Chapter 29: Kangxi Witnesses Vibrant Vitality

"E-de, screw your mother!"

"You are nothing but a lapdog of the disgraced Crown Prince! How dare you seal up my residence? Just wait until the Fourteenth Prince returns; he will skin you alive!"

Just as Hongli reached another alleyway, he heard more shouting.

He could not help but lift the curtain again. He saw an official in third-rank robes, holding his official hat, walking toward the side gate of a grand, open residence. The man tossed his braid back and cursed loudly at E-de, the commander of the City Guard, who was standing there.

Hongli then saw many well-dressed men and women being dragged out of the residence by soldiers of the City Guard. Some of the women were wailing loudly as they were pulled away.

Hearing the man mention "waiting for the Fourteenth Prince," Hongli realized he must be a servant of the Fourteenth Prince. Because the Fourteenth Prince was also held in resentment by Hongxi, his servants had been forcibly levied for the "sanitation management fee."

Hongli then watched as E-de ignored the official, simply ordering his men to close the residence's main gate and apply a seal.

"I don't care what kind of guard you are! Go find out who I am! How dare you collect money from me?"

"When I go to the Eighth Prince’s mansion, I can walk in to see him without even needing to be announced!"

Inside the Inner City, conflicts between wealthy Banner families and the City Guard were breaking out constantly. Not long after, Hongli saw another wealthy Banner man arguing with the guards.

He then noticed that Hongxi was also present. Having stepped down from his carriage, Hongxi snatched a whip from his driver and lashed it across the man's face, sending him stumbling.

The man had been holding a birdcage, which fell to the ground upon the impact. The birds inside panicked and fluttered wildly, unable to escape the cage.

"You dog of a servant, daring to be so arrogant here? I’ll deal with you on behalf of my Eighth Uncle!"

"You may refuse to pay this money, but the Imperial Edict is clear: if you do not pay, you are not a loyal servant of the Great Qing and have no right to live here. Take your family and your property and get out!" Hongxi scolded him on the spot.

The man, face flushed, immediately knelt down: "I will pay! I will pay right now!"

Seeing this, Hongli offered a faint smile.

In recent days, because Hongxi and his men were so proactive in dealing with dissidents and traitors, and because the lower-ranking Banner men who joined the City Guard were more than willing to help manage the wealthy, the City Guard had collected a considerable amount of silver.

In the first month alone, they had brought in over three thousand taels. Combined with the revenue from selling waste transported out of the city, covering the expenses of the City Guard and the auxiliary management battalion was no longer an issue. There was even a surplus, which could be used to purchase more medicinal herbs to provide relief to the common people suffering from the winter cold and illness.

The Kangxi Emperor, upon receiving secret reports that the number of people dying from cold and hunger this year—both Manchu and Han—was less than ten percent of the usual annual total, was overjoyed.

"You two have done very well!"

"What is rare is that you approached this systematically. While providing relief to the commoners, you also considered the difficulties of the low-ranking Banner men, solved the city's long-standing sanitation problems, and dealt a blow to those who were annexing Banner property!"

"What I did not expect is that you did not ask me for help, nor did you ask any of your uncles for assistance."

***

At the end of the twelfth lunar month, the Kangxi Emperor visited Guanlan Pavilion. He pulled Hongli close, rubbed his arm, and spoke to him about these matters.

Hongli replied with a sincere expression, "This is all due to your wise guidance, Imperial Grandfather. Otherwise, your grandson would never have thought of this. I fear that from the very beginning, I would have been at a loss as to how to save more people, given that the Ministry of Revenue only provided twenty thousand piculs of grain."

Seeing Hongli so humble, Kangxi felt even more affection for his grandson. It was as if he had been waiting for a capable grandson to appear, like dry, withered wood suddenly meeting a life-giving rain. A warm, affectionate joy bloomed on the Emperor’s face.

The very next morning, he took Hongli with him to quietly leave the city. This time, Kangxi did not allow incense to be lit inside the carriage. As they entered the bustling street near Huguo Temple, he lifted the curtain and took a deep breath.

"Oh? The offensive stench is truly gone!"

Kangxi then turned to look at Hongli with the excitement of a child.

