Emperor Kangxi sent me to marry

After coming out of Zhang Ying's house, Haifeng could have gone back to the princess's house and continued to sleep for a while, but he couldn't close his eyes at all.

She had waited too long for this moment that was about to come.

Axiang brought over midnight snacks, and Haifeng could see that she was as nervous as himself.

"Master, do you really not want a tuanlong gown to match Dongzhu's headdress? For such a big occasion, many ministers are looking at you!"

"No need. There are many people at the court. What Isang-ah means is that I have to hide behind the screen like a thief. No matter what I wear, they can't see it."

Besides, the boat has crossed the Ten Thousand Mountains, and she is no longer the little girl who needs clothes to cheer her up.

After checking the documents to be brought with him for the last time, Haifeng finally lay down and closed his eyes to rest. Unexpectedly, as soon as he touched the pillow, he fell asleep soundly. He slept for an hour, as if he had only rested for ten minutes.

Axiang called Haifeng up at the time of departure.

"Master, do you have to leave early to go to the Punishment Department to release Lord Ma Qi?"

"No. I'm not going to pick him up. Ethan-ah will pick him up."

So Axiang helped Haifeng put on a plain sapphire blue double-breasted gown. Even the bracelets were made of silver, which was extremely low-key. After all, in the eyes of the courtiers, the emperor was 'sick'. As a daughter, if she still wore heavy makeup and showed no trace of sadness, wouldn't it be evidence of a coup?

Fugui drove a car, with five hundred Mongolian musketeers behind the car, heading towards the Forbidden City in a mighty manner.

No one dared to stop her.

The imperial edict allowing the fourth princess to lead troops to the capital was stamped with a jade seal.

In fact, as early as the moment when the nine admirals turned to him and opened the gate of the capital, the outcome was decided.

This is a smart man, and he was once the boss of Prince Lao An's family. Bafujin didn't waste much words and successfully convinced him.

As the uncle of the twelfth prince and one of Kangxi's many brothers-in-law, Tuoheqi knew clearly that it was impossible for the twelfth prince to become the crown prince. It would be better to hug the prince tightly and make a reservation next to the new prince. front position.

In front of the Qianqing Palace, Yisang'a arrived earlier than her and knelt down diligently.

"Happy to you, Your Highness the Princess. I heard that you have an old place here that you often use, so I put my horse there."

Haifeng paused for a moment while getting off the sedan, and then remembered what Yisang'a was talking about.

Yu Shi Guo Xiu's memorial, and the small room where she subdued the Eight Fortune Jins.

"How is Ma Qi? Are you still scolding me?"

Yisang'a picked and said a few words that were a little more elegant. After Haifeng listened, he listened to the left ear and came out to the right ear.

It's just incompetence and rage. If you have the ability, don't accept the price she brings later.

"I'll go to the south study room first. You bring Ma Qi here. I don't plan to see him in advance."

"Your Highness, do you want to think about it again? Even the emperor doesn't take Ma Qi seriously."

"He is not the talker of the Fucha family. Maska, as his brother, is willing to remain neutral on this matter. No matter how happy he is, what's the use? In the past two days, I have treated the Fucha family's Everyone is pretty much the same. With him or without him, there is no difference."

Yisang'a then felt relieved and went to pick up Ma Qi. Haifeng went into the south study room by himself. Axiang wanted to wait in the side room, but Haifeng pulled her back.

"I can't be the only woman who wants to enter this house from now on. Let's see more of these old people. The world is about to change."

Sure enough, Haifeng took Axiang inside, and several officials waiting inside frowned when they saw Axiang. But Haifeng pretended not to see them and accepted their greetings.

"Everyone, please sit down. There is not much time left before the big meeting. As soon as Ma Qi arrives, we have decided on the schedule. It is best to go out and get things done quickly. If the capital is under martial law for one more day, everyone will suffer more."

The so-called Great Court Meeting, on the surface, was a meeting of all the Beijing officials to brainstorm; in essence, it was just an expression of the will of several bureaucratic groups. Kangxi was not here, and there was no intervention from the monarchy's absolute power, as long as the leaders of these small groups acquiesced. The plenary meeting later can just be a formality.

As soon as Haifeng sat down, Yi Sang took Ma Qi into the south study room.

