activa-t Chapter 407 Sixth Brother, I envy you!
Chapter 407 Sixth Brother, I envy you!
Is there even a need to guess? Although Kangxi didn't quite understand what Zheye wanted to do with the money, he knew that for a monarch to lower himself to borrow money from others meant he had been forced into a corner. Now that things had come to this, did Zheye have any other choice but to agree to their conditions?
Indeed, just as Kangxi had guessed, Zheye had no choice. Even though the Qing Dynasty's demands seemed outrageous to him, he had to clean himself up and offer himself up. That's why Yinzhen received a reply from Zheye just over a month after sending the letter.
Of course, words are not enough. Yinzhi could not go to Japan without Kangxi's decree, and Tetsuya was now the emperor of Japan, so he could not come to the Qing Dynasty. But did it matter? You can't come to the Qing Dynasty, but we have people in Japan, right? So Kangxi wrote an imperial edict to Yinzhi in Japan and also wrote a letter clarifying the interests involved, entrusting him with full responsibility for everything.
Historically, Yinzhi was able to fight Yinzhen to a standstill, which clearly shows that he was exceptionally intelligent. Teasing those Japanese devils was a piece of cake for him. He not only completed the tasks assigned to him by Kangxi but even exceeded them.
"Father, you see, I was right before. Dealing with Japanese affairs is a job tailor-made for Xiao Ba. A smiling tiger will be no match for a showy but weak guy. Look, our garrison has increased quite a bit, which saves us from having to secretly plant people in batches."
Kangxi read Yinzhi's letter several times and deeply agreed with Yinzhi's words. Although his eighth son had been radical for a while, he usually appeared unassuming. He never expected that he would have such a decisive and ruthless side. It seemed that sending him to Japan was the right decision.
Emperor Kangxi was determined to seize the prize of Japan. Now that the die was cast, he was even less likely to give up. In order to resolve everything before Tetsuya could straighten out the mess in the Japanese court, he secretly issued several decrees over the next six months, sending a number of people to Japan, either openly or covertly. By the summer of the fifty-second year of Kangxi's reign, everything was almost in place.
Everything was ready, except for Kangxi's order. But there was still the saying: military action was possible, but it had to be justified. Kangxi held Yinzhi's letter and pondered it for a long time. Then he took several princes and key ministers into the library of Changchun Garden. Don't ask what they were going to do; they were going to start flipping through history books.
Yinzhuo had clearly run out of patience after being dragged to the library by his father for two days. He did love reading, but he preferred travelogues and illustrated books to history books. When Kangxi sent someone to drag him away early one morning, our Prince Zhao completely gave up.
"Father, instead of scouring history books and racking your brains for a legitimate reason to send troops, why don't you consider my suggestion? Let's skip all this fancy stuff and just send someone to tell that Tetsuya that one of our generals has mysteriously disappeared over there. This man is very important to us, and we must conduct a nationwide search. If he agrees, some conflict is inevitable during the search, and accidental shooting is not impossible. If he disagrees, then why bother finding a reason? Let's just take him down..."
Emperor Kangxi was already tired of the constant meetings these days. In the past, he would just listen to Yinzhuo's words with amusement, after all, how could a war between two countries be treated so lightly? But now, hearing Yinzhuo bring it up again, he seriously began to consider the feasibility of this matter.
"Alright, I will seriously consider what you said. Judging from your sleepy appearance, you are obviously not fully awake yet. Wan Quan, come here and take your Sixth Prince to the side hall to rest for a while."
After Yinzhuo was taken away to rest, Kangxi sat there pondering for a long time. Finally, he picked up his pen and wrote a letter to Yinsi, who was in Japan. The letter was very simple. He summarized what Yinzhuo had just said and asked Yinsi to try it out. If it worked, great; if not, he would continue to discuss it.
The task was handed to Yinzhi, who naturally had to do his best. He didn't know how the other party had handled it, but the end result was that the conflict was successfully averted. After learning everything, Yinzhi could only sigh and say, "History always repeats itself in an astonishing way..."
Even though the war on the front lines was fierce, it was clear that none of this affected Yinzhuo. He continued to live his life as before, occasionally inviting Yinreng to listen to storytelling at Jiyaxuan, or taking Hongxu, Honghui, and Hongqing to ride horses outside Changchun Garden. When he got bored, he would ask Dexi to bring him his private treasury list to check whether his wealth could still withstand his extravagance.
Of course, Yinzhuo's wealth was truly extraordinary. Although he had given away a large sum of money before, he received his dividends this year. Moreover, even without these, given Kangxi's favoritism towards him, he obviously wouldn't let him lack money. Just look at the thick list and account book in Yinzhuo's hands to know that Kangxi had indeed brought a lot of good things to Yinzhuo over the years.
"Sixth Brother, I really envy you..."
Looking at the stack of private treasury lists on Yinzhuo's desk, Yintang was so envious that tears almost streamed down his face. What was he envious of? Did it even need asking? He was naturally envious that his sixth brother had such a good father…
"Sixth brother, let alone Xiao Jiu, even your second brother is quite envious..."
It's one thing for Yinzhen to express envy, since he hadn't received many rewards from his father over the years, aside from the usual ones everyone else received. But when Yinreng said this, Yinzuo really couldn't stand it anymore.
"Second Brother, doesn't your conscience hurt when you say such things? It's understandable that Xiao Jiu envies me, since he's always timid around Father. But why are you saying this? I haven't been to other places, but I've been to your private treasury quite a few times when you lived in Yuqing Palace. Let me tell you, although that courtyard isn't as big as mine, your treasures are no less than mine..."
Yinzhen sat to the side listening to his second and sixth brothers bickering, and the more he listened, the more heartbroken he felt. Well, it turned out that during the more than fifty years of the Emperor's reign, the first twenty treasures in his private treasury all went into his second brother's private treasury, and the last thirty years' worth all went to his sixth brother. The few that peeked out from between his fingers were mostly taken by his eldest brother. It turned out that the eldest son, the legitimate son, and the beloved son were truly not called that for nothing.