The oldest of the princes and princesses present now is the eldest princess, who later became Chunxi.
In fact, the eldest princess was not the daughter of Kangxi, but the daughter of Prince Gong Changning.
When Kangxi got married at a young age, the children he gave birth to died one after another. The palace tried all kinds of methods to keep the little princes and princesses, but none of them worked.
Finally, it was the clan affairs office who contacted the Imperial Observatory and came up with the idea of asking Kangxi to take his brother's daughter into the palace to raise her in order to suppress the blessing.
At the beginning, Kangxi was somewhat concerned about his niece because he couldn't even support his own children, and he was interested in seeing other people's children being raised so well.
But later, as children were born one after another in the palace and gradually became able to be raised, Kangxi paid less attention to the eldest princess.
Now she is sixteen years old. She lives a secluded life and lives like an invisible person.
Fortunately, in order to maintain his brotherhood with Chang Ning, Kangxi specifically instructed Liang Jiugong to take better care of the eldest princess, so that no one could bully her.
In fact, Yinreng looked down upon the way the Qing royal family raised their daughters. A proper Manchu noblewoman would never raise her daughters like Kangxi did, treating them only as tools for marriage. She learned from the Han people to raise her daughters to follow the Three Obediences and Four Virtues and not to show their faces in public at will.
Proper Manchu noble ladies also had to read, write, practice riding and shooting, and were taught like boys from a young age. Moreover, they would be in charge of the harem in the future and socialize with relatives and friends, so they had to learn more than boys.
However, Kangxi only saw the temporary stability brought by his daughters' marriages, and did not teach them how to seize power. Therefore, except for one Xiaoliu, the other Qing princesses sent to the grassland were basically controlled by the servants around them and spent their short lives.
Yinreng stared at his sisters for a while, and suddenly an idea came to his mind.
"If the elder sisters were raised as men and taught more about military tactics, and if any of them wanted to marry into the grasslands, they could be sent there to fight for power and wealth. The children they would give birth to would surely be close to the Qing Dynasty, and then wouldn't the Mongolian tribes collapse from within?"
Kangxi took a look at Yinreng and thought that this boy had some unrealistic ideas.
Just as the Qing Dynasty was on guard against Mongolia, Mongolia was also on guard against the Qing Dynasty.
He and his father strongly opposed the Mongolian noblewoman entering the palace in order to prevent the royal family from having another woman like Mama. Naturally, the same was true for the other tribes on the grassland.
The grassland advocates the use of force. As for his daughters, they have never done housework and have studied the rules and etiquette for women since childhood. The rules and etiquette are ingrained in their bones. How can they compete with men for power?
"To be honest, women regents are no less capable than men. Ukuma Ma, the world-renowned Empress Dowager Cixi, and Ke Jing sitting below, all possess skills, scheming, and political strategies no less capable than men."
Empress Dowager Cixi is highly controversial. Most people think that it was her stupidity that caused the Qing Dynasty to lose two hundred years of its national destiny. However, when Yinreng was in his first life, he carefully studied that period of history and found that Empress Dowager Cixi's skills and strategies were simply terrifying.
She single-handedly extended the life of the Qing Dynasty for more than ten years, which was much more powerful than several emperors at that time.
He simply had no foresight. He thought that once he came to power, he could rely on the prosperous national strength of the Qing Dynasty to challenge those powerful countries with their guns and cannons. However, he ended up losing everything.
Or perhaps, the compensation was just a facade, and her real purpose was to cede land and pay compensation in exchange for a chance for the Qing royal family to breathe.
Unfortunately, no matter how hard she struggled, the Qing Dynasty had already run out of luck.
"It's said that Empress Dowager Cixi single-handedly destroyed the Qing dynasty's century-long foundation. In fact, that's not entirely true. All her actions were intended to consolidate the Manchu rule. If it weren't for her extravagant desires, the Qing dynasty might have survived for decades more..."
Thinking of this, Yinreng shook his head again.
"If she had wasted all that money on buying warships, she could have made the Qing Dynasty a great power. What a waste of money!"
Kangxi had been busy all day and was already a little tired. At this moment, he just listened quietly to Yinreng's thoughts.
If it were more than half a month ago, he would have been furious to hear these shocking words, but now, he just listened quietly, intending to learn lessons from them and let future generations avoid those risks.
"Alas, fortunately, this land has always been able to produce great men, preserving the long-lasting Chinese heritage."
The banquet lasted only half an hour and then it was time to watch the performance.
The rules at this time were not so strict, and children could communicate and laugh with each other. Except for Yinreng, other children went to the Empress Dowager, Kangxi, and the Empress Dowager to pay New Year's greetings according to their age, and Kangxi and others also had to give them New Year's money.
Yinreng first walked up to Kangxi, knelt down and kowtowed three times to him, said a few auspicious words, then took the reward and went to kowtow to Xiaozhuang.
The red envelope I received was heavy and substantial.
Yinreng opened Kangxi's share and poured out a handful of gold ingots.
It was about ten taels (equivalent to more than three hundred grams today).
The rewards given by Empress Xiaozhuang and the Empress Dowager were both about 10 taels, but the styles of the gold ingots were slightly different.
After receiving the red envelope, Yinreng sat back in his seat and stared at the singing and dancing in the hall in a daze.
Soon, a figure appeared beside him.
Yinreng looked closely and found that it was Yinzhen.
"Second brother."
"Xiao Si, have you finished collecting your New Year's money?"
Yinzhen nodded and asked him,
"Why doesn't Second Brother go and guard Huang Ama and Ukuma Ma?"
Yinreng looked back at Kangxi, Xiaozhuang and the others who were surrounded by little radish heads, and smiled faintly.
"Second brother has plenty of opportunities to get close to the Emperor and his family on weekdays. Let's give this rare opportunity to other brothers and sisters tonight."
Then I had some doubts.
"Why don't you go and guard it?"
Yinzhen lowered his head.
"Big brother, third brother and the others were all here, I didn't squeeze in."
There was no place he could not squeeze into.
He is considered to be quite old, so it is easy for him to occupy a seat, but what if he squeezes in?
The emperor's eyes would never be on him.
Seeing him like this, Yinreng could understand his predicament.
In a nutshell, this child wants attention but doesn't actively seek it.
Yinreng reached out and patted his shoulder.
"You, let me teach you a lesson today: the crying child gets candy.
The Emperor is not only the Emperor, but he is also your father. What is there to be afraid of? If you do something wrong, at most he will beat you up, but he won't kill you. Go ahead and fight for it."
Yinzhen pursed his lips and did not answer.
He understood the logic, but it was not that he didn't want to fight, but he had not received much attention since he was a child. He was afraid that if he fought, Kangxi would not only ignore him, but would dislike him.
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