Chapter 92: On Official Duty

After a barrage of sharp retorts from the Ninth Prince, the Prince of Jian went through a rainbow of expressions, each more awkward than the last.

The Prince of Kang could not bear to see the Prince of Jian so thoroughly crushed that he could not even lift his head. He stepped forward as well. “I report to Your Majesty: regardless of whether that foreign Catholic Dolo is a fraud, the fact remains that all our Great Qing soldiers win the world on horseback. How can they possibly cross the sea to fight those foreigners on their own ground? I beg Your Majesty to think carefully. In this minister’s view, the proper course now is to close the seas.”

Anyone could see that the Prince of Kang was far more clever than the hot-tempered Prince of Jian. He did not come at the Ninth Prince head-on; instead, he directly proposed that the Kangxi Emperor seal off the seas. Kangxi had already grown somewhat weary of foreign affairs, so he felt the Prince of Kang’s words had a good deal of reason.

Who would have thought that the Ninth Prince would jump out again? “The Prince of Kang is mistaken. To put it in plain words: if you lose a fight with the neighbors across the street, you not only fail to think of striking back, you even bolt your own front door and crawl out a little back gate instead. Clearly you are the one being bullied, and yet you insist on claiming that your magnanimity is beyond measure.”

The moment he finished, the Tenth Prince burst into laughter. “What Ninth Brother says is exactly right. Some people are just blind with pride, ignorant of their own limits.”

The Third Prince could no longer sit still. By then he had finally understood that the silver penalty Kangxi had imposed on him had all been thanks to the Ninth Prince, and his heart had decisively sided with the Prince of Jian. “Ninth Brother is wrong about this. Do you really think you can compare an ordinary household to our Great Qing? Is our Great Qing not a land vast and rich, broad enough to embrace all things?”

The Ninth Prince turned to him and grinned with unmistakable malice. “Of course Great Qing is vast and rich. But no matter how vast and rich it is, it still needs capable men. Before I started meddling with greenhouse vegetables, Third Brother, had you ever eaten a green leaf in winter?”

The instant the Ninth Prince said this, Kangxi could hardly bear to look at him. Wasn’t this the very sort of opening one handed to an opponent on a silver platter? Sure enough, the Crown Prince immediately laughed and said to Kangxi, “Father Emperor, look at Ninth Brother—he thinks about his vegetable patch all day long. He never tires of talking about it.”

Yet the Ninth Prince showed no shame at all. He turned to the Crown Prince. “Crown Prince, what is wrong with speaking of green leaves? At the very least, this minister-son is sincerely concerned with the livelihood of our Great Qing’s people. Compared with those nobles who think only of sealing the seas and tormenting the common folk at every turn, I am better by who knows how many degrees.”

Seeing the Ninth Prince turn his fire back on him, the Prince of Kang said, “May I ask the Ninth Prince how closing the seas can possibly be called tormenting the people? If the sea is full of tsunamis or storm waves, what is wrong with asking the people to move inland?”

The Ninth Prince laughed. “It is possible—more than possible, in fact. And then we would be handing over our Great Qing’s thousands of miles of coastline to the foreigners for nothing. When they want to come to Great Qing, they would not even need to put in the slightest effort; they would simply walk straight through our doors.”

His words made the First Prince, the Tenth Prince, and even the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Princes, who all commanded troops, visibly tense. Their expressions grew grave, as though they were thinking hard about something. The Prince of Jian finally found his voice again. “Our Eight Banners still guard the passes. Why should we fear these foreigners?”

But the Ninth Prince did not even bother to answer the Prince of Jian. He went straight to Kangxi. “Father Emperor, this son believes that no matter what the foreigners’ intentions may be, their present voyage across the seas to preach in Great Qing is proof of their ambition and drive. Sooner or later, the foreigners will grow stronger and stronger. What we must do is not shut our borders and isolate ourselves, but display the majesty of Great Qing and make these barbarian foreigners submit to us.”

