Kangxi, the Ming monarch of the Qing Dynasty, made great efforts and made outstanding achievements, although he was tired in his later years, he was still known as the first emperor of the ages. However, on his deathbed, the Ming monarch made a puzzling order, that is, to have a minister accompany him to the funeral.
This has confused some people, as it was common practice in ancient times for emperors to be buried after their deaths. However, at the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, Kangxi himself had already ordered the abolition of this bad habit.
Why, then, did his own orders cease to be recognized in his later years?
Kangxi's story originated from one person, that is, Long Keduo. He came from a prominent background, he was the younger brother of Empress Xiao Yiren, his father was a first-class duke Tong Guowei, and the women in his mother's family were accepted as concubines by Kangxi.
Because of such a family background and excellent ability, he was reused by Kangxi and became his "eyeliner". Long Keduo's career began in the twenty-seventh year of Kangxi, when he was awarded the position of first-class guard and was soon promoted to the rank of Luan Yiyi.
The emperor felt that this was not enough, so he made him concurrently serve as the deputy capital of the Zhenglan Banner Mongolia, a position that held military power and political punishment. Handing over this position to Long Keduo, who is just starting out, is enough to see Kangxi's attention and expectations for him.
Long Keduo was removed from the post of deputy commander by Kangxi because of his subordinates' violations of the law, but this does not mean that his career is over. In fact, only six years later, Kangxi reused him again and granted him the position of commander of the infantry army, commanding the guards and horses of the entire Beijing division, which was undoubtedly an important turning point in his career.
Kangxi's intention is obvious, the dismissal is not a punishment, but to make him wake up and understand that he can't be too high-profile, otherwise the consequences will be unimaginable. Long Keduo's smooth promotion also reflects the fact that Kangxi likes to appoint people close to him.
His status as an imperial relative undoubtedly added a guarantee to his career. Therefore, Long Keduo seeks his position in his position, and should not be too high-profile at any time in order to go further in his career.
Long Keduo was deeply appreciated and reused by Kangxi, and when he accepted the appointment, he was grateful and swore allegiance. However, Kangxi considered the particularity of the position of the commander of the infantry army, and needed to be responsible for the security work inside and outside the palace, as well as many important tasks, if Long Keduo took advantage of this for personal gain, the consequences would be unimaginable.
Therefore, Kangxi let him be silent for six years, in order to entrust him with a heavy responsibility. Before Long Keduo took office, Kangxi once again used Zhu Pi to advise, emphasizing that he must correct his behavior and act cautiously.
He also reminded him that the words of his family should not be trusted, because they might deceive him with good deeds, and then they began to deceive him. In the end, Kangxi warned him that he must always be vigilant and cautious and diligent.
These words show Kangxi's good intentions and Long Keduo's gratitude. Long Keduo did his best for Kangxi and did not dare to slack off, and Kangxi was satisfied with this.
In Kangxi's later years, the prince fought for power, the crown prince Yinren and the eldest brother Yinren angered Kangxi and were placed under house arrest, and Long Keduo was ordered to monitor the second son and the court nobles, becoming Kangxi's eyeliner. Long Keduo is capable and loyal, but he gradually "floats".
Kangxi realized that no one is perfect, and Long Keduo turned a blind eye to his small mistakes. However, Kangxi's burnout left a hidden danger for Yongzheng. Kangxi was indeed a great emperor, who studied diligently in the early days of his succession and secretly accumulated historical experience and knowledge of governing the country.
He is like a showman, although he doesn't go out, he understands the world.
Aobai's resourcefulness and knowledge made the young Kangxi show courage and knowledge that ordinary people can't match. He skillfully took advantage of Aobai's trust in him and summoned the young guards to play buku (i.e., wrestling) in the palace, and used this as an opportunity to capture Aobai.
After that, Kangxi immediately summoned the ministers to list the charges against Aobai, quickly purge his henchmen, and concentrate power. Ao Bai never dreamed that this young man would defeat himself so easily.
The failure of Aobai made Kangxi's life have a new turning point, he successfully stabilized the centralization of power, and commanded the plan in the rear, both civil and military, and took eight years to pacify the rebellious three feudatories, won high praise from the ministers, and no one dared to underestimate him.
After that, he unified Taiwan, expelled the invasion of Tsarist Russia, and conquered the Mobei ......One feather after another has been recorded in history, and it is no wonder that later generations call him "the first emperor of the ages".
Despite this, Kangxi occasionally made mistakes, especially in his later years. Kangxi began to feel tired and no longer paid as much attention to state affairs as before, which led to many problems in the country, such as an empty treasury and laziness.
However, Kangxi's biggest mistake was to let the "nine sons seize the heirs", let the princes fight for a long time, and the number of people involved in the political struggle was too large, and the scope of influence was too wide, laying hidden dangers for the apparently stable Qing Dynasty.
Although Kangxi is old, he is still keenly aware of the problem, but he is powerless and has no energy to deal with these things anymore. However, he still hopes to be able to do his best to prepare his successor to the last of his ability.
At the end of the "Nine Sons Seize the Succession", Kangxi took a fancy to the fourth elder brother Yinzhen among many princes, and he hoped to find one or two reliable supporters for Yinzhen to help him stabilize his power.
After careful consideration, he took a fancy to the two courtiers, Nian Qianyao and Long Keduo. So, he ordered Long Keduo to accompany Nian Qianyao to the funeral. Although Nian Qianyao was not a Manchu nobleman, he was born in a family of eunuchs and won Kangxi's appreciation, and his sister was also married to the fourth elder brother Yinzhen.
