Yue Zhongqi reported on his work and was warmly entertained by the minister, and Yongzheng wanted to take the latter
Yue Zhongqi, a famous general in the northwest of the Yongzheng Dynasty, once served as the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi, and his status was respected. However, as a descendant of Yue Fei, a famous anti-Jin general in the Southern Song Dynasty, his family background is somewhat embarrassing in the history of the Qing Dynasty.
Therefore, in the Yongzheng Dynasty, he was often criticized by people and troubled.
In the fifth year of Yongzheng, Yue Zhongqi returned to the capital after completing the military affairs in the northwest. Halfway through, he was warmly received by Cai Ting, the secretary of the Ministry of War, and he was very grateful for this.
When meeting with Emperor Yongzheng, he unreservedly revealed the content of his conversation with Cai Ting. This is undoubtedly a taboo for frontier generals to interact with court ministers, especially in the eyes of the suspicious Yongzheng Emperor, which may become evidence to convict the sensitive Yue Zhongqi of "rebellion".
However, what makes people wonder is that Emperor Yongzheng was indeed very angry about this matter, but he punished Cai Ting and sentenced him to be beheaded, but Yue Zhongqi was unscathed, why is this?
If you want to talk about the grievances between Cai Ting and Yue Zhongqi, you can't fail to mention Nian Qianyao. Nian Qianyao's combat ability in the Yongzheng Dynasty was unmatched, and in the campaign to pacify Qinghai, he was the main general, and Yue Zhongqi was the deputy general.
However, Nian Qianyao's personality is a bit arrogant and prone to arguments with others. In the second year of Yongzheng, he had a conflict with Cai Ting, the governor of Sichuan. At that time, Nian Qianyao had just defeated Qinghai's Luobzang Danjin, and his prestige was very high, and Emperor Yongzheng favored him even more, allowing him to monopolize power in the northwest and southwest regions.
However, Nian Qianyao's style of behavior became more and more presumptuous, and in order to increase his wealth, he applied to Yongzheng to open a silver mine in Sichuan. In the face of Nian Qianyao's request, Emperor Yongzheng was in a happy mood and immediately agreed to his application.
Cai Ting took over Nian Qianyao's position and made a ridiculous excuse for the requirements in the holy decree: "Sichuan does not produce **, and it cannot open mines." This made Cai Ting, who had long been unaccustomed to seeing Nian Qianyao's flying and domineering, seem a little unreasonable.
In fact, Sichuan can indeed produce a lot of silver mines, and Nian Qianyao, as the former governor of Sichuan, may be more aware of this problem than Cai Ting. What made Nian Qianyao even more angry was that Cai Ting dared to refute himself with such a ridiculous excuse, which was a blatant declaration of war.
Because he was favored by Emperor Yongzheng, Nian Qianyao denounced Cai Ting to the imperial court. Yongzheng was greatly dissatisfied with this and immediately ordered Cai Ting to be arrested and taken to the capital for trial. Originally, this was just a dispute between Nian Qianyao and Cai Ting, but Nian Qianyao's rapid failure pushed Yue Zhongqi to the forefront.
Before Cai Ting's prison car arrived in Beijing, Nian Qianyao had already returned to the capital, and behaved arrogantly, without any regard for the emperor's dignity, which made Yongzheng extremely angry.
Yongzheng has extreme emotional fluctuations, and he wants to protect those he loves even if the sky falls, and he hopes that those he dislikes will disappear as soon as possible. At this time, Cai Ting was escorted to the capital, and Yongzheng immediately ordered him to enter the palace and interrogate him personally.
In fact, Yongzheng's purpose was to obtain evidence unfavorable to Nian from Cai Ting, who had made the conflict with Nian Qianyao public.
Cai Ting helped Yongzheng to bring down Nian Qianyao, depicted his crimes in detail, and fought for his rights and interests. After Yongzheng got the evidence, he immediately took action against Nian Qianyao, removed him from all positions, and was replaced by Yue Zhongqi.
Due to his successful downfall, Cai Ting was exonerated and promoted to the Imperial History of the Left Capital of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and concurrently served as the governor of Zhili, responsible for the management of the Gyeonggi region. However, what is surprising is that Cai Ting has become arrogant and arrogant because of Yongzheng's special treatment.
Although Nian Qianyao did offend him, Yue Zhongqi didn't do anything.
Cai Ting may have been out of disgust for Yue Zhongqi, or he wanted to completely eliminate the influence of this person. When Yongzheng nominated him as the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi, Cai Ting immediately objected and planned to overthrow Yue Zhongqi together.
