Chapter 101
After Yinzuo returned, he did not go out the next day. He wanted to take a rest. While having dinner with Kangxi, he repeated to Kangxi his conversation with the farmer yesterday.
After telling Kangxi about the matter, he looked relieved and said frankly: "Leave the matter to you, Father. I won't worry about it." This made Kangxi quite helpless.
While Yinzuo continued to rest and play, he heard that a series of corrupt officials had their homes confiscated and were imprisoned. Yinzuo didn't know whether it had anything to do with the things he had learned from Kangxi.
However, every time Kangxi went south, he would punish some officials, especially river officials. Every time he punished them, new corrupt officials who valued money more than their lives would emerge.
In addition to dealing with these officials, Kangxi also finalized a series of river management strategies. Yinzuo saw that his father had been discussing things with others and forgot to eat and sleep, and felt that his father's job as an emperor was not easy.
And after finishing my business, I continued my southern tour. Anyway, I didn't have a single day free for sightseeing.
When they returned to the boat, Yinzuo massaged his father's shoulders and lamented his father's hard work. Kangxi himself did not care too much and said to Yinzuo: "Before, there were many things to do and time was a bit tight. The next inspection point is Yangzhou. I can accompany you to play when we get there."
That being said, there are always important things to do in Yangzhou. However, Yinzuo is no longer a child who needs company, and he can have fun playing on his own.
Yinzuo also told the Crown Prince, the eldest prince and the eighth prince that he could help them choose gifts to bring back to Beijing.
It was rare for the Crown Prince, the eldest prince and the eighth prince to leave the capital, and Yangzhou had beautiful scenery, but none of them could be as free of distractions and indulge in the scenery and food as Yinzuo.
They all needed to perform hard in front of Kangxi, and on top of that, there would be many visits from local officials and secret attempts to surrender and show goodwill, which would require them to expend a lot of energy to deal with.
Yinzuo knew that they had been to the academy in Yangzhou in recent days and met many scholars there. They originally wanted Yinzuo to go with them, but Yinzuo was unwilling to go.
If those students discussed questions with him in a Zhihu-like manner, he would expose his poor academic knowledge and lose face for the royal family, which would be very bad. No, no, no.
Although he did not go, he heard the discussion about the emperor's meeting with scholars in the restaurant and teahouse outside. Anyway, it sounded quite popular.
The Emperor and his companions' actions went smoothly. Yinzuo thought that they could go out and play together in a few days, right?
But who would have thought that as soon as he returned, he was anxiously stopped by people around the prince, saying that the prince and Kangxi had another dispute.
"The prince is still kneeling outside the house and apologizing."
"I've been kneeling for half an hour."
Yinzuo frowned.
"Did the Emperor ask you to kneel?"
It’s not that the emperor asked me to kneel, but I knelt for such a long time and the emperor didn’t call me to kneel.
Yinzuo walked forward hurriedly, looked at the back of the kneeling prince, and sighed in his heart.
When he approached, he found that the prince, who had been kneeling for a long time, did not look well. Yinzuo wanted to pull him up, but the prince was unwilling to get up, so he couldn't.
Yinzuo squatted down beside him and said, "Why can't you discuss this with your father? Why are you making trouble again?"
The prince said nothing.
Yinzuo asked, "Brother Crown Prince, are you kneeling like this to ask for forgiveness from the Emperor?"
"Where did you learn this trick from? Let me tell you, this is not okay for the Emperor. It looks like you're forcing the Emperor, and the Emperor will only get angrier."
"So, get up first?"
Yinzuo extended his hand to the prince, but the prince frowned and was stubborn, not standing up.
Seeing that he could not persuade the crown prince, Yinzuo had to stand up and go to talk to another one, but before he could move, he was stopped by the crown prince.
The prince said to Yinzuo, "This has nothing to do with you, you don't need to get involved."
Yinzuo sighed: "One of you is my brother, and the other is my father. Is it possible that you have nothing to do with me?"
