Chapter 77 Chapter 77 Looking for a Successor
Gao Heng is Gao Bin's only son, and his sisters take good care of him.
Gao Heng's conviction meant that until Gao Heng's son grew up, the Gao family would have to rely on the elderly Gao Bin to support them. How could the imperial concubine not be worried and sad?
But now she didn't dare to plead with the emperor because she didn't have that much face.
The imperial concubine often thought that if she had a son or daughter, the emperor would not be so cruel.
Once a person gets stuck in a dead end, no amount of persuasion will be of any use.
Seeing the Imperial Concubine's illness getting worse, Emperor Qianlong and the Empress were very worried. Unable to forgive Gao Heng, Emperor Qianlong could only think of another way to comfort the Imperial Concubine. He allowed the Imperial Concubine's sister to visit her.
The imperial concubine's second sister married E'ertai's son, E'shi. E'ertai, fully aware of the severity of the smuggling incident, naturally wouldn't plead for Gao Heng. He also asked his daughter-in-law to persuade the imperial concubine that the most important thing now wasn't saving Gao Heng, but rather preserving the Gao family's glory.
Gao Jiashi told her sister, "Brother Heng's situation is hopeless. Just as overseas trade was starting to pick up, he got into smuggling. At best, this is greed; at worst, it's an attempt to compete with the royal family. Furthermore, the imperial court has always strictly prohibited the export of grain, yet this foolish brother actually allowed his servants to sell rice, flour, and salt."
The imperial concubine cried, "How could he be so foolish! He didn't even think about my father and us sisters before doing this."
Gao Jia sighed, "There's no point in saying this. Mother's point is that since the boys in the family aren't doing well, we can only rely on the girls."
"Girl?" The imperial concubine thought for a moment. "You mean to find a girl and send her to the palace?"
She had been with the Emperor for over a decade, and there was indeed some affection between them. The thought of having to send her sisters or nieces to the palace to serve the Emperor made the Imperial Concubine feel a pang of pain in her heart.
"The Emperor is deeply in love with you, Your Highness. Naturally, our family will not send a daughter into the palace to compete for your favor." Gao Jia smiled and said, "Next year is the election year, and the Second Prince's legitimate wife will be decided. Your Highness might as well ask the Empress for a favor and allow your niece to serve the Second Prince. This will also provide our family with an extra layer of protection in the future."
Gao Jia knew that her sister's health might not last long. Her father was old, her brother was convicted, and her sister died of illness. Their branch really had no one to rely on.
Gao Heng's daughter was implicated by him and could not enter the palace, so the only option was to choose from the children of Gao's sisters.
Gao Jia married the best. A girl from the Xilin Gioro family was qualified enough to be the prince's legitimate wife.
The imperial concubine sneered inwardly, thinking that her second sister had hidden motives. She said she wanted to continue the Gao family's prestige, but in fact she wanted to secure a future for her own daughter.
Even if my niece becomes the queen in the future, she will first help the Xilin Gioro family and will not think about the Gao family.
"Sister, you think too highly of me. I can't ask for this favor." The imperial concubine said, "If it were any other prince, it would be fine, but I dare not interfere in the affairs of the Second Prince."
"To be honest with you, the Emperor has inquired about our daughter before and is somewhat interested in her," Gao Jia said, "I just hope you can say a few more good words for her."
Gao was stunned when she heard this. Although the Xilin Gioro family was of high status, her brother-in-law Eshi was adopted by his uncle and was only a third-class guard now. His daughter's status as the Second Prince's wife seemed a little low. Could it be that the Emperor wanted to choose a concubine for the Second Prince?
She did not agree to this, but only said that she would help find out the emperor and empress's intentions.
Gao Jia happily agreed. She knew that her sister was favored and had a good relationship with the queen. More importantly, her sister was so seriously ill that the emperor would pity her and agree to her request.
The imperial concubine was soft-hearted and after much thought, she finally mentioned the matter to Emperor Qianlong.
Qianlong said, "I have already chosen a wife for Yonglian. I do not plan to assign him a concubine or a maid for the next two years. I will take a closer look at your sister's child. If there is a suitable one among the royal family, I will help arrange a marriage for them."
The Imperial Concubine was a concubine in the Qianlong Courtyard. When she served Qianlong, there were already several concubines in his court. At that time, he was only one or two years older than the Second Prince.
The late emperor also had concubines at the age of thirteen or fourteen, not to mention the Emperor Kangxi, who became a father at the age of fourteen.
The imperial concubine didn't believe that the emperor didn't arrange a concubine and a side wife for the second prince, and she thought he was trying to fool her.
