novelonline Chapter 2073: Open and Honest 4 Brother
Chapter 2073: Open and Honest 4 Brother
Chapter 2073: The Honest Fourth Prince
When he walked outside Taoyuan Book House, the Fourth Prince still hadn't guessed the purpose of the Crown Prince summoning him here.
Could it be that he heard the news that the second branch of the Tong family was coming back?
Besides this, what else can you ask yourself?
But the second branch of the Tong family has nothing to do with the prince.
To be honest, when the eldest prince and the crown prince were fighting, the Tong family was still slightly biased towards the crown prince.
The prince was not in the main hall, but in the side hall, Guande Hall.
There are no partitions between the three rooms here, so they are quite spacious.
Now the room is as bright as day.
There are candlesticks in the four corners of the room, on the desk, and on the kang table.
Each candlestick has three layers and seven pins.
There are white wax candles on it.
In the harem, only noble ladies and above are supplied with such white wax, and the quantity is not much.
A noble lady gets one stick per day, a concubine gets two sticks per day, the empress gets five sticks per day, and the empress dowager gets seven sticks per day.
Only in the Imperial Palace and Yuqing Palace, the number is uncertain.
When the Fourth Prince came in, he saw the Crown Prince sitting cross-legged on the kang with a set of tea sets on the table.
The prince is making tea.
"My younger brother pays respects to my second elder brother..."
The Fourth Prince took a few quick steps, lowered his sleeves and greeted.
The prince called the fourth prince forward: "Come over and talk."
The Fourth Prince stepped forward.
The prince pointed to the other side of the kang and asked the Fourth Prince to sit there.
The Fourth Prince sat down next to the kang and glanced at the Crown Prince.
There was no sign of joy or anger on the prince's face.
The prince poured a cup of tea and pushed it to the Fourth Prince.
The Fourth Prince quickly took it with both hands.
The prince then looked up at the fourth prince, sized him up, and frowned, "Why are you getting thinner?"
The Fourth Prince is already quite thin, and it is even more obvious at the eyes. There is no flesh on his face, making his face look even longer.
The Fourth Prince said respectfully, "Because of the change of seasons a few days ago, I caught a cold and had to clean my stomach for a few days."
The prince looked at his dark circles and said, "Why don't you take a few days off? What's the point of getting up early and going to bed late?"
The Fourth Prince's heart trembled, but he didn't look away. He looked at the Crown Prince, showing a bit of embarrassment: "It's not like when we were kids, eating and playing foolishly. It's just some little thoughts."
The prince couldn't help but smile when he saw him like this, and took two sips of tea, saying, "You seem to be getting more and more respectful, and you have lost the cleverness you had when you were little. When I asked you this, I thought you were going to talk about some great principles about family, country, and the world."
When the Fourth Prince saw that the Crown Prince's teacup was almost empty, he stood up, grabbed the teapot, and poured most of the cup of tea for the Crown Prince.
After he put down the teapot, he continued, "The fourteenth prince has grown up and started to work in the ministries. In a few years, this generation of younger princes will definitely be given titles. My younger brother knows his own limitations and is not good at leading troops, otherwise he would not have been ranked last in several raids. He is not very knowledgeable about Confucianism either... Apart from doing his job diligently, he has no chance to accumulate merits. He just hopes that hard work can make up for his shortcomings. Otherwise, when Khan Ama confer titles on the princes again, his titles will be surpassed by his younger brothers, which will be too humiliating..."
The prince listened and felt that the Fourth Prince was telling the truth.
To be honest, among so many younger brothers, the Crown Prince spent the most time with the Fourth Prince when he was a child.
The Fourth Prince was a chatterbox and a face-conscious person at that time.
Later, he lost his adoptive mother and became a poor little boy. His face became colder and colder day by day, and he spoke less and less.
