Chapter 75 Chapter 75 Still Not Getting It
After Yonghuang and Yonglian went out, Yonglian's image in the minds of officials completely changed.
When we talked about the Second Prince before, he was smart, precocious and kind, but now he has become a little devil who appears kind but is actually ruthless.
Some people also say that the second prince is a little tattletale. He is only thirteen or fourteen years old, but he doesn't dare to have his own ideas and tells the emperor everything.
During the Chinese New Year, Qianlong heard some rumors and was furious.
In the past two years, he didn't dare let Yonglian go out on errands, for fear that someone with malicious intentions would take revenge on the child.
He said to Yonglian, "You've ruined your reputation just by going out." "You're still too naive. You'll regret it when the officials give you trouble in the future."
Yonglian said innocently, "Won't Khan Ama protect me?"
"Can I protect you forever?" Qianlong said angrily.
"Sure!" Yonglian thought to himself, you can protect me for at least another fifty years.
Since he would most likely not succeed to the throne, his reputation was not important at all. Could Khan Ama just sit there and watch the officials betray him?
Qianlong: “…”
Qianlong sighed in his heart, wondering why he had raised such a troublesome prince.
In the past, when the Crown Prince Jianguo was in power, the old man would travel around with a large group of people. However, he himself had to work hard to handle government affairs in the capital. When his two sons went out, they would impeach more than a dozen officials.
However, most of these officials had considerable property, and their property was confiscated, yielding more than 300,000 taels of silver.
Besides the officials, several village heads outside the Great Wall also suffered this misfortune. Two years prior, the imperial court had allocated funds for them to buy seeds and replace farm tools, but these people hadn't replaced them, pocketing all the money themselves.
All the confiscated silver was put into the Imperial Household Department. As Yonghuang's wedding was about to take place, the money was used for his wedding.
Yonghuang's wedding was approaching, but there was no festive atmosphere in the palace.
A comet appeared in the sky at the end of the year, which was considered a calamity in ancient times. Coupled with the high temperatures and drought of the eighth year of the Qianlong reign, this year was not a very happy one for everyone.
During the Lunar New Year, Emperor Qianlong received another piece of tragic news: Kangxi's twenty-second son, Duolo Baylor Yunhu, had died at the age of thirty-two.
A few years ago, Yunhu was imprisoned for a period of time in the Imperial Clan Court for accepting land from civilians. Later, Emperor Qianlong put him in charge of the Three Tombs. During his time in charge of the Three Tombs, Yunhu was quite dedicated.
In the twelfth month of the lunar calendar, Yunhu submitted a memorial regarding the affairs of the Three Tombs. No one expected that he would pass away so suddenly.
Qianlong sent Yonglian to pay tribute, and Yunlu, Yunli and Yunli presided over the funeral.
Yunhu's step-wife was pregnant and almost fainted from crying at the funeral.
Yonglian was in a low mood after returning from the funeral. When he talked about his twenty-second uncle's family with the Empress Dowager and others, he couldn't help but shed tears.
The Queen Mother and the Empress also started crying.
When Qianlong came to visit the Empress Dowager, he saw that the atmosphere in the room was so sad. He was very angry that the bad boy Yonglian made the Empress Dowager cry during the New Year. He sent Yonglian away to study and wanted to take the Empress Dowager to watch a play.
There is a Tongleyuan in the Old Summer Palace, where operas are performed and lantern festivals are held every year in the first month of the lunar year, making it very lively.
Although everyone was in a bad mood this year, there was still a performance at the Tongleyuan Grand Theater, and many concubines went to watch it.
Qianlong wanted to divert the Empress Dowager's attention and took Taihua to see a play. The Empress Dowager knew that if she didn't go, the concubines would find it difficult to watch the play with peace of mind.
She had no choice but to suppress her sadness and follow Qianlong to watch a play.
Yunlu and others were deeply saddened by their brother's untimely death. They heard from their wife that the emperor and his family were watching a play with great enthusiasm.
Yunlu and others felt a little dissatisfied. A nephew is a nephew. He seems to be very close to his uncles, but in fact, they don't have much affection for him.
I wonder if the emperor will be so indifferent after they die?
Yunli was a sentimental person by nature, and he couldn't help but shed tears at the things his fourth brother gave him as a reward.
Just then, people outside said that the prince had returned from school.
Then I heard Hong Zhou's full voice, "Father, Father! I'm back."
As the young boy opened the study door, he saw tear marks on Yun Li's face and hurried over to him, asking with concern, "Father, what's wrong?"