Therefore, compared with Long Keduo, Kangxi is more at ease with Nian Qianyao. After all, Nian Qianyao is Yinzhen's in-laws, and it is foreseeable that if Yinzhen ascends the throne, Nian Qianyao will definitely support him.
In addition, during the period of "Nine Sons Seize the Inheritance", Nian Qianyao was already very close to Yinzhen and became Yinzhen's henchman.
Kangxi values Yinzhen's ability to control his subordinates, but he feels a little tricky about Long Keduo. Long Keduo is old and inflated, and he may rely on himself to be Yinzhen's uncle to "rely on the old and sell the old".
In addition, he also has multiple auras such as the commander of the infantry army, the noble background, and the emperor's relatives, which makes him easy to become "floating". Therefore, Kangxi decided to take some measures to ensure that Long Keduo remained loyal to Yinzhen.
Kangxi secretly summoned Long Keduo, who was not surprised by such a one-on-one interview. Kangxi praised him first, and Long Keduo also responded with a smile, although he had some doubts in his heart, he was very happy to be praised by the emperor.
However, Kangxi suddenly changed the subject and issued a holy decree that shocked Long Keduo. The decree was to the effect that, in recognition of his many years of loyal service to him, the Emperor decided to bestow upon him the highest honor and ordered him to accompany him in his funeral after his death.
Roncodo was very confused, he wanted to know what he had done wrong and why he was suddenly asked to die. Although, in Kangxi's later years, Long Keduo did not fulfill his duties as a supervising minister, because he found that there were too many problems in the DPRK, and Kangxi, as the boss, was unwilling to take care of this matter.
However, at the beginning, Long Keduo did his best to spy on the minister and reported it truthfully to Kangxi. Despite this, the emperor demanded his death because of this issue, which was too much for him.
Long Keduo fell into a contradiction after receiving the holy decree, he knew that the emperor's order could not be disobeyed, but he was very depressed in his heart. After much deliberation, he decided to find a way to survive.
Not long after, Long Keduo found an opportunity - to take refuge in the fourth elder brother Yinzhen. At that time, the situation of the struggle between the princes gradually became clear, and many ministers thought that the emperor would pass the throne to Yinzhen.
Roncodo thinks so too, and he feels that this is a chance for him to survive. So, he decided to take refuge in Yinzhen. When Long Keduo came to visit, Yinzhen welcomed him very much.
However, when Long Keduo spoke out about his difficulties, Yin Zhen was very confused, and he asked Long Keduo if he had done anything offensive to the emperor.
After hearing the news of his appointment as the commander of the infantry army, Long Keduo knew in his heart that this was the emperor's trust and a test for himself. He always kept in mind the warning, stayed away from the family, worked faithfully, and never made a big mistake.
Yinzhen thinks about it, Long Keduo has always been no big mistake, no one is perfect, and everyone is smaller, but he should not be guilty to death, why did his father have to kill him? After some thought, Yinzhen decided to try to intercede with Kangxi.
What he didn't expect was that when he carefully said what he wanted, Kangxi didn't see a trace of annoyance on his face, but instead met his request very happily and revoked his previous request for Long Keduo to accompany him to the funeral.
Not only that, Kangxi also promoted Long Keduo to be the minister of life, and rewarded him with dazzling eyes, four dragons and other things that symbolize supreme glory. All this made Long Keduo pleasantly surprised, and after the ghost gate was closed, he thanked Yinzhen for his kindness and swore to follow him.
At this point, Yinzhen finally understood Kangxi's intentions, good guy, this is a big loyal minister sent me over!
My father orchestrated all this, apparently to pass the throne to me. Sure enough, Kangxi died later, and Yinzhen successfully took over and became Emperor Yongzheng. At first, everything was developing according to Kangxi's vision, and in the early days of Yongzheng's accession to the throne, Long Keduo and Nian Qianyao were grateful and contributed a lot to Yongzheng's consolidation of imperial power.
However, as Kangxi's influence gradually faded, Long Keduo began to forget Yinzhen's favor back then, and his ** illness flared up again and began to become arrogant. In particular, Yinzhen trusted him too much and gave him the power to "choose ** at will without asking for instructions", which led to his excessive expansion and the appointment of a large number of people who supported him, known as "Tong Xuan", which made him quickly accumulate a large number of henchmen in the court.
To make matters worse, his son was a misbehaving, relying on his father's protection to commit misdeeds and arrogance, and the father and son together ruined the family's reputation. These evil deeds finally reached Yongzheng's ears, making him realize the danger and begin to have the idea of getting rid of Long Kedo.
In the third year of Yongzheng, Yongzheng preemptively attacked the over-inflated Nian Qianyao, and took this opportunity to severely criticize Long Keduo, and took back the eye-catching feathers and other items that symbolized glory given by the emperor.
Subsequently, he persuaded in public to further reduce Long Keduo's Taibao and first-class Adhahafan positions. At this time, Yongzheng realized that he did not fully understand Kangxi's intentions back then.
Back then, Kangxi gave Yongzheng the opportunity to show favor to Long Keduo, not only hoping to gain Long Keduo's loyalty, but also telling him that in order to maintain the stability of the throne, it is necessary to firmly grasp the life and death power of the ministers, and not let them have the possibility of "crossing the line".
His father's resourcefulness was superior, but unfortunately he didn't understand it thoroughly enough.