Reborn in the last years of Kangxi

Chapter 1050 "Filial Sons and Grandchildren"

When Cao Yong heard about the Mongolian chaos in Qinghai, he understood the real reason why Yongzheng killed Nian Gengyao.

The current Nian Gengyao, although granted the title of a third-class public and honored as the uncle of the country, is only a foreign relative and a lucky minister, and everything is given by Yongzheng.Only by establishing military exploits and having great power in the army can one be truly feared by the emperor.

Yongzheng ordered a servant Changshou from the Ministry of War to go to Qinghai, nominally to mediate the struggles of various ministries in Qinghai, but actually to negotiate peace with the rebellious Erut Mongolia.

Although the news of Qinghai's instability also spread to the court, Qinghai Mongolia has been subjugated to the court for many years, and affected by the bad weather, the population of cattle and sheep is not rich.Therefore, in the eyes of the courtiers, this was not regarded as a major event.

Only the dignitaries of the Eight Banners, eager to gain military merit, are quite concerned about the news from Qinghai.Thinking about the Eight Banners dignitaries who went to the Northwest with Fourteenth Elder Brother in the early years, almost all of them came back. Now that the Northwest Army has more soldiers and fewer generals, maybe I can take advantage of it.

Cao Yong thought that he was in the household department, but he was preparing money for the army to conquer the northwest.I didn't expect that when I came, I would also have something to do with him.

Yongzheng ordered him to go to the northwest to inspect the matters of reclaiming wasteland and farming in the northwest.However, the day of leaving Beijing is not as hasty as Chang Shou, who needs to travel quickly. After allowing him to properly arrange the errands in hand, he will leave Beijing in early July.

Cao Yong didn't understand Yongzheng's intention. Could it be that he wanted to promote corn and sweet potatoes in the Northwest?In that case, these two crops could easily spread to Mongolia.

Yongzheng is so relieved, let the Mongols also solve the food problem and multiply the population?

He hesitated in his heart, so he had to go to Thirteenth Brother's house to inquire about it.

"It is true that the emperor sent you to the northwest for the purpose of reclamation. But besides reclamation, seeing what the emperor wants, he also wants to move some people from the pass." Brother Thirteen said.

When Cao Yong heard this, he was amazed.

Unlike the dense population of later generations, the total population of the current Qing Dynasty is not dense.There are less than 3000 million people in the Household Department who are enthroned, and these people are males aged [-] to [-].From this calculation, the total population is just over [-] million.

There is still barren and uncultivated land in the hinterland of the Central Plains. It is a bit premature to reclaim the Northwest now.

In the last years of Kangxi, the Northwest Army was allowed to establish a military station between Gansu and Urumqi, but it was to make the garrison officers and soldiers self-sufficient.

"Thirteenth Lord, which minister's opinion is this?" Cao Yong asked.

Logically speaking, it is the Ministry of Households that is in charge of such a major event related to the livelihood of the people.But Cao Yong didn't hear this matter mentioned by several hall officials of the household department, and Yongzheng didn't reveal it before.

Brother Thirteen coughed and said, "It's the secret decree from Nian Gengyao. When he returned to Beijing the year before last, he saw a lot of exiles along the way, so he mentioned it to the late emperor. He mentioned it again last month. The emperor was still hesitant about this matter, but this time Qinghai is unstable, but it made the emperor make up his mind to resolve this matter."

If the livelihood of the people in the northwest is dense, it can not only solve the source of soldiers for the local green camps, but also provide food and grass for the army, and the court will not be passive every time because of the military situation in the northwest.

Although the idea is good, it is not easy to actually sit up.

After all, at this time, the common people value the local conditions, and there are few people who voluntarily emigrate.There is a government to handle this matter, and I don't know how many people are disturbed.

Although Cao Yong thought of this, he couldn't say much. This was Nian Gengyao's proposal, but it was also Yongzheng's decision.

