Thirty years in March, sick, up and down. Hongshi prostrated his head in the bed, held his hand, and said painfully: "If you are young, so you wipe it a little, why should you be ashamed of this?" "Because of the restoration of the king of the county." Spin, give. - "Draft History of the Qing Dynasty, Liechuan VII, Kings VI"
As a rare diligent emperor in history, the Yongzheng Emperor reigned for 13 years "day and night, without any civil engineering, sound and color entertainment", 3 days of vacation every year, sleeping 4 hours a day, and there was no time to argue with harem concubines. In addition, the Yongzheng Emperor at that time was old and his fertility declined, so that he only had one prince in the eleventh year of Yongzheng. This prince was the "protagonist" in the above-mentioned "Draft History of the Qing Dynasty"—Hongyao, the sixth son of the Emperor, who was called "Brother of the Yuanmingyuan" because he was born in the Yuanmingyuan.
The illegitimate son of "Zhen Huan" and "King of Guojun" in the Biography of Zhen Huan was neither "helped" by the King of Guojun nor born to Concubine Xi, but from the Concubine Qian of the Han family of the Yongzheng Emperor.
According to the records of the "Draft History of the Qing Dynasty", because of the reprimand of the Qianlong Emperor, Hongyao actually fell ill in one breath, and even lost his life to Huangquan, which made the Qianlong Emperor very helpless, and even said that he never expected it.
As we all know, the Qianlong Emperor was very kind to his two younger brothers, Hongzhi and Hongyao. So, why was Hongyao reprimanded by the Qianlong Emperor so that he was allowed to die alive?
The Qianlong Emperor's beloved brother, Hongyao
At the beginning of his reign, the Qianlong Emperor played the role of "elder brother like a father" to this younger brother who was 22 years younger than himself, and carefully cultivated and cared for him.
In the third year of Qianlong, Prince Yunli of Guo died, and the Qianlong Emperor ordered Hongyao to succeed Yunli as a son, and demoted to inherit the title of "King of Guojun". In this way, Hongyao, who was only 5 years old, stepped into place and picked up a "county king" hat in vain. Just like for Hongzhi, the Qianlong Emperor's trust and reliance on Hongyao really had nothing to say. In the fifteenth year of Qianlong, the Qianlong Emperor ordered the 18-year-old Hongyao to take charge of the Eight Banners Guard Barracks, the Imperial Library, and the Pharmacy; in the nineteenth year of Qianlong, he also ordered him to manage the Construction Office.
As for the reasons why the Qianlong Emperor was particularly gracious to Hongzhi and Hongyao, there are generally the following points:
1. The degree of imperial power of the Qianlong Emperor was far from being comparable to that of the Yongzheng Emperor in the early days of his reign.
2. Hongzhi is known as the "absurd prince" and has no interest in imperial power; Hongyao is also a child, and there is no threat to imperial power.
3. After the Qianlong Emperor succeeded to the throne, he paid great attention to the shaping of his own positive image. "Father's kindness and filial piety" and "brotherhood and brotherhood" are exactly the internal state of the imperial family that the Qianlong Emperor has worked hard to create, so he must lead by example and try to take good care of his only two younger brothers.
It is precisely because of this that there is the arrogance and unscrupulousness of the fifth son of the emperor, Hongzhi, and even more the madness of the sixth son of the emperor, Hongyao.
"If you don't do it, you won't die"
Why would Hongyao do it?
In addition to the special favor of the Qianlong Emperor, there was also an extremely important reason, that is, he inherited the title of "King of the County" at a young age, and also accepted the huge family property of Prince Guo Yunli.
Prince Guo, Yunli, has been in a high position for many years, and has also maintained the grace of "prince double", not to mention that the yongzheng and Qianlong emperors have also given him more rewards, which has made Yunli gradually become a rich man in the imperial family. Coupled with Yunli's long-term experience in running the household department, he has accumulated strong financial management experience, so that Hongyao inherits a strong family property.
Inheriting the title of "King of the County" at an early age, the mansion was extremely wealthy, and prince Guo's mansion also had many leases, economic and trade livelihoods of "Nijin Doujin", which made the young and impetuous Hongyao gradually forgetful and indispensable.
However, Hongyao, who is so rich, is still not satisfied, while staying at home frugal, on the other hand, frantically amassing wealth, and always wants to build his own wealth empire. In addition to "buying and selling strongly" and "bullying and dominating the market" in commercial activities, Hongyao even extended his hand to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and imperial offerings. Prince Tangtang, the current emperor's brother, did such a thing, and the Qianlong Emperor was naturally very angry. However, after all, this did not touch the bottom line of the Qianlong Emperor, so he has always tolerated it and has not attacked.
Until the twenty-eighth year of Qianlong, the "Kyushu Qing Banquet" where the Qianlong Emperor lived caught fire, and the fifth son of the Emperor, Yongqi, gave up his life to save the car, and Hongzhi and Hongyao, who lived on the side, not only failed to come to the rescue at the first time, but laughed and played afterwards, and had nothing to do with it. After the harem of the Yuanmingyuan, Hongyao went to the empress dowager to ask for peace, and then knelt down where the Qianlong Emperor usually knelt.
This is different from the lack of kingly law and the disruption of economic order in peacetime, and such a move is equivalent to challenging the imperial authority of the Qianlong Emperor and directly touching the bottom line of the Qianlong Emperor's patience.
Therefore, the Qianlong Emperor became angry and ordered that Hongyao be demoted to "Baylor", dismiss all official positions, and impose a fine of 10,000 taels.
When did Wang Hongyao, who had been smooth sailing, suffer such grievances? There is nothing wrong with demotion or dismissal, the key is to also be fined 10,000 taels of silver, which is not equivalent to the life of Hongyao who "regards wealth as life"!
However, even the Qianlong Emperor thought that Hongyao's qi would be so great that he was so angry that he could not afford to be sick, which frightened the Qianlong Emperor into quickly restoring his title of "King of the County", hoping to make Hongyao discouraged. However, at this time, Hongyao was already terminally ill and died soon, leaving the Qianlong Emperor with a lot of regrets.
postscript
It is true that the Qianlong Emperor had great trust and reliance on Hongzhi and Hongyao, but all this must be based on the premise that the two men did not threaten the Qianlong Imperial Power. Once there were words and deeds that overstep the system, bear the favor of the emperor, or threaten the imperial power, the Qianlong Emperor, like all emperors, would be ruthless and did not care about any brotherhood at all.
The so-called "if you don't do it, you won't die", the Qianlong Emperor's special favor for Hongyao was not easy; however, Hongyao was not self-sufficient, and went farther and farther on the road of death until he killed himself.
References: Draft History of the Qing Dynasty, Liechuan VII, Kings VI, Qing Shilu, Gaozong Shilu, Xiaoting Miscellaneous Records