Cai Ting's book this time seemed quite unkind, directly accusing Yue Zhongqi of having bad motives, and seemed to grasp Yue Zhongqi's most taboo background problem.
Yongzheng knew that things could not be expanded, so he rejected Cai Ting's point of view, not only promoted Yue Zhongqi, but also demoted Cai Ting to the secretary of the military department. This may also be Yongzheng's other humor: If you think Yue Zhongqi has bad intentions, then I will let him work under your nose, and you can check if you want.
Although Cai Ting was aware of Yongzheng's dissatisfaction, he still secretly picked on Yue Zhongqi. However, Yue Zhongqi had no idea about the intrigue in the capital, and was engrossed in leading troops to fight in the northwest.
When Yue Zhongqi returned to Beijing for the first time to report on his work in the fifth year of Yongzheng, Cai Ting understood that Yue Zhongqi was deeply trusted by the emperor, and the previous slander might make Yue Zhongqi difficult to handle after hearing it, so he found Yue Zhongqi in advance and complimented him.
Yue Zhongqi has always been troubled by the problem of his background, and now he can't help but be very grateful when he sees that the military department is so reasonable.
When Yue Zhongqi met Yongzheng, he expressed Cai Shangshu's cordiality and friendliness to him, and thanked Emperor Yongzheng for finding him a leader who cared for him.
However, this made Yongzheng angry, because Cai Ting had scolded Yue Zhongqi in a book before, but now he turned to curry favor with him.
The news that Yue Zhongqi was ** has already spread in the capital. When he learned that Cai Shangshu suspected him of his ill intentions, his heart was like five thunderbolts. He knew that his identity was sensitive, Lord Shangshu scolded him with his front foot, and his back foot kept being close to himself, could it be that the emperor really believed Cai Ting's ** and sent him to test himself?
At this time, he couldn't help but think of his original performance, would he be convicted of "befriending close ministers" for treason?
Yue Zhongqi doubted his abilities, so he wrote to the emperor, admitting that he was too uneducated to take on the important duties of governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi, hoping to be removed from his post and find a light job to make ends meet.
Despite Emperor Yongzheng's moodiness, he expressed understanding and comfort to Yue Zhongqi's statement, encouraged him to continue working hard, and believed in him. At the same time, Emperor Yongzheng also characterized Cai Ting as a treacherous villain and sent him to prison.
However, Emperor Yongzheng's severe punishment of Cai Ting was not just because Cai Ting ** Yue Zhongqi, but because Cai Ting was involved in the Friends case, which was a famous incident in the Yongzheng Dynasty.
The conflict between Tian Wenjing and Li Fu stemmed from the misconduct of fellow villager Huang Zhenguo, recommended by Cai Ting, when he served as a county magistrate in Henan Province. As the imperial history of the left capital of the Imperial Procuratorate, Cai Ting recommended his fellow villagers to the emperor, but Huang Zhenguo took advantage of the backstage to be domineering and domineering
Tian Wenjing discovered this problem and decided to deal with it in accordance with the law.
Tian Wenjing, as Yongzheng's confidant, resolutely implemented his reform policy. However, many of the ministers in the imperial court who had been damaged by the reforms elected Li Fu as their leader and were hostile to him.
The method they adopted was to oppose anything that Tian Wenjing supported and everything that Tian Wenjing opposed. Because Huang Zhenguo was ** by Tian Wenjing, people began to question his innocence, which led to the voice of the government and the opposition overturning the case.
Huang Zhenguo and Li Fu, recommended by Cai Ting, joined forces against Tian Wenjing, which made Yongzheng think that there was a partisan relationship between the courtiers. As a result, Yongzheng suppressed Li Fu and others with strong means, and found evidence of Cai Ting*** in the process.
When Cai Ting found Yue Zhongqi, his position was in jeopardy. Being close to Yue Zhongqi seems to be his way of self-preservation. However, this act was interpreted by Yongzheng as a double-faced, hastening his defeat.
Cai Ting's mistake was that he dug too deep and pushed himself to a dead end. After all, even if he didn't find Yue Zhongqi, with Yongzheng's dislike for Cai, he would be deposed sooner or later.
Imagine, if Cai Ting can handle things rationally and maintain a good relationship with Yue Zhongqi, then when he makes a mistake, Yongzheng is likely to choose to forgive him because of his respect for Yue Zhongqi.
However, Cai Ting is narrow-minded and thinks highly of himself, and it is inevitable that these actions of him will eventually put himself in trouble.