked, "What's going on?"

Yinzhen seemed not to have expected to see this name. He frowned and carefully looked over the items on the gift list, concluding that they were quite standard.

After knocking a corner of the gift list on the table about ten times, Yinzhen said, "Longkodo was promoted to commander of the infantry in November. Perhaps he wants to reconcile?" His hesitant tone seemed to be asking Qi Buchen.

Actually, the two of them didn't have a big conflict; it was just the incident with the concubine, and each felt the other was being disrespectful. Oh, yes, Longkodo had also been plotting against the imperial clan exams, but the one who suffered the most in that incident was the crown prince. Yinzhen didn't think he was targeting him and was unaware of it.

As for Li Si'er, Yinzhen had long forgotten about this person.

Qi Buchen stared at him with wide eyes, his eyes saying, "Don't ask me, I haven't met Longkodo, how would I know?"

"Tsk." Yinzhen frowned and threw away the gift list. "Don't worry about it. Just return the gift according to the usual practice."

Well, that's all there is to it.

Perhaps he really wanted to reconcile, and this idea became even stronger for Yinzhen at the New Year's banquet, because Longkodo actually took the initiative to toast him.

You have to know that Longkodo was such an arrogant man, and he was in high spirits at the moment. Even though Yinzhen was a prince, he was not worthy of being treated like this.

However, Longkodo not only came to toast, but also took the initiative to show weakness, jokingly saying: "When I was young and frivolous, I looked down on everyone. If my words were inappropriate, I hope Prince Yong will forgive me."

Yinzhen's expression was subtle, and his attitude was a little distant: "Master Tong, you are too polite."

Longkodo didn't bother to argue any further. He drank the wine in the glass and left.

Yinzhen pondered in his heart, shaking his wine glass and thinking, interesting.

A sarcastic voice, unchanged over the years, echoed from the side: "Fourth brother, you're truly capable. You can even subdue a man like Longkodo. But Third Brother still needs to remind you that while Longkodo is a royal relative, he's also the commander of the infantry, responsible for the safety of the palace. As a prince, Fourth Brother shouldn't have close ties with such important officials."

Yinzhen smiled faintly and tilted his head, saying, "Thank you, Third Brother, for the reminder, but I can't help it. I'm sitting here peacefully, and someone insists on toasting me. I can't just refuse. That would be too disrespectful. Besides, the Empress Dowager raised me, and I can't do such an ungrateful thing."

"You!" Yinzhi is really a novice and a teaser. Over the years, he has been criticized so many times, but he never learns his lesson. Every time, he rushes to poke Yinzhen in the sore spot.

"The Emperor is looking over here, Third Brother, watch your expression." Yinzhen smiled.

Yinzhi was startled and quickly adjusted his expression. He turned to look at Kangxi with a smile, but found that Kangxi was not even looking at him.

Got fooled!

He turned back in a rage to find Yinzhen, but found that Yinzhen had turned around and talked to Yinqi. He could only hold his anger in his stomach and could not vent it.

The relaxed atmosphere of the New Year did not last long. Two days after the Lantern Festival, the Ministry of Justice presented the results of its investigation into the case in which the Left Censor-in-Chief impeached Dai Mingshi, editor of the Hanlin Academy, causing an uproar in the room.

The Ministry of Justice investigated and found that Dai Mingshi, in his Nanshan Collection, written ten years earlier, directly listed the reign titles of the Southern Ming regime: Hongguang, Longwu, and Yongli. The book also suggested that the Qing dynasty came to power illegitimately, suggesting an anti-Qing and restorationist agenda. He also argued that the Qing dynasty began in the first year of the Kangxi reign, and that the preceding Shunzhi reign was not legitimate.

In addition to Dai Mingshi's evidence of guilt, the Ministry of Justice also discovered the involvement of You, Fang and others through the publication of "Nanshan Collection", and thus implicated more than 300 people.

In the memorial submitted to the Ministry of Justice, it was recommended that Dai Mingshi and others be convicted of "high treason" and that nine generations of their clan be punished. All men over the age of fifteen in the Dai and Fang families were to be beheaded, and women and children were to be demoted to slavery. Scholars and other people who had relatively close contact with Dai Mingshi were also mentioned in the memorial.

