Chapter 98

Wei Zheng added: "Your Majesty, never forget the past, it is the teacher of the future. Our Great Tang must forever guard against extravagance, be close to virtuous officials, and stay away from petty people!"

Zhu Yuanzhang was already too angry to speak; he just pointed at the sky screen and said to Zhu Biao and Zhu Di:

"Look... look, 80 million taels! It's hard to say if our Great Ming treasury even has 8 million taels now."

"He... he spent it all in a few decades and even raised a great corrupt official. This kind of emperor should be killed! Should be cut into a thousand pieces!"

Zhu Di also had a solemn face: "Father Emperor, this corruption in officialdom is truly a heart-and-gut disease of the country. Your son has recorded it."

The Song Dynasty, during the reign of Zhao Kuangyin.

Zhao Kuangyin and Zhao Guangyi looked at each other, and Zhao Guangyi whispered:

"Imperial Brother, this Qing Dynasty emperor seems... quite wealthy?"

The tone was a bit sour; although the Great Song was wealthy, the emperor wouldn't dare to spend like that.

Zhao Kuangyin shook his head and sighed: "What is the use of being wealthy? If you cannot raise an army to strengthen the country, benefit the people, and pacify the nation, but instead squander it all and fatten corrupt officials, it is truly the way to self-destruction."

"It seems this Qing Dynasty, perishing at his hands, is not unjust."

The Qing Dynasty, during the reign of Kangxi.

Seeing that heavenly thunder, Kangxi and the princes were also startled.

Then hearing "80 million taels of silver squandered away" and "favoring the great corrupt official Heshen," Kangxi only felt his vision go black.

"Eigh... eighty million taels... gone?"

Kangxi clutched his chest, his face pale.

That was the family fortune saved by two generations, himself and Yinzhen (Yongzheng), through frugality and painstaking effort!

And it was spent by this spendthrift Hongli in a few decades? And he even raised a great corrupt official through the ages?

"Rebellious son! Rebellious son!!"

Kangxi could no longer hold back, and a mouthful of fresh blood sprayed out, staining the memorial in front of him red.

"Imperial Father!"

The princes were shocked and hurriedly stepped forward to support him and call for the imperial physician.

Yinzhen (Yongzheng) was calm at this moment, but his eyes were terrifyingly cold.

Hongli... good, very good.

If you are truly my son, I, Yinzhen, swear here that I will never allow you to ascend the throne!

The Great Qing's country cannot be destroyed in the hands of a spendthrift like you!

Crown Prince Yinreng was both afraid and happy. What he feared was that Imperial Father would be angered into a bad state; what he was happy about was... the Fourth Brother is completely finished now!

With such a "good son," what else is he competing for?

This matter of Hongli is enough for the Fourth Brother to drink a pot!

However, is Hongli really Qianlong? Then what about myself, the Crown Prince...

【Fault Three: Causing Huaxia to fall into a century of humiliation.

After Qianlong abdicated, the Qing Dynasty rapidly declined.

The mess he left behind made his successor, the Jiaqing Emperor, unable to turn the tide.

Just over 40 years later, the gunfire of the Opium War blasted open the country's gates, and Huaxia began a century-long history of humiliation.】

"A century of humiliation..."

These four words, like the heaviest shackles, pressed on the hearts of all the Huaxia emperors and generals watching the sky screen.

Ying Zheng gripped the hilt of his sword, his knuckles turning white. He seemed to see the towering Xianyang Palace collapsing in gunfire, the blood of the Great Qin's elite soldiers staining the earth red.

Liu Che closed his eyes, his chest heaving violently.

He fought the Xiongnu in the north and opened up the Western Regions; what he wanted was for the Great Han's prestige to reach within the seas, not for his descendants to be bullied for a century!

Li Shimin slammed his fist on the armrest, his tiger eyes filled with tears,

"Disgrace, supreme disgrace! The descendants are unfilial, actually causing the Divine Land to sink and Huaxia to be covered in dust!"

"I... I hate that I cannot be born in that time, to raise a three-foot sword and fight the foreign barbarians to the death!"

Generals like Yuchi Gong and Qin Qiong knelt down in unison,

"Your Majesty! Your subjects are willing to be the vanguard; even if we die ten thousand times, we must wash away this national shame!"