The prince said, "It's good enough if you do your job conscientiously. To be honest, you are only one year younger than the third prince. You both left the study room and followed the Khan Ama to lead the army. You should have been crowned kings together. Last time, you and the fifth prince were both crowned lower..."
As for the Seventh and Eighth Princes, given their backgrounds and ages, they should not have been granted titles together with the previous princes.
They are highly sealed.
The fourth prince exhaled and said, "In Khan's heart, the third brother is different. The third brother is both civil and military..."
The prince's eyes turned cold, and he said, "Yes, he is a man of both civil and military talents. Before the Eighth Prince entered the study, the one who was praised the most by Khan Ama was the Third Prince..."
This is how ambition is exaggerated.
He was also crowned king together with the eldest prince.
The Fourth Prince seemed to have realized that he had made a mistake and hurriedly added, "No matter how much I praise him, he can't compare to my Second Brother. Maybe it's because Khan Ama is weak and Rong Fei gave birth to five princes, but only this one survived."
The prince snorted and said, "Don't deceive yourself. Who among us who are older has not lost a brother? I also lost my eldest brother, Concubine Hui's mother also lost her eldest son, and Concubine De's mother also lost a son and a daughter..."
Fourth elder brother: "..."
The prince was a little dissatisfied and said, "You are close in age, and your wife is also close to the third brother's wife. We brothers are not as close as we were when we were young..."
The fourth prince said, "Khan Ama is watching from above, who wouldn't be alert? Just look at how close Khan Ama is to his uncles, and you'll know he hopes his son will be the same."
The prince looked indifferent.
Are you close?
When they needed to be raised up to check and balance the royal family, they were given the title of general and king, and were in charge of the Council of Ministers; when the princes grew up and their checks and balances were no longer needed, they were either found or all their positions were taken away and they were left idle.
Now that he wants a good reputation, he starts to get close to her again.
Khan Ama doesn’t know what’s going on?
It would be a big joke if I were to imitate others.
The prince straightened his back, feeling a little more proud. He looked at the Fourth Prince and found that his back was slightly hunched.
The Fourth Prince has been respectful to me from the inside out, and has been so since he was a child.
After the Third Prince returned to the palace, Concubine Rong didn't treat her as attentively as before. She held her anger and loved to go to Jingren Palace to play with the Fourth Prince.
The prince's expression softened, and he remembered Chang Hai's words, and said to the fourth prince: "I saw my niece today, and she looked tall. Should I keep my hair?"
The Fourth Prince's heart was lifted, and he had some guesses, but his expression did not show it. He nodded with a bit of tenderness and said, "Born in the thirty-fourth year, he is nine years old. He will have his hair cut off next year..."
At this point, he paused and said, "My brother has been paying attention to his work these years, also because of this daughter. Manchu-Mongolian marriage is a national policy, but my brother only has this one daughter, and it is hard to bear to be separated from her flesh and blood. So my brother informed my mother-in-law and asked her to help pay attention to the children of the Nara family. When my brother has accumulated merits, he will ask Khan Ama for mercy..."
The prince was stunned and said, "Daughters of the clan usually marry late nowadays. Isn't your plan too early?"
The Fourth Prince hesitated for a moment before sighing, "It's also my own selfish desire. A harmonious family brings prosperity. She is Li's daughter. The children you have now are either born to Fu Jin or Li..."
The prince was a little surprised, and looked at the fourth prince and said, "I thought you were focused on your job, but I didn't expect you to be so thoughtful about these family matters."
The Fourth Prince glanced at the Crown Prince and said, "In recent years, several inner houses have been in turmoil. My brother is impatient and is afraid that he will not be able to cope with it when the time comes, so he thought it would be better to prepare for a rainy day."
Prince: "..."
There are several families, including my own.
His face drooped, he snorted and said, "Have I given you a lesson from the past?"