The imperial concubine felt even more resentful and even felt that she was implicated by her brother.
Every day when Qianlong came to see her, the imperial concubine was always filled with sorrow.
Qianlong would not let the poor health of the imperial concubine affect the empress dowager's birthday. The empress dowager's birthday was still celebrated with great enthusiasm, and a banquet was held in Chonghua Palace.
This year, the Imperial Concubine was absent; only the Empress and Concubine Xian were present. Yonglian and the others were also present. Yonglian even showed his brothers around the house where he had lived before.
Last year, Concubine Chun gave birth to the sixth prince, Yongrong, who was almost one year old. Yonglian let his younger brother sit on his shoulders and took him everywhere.
Yongqi followed his brother with his short legs. The boy was very strong and ran very fast.
Yonghuang and Yongzhang were afraid that he would fall, so they followed him.
Yongcheng was a bit lazy and couldn't run any more, so he sat down on the couch and kicked off his shoes. "Zhonghua Palace is so beautifully decorated, why is it empty?"
Yonghuang explained, "Because this is where Khan Ama and Empress Dowager Huang lived before, it is also Khan Ama's hidden residence."
"Can't people live in the Qiandi residence?" Yongsheng didn't understand.
Yonghuang took the Yonghe Palace as an example. The previous emperor's residence is now empty and has been converted into a temple.
Yonghuang and Yonglian would add a few words from time to time. Yongqi blinked his big eyes and listened very attentively.
Yongrong didn't understand, so he sat on his second brother's shoulder and played with his braid.
Yongcheng said, "That's such a waste. The future crown prince should live in a smaller courtyard."
As soon as he finished speaking, Yonghuang and Yongzhang looked at Yonglian. Yonglian thought to himself, "It's ok that my eldest brother knows my identity, but what's wrong with my third brother?"
Well, my third brother is already ten years old, so it’s not surprising that he knows about the succession.
Yonglian laughed out loud, "Fourth brother is right. The crown prince will live in the palace anyway, so it's not a big deal to live in a smaller courtyard when he's young."
Qianlong had just had a few drinks when he came to look for his sons. He stood outside the door and listened to a few of the boys talking about something in the imperial residence. He refused to let anyone pass on the message and just stood at the door and listened for a few words.
Hearing Yonglian say this, he pushed open the door and walked into the house, looking at Yonglian, "You said this, you will live in the small courtyard in the future."
Yonglian: “???”
Yonghuang: ...
Yong Zhang: ...
Everyone looked at Khan Ama. What do you mean by this... ?
Lian Yongsheng looked at Yonglian thoughtfully. They were talking about the future emperor's private residence. Khan Ama asked his second brother to live in the small courtyard.
Do I need to explain what this means?
Only little Yongqi and little Yongrong looked confused. They looked at their brothers and then at Khan Ama who had a somewhat embarrassed expression.
Yongqi vaguely felt that Khan Ama seemed to have said something wrong just now, but Khan Ama was the emperor, how could he say something wrong?
Yongrong had no idea what was going on. He twisted his little body on Yonglian's shoulder twice and stretched out his fat arms to ask Khan Ama to hold him.
Yonghuang first broke the somewhat awkward atmosphere, picked up Yongrong and handed him to Qianlong.
Qianlong took his youngest son and weighed him. Yonglian and Yongzhang also came to their senses and quickly let Khan Ama sit on the kang.
Yongcheng jumped down and saluted Khan Ama.
When Qianlong saw Yongsheng was only wearing socks, he said to him, "I didn't know. I thought you were going to sleep here."
Yonglian quickly spoke up for his brother, "It's hot in this room, so I asked him to take off his shoes."
Qianlong snorted: Ignore him.
Yonglian thought to himself, you were drunk and accidentally let the secret slip, why are you angry with me?
He puffed up his cheeks and obediently poured tea for Khan Ama.
Little Yongrong was like a little puppy in Khan Ama's arms, wrinkling his nose to smell the smell of alcohol on Khan Ama.
Qianlong held his youngest son in his arms and kissed him twice on his chubby face. "Give our little Yongrong a big house to live in in the future."
Little Yongrong uttered a few meaningless syllables to Khan Ama, "Ah, ah, well."
"If I let you live in a big house, you will call me Ama." Qianlong laughed.
"Sixth brother, are you really calling me Father?" Little Yongcheng expressed his doubt.
Qianlong: “…” The fourth child really doesn’t know how to read expressions.
Yongqi had already said, "That should be it. Sixth brother, call me Ama again."
