Honghui is reborn in Legend of Zhen Huan, I will protect my mother

"Uncle Jiu is very reliable. The Queen must have blamed him wrongly." Honghui took the cloak from Li Dequan's hand and gently put it on Kangxi, closing the distance between them. "It's winter, why don't you wear more clothes? Even if you wear a woolen coat, it's snowing outside. You just recovered from the cold a few days ago, so you can't take off your clothes now."

Kangxi was relieved in his heart, but he pretended to be calm on the surface: "Li Dequan, did you hear what the prince said?"

Li Dequan stepped forward and said, "I heard it clearly, Master Beizi, don't worry, I will take care of the clothes!"

After a few jokes, Honghui turned to talk about the job at hand: "Most of the jobs in the Ministry of Rites are relatively easy, but there are also complicated ones. I was busy receiving the envoys from Tsarist Russia a few days ago. My grandson has broadened his horizons."

"It's good to broaden your horizons. Tsarist Russia is adjacent to the Qing Dynasty and its strength is not much inferior to the Qing Dynasty. Peter the Great is also quite wise. We must be extra vigilant against it! Especially in the past few decades, Tsarist Russia has repeatedly invaded the Qing Dynasty. Even though they are so eager to conclude a treaty, in fact, it is just empty talk."

Kangxi drank a cup of warm tea and started talking: "Tsarist Russia is extremely cold all year round, and the Qing soldiers find it difficult to adapt. Even if they send troops, nine out of ten will be killed or injured, and countless will freeze to death before the battle. Now the Qing Dynasty and Tsarist Russia should not fight if they can, but if they offend the dignity of the Qing Dynasty, we will fight back no matter what..."

Honghui was deeply touched by this: "The premise of peace is to be strong enough. A weak country has no diplomacy!"

"Yes, that's the truth. There are always people in the court saying things like 'When a war breaks out, countless people will be killed or injured', and 'When two armies fight, the people suffer, and the world has longed for peace!' Whenever there is a war, they say they want to negotiate, but can peace be obtained through negotiation? It was earned with the lives of our Qing soldiers!"

In recent years, whenever we sent troops to Dzungar, some people have petitioned for peace talks. Tsk!

As the ruler of a country, Kangxi would weigh the pros and cons in everything he did, and this is what he wanted to teach his grandson.

Honghui blinked his eyes to show that he had learned his lesson. At the end, he said a few good words for Uncle Jiu, "Don't underestimate Uncle Jiu. Among all the people in the court and among the people, only Uncle Jiu can reproduce the Western tributes. How much gold and silver of our Qing Dynasty has been saved from being lost over the years! Uncle Jiu's temperament is a little different from that of ordinary people, but geniuses don't have to cater to the world. Uncle Jiu's talent is not in the way of literature and martial arts. Western things are what he is good at."

Kangxi thought about it and decided, well, since Laojiu’s talent is still useful, why not tolerate his minor foibles for once?

"Forget it, Old Nine, just leave it as it is. I don't care. But you can't delay your work because of this, otherwise I will intervene."

"Don't worry, my grandson is just changing his mind and killing time."

Honghui responded solemnly, and the matter was over.

……

At the end of the year, news came from the northwest that the Qing army had won its first major victory over the Dzungar Khanate.

When the news came out, Kangxi was overjoyed and bestowed many rewards on Prince Chun's Mansion and the Fourteenth Prince's Mansion. However, he was happy for only a few days when bad news came.

At the beginning of the first lunar month, the Huaihe River and the Yellow River flooded, and the three prefectures east of Shanzuo were submerged. Hundreds of thousands of people were starving and depended on the relief grain from the court to survive.

Without waiting for the seal to be opened, Kangxi issued an oral order: "The Ministry of Revenue shall first allocate 200,000 taels of silver and 100,000 dan of grain to provide relief to the people affected by the disaster. Prince Yong Yinzhen will be fully responsible for this and there must be no mistakes!"

So in the New Year of the 59th year of Kangxi's reign, Yinzhen was busy running around and working late, for fear of messing up his job.

Fortunately, he was used to dealing with natural disasters and man-made tragedies, so disaster relief was no problem for him. Within two months, the three prefectures in the east of Shanzuo gradually returned to stability, all the relief money was distributed, and the victims lived in peace.

Of course, there were some people who were so bold as to try to steal the disaster relief money and grain, and they were all chopped to pieces by Yinzhen, and their property was confiscated and they were exiled. The situation was chaotic and lasted for half a year.

The previous dynasty once again witnessed how ruthless Prince Yong was. He could not tolerate any grain of sand in his eyes!

Prince Yong's mansion suddenly became deserted, and many court officials were discussing the matter privately, fearing that last year's speculation would come true.

"Please don't let Prince Yong take the throne. If this gentleman takes the throne, how can you and I live happily ever after?"

"That's right, that's right. This gentleman is too tough. He will overturn the table if something goes wrong. Isn't the purpose of being an official to support his family with this little money?"

"Why don't we go talk to His Majesty? We need to let His Majesty know how Prince Yong, with his personality, can be the ruler of a country!"

"Okay, okay, let's go together."

Then, many old ministers relied on their old friendship to go to His Majesty and complained and begged for mercy, "Your Majesty, it's not that I'm petty, it's just that Prince Yong is too stubborn. Is this how you do things in the court? Prince Yong has already cleared out 10% of the Ministry of Revenue. If this continues, the court will be shut down!"

Some people also took the opportunity to test him: "Your Majesty, you are a benevolent monarch, and we are grateful to you. But if the new monarch makes a mistake, who knows how much trouble the Qing Dynasty will encounter?"

All these things could be said to be a boiling point of resentment among the ministers, causing Kangxi to feel somewhat worried. However, in front of those experienced courtiers, he only squinted his eyes and smiled, and evaded all the questions. When they asked him urgently, he would say that he would give them a reprimand later and asked Prince Yong to learn to act tactfully.

After another group of old ministers left, Kangxi called them over and gave them a few words of admonition: "Old Fourth, I know you can't tolerate any sand in your eyes, but if you are too pure, there will be no fish. You must learn to pull one and hit one, and be lenient at the right time. Otherwise, what good reputation do you have? The pen of a scholar is like a knife!"

Yinzhen sneered, but he was talking to those corrupt officials, "I have been lenient with them. If it is up to me, killing a chicken to scare the monkeys is not too much! My reputation is all false, and future generations will judge my merits and demerits!"

"You, you!" Kangxi suddenly became worried. Will the fourth son always act this way? Hasn't he been out of mind for the past few years? Could it be that he couldn't stand it anymore? Or was he provoked by something?

He naturally didn't know that as he got older, his temper became softer, the court officials became more and more demanding, the government became increasingly corrupt, and less than half of the officials were dedicated to their work. How could Yinzhen tolerate this?

Especially in February, the imperial court conferred the title of the Seventh Dalai Lama on Gesang Gyatso. Afterwards, Yinzhen and others continued to march towards Tibet in the name of escorting the Seventh Dalai Lama, Gesang Gyatso. At such a critical time, someone dared to tamper with the food and fodder!

Yinzhen endured for so many years, but finally, because his own brother could not tolerate it anymore, he suppressed all those who tampered with the food and fodder. This led to the Qing army's successive victories.