Reborn in the last years of Kangxi

Chapter 10
Because of the death of the little beggar in the same room, Cao Yong did not dare to ask for help from the outside world easily, fearing that if things were revealed, he would die.Therefore, before we knew it, it was July [-]th, the Christmas day of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva.

On that day, the number of pilgrims who came to Lingyin Temple to worship Buddha increased by a few percent compared to the past. Rich businessmen, officials, and ordinary people all came to Lingyin Temple.In just half a day, the amount of money Xing Er got was around ten taels.Xing Er was in a good mood, and he was very kind to Cao Yong, and bought him two rotten peaches for one copper coin.

Cao Yong's mouth was dry from the sun, and he ate one in three bites, but put the rest of the peaches in his sleeves.

At Shenshi, the tourists in the temple began to go down the mountain, and the number of pedestrians going up the mountain gradually decreased.Therefore, when two or 30 people go up the mountain, it is particularly noticeable.Among the people who came, in front was a young man in his 20s and a teenager in his fifteenth or sixteenth year. The two looked somewhat similar, they looked like two brothers, followed by guards.Seeing a customer coming, Xing Er was about to step forward to beg, but was pushed away by two guards.

Cao Yong looked at the two men, only to feel that he had seen them vaguely, but he knew it was definitely not his own memory.He came to the Qing Dynasty half a month ago, and he had never seen many brothers with extraordinary demeanor like these two.

I heard the young man say: "Fourth brother, that little beggar is so pitiful!"

The young man snorted coldly: "Thirteenth brother, seeing may not be believing, it's just a trick in the market!"

"Fourth Brother" and "Thirteenth Brother" are terms that are no strangers to modern people, and it seems that the two people are also of the same age.Cao Yong's heart rose to his throat, and he felt that his whole body was about to tremble, and the peach bones in his sleeves rolled down, just stopping at the feet of the "fourth brother".

The "fourth brother" stopped and looked at Tao Zi at his feet.Seeing that he was wearing a string of Buddhist beads on his wrist, Cao Yong felt more at ease, propped himself up with his arms, and crawled to the man's feet.With his back to Xing Er, he stuffed half of the skirt with blood written on it into the boots of "Fourth Brother", and then picked up the peach.

At first, Xing Er thought that Cao Yong asked for help, and he was ready to escape. Seeing that he was just picking up peaches, he felt relieved.

The "Thirteen Brothers" couldn't bear to see Cao Yong's embarrassed appearance, so he took out a silver ingot from his purse and threw it in front of him.Afterwards, they went to Lingyin Temple again.

It wasn't until he turned a corner that the young man stopped, called the two guards behind him, and ordered them to keep an eye on the one big and one small who had just been begging.After giving the order, he bent down and took out the rag from the mouth of his boot.

God is pitiful, it is Cao Yongfu's fate, and the group of people who just passed are the two he thought of in his heart.The fourth elder brother Yinzhen and the thirteenth elder brother Yinxiang.Originally, Emperor Kangxi wanted to inspect the river affairs in the south, but because the Queen Mother was not in good health recently, he sent two princes to Jiangnan.After finishing their errands, the two brothers came to Lingyin Temple to offer incense just in time for Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva's birthday.

The rag was the size of three or four adults' palms, with dark red blood on it:
Jiangning weaving mansion, Cao Yin, a thousand taels of silver, Yongliu.

Not only did the fourth elder brother change his expression, even the thirteenth elder brother was shocked when he saw the bloody letter.The blood writing was so clear and dazzling that it made the rag look like it had been washed with starch. I don't know how many times the person who wrote it painted it.

The words in blood did not explain the foreword and the afterword. This is also because Cao Yong has only been in school for a few days, and he is barely able to understand traditional characters, let alone write them.The words "Jiangning Weaving Mansion" were memorized because they were hung in front of the gate.

During Emperor Kangxi's southern tour the year before last, the fourth elder brother and the thirteenth elder brother were accompanying princes, and both of them had been to Cao's house.Elder Brother Thirteen pointed to the word "颙" and said in surprise: "This is the name of Cao Yin's only son, and it was bestowed by Huang Ama personally the year before last."

The fourth elder brother nodded: "Well, Cao Yong was four or five years old the year before last, and he should be six or seven years old this year, which is about the same age as the kid just now!"

Although Cao Yin didn't have a lot of face, his mother, the "Mrs. Fengsheng" Sun, even paid respect to the emperor.Thinking about the tragic situation of the child just now, the two brothers felt their teeth itching with hatred.The thirteenth elder brother wanted to turn around to save people immediately, but the fourth elder brother was more thoughtful, and left the villain's accomplices for fear of making a fool of himself.It wasn't until it was dark that Xing Er resisted Cao Yong and returned to his lair. Then he sent people to surround the yard and came to catch a turtle in an urn.It's okay for those rascals to be cruel to ordinary people, but it's a bit of a big sword in front of Guan Gong's door to these palace guards, and they are subdued in two or three strokes.

