Story of Long Ke-duo

I shared this story from the excellent chinese serial 《雍正皇朝》 with my lunch khakis two days ago. The message of the story is akin to my earlier blog post on Deng Xiaoping.

The protagonist is a soldier called Long Ke-duo who had fought gallantly in battle with Emperor Kangxi who later personally honoured Long Ke-duo with a sword adorned with precious stones and jewels.

However, after the battle, he was not needed anymore nor was he asked to serve in any official post. This left him despondent and poor. At one stage, he had to pawn, albeit reluctantly, the sword from the Emperor.

After many decades, after Kangxi, for the second time, abolished the CrownPrince, Long Ke-duo was appointed the Chief Security Officer for theImperior Palace. At the Emperor's death bed, Long Ke-duo was given an even higher appointment to be in charge of the entire capital's security and also became something like a modern day Cabinet minister.

The Emperor called Long Ke-duo to his side and said that he understoodLong's frustration all these years but it was the emperor himself who obstructed Long's progress as he wanted test and train Long.

I hope my friend got the message.