In the sixty-first year of Kangxi, Emperor Kangxi died of illness in Changchun Garden in the northern suburbs, Yinzhen inherited the throne, and changed his name to Yongzheng the following year. After ascending the throne, Emperor Yongzheng reused the thirteenth son of Kangxi Yinxiang, and did not want to let go of his political opponent Yinci and others, and Yinci and others were not willing to fail, so the struggle between the two sides continued after Emperor Yongzheng succeeded to the throne, and he took a variety of measures politically to consolidate his throne.

The first is to eliminate dissidents, divide and disintegrate the princes' groups, and recall Yinzhen from the Northwest Army and confine him. Jin Feng Yinci was named Prince Lian and Minister of Prime Minister's Affairs. Send Yinyu to Qinghai West Datong. In view of the fact that the Qing Dynasty did not have an effective system of establishing a reserve, there were often disputes over the right to inherit the throne, and a secret system of establishing a reserve system was created.

Before the second year of Yongzheng, Emperor Yongzheng's attack on political enemies was still somewhat restrained, because the regime was not yet too consolidated, and it was inconvenient to stimulate the other party too much. Qinghai counterinsurgency was victorious, and the strength of the Yongzheng regime increased, and then the punishment of Yinci and the gang was intensified. condemned Yinci himself, saying that he said: "Wanton rebellion and violation of the law, although I want to be tolerant and forgiving, and the country's constitution is there, there is nothing to do, and I should share his guilt with the ministers." ”

Cutting Yinxi's clan and captivity, and was renamed Aqina, Yinyu was cut down and confined, and was renamed Seth Hei. The tenth son of the emperor Yinzhen was imprisoned, and the fourteenth son of Kangxi, Yinzhen, was first sent to guard the mausoleum, and then was imprisoned. The twelfth son of Emperor Kangxi Yinzhi was demoted, and later the third son of Kangxi, Yinzhi, was also imprisoned by Gejue.

In May of the same year, he went to Sunubelle to further carry out activities against the Yinci party, and soon the problems of Nian Qianyao and Long Keduo appeared, so he relaxed the offensive against Yinxi, and when he died in the third year of Yongzheng, he accelerated the punishment of Yinci and others. In the fourth year of Yongzheng, Yinzhen and Yinci were imprisoned to death, Yinzhen moved to Jingshan, the capital, Cai Huaixi committed suicide, Guo Yunjin showed his head to the public, and other Yinxi party members were also punished. So far, the Yinci Group, which has been operating for more than 20 years, has completely collapsed.

In the third year of Yongzheng, Emperor Yongzheng ordered the general of Fuyuan, Nian Qianyao, to commit suicide in the name of prestige and selfishness, and at the same time cut Long Keduo Taibao, and then was imprisoned to death. And because of this, the Wang Jingqi case and the investigation of the court test questions were linked.

Officialdom is like a casino, and Nian Qianyao and Long Keduo are one of the big losers overnight. Nian Qianyao was downgraded eighteen levels in a row and became the old man who watched the city gate in Hangzhou; Long Keduo was locked up in a small black house outside Changchun Garden for a lifetime. In the end, the two lost their lives. In fact, it was very common for ancient officials to lose their jobs, and it may even be the capital of a comeback.

In the 56th year of the reign of Kangxi, there was chaos in Tibet, and the Dzungar Tselu Alabutan sent his general Tsering Dun Dob to attack Tibet and kill Razang Khan. Sichuan Governor Kang Tai led his troops out of Huangsheng Pass, but the troops mutinied. Nian Qianyao, the governor of Sichuan at the time, knew that his opportunity had come. Sure enough, Kangxi gave him the whole Sichuan map and entrusted him with a heavy task.

Nian Qianyao did not rush forward, and on the one hand, he continued to eliminate the uneasy factors in the surrounding areas of Sichuan, and on the other hand, he prepared military grain and grass to open up transportation routes into Tibet. After that, he did something that traditional courtiers don't do, asking the emperor for an official. It is the official of the governor of Sichuan. Nian Qianyao's reason was that there were serious shortcomings among the Sichuan battalions in the past, and the command hierarchy was chaotic during the war, so it was necessary to have such a commander-in-chief to sit in the center.

Kangxi readily agreed. Nian Qianyao's soaring began with the vacant position of the governor of Sichuan. In the 59th year of Kangxi, Emperor Kangxi ordered the general Yanxin to lead troops from Qinghai into Tibet, and awarded the seal of General Yao Dingxi. In August, Tseringtun Dob was defeated and Tibet was pacified.

The battle for the crown prince in the Forbidden City has reached a fever pitch. Yinzhen, the fourth son of the emperor, speculated about Kangxi's doubts, deliberately expressed no interest in the throne, and proclaimed himself the first idler in the world. This idler is very busy in private, busy looking for his former partner, today's Northwest Wang Nian Qianyao, as one of his most powerful chess pieces in the struggle for the crown.