When Yinzuo poked his head in, Kangxi also had a dark face. He glanced at Yinzuo and said before Yinzuo could speak, "He must kneel!"
His voice was filled with anger.
Yinzuo stopped being sneaky, stood up straight, and said helplessly: "Why are you so angry?"
Kangxi also seemed to be full of complaints, and angrily said to Yinzuo: "The prince has grown a little too arrogant, and he doesn't know how high the sky is and how deep the earth is! He looks down on me in every way, thinks that I am not governing the country well, and wants to take my advice!"
"He is only the crown prince now, not the emperor yet!"
Yinzuo, who originally wanted to make a joke to ease the atmosphere, froze in his tracks. He did not expect to hear his royal father say this.
This is a serious statement.
Yinzuo frowned and said to Kangxi, "Father, can you calm down a little? Anger is bad for your health."
"Has the Emperor eaten yet?"
Kangxi: "I am already full of anger, why should I eat?!"
Yin Zuo: "Even if something big has happened, we still have to eat. Eunuch Liang, please set the table and let the emperor eat first. Oh, and heat up the snacks I brought back from outside. I originally brought them back for the emperor to try."
"The Emperor also said that he wanted to accompany me to play in Yangzhou, but he still hasn't had time."
"It would have been fine if you didn't accompany me, but who knew you were busy arguing again."
Kangxi glared at Yinzuo, who said, "I know, it's not that the Emperor wants to quarrel with the Crown Prince, it's that the Crown Prince is being rebellious and disobedient again. It's all the Crown Prince's fault."
"Prince brother hasn't eaten yet, right? Then let Prince brother continue to kneel, and we will have a delicious meal here, leaving Prince brother outside with sore legs and hungry stomach. Who made Prince brother make the emperor angry?"
“It’s what you deserve.”
Kangxi said nothing, but it was obvious that he was still angry.
The food was served and Yinzuo pulled Kangxi to the table.
Yinzuo picked up some food for Kangxi, and when he saw Kangxi eating, he began to ask, "Father Huang and Prince Brother, what are you arguing about?"
The two men were arguing about some matters of collusion between salt merchants and officials. The prince wanted to use drastic measures, believing that the loss of the imperial treasury had enriched the salt merchants, while Kangxi felt that the prince took things for granted. He also hated the parasites in the country, but how could he act on impulse and cut them all off at once?
Although he was the emperor, he could not handle the affairs of the lower classes as he pleased.
Yinzuo listened to the arguments roughly and felt that both his brother the Crown Prince and his father the Emperor seemed to have reasonable points.
However, when two people with reasonable opinions met together, they were unable to maintain a calm and composed discussion. Kangxi felt that the prince's ideas were becoming more and more outrageous, and that his words were accusing him of condoning corrupt salt merchants and officials.
Kangxi was angry again and said: "You don't know how high the heaven is and how deep the earth is."
What could Yin Zuo do? He could only try his best to persuade others. He said to Kangxi: "This is also because the prince brother, who was taught by the emperor, hates evil and has a strong sense of responsibility."
Kangxi looked over with an unhappy look.
Yinzuo said under Kangxi's gaze: "It's painful to see them embezzling our money. I feel sad when I hear this. Think about how the emperor and the prince were poor back then. I wanted to build a big ship but didn't have money. I had to think about ways to make money every day."
"But the Emperor has a lot of experience in dealing with things, and his concerns must be justified."
Kangxi frowned and said, "Your brother, the crown prince, doesn't think I am right. He thinks he is right in everything and that he is better than me, the emperor."
Kangxi also said to Yinzuo: "You only know how to smooth things over."
Yinzuo smiled and said, "No compromise."
"My son, maybe the prince is just rebelling at the right time. Isn't the son of Minister Li of the Ministry of Revenue against Minister Li every day? He is so stubborn and will do whatever he is told not to do."
"Everyone has this stage. Please understand, Father."