Yongzheng didn't let him go to the northwest with Changshou, which is considered a kindness, but now it's the dog weather, if he travels along the post, even a good person will have to suffer half his life...

Mrs. Li lived in Prince Ping's mansion for ten days, seeing that Mrs. Cao Jia was getting better and full of energy, so she proposed to return to Cao's mansion.Cao Jiashi was reluctant and wanted to keep her for a while longer.

Li Shiyuan was still hesitating, but got the news that Gao Taijun was ill.

She was in a hurry, and wanted to visit her doctor, but she couldn't stay any longer.

Cao Jia couldn't do it, so she had to ask someone to prepare a carriage, and ordered her fourth elder brother Fuxiu to take Li to Li's house.

The elder brother Fu Peng of Prince Ping's Mansion raised him in the palace in his early years. After the new emperor came to the throne, he loved the grandchildren of this family quite a lot, so he still stayed in his elder brother's house to be with several princes and elder brothers.

Looking at the meaning, it is necessary to wait for Fu Peng to get married before releasing him from the palace.

For this reason, among the elder brothers in Prince Ping's mansion, Fuxiu, the fourth elder brother, is the elder.

Cao Jia was bedridden. Although Li came to take care of him, he was not the owner of the palace after all. If Fujin's diet needed to be adjusted, Li asked his grandson Fuxiu to talk.

Fuxiu is fourteen years old this year, with handsome features, mature and stable, she takes care of her mother very filially, and treats her grandmother Li very respectfully.

Mrs. Li had heard from Mrs. Cao Jia that she wanted to get closer, and she also liked Fuxiu in her heart, and treated him more closely than the other little grandchildren.

As early as when Mrs. Gao was in Cao's house, Fuxiu paid homage to that "great-grandmother". Now that she heard that she was ill, she was also worried for Mrs. Li.After all, it is over half a hundred years old, and being anxious to get angry is also hurting the soul and the body.

As a result, when the grandfather and grandson rushed to Li's house in a hurry, they saw that Mrs. Gao was in good condition, sitting on the kang picking beans, and there was nothing wrong except for her complexion a little haggard.

Mrs. Li came all the way, sweating all over, but seeing this situation, she was speechless.

On the other hand, Mrs. Gao was surprised when she saw that she came here without sending anyone to say, and brought the elder brother of the Prince's Mansion with her, and said: "It's a hot day, why are you here? How about it after the summer heat, and you brought the fourth elder brother with you?" ?”

Although she reprimanded her, she was still happy in her heart, she kept ordering Mrs. Wang and Mrs. Sun to prepare melons and fruits, and told them to go to the kitchen to prepare more vegetables, so that Mrs. Li and Fuxiu could have lunch.

Knowing that Mrs. Li likes vegetarian dishes, Mrs. Gao even told Mrs. Sun to cook sweet and sour cabbage.

Mrs. Li came over and wanted to stay with Mrs. Gao for a long time, so she sent Fu Xiu back to the palace first.

Seeing that Mrs. Gao is fine, she knew that this must be a wrong message somewhere.

But seeing that Gao Shi was happy, she didn't want to tell the truth to disturb Gao Shi's interest, so she said: "I came back from the Prince's Mansion today, thinking that I haven't seen my mother for a while, so I came here to have a sit. Make trouble for my sister-in-law and nephew and daughter-in-law."

Gao said: "It's just a meal, what can you have? Your nephew is still thanks to Brother Yong. This kind of favor, inherited from the Li family, will not let Brother Yong spend money. Your nephew has already ordered Li When there is money in the account, I will return the money to brother Yong first."

Ever since Li Cheng withdrew and confiscated the money deposited in the Prince's Mansion in Lian County, Yongzheng's treatment of the Li family has become more and more extensive.Li Nai's three-year prison sentence has never been allowed to be redeemed but has been changed to quasi-pardoned.

The money for redemption needs 5000 taels.