Under the instruction of the fourth princess, the Shenxing Division did not torture Ma Qi, but did not treat him favorably. He ate whatever ordinary prisoners ate. Ma Qi simply went on a hunger strike to protest. It was Ethan who was so kind. When he let him go just now, he brought some fine breakfast with him. Otherwise, Ma Qi might be so hungry that he can't even stand up straight now.

However, his ability to curse people improved a lot when he was ignited by anger.

"The fourth princess is so courageous. When the emperor is away, we are still the top directors. You led troops into the Qianqing Palace and bullied the ministers in the South Study. Are you planning to rebel?"

"Axiang, go give Master Ma Qi a slap in the face."

As soon as Haifeng said these words, the already fluctuating hearts in Nan Study became even more difficult to settle down.

Although Ma Qi is neither old nor young, is it too much for the Fourth Princess to order her personal maid to slap the current Grand Master?

Axiang naturally had the same idea as them, but her master's orders were never wrong. She stepped forward firmly and gave Ma Qi a slight salute.

"Lord Ma Qi, I'm offended."

Yisang'a saw that the momentum was not good and wanted to stop him, but was stopped by Ma Qi.

"No! Let's see if this little girl dares to hit me!"

Everyone was stunned for a moment and could not care less to whisper among themselves, and the discussion gradually disappeared.

A Xiang stretched out her right hand and gave Ma Qi two firm slaps.

"Sir, if the Emperor is here, you speak disrespectfully and do not distinguish between superiority and inferiority. You scream 'you' and 'I' in front of the master. The emperor asks the eunuch to slap him. Do you dare to hide? Now the master is answering on behalf of the emperor and the prince. Jing is in charge of the overall situation, and the slaves follow the orders of the master, so why shouldn't they dare to fight?"

Ma Qi stood there and received these two slaps. His face was so stunned that he couldn't say a word for a long time. When he came back to his senses, he flew into a rage and rushed directly to Haifeng.

"If I have anything to say, I'll just argue with you. If that little girl doesn't rely on your power, how dare she hit me?"

Haifeng threw the tea bowl to the ground, and two East Palace guards rushed in from outside the door. They struck Ma Qi three times and pushed Ma Qi to the ground.

"Grandmaesters have a bad temper. If they don't agree with each other, they will offend."

"Humph, if I commit the crime below, the officials will judge the crime. If you pretended to control the Nan Study Room, what crime should you be guilty of?"

"I am correcting the imperial edict? Why do you say that I am correcting the imperial edict?"

"I……"

Ma Qi had read the edict brought by Haifeng and knew it was not a fake. The handwriting is the prince's, the seal is indeed a jade seal, and there is also the queen mother's seal. But the content is really unconvincing.

"The emperor has so many princes around him that he doesn't need them anymore, so he sent you, a princess, to take charge. Are all the ministers in Dangnan Study Room a loser?"

"Oh, it's not easy. Archmaester Ma Qi is finally willing to reason with me. Let's tie him up."

The two guards gathered the horses together and tied them to the stool with ropes. Haifeng was still sitting, smiling at the ministers in the south study room.

"He thinks so, and you probably won't accept it. I've said it clearly. It's not suitable for any prince to come back. Khan Ama has been poisoned by witchcraft. Brother Prince, don't dare to leave even half a step. If you can't save everything, who will When I came back, I had a weird idea and wanted to sit on the Dragon Throne. Wouldn’t the Forbidden City become a laughing stock? Ethan, come here and announce the decree."

Haifeng took out the sealed yellow silk bag, and Yisang'a took it and gave it to the ministers in the south study. They looked at it one by one. The mark on it was intact and had never been opened. Then I hired scissors and carefully opened it in front of everyone.

Haifeng almost knew the contents of this secret edict by heart and was too lazy to listen to it again.

The first half is long and cryptic, explaining Kangxi's inability to govern; the second half requires the ministers in Beijing to come up with ways to deal with Suo'etu. Of the two wills, the latter one was actually written first.

As for the one that gave Haifeng the power to temporarily take over the capital, it was completely handled by the prince who got the jade seal; the queen mother's seal was secretly stamped with the help of the fifth princess.

After the edict was read out, it was still in the hands of the ministers. It was circulated several times before being returned to Haifeng's hands.