Kangxi did not believe Yinzuo's nonsense. He said, "You are just trying to deceive your father. How can you still do this? Wouldn't your father be ruined by all these sons?"
"Besides, he is the crown prince, how can he act arbitrarily?"
Yin Zuo curled his lips and said, "The Crown Prince is also a human being. How strict have you been with your requirements since he was a child? I feel so suffocated for him. Isn't he rebellious now?"
Yinzuo whispered again: "And it's not really rebellion, it's just that I have too many ideas of my own."
Kangxi put his chopsticks on the table and said angrily, "You just side with your brother, the crown prince."
"Is it unfair for him to be the crown prince?"
Yinzuo asked, "Why are you angry again while we're talking?"
"I'm on the side of the Emperor, too. Didn't the Emperor hear that?"
"It's just that the Emperor is a father, and the Crown Prince is his son. As a father, you have to be tolerant of your son."
"Father, you always said that I was a worry-free person. I was the one who made you worry too much before. But now, you are no longer a worry-free person." Yinzuo smiled at his father with his bright eyes and said, "Raising a child is like this. That's why people say that children owe their children debts."
Yinzuo asked Liang Jiugong to hand over another pair of chopsticks, and then stuffed them into Kangxi's hands, saying, "Don't get yourself hurt by us, it's not worth it."
Yinzuo's smiling face made Kangxi unable to get angry with the innocent Yinzuo, and he finally started eating again.
Yin Zuo then said, "The Emperor said that the Crown Prince was ignorant of the immensity of heaven and earth. When my son said that he wanted to earn money to build a big ship, did the Emperor and the Crown Prince also think that I was ignorant of the immensity of heaven and earth?"
Kangxi frowned and said to Yinzuo, "Can it be the same? And you, don't be proud and complacent after accomplishing something."
Yinzuo chuckled: "It's okay even if you are proud and complacent. Even if you stumble, don't you still have the Emperor? What is there for my son to be afraid of?"
"I think the same is true for the Crown Prince. He is more aggressive in his actions because he has the confidence given by the Emperor. The Crown Prince was raised by the Emperor and grew up smoothly. It is natural for him to be arrogant and aggressive, right? This shows that the Crown Prince is living a good life."
"My son has seen that cautious child because his parents didn't raise him well enough."
As Kangxi listened, he strangely felt relieved.
Kangxi said: "Is it all because of my indulgence?"
Yinzuo smiled and said, "Yes."
Kangxi said: "Then we can't get used to it in the future. You are right. How can a prince have everything go smoothly?"
"Your brother, the prince, will grow up soon."
Yinzuo:? ?
Yinzuo shrank his neck and asked Kangxi carefully, "No, no, I just said it casually. I didn't want it to trigger what you want to do? The prince is growing up well. How can we help him grow up?"
Kangxi just smiled and said nothing, leaving the brat who was partial to the prince feeling guilty and uneasy.
Yinzuo was indeed very uneasy, as if he was sitting on pins and needles. Could he have set a trap for his brother, the crown prince?
He was just trying to stop the fight.
Yinzuo was so nervous that he almost forgot his original intention of trying to stop the fight.
When he finally remembered, he gritted his teeth and said to Kangxi, "Father, you see the Crown Prince has been kneeling for a long time, why don't you let him in to eat some leftovers?"
After watching Yinzuo's changing expressions for a while, Kangxi said in a good mood, "Okay."
Yinzuo threw down his chopsticks and said, "I'll go call my brother, the crown prince."
Yinzuo ran outside and pulled the prince and said, "Brother Prince, please get up quickly. The emperor wants you to go in and eat."
The prince looked up at Yinzuo and said, "Is the Emperor not angry anymore?" The prince was surprised that the Emperor had calmed down so quickly, but he was also very grateful to his sixth brother.
Once again, his sixth brother had to worry about this.
Yinzuo gave his brother the crown prince an awkward smile and said vaguely, "When you go in later, don't look so sullen and say something soft to the emperor."
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com