Capital city.
After Yinzhen received Yinreng's letter, he quickly shared the content of the letter in the "group chat".
In fact, when this incident first happened, the princes discussed Dai Mingshi in private.
This person is the typical representative of today's cynicism.
The word "cynical" here is not derogatory.
After Dai Mingshi passed the imperial examination in his early years, he was appointed as a county magistrate.
However, he saw through the true face of the superiors early on and did not take up the office.
Since then, he has been traveling abroad to study, and all the books he wrote were completed during his travels.
Yinzhi, Yinzhen and Yinsi were well-versed in Chinese studies. They also read the "Nanshan Collection" and finally came to a conclusion that this man was not unjustly arrested.
There is nothing wrong with looking at the previous dynasty from the perspective of the present, but his mistake was that he was too realistic, portraying the Qing Dynasty as a bandit who committed all kinds of evil, and the previous dynasty as the innocent party being invaded.
If it spreads on a large scale, it will undoubtedly bring huge hidden dangers to the court's rule.
So the princes unanimously decided to watch from the sidelines.
Until Yinzhen received a letter from Yinreng.
Yinreng meant that Dai Mingshi could be exiled but not killed.
Once he died, it would arouse rebelliousness among the scholars in Jiangnan, and once the case became known, ordinary people would also question the authenticity of the fact that studying and writing could change one's destiny.
It is more likely that "literary inquisition" will become a "long knife" for officials to frame their colleagues and scholars, which is harmful but has no benefit.
Yinzhen thought about it for a long time and felt that his second brother did have a long-term vision, so he wanted to unite his eldest brother and eighth brother to plead for Dai Mingshi.
However, after he revealed his intention, he was quickly rejected.
Both Yinzhi and Yinsi were cunning and although they agreed with Yinreng's point of view, they both felt that if the three of them acted together, not only would they fail to rescue Dai Mingshi, but they might also kill him faster.
Finally, the brothers discussed a safe plan, which was to let Yinzhen unite with the upright officials in the court to plead for the irrelevant people, while Yinzhi and Yinsi would find someone to take advantage of the situation and throw dirty water on Yinzhen.
Given the old man's suspicious nature, he would definitely not sit idly by as long as they showed that they wanted to "torture" Yinzhen to death.
Then Dai Mingshi would have a chance to survive.
After the plan was finalized, Yinzhen quickly went to visit Chen Tingjing in person.
Chen Tingjing was already 75 years old. He had written a letter to ask for retirement two years ago, but Emperor Kangxi had been suppressing his request and refused to release him.
Because among Yinzhen's subordinates, only Chen Tingjing was capable enough.
Now Chen Tingjing's health was getting worse, and Kangxi finally had a change of heart and ordered Chen Tingjing to recuperate at home.
Yinzhen also knew that Chen Tingjing had limited energy, so after meeting him, he went straight to the point and took out Yinreng's letter.
After Chen Tingjing took it, he read it carefully, then folded the paper carefully and handed it back to Yinzhen.
When Chen Tingjing was tricked by Kangxi and forced to support Yinreng, he was pessimistic and felt that he was finished and the Chen family was also finished.
However, after he had been active in the court as a "princeling" for nearly ten years, Chen Tingjing had to admit that he was narrow-minded at the time.
If the emperor dies and the crown prince succeeds him, the lives of the Han people will be much better than they are now.
What a pity...
He hadn't realized it until now.
"What does Your Highness wish to do?"
Yinzhen said, "I need your help to lead the charge. Let the upright officials in the court join me in pleading for the innocent. It would be best if we could also include those who are seeking leave."
Chen Tingjing was silent for a moment, and finally nodded in agreement.
Given his current semi-retired situation, if he is determined not to get involved, Yinzhen will have no way to deal with him.
But he finally decided to take the risk with Yinzhen.
It can be considered as... making up for his lack of vision in the past.
On the day Yinzhen visited Chen Tingjing, Chen Tingjing, despite his frail body, wrote a memorial to Kangxi and asked his children to find several of his students.
What the two of them didn't know was that Kangxi was also hesitant.
Even before Yinzhen received Yinreng's letter, he knew the contents of the letter.
He admitted that Yinreng's concerns were not unfounded.
But he was more afraid that if he didn't take drastic measures this time, those scholars would go even further in the future.
He also expected Yinzhen to look for Chen Tingjing.
After all, it was under the pretext of "supporting orthodoxy" that Yinzhen brought Chen Tingjing under his command.
After Chen Tingjing submitted his petition, his students, and even Yinzhen and his subordinates, began to submit petitions to Kangxi.
Before Kangxi could decide whether to give Yinreng this favor, Yinzhi and Yinsi seemed to have formed a short-lived alliance and began to impeach Yinzhen.
Kangxi didn't take it seriously at first, but he soon realized that something was wrong.
Those two evil creatures kept talking about treason, being in cahoots with each other, not worthy of the surname Aisin-Gioro, and wanting to be executed. How was this directed at them?
It is obvious that they want to kill Yinzhen!
If Yinzhen was suppressed by the two of them, the prince's party would be in name only.
Kangxi was upset, so he subtly reminded Yinzhi and Yinsi not to go too far. However, it had no effect at all. Instead, the two of them became even more aggressive in framing Yinzhen's subordinates.
Even Chen Tingjing was involved.
In order to beat Chen Tingjing to death, Yinzhi began to look for Chen Tingjing's early calligraphy, memorials, and even paintings, calligraphy and letters.
Finally, in a letter written to a friend, I found the four words "tomorrow hangs high".
Yinzhi used this as a pretext to spread rumors, saying that Chen Tingjing was suspected of "opposing the Qing Dynasty and restoring the Ming Dynasty."
After only a few days of publicity, nearly two-thirds of the people in the court felt that Chen Tingjing was indeed a spy from the previous dynasty hiding in the court.
They began to unanimously demand that Kangxi execute Chen Tingjing and confiscate the property of the rest of the Chen family and exile them.
The boomerang's speed was so fast that Kangxi was caught off guard.
He had been Chen Tingjing's subject for fifty years. How could he not know what kind of person Chen Tingjing was?
If he had not plotted against Chen Tingjing in the past, he would still be a staunch royalist.
In the past two years, Zhang Ying and Xiong Cilü passed away one after another. Now the only old ministers he trusted who were still alive were Chen Tingjing and Li Guangdi.
If Chen Tingjing was crucified as a traitor, how would history books describe him?
These two rebellious sons!
After guessing the "real intentions" of Yinzhi and Yinsi, Kangxi followed their wishes and arrested Chen Tingjing and his family.
Then, with a heavy face, he handed over the task of investigating Chen Tingjing to Fucha Maqi.
Now the only people he can use are Ma Qi and Li Guangdi.
Apart from the two of them, he didn't even trust Tong Guowei.
However, what Kangxi did not expect was that his good intention of temporarily locking up Chen Tingjing ended up costing Chen Tingjing his life...
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
