After Yongzheng ascended the throne, he worked hard for thirteen years, and finally rescued the Qing Dynasty and put the Qing court on the right track again.
After Yongzheng's death, the prince Hongli was preparing to take over the throne. Just when people thought that the dust had settled, Zhang Tingyu, the minister of the central government, stood up and announced to the ministers present: The emperor has another secret decree!
Why does Yongzheng still have a secret decree? Why is this secret decree in Zhang Tingyu's hands?
Secret Reserve
When Yongzheng ascended the throne, the most important thing was Hongli, but it did not show half a point. The ministers speculated for no reason, and they could only choose their positions in advance. It is the new system "secret reserve" implemented by Yongzheng that has created this situation.
During the reign of Yongzheng, the primogeniture inheritance system that had been used for thousands of years was changed to a secret reserve system. The reason why Yongzheng wanted to change the heir system was because he had experienced "nine sons seizing the heirs".
In Kangxi's later years, the crown prince, who had been a prince for more than 30 years, had irreconcilable contradictions with the emperor. Because the prince often does stupid things, Kangxi dislikes this son more and more.
In the end, the contradiction between Kangxi and Yinren broke out. Kangxi directly deposed Yinren's status as the crown prince, and since then, there has been no heir to the throne.
After this incident, many princes began to eyed the throne and used all their strength to sit on the throne.
The princes crossed the sea to show their magical powers, until Kangxi died.
In the end, through consideration of the current situation and the style of the princes, Kangxi chose to pass the throne to the fourth son of the emperor, Yinzhen, that is, Yongzheng.
After Yongzheng succeeded to the throne, his brothers were still plotting to usurp the throne, and he was forced to get rid of them.
But this guilt of killing his brother has always been with Yongzheng and has become a piece of Yongzheng's heart.
In order to prevent his children from falling into the battle for the throne, Yongzheng established this system.
Because there is no crown prince at all, the princes will not fight to the death for the crown prince.
After Yongzheng's death, the minister Zhang Tingyu came to the Zhengda Guangming Hall and took out the secret decree left by Yongzheng from behind the Zhengda Guangming plaque, which wrote the heir selected by Yongzheng.
Zhang Tingyu read out the emperor's edict in public: the fourth son of the emperor, Hongli, will inherit the throne.
Baiguan didn't have a lot of mood swings, because everyone actually guessed the result.
Yongzheng only has a total of ten sons, which is indeed a small amount compared to his father Kangxi.
Yongzheng has fewer sons, so it is more convenient to choose an heir. Of Yongzheng's ten sons, only four did not die young.
Yongzheng's third son, Hongshi, was originally quite optimistic about him, but he was very ignorant.
After Yongzheng locked up Yunxi, he also interceded for his eighth uncle, which made Yongzheng very annoyed. Later, Hongshi also accused Yongzheng in public of being ruthless and unrighteous and abusing his brother, which made Yongzheng even more angry.
Yongzheng was angry, and directly passed Hongshi to Yunxi. Hiroshi became the son of his eighth uncle, and he was completely disqualified from inheriting the throne.
Later, Yunji died in the confinement room, and Hiroshi was kicked out of the Forbidden City, and died of depression soon after.
Originally, Hongshi was Hongli's most powerful competitor, but he killed himself.
Yongzheng's fourth son, Hongli, that is, the later Qianlong Emperor, he was smart and clever since he was a child, Kangxi liked him very much in his later years, and specially asked Yongzheng to send him to his Changchun Garden and teach him personally.
This has almost determined that Hongli will definitely be extraordinary in the future, and even Yongzheng can inherit the throne, all of which have the credit of Hongli.
Yongzheng's fifth son, Hongli, is only a few months younger than Hongli, so he has been playing with Hongli since he was a child.
Because of this, Hongli can feel since he was a child that Hongli is far superior to him in all aspects, and he can't compare to Hongli. Therefore, he chose to pretend to be crazy and stupid, protect himself, and voluntarily withdraw from the competition for the throne.
Yongzheng's sixth son, Hongzhan, is Yongzheng's last child. Because the previous four sons died before they were named, they will not be counted.
When Qianlong ascended the throne, Hongzhan was only four years old, so he naturally would not be elected as the prince by Yongzheng. When Xing Yongzheng wrote this edict, Hongzhan had not yet been born.
From this point of view, Hongli's succession to the throne is almost a certainty, and he has no competitors.
Just when people were happily preparing for the enthronement ceremony, Zhang Tingyu did not come down from the stage, because Yongzheng left two secret decrees. Zhang Tingyu announced to the people: "Wait a minute, there is another secret decree!" ”
A sudden secret decree
Just as the officials were about to retreat, Zhang Tingyu took out another holy decree from his arms, and then stopped everyone, because he still had a secret decree to announce.
This secret decree was not taken out from behind the Zhengda Guangming plaque, because this was something that Yongzheng had just decided. The secret decree was written by Zhang Tingyu, and Yongzheng asked him to keep it and find a suitable time to announce it.
Zhang Tingyu's shout frightened everyone. The officials thought that they had escaped from Yongzheng's control, but they didn't expect Zhang Tingyu to come again with a surprise attack.