Yongrong: “Awwww…”
Yonglian couldn't help laughing, and Qianlong patted his youngest son on the buttocks twice, "Little fool!"
Yongrong twisted his body and called Yongzhang "Brother".
He and Yongzhang were born to the same mother, and Yongzhang would go home every day to play with his younger brother. Yongrong was the first to learn to call his brother "brother", but the little guy only called Yongzhang brother and would not speak to his other brothers.
Yonghuang and the others were also angry, but Yongrong was less than a year old, so they naturally didn't bother with him.
As Yonglian watched his father-in-law playing with Yongrong, he thought about how the historical Yongrong was skilled in calligraphy and painting, and proficient in astronomy and arithmetic, a versatile figure. If he had not been adopted by his twenty-first uncle, Gong Yunxi, he would have been a strong contender for the throne.
It is obvious that Qianlong liked this son very much in his later years.
Yonglian was wondering if it was possible to stop Khan Ama from adopting his sixth brother out and train him to be his successor.
After all, my fifth brother fell ill later, and things like birth, old age, sickness and death may not be able to be changed, so it is not a bad thing to have an extra alternative.
Each of his younger brothers has his own strengths. Yonglian feels that each of them is worth training, and he has many candidates for succession.
In the evening, Yongsheng went home and told Jiapin: "Khan Ama let it slip today that my second brother is the designated crown prince."
Jiapin was not surprised at all, "Everyone knows about this. So you should be more respectful to your second brother in the future."
Yongcheng agreed, "Second brother is very good to us, he will definitely make me a prince in the future!"
Jiapin: "..." She couldn't help but knock on her son's head, "It's not that easy to be a prince."
She told her son about the events of the Kangxi reign. The third prince, Prince Cheng, had been a prince for only a few days when he lost his princely title because he shaved his head at the funeral of the thirteenth prince's mother.
Yongcheng: “…”
"So you must be cautious." Jiapin said. The Second Prince seems to have a good temper on the surface, but he is actually a person who is not easy to fool. How many officials have fallen into the hands of the Second Prince?
It’s okay for my son to be a little lazy, but he cannot make mistakes, nor can he show disrespect to the Second Prince.
The Second Prince didn't say anything, but the Emperor was the first one to be unhappy.
Yongqi went back and told Concubine Yu what happened today, "What's wrong with Second Brother living in the small courtyard? Everyone's expressions are weird."
Concubine Yu: “…”
Concubine Yu then explained the situation to her son, "...This means that the courtyard that Second Prince will live in from now on will be his residence."
Yongqi: "Oh, so my second brother is the crown prince."
Concubine Yu nodded, "But now the succession is a secret, so it's enough for everyone to know it."
Yongqi said, "No wonder Second Brother is so powerful."
Concubine Yu knew that her son grew up reading comic strips drawn for the Second Prince, and that the Second Prince even taught him simple arithmetic himself. The little guy had a special admiration for his brother.
"Yes, your second brother has had the demeanor of a crown prince since he was young." Although the second prince knew his own identity, he never acted arrogantly and always cared about his younger brothers.
Not to mention the Empress, who was renowned for her virtue and kindness. The concubines in the harem who had sons all hoped that the mother and son would live a long life.
At the beginning of this year, the imperial court allowed the people to go outside the Great Wall to open up wasteland. Just re-arranging the household registration of these people and counting the land was a huge project.
As the common people settled down outside the Great Wall and began to farm, conflicts with the local bannermen were inevitable, and the officials in Shengjing became busy all of a sudden.
Further north, that was the place where criminals were exiled. The imperial court also distributed seeds and farming tools to these armored men, encouraging them to open up wasteland and cultivate land.
At the end of the year, the generals of Heilongjiang and Shengjing submitted memorials, reporting the area of farmland reclaimed by local people that year.
Qianlong was delighted to see this, and he couldn't help but recall what Yonglian had said many years ago: if they wanted to feed the growing population, they could start by reclaiming the land outside the Great Wall. He hadn't taken it seriously at the time, but a few years later, he still took this step.
He said that Yonglian had some talent in governing the country.
As the construction of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway was nearing completion, Fuheng brought officials from the Ministry of Works to inspect the entire railway from beginning to end for any quality problems.
The weather was very cold at that time of year. Fu Heng rode a horse to inspect the railway, and from time to time he dismounted to check the tracks. His slender fingers were covered with frostbite.
Many officials advised him not to conduct the inspection personally, but Fuheng refused to listen.