The Fourth Prince said awkwardly, "Humans are not plants or trees, so who can be heartless? It's not a big deal to choose one of the wives and concubines in the inner house. It's not a big deal if it's an ordinary family. But over the years, I have seen that Khan Ama has always been very strict about rules and clearly distinguishes between legitimate and illegitimate children. He won't tolerate this..."
The prince felt complicated after hearing this.
Is the distinction between legitimate and illegitimate children clear?
If the distinction between legitimate and illegitimate children was really clear, wouldn't the eldest and third princes be honored to this extent?
Nor would the Tenth Prince have been suppressed and become a "clunkard prince".
Khan Ama himself was born out of wedlock, so he was afraid that the illegitimate prince would be bullied.
If he was so compassionate to his illegitimate son, how would he view himself, the legitimate son of the Empress Dowager?
When it was necessary to stabilize the Eight Banners and maintain peace in the imperial court, his legitimate son was invaluable.
Now that the local area has been pacified and the court is stable, he, the legitimate prince, has become an eyesore.
When did Khan Ama's change begin?
Thirty-six years later, after pacifying the Dzungar Khanate...
The Crown Prince had come to his senses, and he looked at the Fourth Prince with a little more sympathy, saying, "You were also a young prince, but it's a pity that there are so many young princes coming out..."
The fourth prince lowered his eyes and said, "Khan Ama has always been sympathetic to the weak."
The prince shook his head and said, "I just love the whole family. If you really want to pity the weak, then the most favored one before should be the seventeenth prince, and the most favored one in the future should be the twentieth prince. But I bet with you that the youngest son that Khan Ama loves the most in the future will be the nineteenth prince!"
Just look at the fact that Concubine Wang, as a noble lady, moved to the back hall of Qixiang Palace, and you will know how favored she is.
The other princes all started to serve as bodyguards when they were in their teens. However, the fifteenth and sixteenth princes, born to Concubine Wang, started to serve as bodyguards as soon as they entered the Shangshufang.
The Fourth Prince did not like to hear these words.
But he also felt that the prince was right.
As long as the Nineteenth Prince stays in power, he will probably be favored for many years.
The Eighteenth Prince may not be able to match the Nineteenth Prince by then.
Because Khan Amma likes balance…
The prince also knew that he had talked too much today.
From afar came the sound of a clapper-beaten drum marking the night watch.
The prince said, "You are tired from going into the city every day. Go back and rest early. I will come and talk to you later when you are resting."
The fourth prince stood up and said, "Then my younger brother should go back first, and my second brother should also be settled as soon as possible..."
At this point, he heard the sound of frogs outside, so he said, "A lot of ducks have been released into the waterway behind the North House, so the frog sounds have become much less frequent. Isn't it too noisy here? Should we ask the people from the Ministry of Internal Affairs to release the ducks as well?"
The prince waved his hands and said, "I'm used to hearing this. If I really want some quiet time, I probably won't be able to fall asleep."
After hearing this, the Fourth Prince stopped talking and retreated.
The prince looked at the Fourth Prince's back, but he did not suspect that he was lying.
I haven't mentioned the Crown Princess's nephew yet, and no one would have thought that I would suddenly have the urge to matchmake for my niece who had no children.
It seems that the Fourth Prince is indeed content and has not had any other thoughts. Otherwise, even if he loves his daughter and wants to marry her to the Eight Banners, he would not choose the impoverished Nala family.
The highest rank of his uncles seemed to be only third or fourth grade, which meant they were already middle-class families.
The Fourth Prince straightened his back only after he left the West Garden, anger rising in his heart.
It is true that tying marriages was popular in Manchuria, but only the emperor had the power to do so.
The prince is only the crown prince, but he wants to influence his niece's marriage. This is a bit too much.
When he returned to the South Third Residence, the Fourth Prince went to the front yard first, met the eunuch in charge, and ordered: "Tell someone to find out tomorrow who went to the West Garden today..."
The prince has always been very picky. If no one had instigated him, he would not have paid attention to a niece who had no head left...