Among all the people in the audience, the most panicked person should be Hongli. He had just inherited the throne with fear, and he thought that the dust had settled, but Zhang Tingyu's words made another change.
What is written in the second secret decree left by Yongzheng? In fact, it is some of Yongzheng's entrustment.
This first thing, because Hongli was still young, Yongzheng left him a few ministers to help Qianlong deal with government affairs. Or when Qianlong made a decision, give him some pertinent advice.
The ministers appointed by Yongzheng are not outsiders, they are Yongzheng's sixteenth brother, seventeenth brother, Zhang Tingyu, and Ortai.
Not to mention the first two uncles, why can Zhang Tingyu, a Hanchen, become a minister? Naturally, it is based on Yongzheng's trust in Zhang Tingyu.
During the Kangxi period, Zhang Tingyu was already a minister in the court, and Kangxi always liked to take him with him when he went out.
Because Zhang Tingyu is indeed a very good assistant in handling official business.
When Kangxi was still alive, Kangxi sometimes went to Chengde Summer Resort to live for half a year, and every time he went, he had to take Zhang Tingyu with him. Zhang Tingyu is not only talented, but also can make Kangxi happy when he does things, and he is worthy of being a competent subordinate.
After Kangxi's death, Zhang Tingyu was not excluded, but was then reused by Yongzheng.
During Yongzheng's reign, there were many official affairs, and Zhang Tingyu was particularly important in this situation.
Zhang Tingyu has even exercised the conversion function, Yongzheng verbally said the order, Zhang Tingyu listened and wrote, and he could directly convert what Yongzheng said into standard "official words".
During Yongzheng's implementation of the new policy, Zhang Tingyu also gave Yongzheng a lot of suggestions, and his suggestions were rarely not adopted, and almost every one of them was a key place.
Therefore, Zhang Tingyu helped Yongzheng a lot, not only helping Yongzheng share a lot of government affairs, but also providing assistance to Yongzheng's reform.
When Yongzheng died, Zhang Tingyu was already sixty-four years old, but Yongzheng thought he could still do it, so he did not let him retire.
And in order to appease Zhang Tingyu and leave such a useful Zhang Tingyu to his son, Yongzheng left the last two of the second secret decree to Zhang Tingyu.
The last two of the secret decree, one is to treat an old minister like Zhang Tingyu well, and the other is to let Zhang Tingyu deserve to enjoy the Taimiao after his death. In general, this secret decree said a total of three things, all of which were beneficial to Zhang Tingyu. However, this was announced by Zhang Tingyu himself, which inevitably makes people suspicious.
In fact, Yongzheng left this second secret purpose, which is to Zhang Tingyu "this dish of vinegar-wrapped dumplings".
In order to let Zhang Tingyu continue to serve, Yongzheng first appointed him as an important minister, and at the same time, in order to restrain Zhang Tingyu, there was also an Ortai among the ministers.
Then he asked Qianlong to treat Zhang Tingyu well, the purpose was to tell Qianlong that Zhang Tingyu was still useful, and he should not be touched easily.
And the last one, which is also the most controversial, is to let Zhang Tingyu and a Hanchen deserve to enjoy the Taimiao.
As we all know, the Qing Dynasty was a regime established by the Manchus, because in their minds, the Manchus must be one level higher than the Han Chinese.
And Yongzheng agreed to let Zhang Tingyu deserve to enjoy the Taimiao, which is a great honor, enough to make many flag people blush.
This honor was enough to support Zhang Tingyu's belief and allow him to continue to assist Qianlong.
Zhang Tingyu also understands very well that he did his best in the Qianlong Dynasty. Every time Qianlong went to the summer resort or went to the "southern tour", the affairs of the court were thrown to Zhang Tingyu. Zhang Tingyu worked hard in order to enjoy the Taimiao, and this situation lasted for thirteen years.
In the thirteenth year of Qianlong, Zhang Tingyu was already seventy-five years old. At this time, Zhang Tingyu was already dying, and his deafness and dazzle had seriously affected his efficiency in the court. The ministers at the time also had a lot of criticism about him.
So Zhang Tingyu applied to Qianlong for Zhishi.
But Qianlong did not agree, he said in a reply to Zhang Tingyu: "You have already received the favor of the emperors of the two dynasties, and you have also been granted the right to enjoy the Taimiao after your death. ”
In fact, he was telling Zhang Tingyu, my father let you enter the Taimiao, why are you still thinking about retirement?
Zhang Tingyu had no choice but to continue to serve. Later, he asked Zhishi many times, and finally annoyed Qianlong. Qianlong raided Zhang Tingyu's home and deprived Zhang Tingyu of the privilege of enjoying the Taimiao.
In the end, Zhang Tingyu, who was 84 years old, died in grief at home.
After Zhang Tingyu's death, in order to stabilize the situation and give an explanation to the Hanchen in the court, Qianlong still let Zhang Tingyu enjoy the Taimiao. As a result, Zhang Tingyu became the only Han Chen and Wenchen in the Qing Dynasty who deserved to enjoy the Taimiao.
But Zhang Tingyu didn't live to see this, and he thought that he had no chance to enter the Taimiao until he died.
Zhang Tingyu, as a Han minister, did his best for the Qing Dynasty, but in the end ended up like this, which is really embarrassing.