The prince was worried about his siblings returning to the capital and taking advantage of the chaos to usurp the throne. Of course, the ministers could understand. But asking them to fully accept the leadership of a woman is a psychological defense line that many people cannot get past.

Haifeng knew that many ministers were secretly questioning her like Ma Qi, and even scolding her, but Haifeng didn't care.

If she could get close to the throne and become the empress after receiving a few mild scoldings, then she could stand in the center of the Qianqing Palace and be scolded from morning to night.

Some people began to scold her, which was also a sign that she was approaching success.

"Now that you all know the whole story, let me tell you the truth. When I returned to Beijing, I was entrusted by the prince's brother to bring back an idea. Please follow me out to see something. I saw this thing. , you will know that I am just a messenger, how can I be as powerful as what Grand Master Ma Qi said."

Yisang'a took the lead to go out, and several ministers standing on Haifeng's side also went out silently. The remaining people followed the crowd out with a wait-and-see attitude. Even Ma Qi and Haifeng, who stared blankly at being silenced manually, asked the guards to carry him out with his stool.

After everyone came out, the first thing they saw was a strange thing that was not in the yard when they came in early in the morning.

Haifeng originally drew the drawing in the style of a British street phone booth. As a result, Huang Lvzhuang, who was responsible for the manufacturing, thought it was "unsightly" and "too simple", so he demolished everything from scratch, redrawn the drawings, and personally supervised the work to build this [voting house], which is small but complete with all the internal organs.

The hut was built according to Haifeng's requirements and was extremely small, with pulleys installed on all four legs for easy movement. Except for the space occupied by three rosewood boxes containing tickets, the interior is barely large enough for a person to turn around. When converted into a modern area, it is less than four square meters.

The height is more than two meters, preventing anyone from peeking at the ministers' votes from the glass window above.

Haifeng opened the door of the hut with his own hands and showed everyone the structure inside.

Compared with the flowers, birds and animals carefully carved by craftsmen on the door, the interior is simply plain and slightly shabby.

No decoration is added, because there is no room for cheating here.

"Three boxes, with 'Yes' engraved on the left, nothing written in the middle, and 'No' engraved on the right."

Axiang called the eunuchs from the Princess's Mansion, opened the prepared box, and took out heavy gold ingots, which were square and sharp-edged, just enough to be held in the palm of the hand. Then, distribute them one by one to the ministers present.

Haifeng took two pieces and held them high in his hands.

"Most of you are selected from thousands of rooms in the imperial examination room. I don't need to waste any words to understand the purpose of this. The prince brother does not want to be criticized for covering up my uncle's request for a fortune, so With my help, I came up with this idea. At the great court meeting, I distributed a piece of gold ingot to all the ministers and ministers. The thing we have to decide is: whether the Suo Etu should be punished immediately and sentenced to death."

Haifeng walked into the voting room and put two gold ingots in the "OK" box along the tight opening.

The ministers outside really couldn't see clearly what she threw, but they heard a dull crash first, and then the crisp sound of gold ingots colliding.

Haifeng turned around and walked out, signaling to everyone present that they could come forward to check the reliability of the house.

"When everyone has voted, I will take the key, open all three boxes, and find out the number of gold ingots. You don't have to worry about offending anyone. No one knows who voted for which box except you. The one in the middle , are pretending to abstain from voting. If you don’t know whether Suo’etu should be killed or not, and you still can’t make up your mind, just vote for that one.”

Haifeng gave everyone the right to view equally, and even Ma Qi was let go. Ma Qi rushed at the front. He didn't wait for anyone to enter the voting room. He went in first, looked over it, and found faults in every place.

"The fourth princess's thinking is too shallow! First of all, if someone steals gold, wouldn't the amount be wrong?"

"I thought Archmaester Ma Qi was very smart! If you are willing, take out the two I just put in and try them out."

Of course, Ma Qi didn't want to miss this opportunity to humiliate the fourth princess, so he hurriedly reached into the box. As a result, let alone the palm of my hand, I couldn't even put a finger in it. The small opening can only accommodate small gold ingots, which are slightly thicker than chopsticks. He was anxious to lift the box up, follow the small opening, and let the gold ingots fall out, but found that the box was nailed to the base, and no matter how hard he tried to toss it, it didn't move at all.

"Okay, even if you can't steal the gold, how do you know who voted and who didn't?"