The Tenth Prince immediately stepped forward, his voice high with fervor. “This son supports the motion. I petition for permission to train in the military camp and build a navy that will proclaim Great Qing’s power abroad!”

The Ninth Prince glanced at him and thought, with satisfaction, that the Tenth Prince truly was his brother. Without any prior discussion, he had managed to think of the same thing.

The First Prince, the Thirteenth Prince, and the Fourteenth Prince also boldly petitioned for orders. In an instant, the court was ablaze with martial enthusiasm, everyone eager to march straight for the foreigners’ homeland the very next day. The conservative faction, led by the Crown Prince, calmly and methodically pointed out the many difficulties involved in establishing a navy, provoking a storm of excited rebuttals from the Tenth Prince and the Fourteenth. The Thirteenth Prince clearly agreed as well, but for the sake of his Fourth Brother, he held his tongue and did not say anything too extreme.

The Tenth Prince argued for a long time to no avail, and in the heat of the moment he blurted out, “Father Emperor, before we have even broken out beyond our own borders, we are already so timid and full of fear of difficulties. In this respect, we are not even as good as the foreigners by the smallest measure. If the foreigners in the capital were to learn of this and carry the news back home, Great Qing would be so thoroughly shamed that we would have no face left at all.”

Those words instantly reminded the Ninth Prince of something. Before Kangxi could even flare up at the Tenth Prince, the Ninth Prince said excitedly, “Father Emperor, this son has an idea that will let the foreigners witness Great Qing’s imperial dignity and at the same time intimidate them.”

The Eighth Prince seemed to have come to the same understanding as the Ninth and stood up as well. “I return to Father Emperor: this son has also thought of a plan.”

Kangxi had only just been glaring at the Tenth Prince, but seeing the Eighth and Ninth Princes speak in unison, he set the matter of the Tenth Prince aside for the moment and let the Eighth and Ninth speak first.

The Eighth Prince smiled. “This son believes that the imperial martial examination will be held at the end of October. Father Emperor may as well call upon the soldiers of the Eight Banners to hold a grand contest. We could even invite the foreigners to watch. Would that not kill two birds with one stone?”

The Crown Prince immediately said, “Father Emperor, the Eighth Brother’s method is certainly good, but the New Year is approaching, and the consolation funds sent to all regions have already been dispatched. I fear the imperial treasury...” The Ninth Prince immediately looked at the Crown Prince with open disdain. “The Crown Prince never seems to stop talking about silver. He is far more fixated on it than I am on my green leaves.”

Then the Ninth Prince turned to Kangxi again. “Father Emperor, how much silver could a martial contest possibly use? I will pay for it.”

The Eighth Prince stared at him in shock.

Kangxi had already struck the table and laughed. “Good. Then this matter will be placed in your hands.”

The Prince of Jian said with a mocking smile from the side, “Ninth Beile really is delighted now that he has produced a little prince. In just one short month, he must already have spent quite a lot of silver.”

The Ninth Prince arched his peach-blossom eyes and gave him a half-smile. “Indeed. Who else could give birth to two little princes and a little princess at once? Of course I should show off a little!”

Kangxi looked at the Ninth Prince’s smug expression and felt that his prompt bestowal of names on the children had been beyond wise. He had even heard from his covert guards that when the Ninth Prince received the imperial decree granting the names, his face had looked wonderfully expressive.

Although Kangxi accepted the Eighth and Ninth Princes’ suggestions, he could not forgive the Tenth Prince for that dismissive remark about Great Qing. After the court session, he found a casual excuse and sent the Tenth Prince to count ants in the courtyard of the Palace of Heavenly Purity. One really could say that the Chang family’s pettiness was hereditary; Kangxi, as emperor and father, was the very model.

The Eighth and Ninth Princes, seeing the Tenth Prince punished to kneel, naturally had to plead on his behalf. The Fourteenth Prince was now residing in the palace, so he followed the other two to the Palace of Heavenly Purity. Yet before any of them had even managed to put their plea into words, Kangxi asked the Ninth Prince directly, “Do you know how much silver a martial examination will require?”