"It's okay, I just thought of my royal brother." Yun Li said. As he spoke, he ordered someone to bring snacks to the prince. The child was at the age when he had a good appetite, and he was hungry every day when he came home from school.
As Hongzhou took off his cloak, he said, "Father, are you sad about your twenty-second uncle's matter? Just now in the palace, Yonglian was also sad because of this and secretly wiped away his tears."
Yunli was stunned when he heard this. When he saw Yonglian at the funeral that morning, he had only thought that Yonglian was well-behaved. He had never expected that he would be so sad. After all, he and Yunhu had little in common.
"Yes, he cried so hard that he couldn't practice riding and shooting." Hongzhou said.
Yunli recalled that when the late emperor was buried, Yonglian also kept crying around the Tai Mausoleum.
It seems that Yonglian is different from the emperor and is a child with rich emotions.
This is a bit like the late emperor. Sometimes he would cry when reading memorials, and he would also shed tears when talking to his brothers about the Emperor Kangxi or deceased ministers.
The emperor often displays his emotions for others to see, then turns back to eating and having fun. To put it nicely, he's generous; to put it bluntly, he's emotionally indifferent.
The more uncles like Yunli and others understood the emperor, the less they expected him to take care of their own children and nephews. Fortunately, Yunli did not have to worry about this. Hongzhou was the emperor's younger brother, and the emperor would not treat Hongzhou too badly for the sake of the late emperor.
But Yunli still hoped that Hongzhou could stand on his own feet and not rely on the emperor.
During this period, he paid close attention to Hongzhou's studies and also taught him some tips on how to deal with the world.
Although Hongzhou wasn't a studious student, he was intelligent and receptive to his father's advice. In just one year, the young boy had matured considerably and adapted to his new role. Being a prince was different from being a royal prince.
Since Yunli was responsible for improving firearms, he would also talk to Hongzhou about the progress in this area.
Now the Firearm Battalion, Zhuoling Factory and Wubei Academy communicate and cooperate frequently. One is to design a flintlock rifle that is more convenient to load, and the other is to equip the navy with a set of equipment that is more suitable for naval battles.
The imperial court had always maintained a navy, but due to the lack of opportunities for naval warfare and the fact that its main enemies in recent years had been in the northwest and southwest, the navy had been poorly trained. The Tianjin navy was very disorganized, and Yunli suggested sending personnel to conduct rigorous training.
Qianlong then transferred back Ma Wu's son Bao Zhu. Bao Zhu had been very strict in training soldiers in the south, so it was very suitable for him to train the navy.
It is a pity that members of the royal family cannot hold important military and political positions, otherwise Yunli would have trained Hongzhou to be in charge of the Tianjin Navy.
Now they can only help to come up with ideas on improving firearms, and dare not say a word about things that they should not be involved in.
During the Chinese New Year holiday, E Rongan, who was sent to Yunnan to grow coffee, returned to Beijing to report on his work. The harvest was very small in the first year of growing coffee, but last year he gained experience and planted hundreds of coffee trees in Pu'er, Yunnan, and his roasting technology became more and more mature.
The coffee that E Rongan brought back to the capital this year tastes just as good as the one brought in by foreign merchants.
Qianlong himself didn't like to drink the coffee, so he gave it to a sleepyhead.
Yonglian got the coffee beans and asked the waiter to make several kinds of coffee, including one with milk, one with jasmine tea, and one with black tea and milk.
These coffee drinks were more popular than coffee. Many concubines who went to Changchun Xianguan to pay their respects to the empress drank the coffee drinks made by Yonglian.
Within a few days, the tea in some jewelry and porcelain shops in the capital was replaced by coffee with milk.
Most of these shops were owned by the concubines' families, and the customers were either rich or noble.
Coffee quickly became popular among the rich and powerful. Zhuang Yougong had previously advertised coffee, and everyone knew it was invigorating. Scholars also rushed to buy it.
Because the output this year was not large, E Rongan originally planned to focus on export trade, but he did not expect it to be so popular in China.
It seems that we can safely expand the area of coffee cultivation.
It happened to be during the Chinese New Year that the vassal states came to Beijing to pay tribute, and the Lifanyuan also allowed the envoys to taste Yunnan coffee.
When countries like Korea and Siam heard that Yunnan coffee was cheaper than what foreign merchants sold and tasted so good, they immediately wanted to sign orders with the Qing Dynasty.