It just so happened that at this time the Imperial Household Department had produced a steam carriage that could seat people. Qianlong had just tried it, and when Fuheng came to report on his work, he directly gave the carriage to him as a reward.
This was the first steam carriage in the Qing Dynasty that could accommodate passengers, but Fuheng repeatedly declined.
When Yonglian and others came to hand in their homework, Qianlong asked Yonglian to persuade Fuheng.
Yonglian smiled and said, "You can use it. Once this first car is produced, the second and third will be available soon. With a steam locomotive, you can inspect faster and avoid getting cold. After inspecting the railway, you still have to test the trains and arrange test runs. There's a lot to do."
Fu Heng thought about it and agreed, thinking that he must not catch a cold at this time.
Last year, Qianlong rewarded Fuheng with a large house, and this year he rewarded him with a new car.
Everyone could see that the emperor treated this brother-in-law differently from his other brothers-in-law.
But Fu Heng is also very capable and works diligently, and no one can find any fault with him.
This steam car was very different from later cars. The craftsmen from the Imperial Household Department wanted to paint the outer iron sheet, but were stopped by Emperor Yonglian. He meant to let it run first and then see if it was scrapped.
The seats in the car were also very simple. After Fu Heng used the car, he added a table inside to make it easier for him to handle other official documents on the road.
The driver was from the Imperial Household Department, and Fu Heng's servants didn't dare to operate this thing.
The Imperial Household Department could only assign him a driver and let Fuheng's servant learn by his side.
The people of Zhili had long seen the kind of carts that could haul goods. When the railway was being laid, cartloads of spare parts were transported here using these kinds of carts.
But Fuheng's car looked different and still attracted many people to watch.
Yunlu, Yunxi, and the others were a little dissatisfied when they learned that the first car was given to Fuheng. Zhang Tingyu and E'ertai also sighed in their hearts that a new emperor appoints new ministers. When the emperor has something good, he will not think of them, the old ministers.
Fuheng inspected the entire section of the railway, and the Imperial Household Department pulled the locomotive and carriages over for trial runs on the railway.
This attracted a crowd of onlookers. Another time, a child got on board the carriage because the door was open. When the train started moving, the child started crying loudly. Only then did the craftsmen on the train realize there was a child inside.
Fortunately, the trial was only for one stop, and the officials quickly sent the child back.
Fu Heng has been either on the train or in the car recently.
When he returned home at night, his steps were a little unsteady. But it was all worth it. With this achievement, he had completely established his position in the court. No one would say that he was promoted because of his sister.
By the first month of the lunar year, all the minor problems with the train had been repaired. One of the carriages was equipped with tables, chairs, benches, and even a copper basin for washing face and hands, and a tea stove.
All of this was prepared for Qianlong, and this carriage was exclusively for the emperor.
Only the windows of this carriage were made of glass. The glass factory spent nearly a year experimenting just to produce glass of this thickness.
The Imperial Astronomical Observatory selected an auspicious day and the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway was officially opened to traffic.
Qianlong brought with him Yonghuang, Yonglian, Yongzhang, Prince Zhuang Yunlu, Prince He Hongzhou, Prince Guo Yunli and Crown Prince Hongzhou.
In addition to the royal family, Qianlong also invited all officials from the Railway Department and craftsmen from the Imperial Household Department.
When the list of participants in the opening ceremony came out, it caused dissatisfaction among many civil officials. Officials of high moral character and prestige were not qualified to attend, but the craftsmen from the Imperial Household Department's Imperial Household Department were actually able to attend.
Hai Wang hated to hear this, "It's not the Imperial Household Department anymore, it's the Manufacturing Bureau."
"Whatever it is, it's part of the Imperial Household Department."
The Imperial Household Department was the imperial family's servants. No matter how capable they were, they were not allowed to be on the stage.
Hai Wang actually thought about separating the Manufacturing Bureau from the Imperial Household Department, but he knew that the emperor would not agree. The technology of the Manufacturing Bureau must be in the hands of the royal family.
However, as branches were opened in various places, the Manufacturing Bureau had more and more affairs to deal with, and the management mechanism of the Imperial Household Department could no longer solve the problems of the Manufacturing Bureau.
Hai Wang can still suppress his subordinates by relying on his prestige in the Ministry of Internal Affairs over the years. If he replaces the Minister in charge of the Manufacturing Bureau, there will probably be chaos.
Hai Wang has been in poor health for the past two years and estimates that he won't be able to continue working for many more years. He has been looking for a successor.
The Second Prince is of noble status and is also technically proficient. The Emperor has absolute trust in him, so he is the most suitable person to manage the Manufacturing Bureau.
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