Yongzheng later pointed out that thanks to Nian Qianyao's presence in the northwest, he suppressed the fourteenth elder brother Yinzhen, the opponent for the crown prince. After Kangxi died and Yongzheng ascended the throne, because of Nian Qianyao's meritorious assistance, and because of the rebellion in Luobzang Danjin in Qinghai, the military power in Sichuan and Shaanxi was given to him.

The rebels crossed the Yellow River. Yongzheng ordered Nian Qianyao to enter the suppression and named him the general of Fuyuan. According to the intelligence, Nian Qianyao judged that Lobzang Tenzin was not enough to succeed, and in March he ordered his subordinates to raid the rebels, and only more than 200 people remained in Lobzang Tenzin, and in May, the Qinghai region was pacified. When the class teacher returned to the court, Yongzheng personally went out of the city accordingly and was crowned a first-class duke. The blessing of people and ministers has reached the extreme.

After the Yongzheng throne was stabilized, he handed over the decision-making power of many affairs to Nian Qianyao, such as the sea ban and the right to select officials. Even the question of the salt merchants of Fujian on the southeast coast had to be asked to the king of the northwest. Changing the holy oracle without permission, cutting first and then playing this kind of great rebellion in ancient society, Nian Qianyao did it, and Yongzheng wrote Zhu Pi instead: "The added words are very good!"

"You've changed it so well, I originally wanted to discuss it with you!"

The matter of losing his head has become a meritorious reward here for Nian Qianyao. After that, Yongzheng simply didn't let him change it, and directly asked him to draft an edict on his behalf, and the matter of Tusi is a typical case. When Nian Qianyao was the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi, he repeatedly recommended his old colleagues. After becoming a general, he intensified his efforts and constantly rewarded his old subordinates for their merits.

In the first month of the first year of Yongzheng, Nian Qianyao elected fifteen old Sichuan and Shaanxi ministers in one go. These people were either local officials or important people in the army. Officials in Jiangsu and Zhejiang later also wanted to be recommended by Nian Qianyao. Even the officials recommended by Nian Qianyao at one time became a quality inspection-free product, and the officials called it the annual election.

At the same time that Nian Qianyao was arrogant, Long Keduo was also feng shui, and he was prosperous for a while. Long Keduo supported Dai Yongzheng's accession to the throne, and was awarded the title of Taibao, the official of the Ministry of Shangshu, the secretary of the Li Fan Yuan, the president of the "Records of the Emperor Shengzuren", the president of the "Great Qing Huidian", and the president of the "History of the Ming Dynasty". Yongzheng mentioned that he always called him uncle, and the degree of intimacy was relatively rare.

Nian Qianyao was favored and looked down on Long Keduo, of course Yongzheng couldn't tell Nian Qianyao that Long Keduo supported him to the throne, so he could only knock on the side and say: "Uncle Long Keduo, this person is a loyal minister of the True Holy Ancestor Emperor, a meritorious hero of me, a good minister of the country, and a rare minister who is truly the first outstanding contemporary minister." ”

Long Keduo has so many ministers by himself, and the degree of majesty is obviously higher than that of Nian Qianyao, Yongzheng is really afraid that these two people will form some knots in each other's hearts, and specially formulated Nian Qianyao's eldest son Nian Xi to succeed Long Keduo as his son.

Long Keduo already had two sons, and Nian Xi, who got this succession, told Yongzheng: "The minister should have three sons in his life, and now he will be rewarded by the emperor, just like the gift of God." ”

He also said: "If Nian Qianyao and I don't see two people, we will lose the emperor." ”

This is what he means when he is ready to unite with Nian Qianyao to the end, Yongzheng, Nian Qianyao, and Long Keduo, the trinity of ancient monarchs and ministers have met an example, not as Yongzheng himself said, let alone as Nian Qianyao and Long Keduo expected, but after more than a year, the new emperor turned his face.

Yongzheng's punishment of Nian Qianyao was carried out step by step. The first step was around the time when His Majesty left Beijing in the second year of Yongzheng, and at this time Yongzheng had already made a decision to crack down on Nian Qianyao. The Zhu edict that Nian Qianyao received after leaving Beijing was a hint to him. The second step is to greet the relevant officials.

First, Yongzheng's cronies demanded that they draw a clear line with Nian Qianyao and expose Nian Qianyao's bad deeds in order to protect themselves; first, people that Nian Qianyao did not like, let them know that the emperor was going to rectify Nian Qianyao, so that they could stand firm; first, people who had an average relationship with Nian Qianyao, let them be vigilant, alienate and get rid of Nian Qianyao, and not stand on the wrong side. This prepared the way for the public punishment of Nian Qianyao.

The third step was to point the finger directly at Nian Qianyao and transfer him away from Xi'an's lair. In the third year of Yongzheng, there was a combination of the sun and the moon, the so-called auspicious of the five-star beads, the ministers congratulated, and the year of Qianyao also praised Yongzheng for sleeping at night, and worked hard. However, the handwriting in the table was sloppy, and for a moment he was negligent and miswritten Chaogan Xiti as Xiti Chaogan.

