So before Kangxi put down his pen, the Ministry of Revenue, the Ministry of Justice, the Dali Temple, and the Five Cities Procuratorate started working again.
Except for Gao Yuanlang and his brother-in-law, Yinreng did not let any of the officials who secretly collected money from vendors outside the city go, and sent them all to jail.
Gao Yuanlang's brother-in-law embezzled and extorted bribes of 4,700 taels. According to the law, he was beheaded in public and his family was exiled to Lingnan.
Gao Yuanlang was dismissed from his post and exiled to his hometown, and was not allowed to be employed again within ten years.
Because Yinreng was personally overseeing the case, it was handled extremely quickly and everything was settled before New Year's Eve.
Someone in the court who had a personal relationship with Gao Yuanlang wanted to plead for him, but Kangxi accepted the petition and pretended not to see it.
At first, Kangxi thought that it was unlucky to start a war during the New Year, so he tried to make a big thing small.
But Yinreng refused to let go and even took the blame for the Ministry of Personnel, accusing everyone in the Ministry of Personnel of participating in selling official positions and asking Kangxi to conduct a thorough investigation.
Kangxi was also speechless.
In order to avoid making things more difficult to resolve, he finally had no choice but to follow Yinreng's wishes and investigate the case strictly.
Even the two ministers of the Ministry of Revenue were scolded and did not get the "Fu" character this year.
The people in the court were secretly frightened.
It was just a low-level clerk who collected some silver from merchants. He didn't do anything like forcing women into prostitution, killing people or setting fires. Yet, the prince stripped the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue of his official uniform. Isn't this punishment too severe?
Tong Guowei was a little dissatisfied and privately submitted a memorial to remind Kangxi that he should not indulge the prince too much, otherwise it would arouse the dissatisfaction of the court officials towards the prince.
At first glance, it seems that he is considering Yinreng, but only Tong Guowei knows that he is paving the way for the Tong family's end.
In other words, the original intention of his memorial was to tell Kangxi that he felt that the current crown prince was not worthy of the position, and to advise Kangxi to guide and restrain him.
But if Kangxi remained unmoved, then it would be understandable for him to choose a new master.
Kangxi just glanced at him and didn't take his words to heart.
Ever since Longkodo recklessly aimed his bow at Yinzhi, Kangxi had been somewhat dissatisfied with the Tong family. This dissatisfaction reached its peak when Tong Guowei intercepted the evidence that Mingzhu poisoned the first wife.
Therefore, in recent years, the favor enjoyed by the Tong family has not diminished much on the surface, but when Tong Guowei wanted to arrange people from the Tong family to fill some important positions, he was blocked by all parties.
Because Ye Keshu was not affected at all, and his brothers Kua Dai and Fa Hai were even highly valued by Kangxi, Tong Guowei did not notice anything wrong.
But in fact, the Tong family's power in the court has not expanded for a long time.
And Nalan Mingzhu is now living like a nobody in the court.
The two failed bets had completely shattered his spirit.
Longkodo's situation was somewhat similar to his.
After he solved the White Lotus case in Jiangnan, he was assigned to the Ministry of Works by Emperor Kangxi.
However, Yinreng and Yinzhen held the Ministry of Works firmly in their hands, and he was essentially sitting on the bench in the Ministry of Works.
Even when Kangxi had such a good opportunity to gain merit in the last expedition, he did not take him with him, which made Longkodo extremely dissatisfied.
He did try to resist a few times.
However, the results were never what he wanted.
It was also his plan that allowed Prince Ping Nerfu to receive the news so quickly.
It's a pity that Nerfu is a waste.
Even with such an obvious plot, he couldn't make a fuss.
Longkodo didn't want to endure it any longer, he had to do something to protest.
*
During the busiest time before the New Year, small vendors on the outskirts of the city found that all the servants they were familiar with were replaced by unfamiliar faces.
Not only did they stop taking bribes, but even the frequency of their patrols became much more regular.
Only a few police officers who were not greedy or demanding bribes were still patrolling the streets, and some of them had even been promoted to team leaders.
The vendors wanted to give some silver to those unfamiliar faces to trick them, but they didn't expect that the faces of the officers turned pale as soon as they took out the silver and before they could even give it to them.
Shouting loudly,
"You old man want to harm me..."
This left the vendors looking confused.
After a long time, everyone learned from the old police that those who took bribes in the name of the government had been thrown into prison and would not be able to get out for at least two to three years.
After the news spread among the small vendors, it caused quite a stir.
They are ordinary people and it is not easy to do business.
Although they make a lot of profit every month, everything is much more expensive at the foot of the imperial city than in other places. They have to be humble in order to survive. When they see those hungry wolves in disguise as officials, their knees will go weak.
Just hand over the money you earned hard.
If they don't pay, these bastards will hang around their stalls every day, disrupting their business.
I never thought that those bastards who always act so arrogantly would be punished one day.
It is really the Bodhisattva appearing!
Because those ferocious-looking police officers were gone, the streets were much busier than usual during the period before the New Year.
When Yinreng built the residential area, he did not plan any shops at all.
Because he knew that in the future, the people living there would be ordinary people.
Occasionally, they would go to a small vendor to have a good meal. This was a rare occasion for them to be generous.
If there were a shop, the wealthy businessmen in the outer city would see that it could make money, and the shop would not fall into the hands of the vendors doing business.
It would be better not to build it, so that those people will stop thinking about fighting for it.
He planned all the shops in the former slums.
Yinreng positioned that area as a prosperous commercial district.
Focusing on high-end luxury.
The other side that was not demolished was planned by him as a low-end and affordable wholesale commercial area.
Now the high-end commercial district in the outer city is almost completed.
As soon as the New Year is over, we will be able to receive foreigners from all over the world and transfer their money to the Qing Dynasty’s treasury.
Then let him dig out the money bit by bit to build the infrastructure of the Qing Dynasty.
Money is only money when it is flowing, otherwise it is just scrap metal.
He spent so much effort to make money from foreigners just so that ordinary people could also benefit from it.
Unlike the old man, who felt that there was too much silver in the treasury and it could not be circulated, he went to the south of the Yangtze River to exempt Jiangnan from taxes and loans.
This will prevent the common people from becoming poorer and the nobles and gentry from becoming richer.
Why doesn’t he go to Shu and southern Fujian to avoid paying taxes?
To put it bluntly, Kangxi's move was not at all to benefit the people's livelihood, but to give benefits to the gentry and wealthy people in Jiangnan in exchange for their support.
As long as we keep the rich people stable, even if the common people are dissatisfied, they won't be able to cause any trouble.
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