Three years later.
"Has the Crown Prince not come out yet?" Jingrou asked anxiously. Yinzhi's expression was a little unpleasant, and he nodded absentmindedly.
Jingrou didn't know what had happened. She only heard that something bad had happened to the Crown Prince, so she rushed over, only to be stopped by Yinzhi when she arrived.
She knew that she couldn't possibly break into the Qianqing Palace in her current state, so she could only stand there anxiously.
Jingrou was anxious. But she couldn't stay here for too long. She had just entered the palace early this morning when she heard that the Crown Prince had been reprimanded by the Emperor. Apparently, it was because he had submitted some memorial that caused a great uproar in the court.
Jingrou was extremely anxious, but she couldn't go to the Qing Palace, so she could only wait in the study. Then she saw that the First Prince also looked distraught...
Over the past few years, the eldest prince has sent gifts to Wenying without fail.
At the beginning, it was unknown where he picked the wildflowers, or even some flowers from Consort Hui's palace that came from somewhere. Later, there were also little trinkets he made himself, things carved from wood or wolf tusks...
Wenying received all sorts of strange and unusual items. The eldest prince was very wary; he was especially afraid his mother would find out, and he kept a very tight rein on those around him. Even Consort Hui was still completely unaware…
Anyway, Jingrou is a little unclear about the current state of their relationship. To say that the two have no relationship at all doesn't seem to be the case.
For at least the past year, she has carefully kept almost every gift the First Prince has given her, and she seems to cherish them greatly when she looks at Wen Ying. It seems her feelings for him are very genuine, yet she doesn't seem to have any particularly clear stance on it!
To say that the two of them have established a relationship doesn't seem to be the case. Anyway, their relationship is a bit complicated. But as long as Jingrou knows, Wenying won't suffer any losses in this!
Jingrou was completely baffled by this relationship, so she stopped paying attention to it.
Jingrou hesitated, wanting to speak but stopping herself. She actually wanted to ask the First Prince if he understood what the memorial was about and why it had angered the Emperor so much.
It seems to have caused quite a stir in the imperial court as well.
Because Yinreng and he almost always acted together, it seemed like they were always doing things together. If he said he knew nothing about it, Jingrou would definitely not believe it.
It should be noted that Yinreng was very organized in everything he did, and he rarely made mistakes. He was highly trusted by Emperor Kangxi, who had praised him a lot in recent years. How could he have angered the emperor at this time?
The Emperor had never reprimanded him, but the news that reached his ears was that he had indeed been reprimanded by the Emperor!
But she couldn't interfere... With so many people around, this matter was probably too sensitive.
"Don't worry, this was something the Crown Prince and I did together..." After saying this hastily, Yinzhi left. Judging from the direction he went, he was probably heading to the Qianqing Palace.
However, Jingrou no longer needed to inquire about information.
The Crown Prince and the First Prince jointly proposed suggestions regarding land enclosure by nobles and land taxes for commoners, submitting a memorial directly to the court, which sparked heated discussions.
In his memorial, he directly mentioned the various drawbacks of the Manchu nobles' land grabbing, and provided examples of many noble children neglecting their duties, officials protecting each other, the heavy tax burden on the people, and the severe drought in Henan last year, where people resorted to cannibalism.
The memorial, exceeding a thousand words, was filled with sharp language and a critical tone, revealing the author's determination. His stance was clear: it was aimed directly at the Manchu nobility, immediately causing a huge uproar. It's important to understand that those who could attend court were officials of the fourth rank or higher, and among these officials, the vast majority were Manchu nobles!
This situation occurred under the premise that Emperor Kangxi intended to cultivate Han Chinese officials and attached great importance to Han Chinese culture. If it weren't for Emperor Kangxi's attitude, the court would probably have been filled with Manchus!
However, since the Great Qing Dynasty has been established for less than a hundred years, it is too early to suppress the Eight Banners nobles. Therefore, to this day, the Manchu nobles still occupy a large part of the country.
This naturally sparked much discussion in the imperial court, especially among the Eight Banners nobles, many of whom held high-ranking positions in the court.
Even more so, some of them were people whom even Emperor Kangxi respected. They were old, and could be said to have watched Emperor Kangxi grow up, so there was a special bond between them.
It's not that there weren't good officials among them; many were good officials who served the people. They were willing to sacrifice everything for the Qing Dynasty and were widely praised in the court for many years.
However, no matter how diligent an official is, he will definitely put the interests of his family first, especially the older ones. They value their descendants and are afraid that after they are gone, their descendants will not be able to enjoy wealth and honor. They are naturally extremely sensitive to such matters, so they must have been indignant after the Crown Prince said such a thing.
Good! They haven't even passed away yet, and the Crown Prince is already trying to get his hands on them. What will happen when they die?
Moreover, even if they hold high-ranking official positions, there will always be some good-for-nothing descendants and nephews in their families. Which family doesn't have a few spoiled brats?
When the Qing army entered the pass, they went to great lengths to win over this group of nobles. One of the rules was that if you rode a horse from the capital outwards, the area you passed through would be marked as your land. This is the origin of the land enclosure system.
But at that time, there were few people and the land was vast, so it was possible to divide it up. However, the earliest group of nobles had descendants, and their descendants had descendants, endlessly.
As the population gradually increased, these people controlled the most land, and the number of people in the capital city also gradually increased.
Therefore, this small group of nobles in the capital controlled the vast majority of the land in the capital... If these people could use this land to do some good deeds or give the people a way to survive, that would be fine.
However, the vast majority of them became landlords, enslaving the people. The people not only had to be tenant farmers, but also had to pay taxes to the imperial court, which was extremely miserable.
Yinreng submitted his memorial on this very matter. He loathed corrupt officials and had previously done much to punish them, but it was only a temporary solution!
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