All the coffee beans produced last year were sold out in just one month, and countries like North Korea have even signed orders for next year.
Yunnan officials, seeing the benefits of coffee, are increasingly supporting local coffee cultivation. However, Yunnan's arable land is limited, and large-scale coffee cultivation would mean the province would need to purchase grain from other provinces.
The Governor-General of Yunnan and Guizhou knew that a railway was being built in Zhili, so he also proposed to build a railway between Yunnan and Huguang, but was ruthlessly rejected by Emperor Qianlong.
The first railway hadn't been successful, so the imperial court was unlikely to build a second one. If Yunnan wanted to reduce transportation costs, it could try using steam locomotives that could run directly on the ground.
Previously, the yamen runners in Henan used a scrapped steam engine to modify a steam-drawn freight car, and Emperor Qianlong asked him to come to Beijing to exchange ideas and learn from the Imperial Household Department.
The Imperial Household Department has also produced several steam locomotives. Although they look a bit clumsy and bulky, and make a roaring sound when running, and emit white smoke from the back, they are very useful for hauling goods.
Qianlong's intention was to let Yunnan use steam trucks to transport grain first.
But it is not easy to transport steam cars to Yunnan, and the southwest also needs a manufacturing bureau.
Qianlong allocated 100,000 silver coins to the Governor of Yunnan and Guizhou, and allowed all the coffee trade income in the past three years to go to the two provinces so that they could set up factories.
As a result, local officials in Yunnan and Guizhou provinces placed their hopes on E Rongan, hoping he would sign more coffee orders with vassal states.
When other provinces saw that Yunnan, Guizhou, Shaanxi and Gansu had received funding from the court and were expected to open manufacturing bureau branches, they also became anxious.
However, Huguang was the granary of the country, and Emperor Qianlong did not want these two provinces to focus on farming. Henan was also a major agricultural province, and close to Zhili and Shaanxi, so there was no need to open a separate branch. One Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau was sufficient for Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Fujian.
Now only Shandong, Shanxi and outside the Great Wall need to open a branch. The court cannot afford too much money at the moment, so it can only choose one of the three.
The governor of Shanxi, the governor of Shandong and the general of Shengjing argued fiercely over this matter. Finally, after an on-site inspection by officials from the Ministry of Works, they decided to open a branch in Shanxi.
Shanxi was the most suitable place to open a manufacturing bureau, with its abundant coal mines and numerous merchants. The Shanxi merchants were also very wealthy and wanted to donate 100,000 taels to the Shanxi Manufacturing Bureau.
Shanxi merchants were notoriously stingy, and officials in the court did not believe that they were willing to pay 100,000 taels.
"Shanxi merchants are willing to pay, naturally they see the benefits in it."
In the Shangshufang, the princes discussed this matter, and Yonglian said, "Shanxi's coal and iron mines all need steam engines, but the steam engines currently produced by the Imperial Household Department are very expensive to transport, and many coal mines cannot afford them. Besides, merchants need steam cars to transport goods, which greatly reduces transportation costs. Especially since Shanxi earns money from the Mongols, and all transportation is by land, steam cars are even more important. Let alone 100,000 taels, even if it's 200,000 taels, they won't lose money."
"So, merchants from other provinces should donate, too," Hongzhou said. "With so many wealthy merchants in Jiangnan, why aren't any of them contributing?" Compared to the merchants from Shanxi, the wealthy merchants in Jiangnan seemed a bit shortsighted.
Yonglian sighed, "Now those wealthy businessmen in Jiangnan are secretly happy. They didn't spend a penny, but the court set up a manufacturing bureau for them." However, since the Shanxi merchants had set this precedent, local officials in other provinces would follow suit, which would definitely make the local merchants bleed.
It's okay for wealthy businessmen to spend a little money, but they must not increase the burden on the people under the pretext of setting up a manufacturing bureau.
Yonglian thought of this possibility and went to find Khan Ama after school.
After hearing what he said, Emperor Qianlong couldn't help but laugh. "By the time you think of it, the opportunity will be gone. I have already issued an edict on this matter. Anyone who dares to impose excessive taxes on the people under the pretext of setting up a factory will be severely punished."
Yonglian said: "But the people don't know about this. Why don't we mention this matter in the "Guochao News"? " The people don't read the court reports, but many of them do read the "Guochao News".
Qianlong thought thoughtfully, this was to allow the people to supervise the officials.
It turns out that newspapers have such uses.
Qianlong then agreed and asked the painters of Ruyi Pavilion to describe the court's policies in the form of comic strips so that even illiterate people could understand them.