"The eyes cannot see, but the ears cannot hear? When gold touches gold, there will naturally be a sound. If there is no sound, no one is allowed to come out."

Ma Qi was blocked by Haifeng and asked again. He walked around in the small wooden house and finally came up with another drawback.

"You hold the key. When the votes are finally counted, you secretly change a few. Who can find out?"

"This is a good topic. If you come out first, I have a reason."

"I won't come out!"

"Okay, then don't be scared."

Haifeng took the keychain from Axiang, selected a jagged one, and used it to turn the switch installed on the floor of the cabin.

The hidden mechanism was activated, and the four wall panels of the hut all fell down with a snap. Before Ma Qi could think about it, he realized that there were only four thick copper pillars left on his front, back, left and right. Other than that, there was no obstruction.

"When everyone has finished voting, I will open this agency first, open the lock in public, and then take out the gold ingots for inventory. How about it? Grand Bachelor Ma Qi, have you seen how I plan to cheat?"

There are pulleys at the bottom of the hut, which is a little higher than the ground. Ma Qi looked down at the reactions of his colleagues and felt that he was somewhat like an opera singer. He pretended to dust himself off and jumped to the ground.

"Cheating is not allowed, but is it possible that if we vote and Suo'etu deserves death, His Highness the Crown Prince, should we really execute him?"

Hai Feng looked around and saw the same question as Ma Qi on the faces of many ministers.

Facing this new 'democracy', this group of bureaucrats, who had been thoroughly brainwashed by the feudal monarchy, were at a loss and couldn't believe it.

How could the high-ranking and infallible prince of the country be at the mercy of the officials' voting results?

It doesn't matter, they will go from being at a loss to wanting to stop little by little.

Because of the power, it smells really good.

In this hut, visible only to you, everyone can experience the joy of being an emperor.

The vast majority of monarchies in the world use this method to gradually transition to a democratic parliamentary decision-making form.

Haifeng was not in a hurry.

She will continue to push this embryonic 'parliament' to gain more power and let the ancient monarchy step down from the altar.

And she wants to be the core figure in the parliament. Gradually, he controlled the power of the court by influencing the voting results.

The autocracy of monarchy and the expansion of democracy were in conflict with each other, and when the conflict could not be eased, she had the possibility of taking advantage of the chaos and ascending to the throne.

"Everyone, this room, and this palace standing here at this time, are the sincerity of the prince brother who traveled thousands of miles to send it back. Whether it is true or not, I will know with the life and death of Suo'etu!"

Linked to Volume [-], Chapter [-]: Entering the Urn, Volume [-], Chapter [-]: Variables

Notes for personal use

1. Jiumen Admiral is not a formal official name. The official official name is usually abbreviated to Infantry Commander. For the convenience of readers’ understanding, the common name of Jiumen Admiral is used in this article.

The scope of duties of the infantry commander was gradually determined in the later years of Kangxi's reign. Obei was defeated in a battle in the eighth year of Kangxi's reign, but the infantry commanded the Yamen. It was only in the thirteenth year of Kangxi's reign that he began to take charge of the capital's security work. Before that, it was only a department within the Eight Banners barracks. Therefore, in the TV series, the plot of the nine-door admiral Wu Liu and his gang fighting against Obei is actually impossible.

It is impossible for a Han to hold such a key position as the Admiral of the Nine Gates. Generally, they were Manchu and Mongolian nobles who were particularly trusted by the emperor. There was only one Han infantry commander in the Qing Dynasty, named Jiang Linzhao, who lived during the Tongzhi period of Xianfeng. But he is in a temporary position, with only an honorary title and no real power.

2. According to the time in the article, the infantry commander at this time should be a man named Kaiyinbu, Zhengbaiqi. He died of illness in the [-]st year of Kangxi's reign, and Tuoheqi was appointed as the new infantry commander by Kangxi.

But for this opening announcement, other than a simple resume, no information could be found. I struggled for a long time between making up the role based on my imagination and asking for the appointment time in advance, and finally chose the latter. Because Tuoheqi was a true princeling, he was later executed by Kangxi for wooing officials to say good things to the prince, and his family was not allowed to collect his body after his death. Considering that Tuoheqi's family also included a concubine, the biological mother of the twelfth prince, this punishment was severe. My description of his participation in the prince's seizure of power is at least somewhat reasonable.