Following the incident with the Grand Empress Dowager, Yinreng increased his visits to the Cining Palace. Recognizing that standard childcare protocols were obsolete for a prodigy, the Grand Empress Dowager discarded her grandmotherly facade. She transitioned into a political mentor, utilizing her decades of experience to dissect inner-court power dynamics and operational survival strategies for him.
Sumalagu, her lifelong confidante and loyal attendant, observed this with hesitation. "He is only six years old. Exposing him to the court's darkest machinations now… is it not too soon?"
The Grand Empress Dowager took a slow sip of her tea. "Survival favors the prepared. Shielding him in ignorance is not protection; it is sabotage. To speak pragmatically, Sumalagu, our lifespans are expiring variables. We have one foot in the grave. We cannot guarantee our presence tomorrow."
Sumalagu opened her mouth to offer traditional reassurances of long life, but the Grand Empress waved her off. "Spare me the pleasantries. We know the reality of our biology."
"Even so..." Sumalagu trailed off.
"I did not intend to initiate his training this early," the Grand Empress admitted, a sharp smile forming. "Baocheng was always bright, but this year, his cognitive development has mutated into something extraordinary. Since the Emperor assigned elite scholars like Zhang Ying and Li Guangdi to tutor him, the boy's mind has entirely unlocked. His academic performance is flawless, but his strategic vision is terrifying."
She began laying out the evidence of Yinreng's anomalies. "Consider the mechanical clocks, the glass manufacturing, and the smallpox inoculation project headed by Doctor Liu. People claim the Crown Prince is simply lucky. But luck does not repeat with such precise, systemic impact."
She leaned forward, her tone analytical. "Nobles possess mechanical clocks; only Baocheng dismantled one to reverse-engineer its gears. Glass formulas are known; only Baocheng invested the capital and relentless trial-and-error necessary to perfect the chemical ratios. He overheard a peasant anecdote about cowpox and instantly deduced a groundbreaking epidemiological theory. This is not luck. This is an unparalleled capacity to see the underlying mechanics of the world."
Sumalagu remained silent, unable to refute the logic.
"This requires a shift in our strategy," the Grand Empress concluded. "We cannot treat him as a child. He requires infrastructure."
Context: This realization was the catalyst for the Grand Empress deploying Aunt Fang (Xueqing) to Yinreng's side. Fang's objective was twofold: shield the Crown Prince from conventional assassination attempts, and ensure his hyper-rational mind remained tethered to the dynasty's core interests.
***
By late December, as the imperial court prepared to seal its registries for the New Year holiday, Doctor Liu arrived in the capital covered in road dust. He carried an urgent, highly classified report: The cowpox clinical trials were a definitive success.
Kneeling before Emperor Kangxi, Doctor Liu presented the data structure. "Following the Crown Prince's directive, we abandoned random application and instituted phased, heavily monitored clinical trials."
Phase 1: Dosage Calibration. "We divided the active cowpox matter into precise, measured doses, testing them on rabbits to observe physiological reactions and establish a baseline of toxicity."
Phase 2: Adult Human Trials. "We extrapolated the animal data to calculate human dosage by body weight. We selected condemned death row inmates for the initial testing pool."
• Batch A (10 subjects, low dose): 7 survived, 3 died.
• Batch B (15 subjects, medium dose): 12 survived, 3 died.
• Batch C (20 subjects, optimized dose): 19 survived, 1 died.
"The optimal dosage ratio was confirmed and standardized," Liu stated.
Phase 3: Pediatric Trials. "To account for physiological differences in children, we required a separate demographic. Per the Crown Prince's explicit logistical parameters, we targeted the children of disgraced officials sentenced to brutal exile or the state brothels (Jiaofang Si), specifically ages three to seven."
Doctor Liu bowed deeply. "We offered a transaction: voluntary submission to the trial in exchange for absolute pardons and the restoration of their commoner status. We tested fifteen pediatric subjects. The survival rate was one hundred percent."
Kangxi nodded in profound satisfaction. He had previously authorized Yinreng's request for this specific demographic. Since the families were not convicted of treason (which required the execution of nine generations), utilizing the children in exchange for clemency was a politically sound maneuver.
"Overall efficacy exceeds ninety percent," Doctor Liu concluded.
Songgotu, standing beside him, beamed, his face flushed with triumph.
Yinreng listened quietly.
Internal Analysis: Statistically, a sample size of fifty human subjects is insufficient for a modern, large-scale medical rollout. However, enforcing a massive, mandatory trial on the general populace would trigger severe societal backlash and violate my operational ethics. Providing condemned individuals a transactional path to freedom was the most rational compromise between scientific necessity and moral restraint.
***
The following morning, on the final day before the New Year recess, Emperor Kangxi dropped the socio-medical bombshell onto the imperial court. He announced the eradication of the smallpox threat.
Before the officials could process the magnitude of the data, Kangxi smiled, announced the court was officially in recess, and promptly vanished into the inner palace.
The bureaucracy erupted. Denied access to the Emperor, the frantic nobility immediately swarmed the project leads: Doctor Liu and Songgotu.
Songgotu barely survived the mob to reach his estate. Anticipating the breach in security, he executed a tactical retreat—fleeing to a remote rural manor in the dead of night without even briefing his wives. When desperate officials arrived the next day, Songgotu's female relatives were entirely, genuinely ignorant of his location.
Doctor Liu was less fortunate. Intercepted on New Year's Eve, he was effectively abducted, shoved into a carriage by high-ranking nobles demanding to be taken to the research facility to verify the medical data with their own eyes.
Upon receiving these intelligence reports, Yinreng analyzed Kangxi's maneuver.
Observation: Imperial Father purposely detonated this information precisely when court went into recess. He sealed the palace gates, perfectly insulating himself from the bureaucratic fallout, and let his subordinates absorb the massive impact of public hysteria. Conclusion: It was a masterclass in executive delegation. Yinreng mentally applauded the sheer, ruthless efficiency of the tactic.
***
The New Year arrived, bringing the distribution of imperial rewards.
For their monumental contributions to the empire's biosecurity, Doctor Liu was ennobled as a First-Class Count, and Songgotu was elevated to a First-Class Duke, complete with seats on the Deliberative Council and vast estates.
Yinreng, however, presented a bureaucratic problem. As Crown Prince, his political rank was already at the absolute ceiling; he could not be promoted. Consequently, Kangxi felt highly apologetic and compensated him by gifting a massive lockbox filled entirely with high-denomination silver banknotes.
Yinreng accepted the box, his face splitting into a genuine, radiant smile.
He didn't care about the lack of empty titles. Titles were abstract concepts. Silver was tangible capital.
Strategic Planning: My agricultural research, metallurgical advancements, and future infrastructure projects require massive, liquid funding. This capital injection accelerates my tech-tree development by years.
However, Yinreng's accumulation of resources sparked immense hostility in the Eastern Palaces.
Upon the resumption of court, Kangxi publicly lauded Yinreng's visionary leadership in front of the civil and military officials. Hearing this, First Prince Yinshi refused to eat for an entire day out of spite, while Concubine Hui shredded a silk handkerchief in a fit of rage.
To them, Yinreng was merely coasting on impossible, heaven-sent luck. Their inability to comprehend his structured, analytical approach to problem-solving ensured they would consistently miscalculate his capabilities.