The fourth elder brother and the thirteenth elder brother entered the house, and they were shocked to see the disabled children crawling all over the ground.Seeing the savior coming, Cao Yong knew that he had come to the end of all hardships. Although he knew that he was ashamed, he couldn't help but get red circles under his eyes.

Under the rule of the majestic provincial government, on the shore of the West Lake, outside the Lingyin Temple, there is such a hideout of wicked people.The thirteenth elder brother drew out the guard's knife and wanted to chop off those rascals, but was stopped by the fourth elder brother.The fourth elder brother walked up to Cao Yong, possessed him and hugged him, and asked softly, "Are you the son of Cao Yin?"

Cao Yong nodded vigorously, and the fourth elder brother asked again: "How did you come to Hangzhou?"

Cao Yong pointed at Xing Er, opened his mouth, and pointed to his own throat.

A Ping saw that these strangers looked fierce, but he subdued the thugs who tortured them, so he became more courageous, and said beside him: "He is dumb, he was abducted by Xing Er a few days ago. , seems to come from Suzhou."

The fourth elder brother took out a clean handkerchief and wiped Cao Yong's face clean.After all, Cao Yong grew up with fine skin and tender flesh. Although his face was sunburned, his neck was still fair as before.In addition to being suspected of kidnapping Mr. Cao, these people were also involved in the local bureaucracy. The two brothers were not easy to overstep, so they wrote a handwritten letter and sent a few rogues to the Hangzhou government for detention.Most of the children were injured and sick, and they were sent to the hospital.

Others are fine, Cao Yong was determined to repay that Aping, so he took the hand of the fourth elder brother, wrote the word "en" on it, pointed to Aping, and looked at the future Yongzheng Emperor eagerly, Hope he can understand what he means.

The fourth elder brother nodded, and sure enough, he asked someone to keep A Ping, and then took the two children to the inn where the two brothers were staying, and asked the accompanying imperial doctor to treat the two children.The fracture is fine, no tendons are injured, and it will heal after ten months of care, but Cao Yong's throat was burned out with medicine, it is not easy to recover, and there is not enough medicine in Jiangnan.

The two brothers sent people to the capital to deliver a letter to get medicine, and at the same time sent people to Cao's house in Jiangning to deliver a letter.

Cao Yong was cleaned up from inside to outside, his broken leg was connected, and he lay on the bed like a dream.Thinking of the hellish life these past few days, he couldn't help but tremble all over, he really wanted to cry a lot.

The fourth elder brother and the thirteenth elder brother led A Ping in, looked at Cao Yong lying on the bed, and then at A Ping. They were both good-looking, like two brothers.

When A Ping saw Cao Yong, he put down the hand of Elder Brother Thirteen, ran to the bed, pointed to his arm and said, "My injury is about to heal, and you should get better too! Lord Bu's young master, how about accepting me as a servant? I don't have parents, so I don't know who to go to!" After speaking, her voice was already low.

Cao Yong shook his head, smiled and pointed to his hands and feet, then pointed to Aping and himself.Ah Ping thought that Cao Yong would not take him in, tears were about to come out, the fourth elder brother said: "He said, he doesn't want you to be a servant, he wants you to be his brother, you two are brothers."

A Ping couldn't believe it, he stared at Cao Yong with round eyes, saw Cao Yong smiling and nodding, and then cheered, "I have an older brother, I have an older brother!"

Cao Yong was smiling, but he was shocked and surprised in his heart. The mature, stable and humane fourth elder brother in front of him was completely incompatible with the legendary ice-faced emperor.What is going on here, what kind of experience is it that makes this prince who is devoted to Buddha become the emperor who copied his family?Really, unimaginable...

Although Cao Yong traveled four to five hundred miles from Jiangning to Suzhou, and another four to five hundred miles from Suzhou to Hangzhou, the actual closest official road from Hangzhou to Jiangning was only six hundred miles.The people sent by the fourth elder brother changed horses along the way without changing people, and arrived in Jiangning by the morning of the third day.

His son had been missing for half a month, and Cao Yin had already begun to despair. How could he have expected a turnaround, but he had disappeared, and he had been rescued by two elder brothers.Seeing that the messenger was extremely tired, he asked someone to take him down and put him in the guest room, and then entrusted Zhuang Chang with the affairs of the yamen and the mansion. If he was in a hurry, he might bring his wife and children back.

The old matriarch hadn't seen his grandson for half a month, and was panicking when he heard that he might be bringing him back, so he had a lot of smiles on his face.Cao Yin went to see his wife at the second brother's house in Xifu, and told him the whereabouts of his son. Since he was with the two elder brothers, there was nothing to worry about.