Even if the Li family really scraped together the money, they would have to sell the house, and they would be penniless; if they didn't sell the house, they would have to borrow money.

What Li Nai meant was to serve his sentence. After seeing Li Yu and Li Cheng brothers, he told them that they were not allowed to raise money or ask for redemption, otherwise it would be unfilial.He would rather serve his sentence than make the embarrassing Li family worse because of himself.If his sons really want to borrow debts to redeem him, he would rather kill him head-on.

The two brothers couldn't make up their minds either, because they couldn't bear their father to suffer hard labor, and they were afraid of angering his father and making him do something stupid.

On the other side, Cao Yong paid attention to the affairs of the Li family. Hearing that the emperor was about to redeem him, he knew that the Li family was struggling, so he went to the House of Internal Affairs and paid 5000 taels of silver to redeem Li Nai himself.

Li Nai originally wanted to serve his father in Fengtian and exchange the eldest son back, but he also thought that he owed the Cao family money, so he couldn't put the whole family's livelihood on the sons.

After writing to Li Xu to discuss, he still decided to stay in the capital first, and then go to Fengtian to change people after his family's livelihood improved.

When Mrs. Gao mentioned silver, Mrs. Li said: "He doesn't lack this right now. We'll talk about it later when my nephew has more money. On the mother's side, why can't my nephew and granddaughter-in-law cook? They are all ladies from officials and eunuchs, and it is not easy to live a tight life now, it is better to buy two servants to serve them."

Gao originally took two maids back to Li's house, but within two days after returning, he sent them back to Cao's house.

Those two were originally the sons of Cao's family, and they were also used as big maids in Cao's mansion, but they were just serving Gao's daily life.

When he arrived at Li's house, he wanted to do anything.And because of the presence of the two of them, the young mistresses still wanted to order people around, and when they really did it themselves, they were a little reluctant.

Seeing this, Mrs. Gao was helpless, so she sent the two maids back to Cao's house.

Mrs. Gao shook her head and said: "If it wasn't for your help, the entire Li family would be slaves. I have heard that the emperor copied the families in the south of the Yangtze River, except for the Li family. The family members were spared; the other families were held accountable by the whole family. Either the whole family was exiled or confiscated into official slaves. Now it is a blessing to have a peaceful family and no worries about food and clothing. People should cherish their blessings, no matter how delicate they were before. Miss, she is also the daughter-in-law of a small family, even if she is not used to it, she still has to learn to do housework."

Mrs. Li had heard that Li Nuo and Li Yuyue's family had cut off contact with the Li family because of the Li family's indictment; Fujin took care of a lot.

Wang Fujin of Lianjun was very distressed when he learned that his adoptive daughter was going to do housework at her husband's house, so he sent some maidservants over.Because none of the elders had maidservants, He personally sent these maidservants back to the county palace.

Although Wang Fujin of Lianjun was not angry with his daughter, he was quite critical of the Li family.

"Although my mother thinks well in her heart, the nephew and daughter-in-law are in charge of the family after all. Now that the nephew is back, it is inevitable that he has his own ideas in doing things. The mother still let go and let the husband and wife discuss it themselves. They are also married If you have a daughter-in-law and are about to become grandparents, what else should you worry about?" Thinking of this, Mrs. Li persuaded.

There are currently twelve people living in the Li family, including nine female dependents. Even if they all have to do housework, how can Gao who is over seventy years old do it himself?

If the grandsons and great-granddaughters-in-law were really filial, they would not let Mrs. Gao continue to do housework.

Seeing the half-picked beans, Li Shi, who has always been good-tempered, was also annoyed.Even if Mrs. Gao refused to let her buy a maidservant, she didn't have any selfish intentions, and it was for the benefit of the Li family's children and grandchildren.

Up and down the Li family, now there is an old lady living there, chewing on the old lady, but starting to call the old lady, what is this.

After hearing this, Gao Shi hesitated.