Hongli explained, "Reporting to Imperial Grandfather, it is because the middle-class Banner families are keeping a close watch. If the auxiliary battalion's cleaning teams do not sweep properly and the streets still smell, they go straight to the yamen to protest, claiming their money was paid in vain. Therefore, the battalion dares not be careless and has established a strict system of fines."

"It is not surprising that ordinary Banner households, who do not earn their rations easily, are so vigilant," Kangxi said with a smile.

Shortly after, he saw a manure cart enter an alley, collecting the chamber pots that households had set out.

Kangxi was amazed: "The Banner men no longer dump their waste indiscriminately?"

"Because these 'five-grain' materials can be sold to farmers for money after being transported out of the city, the auxiliary battalion makes an agreement with the residents: as long as they do not dump waste randomly and hand their chamber pots over to them, the battalion shares a portion of the proceeds from the waste sales."

"As you just said, Imperial Grandfather, ordinary Banner men do not earn money easily, so no one dumps it randomly anymore. While the wealthy do not care about the money, they care even more about their reputation and appearance, so they also forbid their servants from dumping waste indiscriminately," Hongli replied.

Kangxi clapped his hands in admiration: "Excellent. The best way is to follow the people's natural inclination, then guide them with profit, then teach them, then organize them, and the worst way is to contend with them. You have truly applied the words of the Grand Historian to life."

"Walk with me for a while!"

When the carriage reached a quiet spot, Kangxi stepped out with Hongli. Under the pale, dawn-lit sky, they walked into Menlou Alley. Before they had gone far, they heard the rustling sound of sweeping in the quiet street.

Tuli-chen, the commander of the Imperial Guard, approached and said, "Master, the auxiliary battalion's cleaning team is sweeping snow ahead."

Kangxi said, "Do not disturb them. Let us walk over and see."

"As you command!"

Kangxi held Hongli’s hand and followed the sound. Before long, a large snow-clearing team appeared, some shoveling, some sweeping, and some pulling carts of snow. The fresh snow from the night before, not yet hardened by footsteps, was scooped into carts like cotton. In some places, the ground had not even been thoroughly soaked through yet.

***

Kangxi rubbed his hands with a smile and turned back, saying, "Let us go outside the city to look."

Hongli followed him out. Outside the city, many people were standing about, and there were more vendors than before. Because many refugees had joined the auxiliary battalion, their families could now afford to buy basic necessities.

The earth was no longer a vast, white expanse; the yellow soil typical of North China was visible, dotted with larger snowdrifts and more huts built of fresh thatch. The smoke from cooking fires no longer appeared only at the porridge stations; it now rose from the various huts as well, as if the earth were being ignited by the morning sun, filling the winter with a sense of warmth.

"Do you know what I see?" Kangxi asked Hongli with a smile.

Hongli shook his head.

"Vitality! I see the burgeoning vitality of my Great Qing!"

Kangxi spoke with great vigor, then returned to his carriage, feeling refreshed. Hongli followed him in. Once inside, Kangxi asked with a smile, "Hongli, I must ask you something."

"Please ask, Imperial Grandfather."

"Have all the wealthy Banner families paid the sanitation management fee?"

Hongli shook his head: "Your wisdom is vast, Imperial Grandfather. Only the wealthy families who are at odds with my elder brother have paid."

"Then why did you not tell me that your elder brother was using this opportunity to strike at his opponents? Why did you not dissuade him? A good new policy has been turned into a chance for him to settle scores." Kangxi asked this with a smile, seemingly not angry.

Hongli replied, "Your grandson believes that it is precisely because my elder brother wants to strike at his opponents that we were able to combine reform with relief, thereby solving both problems at once."

"That is a reasonable argument. I now truly believe this idea was yours." Kangxi nodded, pointed at Hongli, and then fell silent.

He had already learned through a secret report from the Governor of Shuntian Prefecture that these measures were proposed by Hongli. However, Kangxi had not been entirely convinced, fearing that Yu Huapeng—due to being kicked by Hongxi—might have been biased in attributing the credit to Hongli. That was why he had posed the question. After his silence, he could not help but ponder the words previously mentioned by Fang Bao.