Kangxi's previous hesitation stemmed from his fear that Yinzhen would favor the Tong family and that the Tong family's influence as maternal relatives would become too great, threatening the stability of the country.
But judging from this incident, the fourth brother is not someone who is easily swayed by others. He is usually very kind to his brothers and the Tong family, but when it comes to serious matters, he is very reliable.
Public matters are public, and private matters are private. Emperor Kangxi was quite satisfied with the fourth prince's attitude in handling affairs.
From this incident, Kangxi also saw some of his son's character traits, and many of his previous concerns dissipated.
However, since it concerned a matter of national importance, Kangxi did not make a decision immediately, but thought he should continue to investigate.
Another year passed during this inspection, and in the fifty-first year of the Kangxi Emperor's reign, the three-year selection of imperial concubines was approaching, and the palace became lively.
Honghui is fifteen years old this year, which is the right age for marriage. Yinzhen's idea is to choose Honghui's wife during this selection process and then get married next year.
Yunyi had no objection to this. As the eldest son of the family, Honghui's marriage should naturally be a solemn and grand affair. The girls who participated in the selection were all the best, and it would be just right to choose them as Honghui's wives.
Tongjia clan valued this eldest grandson very much. She was in charge of organizing the imperial concubine selection. Naturally, she wanted to keep the best for her grandson and choose the best girl for him.
After the preliminary and final selections were completed, the young ladies entered the Chuxiu Palace to learn etiquette. Lady Tongjia would visit them from time to time, and she also had the nannies of the Chuxiu Palace keep an eye on these young ladies so that they could understand their performance.
Some of the young ladies-in-waiting knew what the Imperial Noble Consort meant, and they were all aiming for the eldest prince of Prince Yong's residence, so they tried their best to impress her and leave a good impression.
But how could these naive young girls escape the discerning eyes of the palace maids? They were clearly seen through, and the maids knew who was real and who was fake.
Recently, Yunyi has been frequently entering the palace to discuss with Lady Tongjia which candidate is better and can be chosen as Honghui's wife.
In the end, the two men selected three women from the Niohuru, Guarjia, and Xilin Gioro clans.
Strangely enough, despite having eligible girls in the Tong family, Tongjia did not choose her own niece from her maternal family.
Back then, Lady Tongjia did not choose her niece to be Yinzhen's secondary consort, and now she has similarly not chosen her grandniece to be Honghui's primary consort.
It must be said that Lady Tongjia was indeed intelligent and genuinely cared for her adopted son.
She did not choose girls from her own family to enter the household in order to bind Yinzhen, nor did she do anything bad in order to maintain her relationship with her adopted son.
She was proud and confident, warm and loving, and it was because of this that Yinzhen was so fond of Tongjia and regarded her as his own mother.
After selecting these three young ladies, Yunyi took their information back to discuss with Yinzhen. She and Lady Tongjia both chose women based on their character, appearance, and temperament.
But Yinzhen was different. When choosing a daughter-in-law, he also considered the girl's family background, whether her father and brothers were powerful, and the faction her family belonged to...
The court was in a state of flux with conflicting power dynamics, and Yinzhen, with his ambition to seize the throne, had to exercise caution.
After investigating the families of these candidates, Yinzhen finally chose Xilin Gioro.
When he reported this candidate to Emperor Kangxi, Kangxi did not object and directly agreed to the marriage.
The Xilin Gioro family were royalists and had always remained neutral. Yinzhen chose a girl from their family for this reason: it would not arouse Kangxi's suspicion, nor would it cause him any trouble.
After the imperial selection was completed, an imperial edict was issued, and the selected woman, Xilin Jueluo, was betrothed to Honghui, the eldest son of Prince Yong, as his primary consort. The wedding date was to be determined by the Imperial Household Department.
After Honghui's marriage was arranged, the eldest princess of the manor also had her own happy event: she was finally going to marry the young master of the Guo Luoluo family.
This was the first happy event of the next generation in the family. The eldest princess's marriage was a grand affair. If Yinzhen hadn't been somewhat rational, the bride's side would have celebrated even more grandly than the groom's.
The ninth prince, Yin Tang, was the happiest. As the middleman who brought together his juniors, he was overjoyed at the wedding banquet.
Having just seen his niece off as a relative of the bride, he immediately went to the groom's house to greet the bride with his nephew.
Although he was very busy, he enjoyed it and was very happy.
After the eldest princess's wedding was over, Emperor Kangxi couldn't stay idle again and took everyone on a hunting trip to the border regions.
According to Yunyi, hunting grounds are notorious for accidents. Based on her years of experience on missions, she has witnessed several incidents during hunting trips.
This trip to the borderlands will likely be anything but peaceful. On one side is the Crown Prince, who has been repeatedly reprimanded by Emperor Kangxi, and on the other is the ambitious Eighth Prince, who is extremely hostile to Yinzhen. Yunyi doesn't believe these two won't cause trouble.
Sure enough, after the main force arrived at the hunting grounds, Yunyi noticed that something was wrong with Yinzhen. If Yinzhen could show unusual emotions, something must have happened.
Yunyi waited curiously to see what would happen this time and what the outcome would be.
Fortunately, she didn't have to wait long before something unexpected happened. When Kangxi led everyone on a hunting trip, they were attacked by a crazed mother bear.
Although he was not harmed thanks to the protection of his guards, Kangxi was still furious.
He sent people to investigate the matter, but this implicated his second, third, and fourth brothers, among others.
If it were said that Yinreng or Yinzhi were responsible for this, Kangxi might have believed it, but since it involved the fourth prince, Yinzhen, Kangxi was less inclined to believe it.
In the past, it would have been easy for Yinzhi to use Kangxi's suspicious nature to frame his brothers, but his mistake was that he underestimated Kangxi's trust in Yinzhen.
With some doubts about the investigation results, Kangxi sent another team to investigate again. This time, Yinzhen was involved in the investigation, and the real culprit was quickly found out.
Ironically, the real cause of this incident was Yin Zhi, who wanted to stage an accident and then act it out to earn a debt of gratitude for saving his life.
When Yinreng found out about this, he made some underhanded moves while also trying to steal the credit from the third prince, hoping to be the one to reap the benefits.
Yinzhi discovered his two brothers' plan and turned the tables on them by framing Yinzhen, wanting credit while also trying to frame him and make him the scapegoat.
But Yunyi learned of his plan and had Sakda feign pregnancy to curry favor with Yinzhen, thus exposing his entire conspiracy.
These brothers perfectly exemplified the proverb "the mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind," each believing themselves to be the oriole, only to be ultimately defeated by Yinzhen.
The cunning and shrewd Yinzhen was very well hidden, but the three brothers Yinreng, Yinzhi, and Yinsi were thoroughly investigated by Kangxi.
After the army returned to the capital, Yinreng was deposed as crown prince again, Yinzhi was deposed as Prince Cheng, and Yinsi, who was already a bald prince, was also deposed. The three brothers received the same punishment and were all confined to their own residences.
The situation seemed quite clear: with his three older brothers all imprisoned, Yinzhen became Kangxi's eldest son. He was also Tongjia's adopted son, making him practically a legitimate son.
Given that he was both the eldest son and the legitimate heir, Prince Yinzhen (胤禍) had the highest probability of becoming the crown prince.
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