Although the punishment of punishing nine generations of a family appeared early, it was rarely used after the Sui and Tang Dynasties because it was too cruel. Now the Ministry of Justice has proposed such a severe punishment, which has suddenly triggered public opinion in the capital. People can't help but wonder how serious the crime committed by Dai Mingshi and others was. Did they rebel?

Dai Mingshi did not rebel, but the articles he wrote were considered by some to be tantamount to rebellion.

Literary inquisition!

Qi Buchen confirmed this after listening to the entire incident.

The most criticized things about the Qing Dynasty were, first, the massacre at the beginning of the southward march, second, the shaving of hair and changing of clothes, and third was probably the literary inquisition.

Qi Buchen, aware of this, was a little uneasy when facing Yinzhen. He said tactfully, "It's true that Dai Mingshi wrote those articles, and his punishment is justified, but isn't punishing his entire clan too much? Dai Mingshi has a great reputation among scholars. If he is treated too harshly, won't it cause conflicts between the Manchus and the Han people? Moreover, those articles were written by Dai Mingshi in his early years. However, after writing them, Dai Mingshi took the imperial examinations and became an official. This also shows that he had no intention of treason. It is estimated that those articles were written in the heat of the moment when he was young."

Yinzhen looked at her with a strange look in his eyes: "You seem to have a good impression of Dai Mingshi?"

He had never seen Fu Jin try so hard to speak for anyone.

Qi Buchen was startled for a moment, knowing that her behavior was somewhat suspicious. However, she felt uncomfortable keeping silent, so she said honestly, "It's not that I have a fondness for him. Before this, I had never even heard of his name. It's just that, since the Emperor came to power, he has always advocated the integration of Manchus and Han people. I think he also wants the Han people to sincerely accept us. But if we punish our entire clan because of a few articles this time, will it sow a thorn in the hearts of those Han people who originally supported us?"

After saying this, she muttered softly, "Implicating nine generations of your family is really a bit too much. What kind of people are you in the Ministry of Justice?"

Yinzhen raised his eyes to glance at her: "Are you cursing me in your heart?"

"I didn't!" Qi Buchen retorted with his eyes wide open, then as if realizing something, he asked in surprise, "Did you come up with the idea of ​​punishing all the nine clans?"

No way, no way, the Yinzhen she knew would not be such a person!

"What are you thinking about!" Yinzhen patted her head and said speechlessly, "Am I such a nobody in your heart?"

Fortunately, fortunately, it wasn't him. Qi Buchen breathed a sigh of relief before complaining, "Then who told you to say such misleading words! But seriously, who came up with this idea of ​​punishing the entire clan? This kind of person must be stayed away from. It would be best if he could be removed. Anyone who can come up with such an idea is definitely not a good person!"

Yinzhen sighed: "This matter is not as simple as you think."

So Qi Buchen learned more details from Yinzhen.

The first one is Zhao Shenqiao who impeached Dai Mingshi. Although this person has always been praised as an honest official since he took office, this does not mean that he is a figure like Bao Gong. This person has a lot of selfish motives.

"Zhao Shenqiao's son, Zhao Xiongzhao, and Dai Mingshi took the imperial examination in the same year. Dai Mingshi was second, while Zhao Xiongzhao was number one. Even now, there's a saying among scholars that Zhao Xiongzhao's top scorership was due to Zhao Shenqiao, not his own talent. Some jokingly call him 'the number one scholar of grace.'" Yinzhen said in a faint voice, "Although Zhao Shenqiao didn't say anything outwardly, many people believe he holds a grudge against Dai Mingshi because of this."

Especially this impeachment further proved this statement. Many people were originally angry and spoke for Dai Mingshi, but they did not expect that Dai Mingshi's background was not clean enough and evidence of his guilt was really found, so this statement disappeared.

Qi Buchen asked in confusion, "So the implicated nine clans was Zhao Shenqiao's behind-the-scenes operation?"

After she said that, she herself was a little bit unconvinced.

Yinzhen shook his head decisively, pondering for a moment before saying, "Perhaps Zhao Shenqiao initially impeached the emperor out of personal vendetta, but once the matter reached the Ministry of Justice, he had no say." He lowered his voice, "Zhao Shenqiao's other son, Zhao Fengzhao, had some friendship with He Chao, the eighth son's study partner."

"Old Eight must have intervened in this matter."