Chapter 1235: The Prince Seeks Recruitment, Birthday Gift

The next day after Kangxi returned to Beijing, he learned about the ridiculous things the prince had done.

Things like playing with palace maids and accepting bribes from foreign officials are just trivial matters.

Not worth mentioning either.

What shocked and angered Kangxi the most was that the Crown Prince, this bastard, actually stayed overnight in the harem and slept with several concubines, including the young beauties he had favored recently.

Although he was furious, Kangxi did not want to depose the crown prince whom he had trained for thirty or forty years just because of a few women.

Therefore, the final solution was to order people to secretly deal with those concubines and beauties, and not make the matter public.

Although Kangxi took the initiative to conceal the matter, he did not want to let the prince go. Furious, he directly called the prince to the Southern Study and asked him to follow the ministers in the Southern Study to learn how to handle government affairs.

The prince was not stupid. When he learned that the concubines and beauties had been infected with the epidemic and died, he immediately realized that it must be his absurd deeds that had reached the ears of Kangxi.

Fearing that he would be deposed, the prince quickly summoned his confidants to discuss countermeasures. He told them about his recent "training" by Kangxi and asked them to help him analyze how to please Kangxi again.

Everyone knew that the prince was a drunkard, a womanizer, and absurd and unrestrained, but they did not know the real situation.

The third prince Yinzhi was arrogant and proud, so he immediately smiled and advised:

"My Lord, don't scare yourself. Father may just want to train you."

The prince seemed to be thinking about his third brother's comfort, but he did not dare to tell him about his obscene affairs in the harem, so he immediately turned to look at his other brothers.

The Fifth Prince Yinqi was a steady and modest man. Seeing this, he thought this was a good opportunity to advise the Crown Prince to cultivate his character, and he immediately said:

"I think that since the Emperor has asked the Crown Prince to study nearby, the Crown Prince might as well take this opportunity to learn from the teachers..."

After hearing what the Fifth Prince said, everyone nodded in agreement.

Compared with the Third Prince's words, the Fifth Prince's words are the words of a subject.

If the Crown Prince had listened to the Fifth Prince, he would surely have been able to regain Kangxi's favor.

However, the few people did not expect that when the prince heard that he was asked to follow Kangxi and several ministers of the Southern Study Room to study, he immediately frowned:
"Fifth brother, those old ministers give me a headache every time they open their mouths. They ask me to learn from them. Don't mention this again in the future."

Su Mingzhe and the Thirteenth Prince also made several suggestions, but they were all rejected by the Crown Prince.

After all, everyone thought that the prince's position in the East Palace was stable and there was no need to panic. The reason why he came to discuss countermeasures with everyone was just to avoid Kangxi's "training".

The prince saw that none of the ideas he proposed were to his liking, but he did not dare to speak out, and gradually he showed an expression of impatience.

With a prince like this who shows his emotions on his face, people usually have less to worry about.

However, this prince is really a hopeless person.

After thinking about it for a while, Su Mingzhe suggested:

"My Lord, my tenth brother will be turning 20 in a few days. I think the weather is nice, so why don't we get all the brothers together and hold a birthday party for him so that everyone can have a good time? How do you think?"

Since his ability cannot be demonstrated, let the prince show his "brotherly and respectful" side.

When the prince heard this proposal, he immediately said happily:
"This is a good idea, fourth brother! It's settled then. I'll go find my father and report this to him!"

Before the crown prince was deposed, everyone's impression of the Tenth Prince Yin'e was that of a heartless, playful and willful child.

Even Kangxi was quite fond of Yin'e.

Now Su Mingzhe proposed to organize a 20th birthday celebration for Yin'e, and the prince also felt that this was a very good idea.