Because the Manufacturing Bureau had branches in various places, someone was needed to oversee everything. Hai Wang had been in charge of the Manufacturing Bureau for many years, so he was the most suitable person to take charge of this matter.
The first batch of craftsmen who could manufacture steam engines trained by Jingshan Official School had already entered the Imperial Household Department and were sent to various provinces after being assessed.
Only two months had passed in the ninth year of Qianlong's reign, and Qianlong had already spent hundreds of thousands of taels. Although he had made a lot of money the previous year, Qianlong still felt very distressed.
The farthest place I went to in the first half of the year was Nanyuan.
The queen also led the ladies in the harem to be frugal. They would not make new hairpins, rings or jewelry if possible, and would make two fewer pieces of clothing.
With the queen setting an example, the concubines had no choice but to obey even if they were unwilling.
When Yonghuang got married, the palace was in a period of frugality, and Emperor Qianlong and the empress read many principles of thrift and diligence to the young couple.
When Xitala saw that the Empress was only using ordinary pearl flowers, she quickly put away her gold, jade and jewelry.
When she returned to her parents' home, she did not forget to remind her family that the palace was so frugal, so her home must not be too extravagant.
Yonghuang liked his wife very much. After his honeymoon, he was in high spirits when he returned to the Shangshufang to study.
Even Agui teased him, "The prince is so happy about his wedding, he looks better than before."
Yonghuang blushed slightly, "This...I've had a good rest these past few days."
After his explanation, Yonglian smiled wickedly: "You're resting well, right? When I went to school today, my elder brother was still asleep."
Mingrui said, "Big Brother has always been diligent, why did you get up late?"
Yonghuang's face turned even redder. Of course he got up late because he went to bed late, and of course he went to bed late because he had important things to do.
Everyone laughed when they heard this, and Agui also laughed.
Agui talked about this matter when he met Shuhede in the afternoon, "Time flies so fast. When I first taught them, they were still childish. Now the eldest prince is married, and the second prince and Mingrui can already make that kind of joke." He himself was promoted from a new official to the Ministry of War, and he got married and had children. Looking back, he felt both emotional and gratified.
Unexpectedly, Shu Hede did not express such emotion upon hearing this. He looked at A Gui with disapproval, "In the Shangshufang, the Second Prince teased his brother and sister-in-law like this, why didn't you stop him?"
"Well, the two princes are already close, so what's wrong with a few jokes?" Ah Gui thought Shuhede was too old-fashioned. The two princes could tolerate a strict master like Shuhede, which was a sign of their good temper.
Shu Hede snorted, "The fact that Second Prince can make such a joke proves that he already understands that aspect of things. What if he loses his temper and stops concentrating on his studies?"
Ah Gui: "Second Prince is concerned with the administration of officials, the people's livelihood, and the updating and improvement of those new machines. When has he ever focused on studying?"
Shu Hede: "..."
There is no way to refute it.
"As for that matter, the Emperor and Empress will take care of it. At his age, it wouldn't be surprising if he had one or two concubines." Ah Gui guessed that the Emperor himself was a passionate man and wouldn't be too strict with his children on such matters. As an emperor, as long as he didn't indulge in women, it was fine. Having more concubines would also help expand the royal family.
Qianlong indeed thought so, but Yonglian clearly had no idea about this matter.
The queen tried to arrange two palace maids in his courtyard, but the boy foolishly said that there were enough people and no need.
I borrowed novels from Hongxiao, and they were all about gods, ghosts, and historical epics.
"I have recommended several novels about talented scholars and beautiful women to Yonglian, but he doesn't want to read them. There's nothing I can do!" Hongxiao was also speechless. It was the first time he met a father who wanted his son to read a novel about talented scholars and beautiful women.
"What novel did he borrow from you recently?" Qianlong asked.
"He hasn't asked me to borrow anything recently, but asked me to buy it for him. Nanxing has published a new book called 'Journey to the West'." Hong Xiao said.
Qianlong himself did not like novels like "Journey to the West", but he also knew Nanxing, who had serialized his novels in "Guochao News" and was very popular.
Later, he struck while the iron was hot and wrote two biographies of "Journey to the West", as well as an illustrated version, and each of the children in Hongzhou and Yunxi's family received a copy.
But it's normal for a seven or eight-year-old to like watching it. How old is Yonglian? Why is he still so childish?
"Bring me a copy tomorrow. I want to see how good this book is."
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