Yongzheng seized this handle to play on the topic, thinking that this was his own self-reliance and disrespect, so his military exploits in Qinghai were between what I allowed and what I didn't allow. Then Yongzheng changed the officials of Sichuan and Shaanxi, first dismissed Hu Qiheng, the governor of Gansu who was a close confidant of Nian Qianyao, and transferred Natai, the acting governor of Sichuan, back to Beijing, so that he could not make trouble in office. In April, he was relieved of his post as governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi, and ordered him to hand over the seal of the general of Fuyuan and transfer him to the post of general of Hangzhou.

The last step is to order Nian Qianyao to cut himself. After Nian Qianyao was transferred, internal and external officials saw the situation more clearly and exposed his crimes. In the name of subservience to the invitation of the ministers, Yongzheng reduced Nian Qianyao's official position, and in September of that year, he ordered Nian Qianyao to be arrested and escorted to Beijing for trial. In December, the minister of the imperial court submitted the results of the trial to Yongzheng, listed 92 major crimes for Nian Qianyao, and requested that the canonical punishment be established.

He was charged with five counts of great treason, nine counts of deception, sixteen counts of trespassing, thirteen counts of rebellion, six counts of monopoly, six counts of taboo, four counts of cruelty, eighteen counts of greed, and fifteen counts of erosion. The powerful young general ended in ruin, his family ruined, and his family died.

Long Keduo was not ignorant of Yongzheng's suspicions, and he also wanted to leave a way out, so he offered to resign as the commander of the infantry army. This move is in Yongzheng's arms, he has long wanted to leave this important position in the hands of Long Keduo, and is ready to let Gong Tai, who is not very close to Long Keduo, take over this position. Taking the opportunity of allowing Long Keduo to resign as the commander of the infantry army, Yongzheng began to openly attack Long Keduo.

It happened that in the fifth year of Yongzheng, Long Keduo's private possession of jade was reported, so Yongzheng ordered the arrest of Long Keduo, and built three huts outside Changchun Garden, and imprisoned Long Keduo inside.

The jade is the emperor's genealogy, with the name of each clan member on it, as well as comments on the person. Why did Long Keduo keep a manuscript privately? Presumably, he probably wanted to preserve Kangxi's information about the establishment of the prince, such as Kangxi's comments on Yinzhen, the fourteenth son of the emperor. This jade must be useful to Long Kedo, otherwise he wouldn't have kept it private.

Long Keduo kept it privately, wanting to prove that he had the credit for Yongzheng's succession to turn things around, and to let Yongzheng know that he knew more hidden secrets, so that Yongzheng was afraid of him and did not dare to start easily. And this clever move just provided Yongzheng with an excuse to punish him.

The Council of Ministers of the Kings decided that there were forty-one major sins of Long Keduo, and that he would be guilty of the crimes of Nian Qianyao. In the end, Long Keduo was exempted from the Fa-rectification and built three houses outside Changchun Garden, imprisoned forever. Hundreds of thousands of taels of stolen money were recovered from the family property. The eldest son Yue Xing'a was dismissed, the second son Yuzhu was sent to Heilongjiang on an errand, and Long Keduo died in anger.

Regarding Nian Qianyao's transformation from being favored to being killed by ice and fire, Yongzheng immediately stated: "You can't be afraid of everything, Nian Qianyao is an example, and he will eventually be killed." Nian Qianyao was deeply gracious, good at prestige, opened the door of bribery, and because of the exposure of various deeds, he had no choice but to enforce the law, as a warning to those who were worthy of grace. ”

The death of Nian Qianyao and even Long Keduo lies in arrogance. Ye Shizhong believes that because Nian Qianyao and Long Keduo mastered all the inside stories of Yongzheng's accession to the throne, they immediately killed and killed after the war was decided and the court was safe. The impeachment of hundreds of officials made Yongzheng have to be ruthless.

Nian Qianyao was good at acting as a prestige, which aroused Yongzheng's dissatisfaction and suspicion; Nian Qianyao formed a group of friends, endangering political clarity; and Nian Qianyao's greed for wealth made Yongzheng, who was trying to rectify the finances and the rule of officials, intolerable. The downfall of Nian Qianyao and Long Keduo was a party for profit, and the disgrace was also self-inflicted.

From the perspective of righteousness, these two people did not have the thief heart to rebel and stand on their own. It's just that in the imperial society, the arrogant Emperor Yongzheng is naturally unwilling to always be a foil and dominator of Nian Qianyao, and the emperor's scales are still untouchable.

From the point of view of political power, the war in the northwest has been decided, and the Nian clique has a big tail and has a heavy army, which is a clear danger; although Yongzheng has been on the throne for a long time, the former forces vying for the crown are still there, and the possibility of taking advantage of the forces of Nian Qianyao and Long Keduo to counterattack cannot be ruled out. Under all these factors, it really becomes necessary to die.