The Ninth Prince’s back went cold at once. In truth, once he left the court and felt the chill wind on his face, his mind had already cleared. He thought he had been so angered by the Prince of Jian that he had lost his senses. The treasury may have been empty, but that did not mean Kangxi himself was without money. If Kangxi wanted to enhance the empire’s prestige, naturally he would use Kangxi’s silver. Why had he been getting so worked up over it?

So the Ninth Prince hurriedly put on a pitiful expression and flattered him shamelessly. “This son does not know. I was only trying to win some face for Father Emperor in the hall! This son knew that Father Emperor would never stand by and watch me suffer, and that you certainly would not let me lose money on this.”

Kangxi gave a faint snort through his nose, neither confirming nor denying the words.

The Ninth Prince immediately lowered his head in defeat. Kangxi seemed to think the Ninth Prince paying out a little silver was no great matter, and said, “Go back and submit the memorial. If you are going to invite the foreigners, you must not bring shame upon Great Qing. Spend your own silver as you see fit, but remember one thing from me: you must not disgrace the imperial family.”

The way Kangxi said it had a certain philosophical edge to it, changing Great Qing into the imperial family, though in truth the two almost amounted to the same thing. Still, Kangxi was considerate of the Ninth Prince. He added, “As for your brothers, if any of them have a bit of money in hand, you may call on them too. After all, good things should be shared by everyone!”

Hearing this, the Ninth Prince immediately found his backbone again and said loudly, “Yes, this son obeys Father Emperor’s command. I will go summon my brothers for donations at once.”

The Eighth Prince and the Fourteenth Prince, still kneeling before him, both felt a chill creeping up their backs.

Kangxi seemed not to react at all to the Ninth Prince’s deliberate wording. Instead he said, “As for that Catholic Dolo, leave him to your attention for now. Also, starting today, you will take charge of the Board for the Administration of Outlying Regions. Stop loafing about every day and looking only after your little businesses.”

The Ninth Prince looked at Kangxi in surprise. Did these words mean that he had already entered the ranks of the princes entrusted with official duties?

Kangxi had always treated his sons fairly well, sending them off to handle small matters from time to time as practice. But there were only a few princes who truly carried the weight of office. Aside from the First Prince in the Ministry of War, the Third Prince in the Ministry of Rites, and the Fourth Prince in the Ministry of Revenue, the others were all merely assisting or running errands. Even the Eighth Prince did not yet have a specific department; at present he was only working in the Ministry of Rites alongside the Third Prince. The Tenth Prince and the Fourteenth were training in the Ministry of War, and the Thirteenth was following the Fourth Prince in the Ministry of Revenue.

But now, with just a few casual words, Kangxi had made the Ninth Prince an acting prince of the Board for the Administration of Outlying Regions. One must know that this was a department on the same level as the Six Ministries. In one stroke, the Ninth Prince’s status had risen sharply.

The Eighth Prince, who had been listening all along, felt a slight stir in his heart, and soon afterward he congratulated the Ninth Prince. Yet the Ninth Prince still could not quite make sense of it and felt that this post as an official prince had been bought with silver.

Who would have thought that Kangxi did not intend to let him off yet? “And when do you plan to hold the full-month celebration for the Sixth Gege and the little princes in your residence?”

At that, the Ninth Prince became even more certain that Kangxi had come looking for trouble. After all, matters like a full-month celebration were far too small to require the emperor’s personal concern.

“In reply to Father Emperor, this son does not plan to hold one,” the Ninth Prince said through gritted teeth, wanting to see exactly what Kangxi was up to.

Sure enough, Kangxi said angrily, “Nonsense. How can a child’s full-month celebration simply be canceled? I think your Ninth Delicacy Hall is quite good. Invite all the members of the imperial clan there.”

Having said that, Kangxi waved a hand and dismissed the Eighth and Ninth Princes from their kneeling.

The Ninth Prince grew even more depressed, utterly unable to understand what medicine Kangxi was selling in his gourd.