The information gleaned at the teahouse revealed that a minister who was on good terms with Yinzhi was plotting something with others.
They thought themselves clever, having deliberately chosen an ordinary and inconspicuous teahouse. Little did they know they had stumbled upon a trap: the teahouse was actually owned by Yinzhen.
Yinzhen and Yintang were very close brothers. Upon learning this news, he immediately told his good brother without keeping it to himself.
Then another major event occurred in the court: Emperor Kangxi sent the Eighth Prince to collect the loan owed to the Ministry of Revenue.
This is a thankless job. Although it is only right to pay back debts, it is easy to lend money but difficult to pay it back. It is very difficult to get the money back after it has been lent out.
As a kind-hearted man, Yinzhi naturally wouldn't offend the ministers who supported him, so half a month passed and his mission progressed very slowly.
When Kangxi saw this, he was extremely disappointed. He had thought that the Eighth Prince was good at winning people's hearts and that it would be easy for him to do these things, but now it seemed that the Eighth Prince's success and failure both depended on winning people's hearts.
He was too obsessed with cultivating good relationships with these ministers, which made him hesitant and timid in his actions, and he was thus constrained.
With a sigh, Kangxi was truly disappointed in this son. How could he still covet the throne? If he were to actually ascend to the top, the world would no longer belong to his Aisin Gioro clan, but to his ministers.
If he can't even control these ministers now, how can Kangxi expect the Eighth Prince to be able to control the entire court in the future?
The next day, when Kangxi went to court, he reprimanded the Eighth Prince again and removed him from his post. He then asked everyone if anyone was willing to take on this thankless task.
The court was silent; no one wanted to do something that would offend people.
The princes who had previously tried to impress Emperor Kangxi fell silent.
Crown Prince Yinreng also remained silent, showing no demeanor befitting a crown prince.
Prince Cheng, Yin Zhi, also kept his head down, hoping not to be called on; he certainly didn't want to do that.
Emperor Kangxi, sitting at the head of the table, had a gloomy face and his eyes swept over the people below again and again. Just as he was about to get angry, Yinzhen stepped forward.
"Your Majesty, I am willing to take on this matter and share your burdens."
The anger in his eyes dissipated, and Kangxi smiled again. As expected, his fourth son was the most filial and his good son. He laughed twice, and his expression became pleasant.
"Good, good, Fourth Brother is indeed excellent. Then this matter will be left to you."
Yinzhen bowed and then returned to his seat.
Once this matter was settled, the atmosphere in the court became more relaxed, and the court session continued, with everyone starting to discuss other matters.
Yinzhen volunteered for this task, which was considered a bad job by others, and he got busy.
Perhaps in other people's eyes this is not a good job. If you do it well, you will offend people. If you do it poorly, you will leave a useless impression in the emperor's eyes.
But Yinzhen still took on the job without hesitation, not for anything else, but for the sake of the common people.
He worked in the Ministry of Revenue and had seen these financial statements. These imperial relatives and ministers had emptied the national treasury by borrowing money. In recent years, the Ministry of Revenue had been losing money every year. With no money available in the national treasury, many things could not be done.
Maintaining an army requires money, construction requires money, building reservoirs requires money, disaster relief requires money—money is needed everywhere in the country, but the Ministry of Revenue has no money to spare.
However, because of Kangxi's indulgence and turning a blind eye, these people borrowed money but did not repay it, and openly owed it.
Yinzhen had finally waited for Kangxi to issue an edict to begin collecting outstanding debts. He had to take this opportunity to recover all the money; otherwise, without money in the national treasury, how could he govern the country and rule the people?
The heavy burden on his shoulders made Yinzhen very cautious, but at this time he did not forget his eldest son, and even reported to Kangxi that Honghui should be brought along as well.
The father and son worked together to get things done.
Yinzhen was also clever; he knew that he needed to make an example of someone to scare others and set a precedent so that things would be easier for him later.
So his first target in his campaign was his own brothers.
Needless to say, the three brothers, Yinzhi, Yinxiang, and Yinxiang, immediately returned the money as soon as their fourth brother mentioned it.
Originally, I borrowed money just to follow the crowd and not want to seem out of place. The amount I borrowed wasn't much, and they paid it back easily.
But it's not so easy to deal with princes like Yinreng and Yinzhi. They have a lot of things to do and borrow a lot of money. Now, they can't come up with such a large sum of money to repay all at once.
Relying on his status as the elder brother, the fourth prince dared not do anything to him, so Yinreng and Yinzhi acted like scoundrels and refused to repay the money.
Yinzhen wouldn't tolerate them. If he backed down now, it would be difficult to get the money back from others later.
He wasn't afraid, and he brought Honghui to visit his two older brothers every day, which annoyed them to no end.
Yinreng was somewhat considerate; after being persuaded by the Crown Princess Guarjia, he managed to scrape together the money and pay off the debt.
But Yin Zhi remained defiant and refused to repay the money, even though he genuinely had no money.
He has always been a connoisseur of refined tastes, often going out to hunt for treasures. His home is overflowing with inkstones, books, paintings, poetry collections, porcelain, and jade artifacts.
As a prince, his annual salary was fixed. Unlike the ninth prince, he wasn't good at business. So, despite his glamorous appearance as a prince, he was actually penniless.
Yinzhen also had a way to deal with his third brother. This brother was very concerned about his reputation. Although Yinzhen was refused entry and could not see Yinzhi, he would come to the door every day. If he could not get in, he would wait at the door.
Within a few days, Yin Zhi was so ashamed that he obediently paid back the money. To do so, he even had to sell many of his treasures to barely repay the debt.
Yunyi also made a fortune from this. Previously, Yinzhi bought things from her antique shop, and now he bought them at a low price from her pawn shop.
In the back and forth, Yunyi made a fortune, while Yinzhi suffered a huge loss. Fortunately, he didn't know, or he would have been even angrier.
The Crown Prince, Prince Cheng, and others in front obediently returned the money, but the younger brothers behind them dared not challenge their cold-faced fourth brother. They returned the money without much resistance.
Once he had collected all the debts owed by his brothers, it would be much easier for Yinzhen to deal with the ministers.
No matter how powerful they were or how high their positions were, they couldn't compare to the princes of the royal family. When Prince Yong came, they naturally didn't dare to refuse and returned the money to the Ministry of Revenue.
Despite not being afraid of offending anyone, Yinzhen managed to complete the task assigned by Kangxi in just half a month, which was far superior to that of the Eighth Prince.
What pleased Emperor Kangxi most was that his fourth son did not favor the Tong family, but continued to uphold justice and remained devoted to the imperial family.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