She also knew that the female relatives in the family complained a lot because they blocked the buyer for the past two months.But thinking of Li Xu who was exiled to Fengtian, he was always worried, for fear that something wrong would cause trouble there.

Seeing her hesitation, Mrs. Li said while the iron was hot: "Even if mother wants to worry about it, how many years can she worry about? Instead of complaining in front of the juniors, how about letting them make arrangements for themselves? Children and grandchildren have their own blessings, how can they worry about it for a lifetime? My mother also loves me, and remembers to live there if there is nothing to do. Qingmei and the others are still in Shaoyuan, waiting for mother to go back."

Gao's expression was a little sad, she knew well how the juniors treated her.After all, she is not a serious grandmother, she has a respectful face, but except for Li Nai and his son, the grandson's wife and great-grandson's wife can't show any filial piety.

It was okay at the beginning, but I was a bit more scrupulous when I got her money; then I heard that all the money was scattered, and I was not as respectful as before.

Although it is normal for the world to be hot and cold, but my family is like this, which makes the old man feel a little bit chilled.

"In half a month, it will be Brother Yong's birthday. This year is his full birthday, and I will come to pick up my mother to go there to be lively." Li said.

Gao squeezed out a smile, and said, "It's still early, we'll talk about it later. You're not going to Haidian Garden? Didn't Changsheng and his nephews be there?"

"I will stay for a few more days, and bring the children back at the end of the month. Before I entered Beijing, Changsheng was still thinking about my grandmother." Li said.

As for Changsheng, the little grandson, Gao watched him grow up, and loved him a little more than the older Cao Yong.

Now listening to Mrs. Li mentioning it, Mrs. Gao showed some kindness, and said, "I don't know who he followed, but he has a sweet mouth and is used to coaxing people. Look at you, you are a gourd without a mouth, and your son-in-law is steady."

Li smiled and said: "Yeah, not like my father and brother, but like Xiao Wu when I was a child. Because of this, I am much closer to Xiao Wu than other cousins."

Talking about the children, Gao's mood also improved a bit, and said: "The second grandson's wife found out good news a few days ago, and the Li family can finally have a baby... Her natal family got the news, and took them back to stay for a short stay yesterday... "

In the third generation of the Li family, the eldest grandson Li Nuoben had a son who died in a shock during the first month.Now, Li Yu's wife, Yan Shi, is pregnant, and she gave birth to the first child of the Li family after the indictment, which is somewhat joyful.

Li said: "This is a happy event. No wonder I didn't see her just now. As an aunt, I have to prepare a generous gift."

The Yan family was repaired with the help of the son, probably not because of the daughter's pregnancy, but because the son-in-law Li Yu is now working under the sixteenth elder brother, so he is a bit respectable.

At this moment, Mrs. Wang and Mrs. Sun came over and said that the food was ready, and asked the old lady if she would serve it.

Since Li Nai was not around, Mrs. Li wanted to wait for him to come back before eating.Gao Taijun said: "Your nephew is going out to look for errands these days, and he is not sure about coming back, so let's use it first." Then he ordered Wang and Sun to prepare meals.
The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law agreed, and brought the eldest granddaughter-in-law Quan Shi and the third grandson daughter-in-law He Shi to set up a meal.

When the table was served, Gao couldn't help frowning.

The table is full of plates and bowls, it seems that the dishes are ordered from the restaurant, and the order is for the table, with sea cucumber and bird's nest.

This table is enough for the family to chew for ten and a half months.

Seeing Gao's displeasure, Mrs. Wang smiled and said, "It's rare for my aunt to come back once, so I really shouldn't take it easy. The eldest daughter-in-law just wanted to come over to ask the old lady for instructions, and she was afraid of disturbing the old lady talking to my aunt, so she discussed it with me. Sent brother Cheng out to book a table."