Wei Zheng wept: "Your Majesty, the warning of later generations is heart-wrenching!"

"Those who govern a country, if they have no long-term worries, will surely have immediate ones. If immediate worries are not removed, they will leave disasters for a thousand years!"

Zhu Yuanzhang was silent. He silently took off the Yishan crown on his head. After a long time, he said to Zhu Biao and Zhu Di in a hoarse voice:

"Biao'er, Fourth, you both heard it."

"A century of humiliation... I, Zhu Yuanzhang, came from a mud-legged background, risked my life to drive the Mongol Yuan barbarians back to the grasslands. What was it for? It was so that we Han people would no longer be fourth-class slaves!"

"But these unfilial descendants have ruined our Han people's country into this state... letting the barbarians be emperors is ultimately unreliable."

Zhu Biao and Zhu Di's eyes were also red, and they kowtowed heavily,

"Father Emperor! Your sons will surely strive for governance and never let our Great Ming suffer such humiliation!"

Zhao Kuangyin sighed long and said to Zhao Guangyi: "Guangyi, you heard it. This emperor is not so easy to be."

"One wrong step, and you are a sinner through the ages. Our Great Song must always be vigilant about this."

Zhao Guangyi bowed solemnly: "Your younger brother will keep Imperial Brother's teachings in mind."

The Qing Dynasty, during the reign of Kangxi.

Kangxi recovered under the treatment of the imperial physician. Hearing the words "century of humiliation," his blood surged again. He gripped the armrest of the dragon throne tightly, his nails almost embedding into it.

"My Great Qing... my Aisin Gioro country... just because of this rebellious son Hongli... opened a century of humiliation?"

Kangxi's voice was hoarse, filled with endless pain and regret,

"Is it me... did I not teach my son well, did I not choose a good successor? Yinreng, Yinzhen! You... you..."

He looked at the two sons kneeling below, one cowardly and mediocre, the other... gave birth to a "good holy grandson"!

"Imperial Father, please take care of your dragon body!" The princes cried bitterly.

"Take care? How can I take care?"

Kangxi laughed miserably, "Even if I live to ten thousand years, can I block the century of gunfire of later generations?"

"Hongli... Hongli! If I see you, I will surely tear you into ten thousand pieces!!!"

【Summary: Qianlong's title of "Old Man of Ten Perfections" is more like a satire.

He used false prosperity to cover up the decay of the empire and used isolationism to trade for backwardness and being beaten.

He is not only a muddled emperor of the Qing Dynasty but also the "originator" of Huaxia's modern backwardness.】

The image on the sky screen gradually faded, but that summary was like the sharpest thorn, piercing everyone's heart.

"Originator..."

Qianlong collapsed on the cold floor of the Hall of Mental Cultivation, his face ashen, muttering these four words repeatedly.

The power of the heavenly thunder just now was still before his eyes; he didn't even have the courage to curse anymore, only boundless fear and confusion.

Fake? Was it all fake? My Ten Perfect Military Achievements, my Kang-Qian Prosperous Age, were they all fake?

Am I a muddled emperor? Am I the originator who caused Huaxia's backwardness?

No! It's not! I am an Emperor Through the Ages! I...

He looked at the charred pit still smoking in front of him, and all his self-justifying words were stuck in his throat.

Heshen quietly raised his head, glanced at the dispirited Qianlong, and then hurriedly lowered his head, his heart feeling cold.

It seems the Emperor is finished, and my backer... I'm afraid he can't be relied upon either.

My billions of family wealth... it's all over now!

The people of various dynasties also saw all this. They might not understand what the Industrial Revolution or isolationism was, but they understood "squandering the national treasury," "corrupt officials," "people living in misery," and they understood "century of humiliation."

"Bah! Muddled emperor!"

"Spendthrift!"

"Deserves to be struck by lightning!"

"No wonder life is getting harder; it turns out the one at the top is such an emperor!"

"Originator, leaving a bad name for ten thousand years!"

Similar curses rang out in the streets and alleys of various dynasties.

The great name of the Qianlong Emperor, "Aisin Gioro Hongli," accompanied by the titles of "muddled emperor," "spendthrift," and "sinner through the ages," resounded through ten thousand dynasties in a way he absolutely did not want to see, deeply branded on the long scroll of history, never to be erased again.