Unexpectedly, Su Mingzhe stopped the prince and said:
"Wait a minute, my prince! As the saying goes, help others to the end, send Buddha to the west! My tenth brother has always liked to play freely. If the birthday ceremony is held in the East Palace, I am afraid he will not have enough fun. Why don't you just ask father for permission to hold a birthday ceremony for my tenth brother, let everyone have fun, and then choose one or two things that my tenth brother likes from the inner treasury as gifts." "As for where my tenth brother likes to hold his birthday ceremony, it is up to my tenth brother, the birthday boy, to decide! This way, everyone will be happy. What do you think, my prince?"

After hearing this, everyone nodded in approval.

The prince's eyes sparkled, and he clapped his hands in applause:
"Fourth brother is always rigorous and thoughtful in his work. Let's do as he says."

After the prince finished speaking, he silently took note of what Su Mingzhe had just said, then stood up and went to the Southern Study to report to Kangxi.

Kangxi was naturally happy to see his sons being affectionate, and immediately agreed to the prince's request.

Afterwards, the prince sent someone to ask the tenth prince Yin'e where he wanted to hold his birthday ceremony.

Just like the plot, Yin'e chose to hold it in the Eighth Prince's Mansion, and specifically asked his concubine Ma'ertai Ruolan to help him plan it.

Not a few days passed.

It was the day of the tenth prince Yin'e's birthday.

The Thirteenth Prince Yinxiang came to Prince Zhen's residence and invited his good fourth brother to attend the birthday banquet.

"Thirteenth brother, you've arrived just in time!"

Rouze was trying on new clothes for Su Mingzhe. When she learned that the Thirteenth Prince had arrived, she quickly called him into the house and told Yu Shu to take out the gift box that had been prepared long ago:
"Thirteenth brother, when your fourth brother was preparing gifts for the tenth brother, he happened to see these things and said that you would definitely like them, so he bought them and is going to find a time to send them to you."

"Oh, thank you, fourth brother, thank you, sister-in-law!"

The Thirteenth Prince Yinxiang is one year younger than the Tenth Prince, and their birthdays are a few days apart.

Unfortunately, same people have different fates.

The Thirteenth Prince's mother was born a palace maid, and her maternal grandfather was only a second-class guard. She gave birth to one son and two daughters for Kangxi, and before her death, she was only a concubine.

The Tenth Prince's maternal grandfather was Ebilun, one of the four regent ministers, his mother was Consort Wenxi, and his aunt was Empress Xiaozhaoren.

Therefore, everyone paid great attention to the Tenth Prince's birthday, but ignored the Thirteenth Prince's birthday.

The Thirteenth Prince had long been accustomed to this situation and never felt that there was anything wrong with it.

However, the Fourth Prince Yinzhen never forgot his birthday every year.

Su Mingzhe naturally did not forget to prepare gifts for his thirteenth brother, who was closest to him.

Yinxiang took the gift box from Yushu, opened it, and found that it was actually four scrolls of calligraphy and painting. He couldn't help but said happily:

"Fourth brother really understands me. Whose works are these?"

Seeing that Yinxiang liked it, Su Mingzhe smiled and said:
"This is from the Ming family. It has never been passed down. I just got it by chance a few days ago. I was planning to give it to you on your birthday, but your sister-in-law was worried that someone might see it and say something, so she decided to send it to your house in advance!"

The Four Masters of the Ming Dynasty are Shen Zhou, Wen Zhengming, Tang Yin and Qiu Ying. They are also known as the "Four Masters of Wumen" and are all good at calligraphy and painting.

If an ordinary person can collect one of the four, it can be regarded as a family heirloom.

The reason why Su Mingzhe was able to take out four pieces at once was because the place where he and Concubine Li had lived in seclusion before was a small valley outside the city of Gusu, which allowed the four people to paint for him.

Yinxiang opened the scrolls, looked at them one by one, and confirmed that they were authentic. Only then did he reluctantly put them away again:

"Such a masterpiece, thank you for taking the trouble to create it!"

Seeing that Yinxiang was truly happy, Su Mingzhe couldn't help but smile:
"Brothers, there's no need to talk about these irrelevant things. Let's go. Today we have a banquet at Eighth Brother's house. It won't be good if we go too late!"

(End of this chapter)