Mrs. Sun said to Mrs. Li with a smile: "This is specially ordered for Brother Cheng to pick up that clean restaurant with a good reputation, so please don't dislike it.

Mrs. Li saw that Mrs. Wang treated Mrs. Gao respectfully, but Mrs. Sun only knew how to flatter herself. Not only did she not follow Mrs. Gao's previous orders, she didn't even give an explanation, so she felt a little unhappy.

She glanced at the table, and said lightly: "My nephew and daughter-in-law are bothering you."

Mrs. Gao took a long breath, said nothing, and greeted Mrs. Li for dinner.

Mrs. Li saw that the female relatives were not seated, and no one thought of calling Li Cheng. Knowing that everyone had to wait for Li Nai, she only used two chopsticks for the dish in front of her. After half a bowl of rice, she put down the chopsticks.

At this moment, Li Nai, Li Cheng and his son came back from outside.It turned out that after Li Cheng had set a table, he went out to find his father Li Nai.

Seeing his aunt coming, Li Nai was very happy.In Li Shi's heart, however, she was thinking about the rumor that Gao Shi was seriously ill.

When Li Nai finished his meal, Mrs. Li said she was worried about her family and said goodbye to Mrs. Gao.Mrs. Gao wanted to send her out, but she persuaded her to ask Li Nai to see her off.

When they arrived at the front yard, Shi Li lowered his face, but did not leave in a hurry, and said, "Who is uncomfortable in the family? How did I hear that it was the old lady who was inappropriate?"

When Li Nai heard this, his face was very confused, and he frowned and said, "The old lady is not feeling well, who did my aunt listen to? Speaking of feeling uncomfortable, I just ate two more mouthfuls of melon a few days ago and had diarrhea, so please ask the doctor I’ve come to see it, and it’s only said that the elderly are prone to get angry, and it’s good to clear the stomach.”

Li Shi said: "It's not these things that I heard in my ears. They all said that they got up and couldn't get out of bed. Along the way, I was still wondering why the old lady was so sick and no one sent me a letter? It turned out to be It's a pretense, but because the second granddaughter-in-law is pregnant, and the nephew and daughter-in-law want to use ginseng, that's why you said that?"

Hearing "ginseng", Li Nai was stunned, then his face turned red, and he said in an embarrassing way: "A few days ago, Mrs. Sun talked about it once, saying that the ginseng he wanted from Lian County Prince's Mansion was all used up, and he wanted to buy it for Li Cheng." Ginseng. My nephew refused to let it go, and the elders in the family didn't take it. He is a child, so what kind of tonic does he use. But what did she do wrong, why did she talk about the old lady?"

Mrs. Li heard this, and understood in her heart that Mrs. Sun was using the banner of Gao's sickness to buy ginseng without telling Li Nai to feed her son. She said angrily: "How much has the old lady worried about you? Now, unexpectedly Is it to make up for the son and cursing the old lady, is this over? In the name of filial piety, even your father's two old concubines are able to live well, but let the old lady choose the food, this is your filial piety to the old lady '?"

Li Nai's face turned pale when he heard this, and he said in surprise, "What my aunt said... what my aunt said is..."

"I saw it with my own eyes, can I still scare you? Don't forget, the old lady still has my daughter here. If you really dislike me, I will take over and raise her. I don't have to worry about you. I have to stay I'm here to suffer from your anger!" Li said angrily, "I will be cursed and sick, and even we will become 'unfilial sons and grandchildren'!"

Since Mrs. Sun was able to pass the word back to her mother's family, she probably didn't want to pass it on to the Cao family and ask for some ginseng from the Cao family.It's just that this method is really shameless.

It seems that Li Shi and Cao Yong are not filial, and they don't care about Gao Shi.

If it was only related to herself, Mrs. Li would not be annoyed, but she just felt that Mrs. Sun's family was a bit petty, but now she is cursing the old lady and implicating her son's reputation. How can she tolerate it...

(End of this chapter)