After arranging everything, Cao Yin took a few servants out of the city and rushed all the way to Hangzhou.When the messenger opened his eyes in the evening, Cao Yin had already left for half a day.The man remembered that he hadn't mentioned Cao Yong's injury to Cao Yin, so he hurriedly bid farewell to the housekeeper of the Cao family and returned to Hangzhou to see him.

Hangzhou, prefect yamen.

Shi Guozhu, the prefect, looked at the confession in his hands and couldn't help shaking. Such a group of unremarkable hooligans killed [-] people in just three years, and more than half of them were in the Hangzhou mansion, where their corpses were buried by the West Lake. Already found, a total of eleven large and small skeletons were recovered.

If such a major case is usually solved, a great achievement cannot be escaped, but right now Shi Guozhu is feeling like he is sitting on pins and needles.Three years, which happened to be within his term of office, and it was inevitable that he would be prosecuted for this crime of negligence. Let alone promotion, it would be difficult not to be demoted.Thinking of this, his face became more gloomy, and he couldn't help but blame the two elder brothers for their meddling, and they were just enjoying the mountains and rivers, so why bother to fill him in.

He wanted to make some moves, but because he was leading two older brothers in the middle, Shi Guozhu had to rest his mind, and immediately wrote a letter with a pen, and asked someone to send it to the capital quickly.

Although this Shi Guozhu was not of a high rank, he was the uncle of the Crown Princess and he was regarded as a disciple of the Crown Prince, so he thought of sending a letter to the Crown Prince, asking him to intercede in Beijing to see if he could be exempted from this punishment.

At the Hangzhou post station, Cao Yin arrived hurriedly with a few entourages, and asked the guards outside to pass it on.

The fourth elder brother and the thirteenth elder brother heard this and went to the door to greet them in person.Cao Yin flicked his sleeves, and said in his mouth: "Slave Cao Yin has met the fourth elder brother and the thirteenth elder brother, the two masters are auspicious!"

The fourth elder brother learned riding and archery from Cao Yin when he was a child, and he didn't want to accept his big gift, so he helped him up and said: "Master Dongting, you are welcome, please hurry up!"

Brother Thirteen, although he met Cao Yin a few times two years ago, but with Kangxi at that time, he didn't dare to be presumptuous, so he couldn't help but ask now: "I heard that no one can surpass the nine consecutive shots you set, are you really Riding and shooting?" There was some doubt in the voice.No wonder he would ask questions, Cao Yin was originally a little weak, and because of worrying about his son for many days, he looked very haggard, he didn't have the bravery of a general, he was more like a scholar without the strength to restrain a chicken.

The fourth elder brother has a rather rigorous personality. Seeing the thirteenth elder brother being so rude, he scolded: "Thirteenth brother, don't be rude!" Turning around, he said to Cao Yin: "Master Dongting, let's meet Mr. Ling first, you can also Be at ease." After speaking, he turned around and led the way.

The thirteenth elder brother knew that it was not the right time for him to speak, and Cao Yin's son had become like that. As a father, he was naturally not in the mood to talk about other things, so he scratched his head and obediently followed behind the fourth elder brother.

The moment Cao Yin saw Cao Yong, he couldn't help but quickly stepped forward two steps to the bedside, feeling colic in his heart.Although he also thought that his son might suffer some crimes, when he saw Cao Yong with dark spots (sunburn) on his face and two broken legs, he was full of anger, grabbed his son's two small arms, and couldn't say anything. Come on.

When Cao Yong heard that someone came in, he couldn't help being a little angry when he saw that Cao Yin was following the two elder brothers. Didn't he say that the Cao family is powerful in the south of the Yangtze River?Why was his son lost for half a month, but this cheap father couldn't find him? If it wasn't for this, he wouldn't have to suffer the pain of broken bones.Therefore, it was silent.In fact, even if he wanted to say it, he couldn't. Although his voice was being adjusted, it didn't take ten days or half a month for him to be unable to make a sound.

There was silence in the room, and it was the fourth brother who finally spoke and briefly explained Xing Er's confession.Only then did Cao Yin realize that the reason why he couldn't find it in Suzhou a few days ago was that his son was kidnapped and taken to Hangzhou by wicked people.If he hadn't met the two elder brothers, his son would, would... Cao Yin was afraid after thinking about it for a while, and looked at Cao Yong with more loving eyes.

Cao Yong saw Cao Yin's gray hair on his temples, and knew that he should not be angry with him. He felt sorry for the parents of the world, and thought of his parents and relatives in his previous life. His eyes became more sour, but he didn't want to cry in front of everyone, so he closed his eyes and fell asleep.Or because of the exhaustion of the body, I fell into a deep sleep after a while.

(End of this chapter)