Reborn in the last years of Kangxi

Chapter 245 Brother
Jiangning, Cao's West Mansion.

Hearing that his elder brother summoned him in the side hall of the front yard, Cao Fu was very disturbed, and asked in a low voice: "Fourth brother, do you know why?"

Cao Xiang turned his head, looked at his handsome younger brother, and said, "What else can I do? I advised you earlier, but you didn't listen. The second brother's temper is not very good. You just have to admit it later, and you must not talk back. You are not being reasonable!"

Although the two brothers are not of the same mother, but because they are separated by only half a year, those who came and went together since childhood are closer than other brothers.

Cao Fu stuck out his tongue mischievously, and said with a smile: "It's not Nanny He. I feel sorry for my brother who has been wearing coarse clothes for four months. Now that the seasons are changing, I thought that the clothes inside are not in the way, and others can't see them, so I found fine cloth underwear. !"

Because there were still his aunt and two elder brothers, it was not Cao Xiang's turn to speak, but he couldn't help being a little annoyed when he saw that his younger brother didn't admit his mistake at all. , father gave birth to us, and as children, what we can repay is to keep filial piety! Even if you lie to everyone, can you still lie to yourself? Is it fine cloth or soft silk? You are the only one in the house People can't do it?"

Cao Fu felt melancholy at what was said, laughed twice, and said: "Okay, fourth brother, I know I was wrong! These etiquette rules are very complicated, but they are just superficial things, and they may not be kept. They are filial sons. All in your heart, all in your heart!"

Cao Xiang shook his head, disapproving of his younger brother's remarks, if he can't even keep the filial piety on the surface, what does the "true heart" filial piety look like?For the sake of his younger brother, Cao Xiang couldn't help but ask him to put away the purse around his waist.Although this one is also white and made of muslin, it is embroidered with silver thread.

Cao Fu followed the remonstrance like a stream, untied it and copied it into his cuff.

The two brothers didn't want to keep the elder brother waiting for a long time, so they walked a few steps and arrived at the front yard.

Cao Quan's spiritual tablet is enshrined in the main hall of the front yard, and now he doesn't talk there every day, but only in the west hall.

In addition to Cao Song, Zhao Jiashi and Cao Shuo were also present.On the contrary, Cao Fu felt more at ease, since his mother was there, his elder brother just reprimanded him.

Cao Xiang didn't expect his elder brother to invite his aunt. Although he was a little surprised, he still invited Ann politely.Cao Fu's side is also the same, and send greetings to his mother and two elder brothers.

Zhao Jia wanted to speak, but before he opened his mouth, he looked at his eldest son, but kept his mouth shut.With a cold face, Cao Song glanced at Cao Fu, then pointed to Cao Shuo's lower seat, and said to Cao Xiang: "Fourth, sit down!"

When Cao Xiang was seated, Cao Songfang looked at Cao Fu and remained silent for a while.

Seeing that Cao Fu felt guilty, he forced a smile on his face and said, "Brother!"

Cao Song snorted coldly and asked, "What kind of clothes are you wearing under your coat?"

Even though Cao Fu was well prepared, he felt uncomfortable when he was treated like this by his elder brother in front of his mother and other brothers. He lowered his head and said, "Mine cloth clothes!"

"What a fine cloth dress! You take off the outer coat, and see if everyone has wronged you!" Cao Song was very annoyed when he saw the younger brother's appearance.

Zhao Jia felt sorry for the youngest son, and persuaded the eldest son in a low voice: "He is still young, even if he wears bad clothes, let him change it, please don't say a few words!"

"Mother, the fifth child is twelve, and the next year will be thirteen. How can you be so young? Over the years, everything in the family has been taken care of by the uncle and the others, and we in the West Mansion have followed suit. Now, the uncle is old, and the elder brother For the sake of the family's future, do you have to wait for your younger brother to grow into a dandy and make them worry about it?" Cao Song said.

Cao Fu was listening, disapproving, he couldn't help interjecting: "It's wearing silk clothes, so what's the big deal? If we keep the ancient rituals, everyone should 'get married' in front of the Fengrun tomb, where is it?" Will you come back to Jiangning? According to what the second brother said, it is against the rules to use chicken soup when my mother was sick in June..."

Cao Xiang saw that his elder brother was already full of anger, and his younger brother was still talking without knowing it, so he knew that he wanted bad food.Sure enough, Cao Song stood up from his seat with a "chuckle", and before everyone could react, he rushed over and gave Cao Fu a kick.

Cao leaned over to be small and unprepared, and was kicked to the ground by his brother, "Ouch", with fear on his face.

After Cao Song kicked him impulsively, seeing his frightened appearance, he felt a little regretful, and wanted to give him a few more words indiscriminately before ending the game. Unexpectedly, he happened to see the silver thread embroidered from Cao Fu's cuff. The lace purse immediately frowned again, and had the urge to hit someone again.

Both Cao Shuo and Cao Xiang left their seats to help Cao Fu.Zhao Jia was taken aback, came over to hold Cao Song, and said incessantly, "Say it well, say it well!"

Cao Futu was wronged, pouted his mouth, tears rolled in his eyes, and muttered: "If you can't say it, do it..." Cao Xiang covered his mouth with his hand.

Cao Shuo hurriedly persuaded: "Brother, calm down. Although Xiaowu is not young, he probably can't think of changing it because of his size. Maybe some slave made him lose his sense of proportion!"

When everyone heard the words, they all looked down at Cao.Cao Fu was already afraid, but he didn't want to say that Nanny He would be punished by everyone, so he glanced at the fourth brother Cao Xiang with a little pleading, and then said in a low voice: "No one is teasing me, it's... ...It was me who thought the rough clothes would hurt my body, so I wanted to change them when the seasons changed! I...I knew I was wrong, so I dare not do it again!"

Cao Song heard that his face was so dark that he couldn't help complaining to his mother: "You are used to it. You have been spoiled and spoiled, and you have no sense of etiquette and shame!"

Cao Fu didn't dare to talk back, Cao Shuo saw that his elder brother was always careless, and he was afraid that if he said a bad word, the younger brother would suffer further, so he persuaded him: "Since Xiaowu knew he was wrong, elder brother will spare him this. Let him copy the "Book of Filial Piety" ten times!"

Although Cao Song was annoyed by his younger brother's ignorance, he really didn't think of any way to punish him. He just wanted to beat him up and scold him once. He was very satisfied with Cao Shuo's suggestion and nodded his head in agreement. , waved his hands and told the brothers to go down first.

After leaving the room, Cao Fu couldn't help wrinkling his nose and twitching twice.Cao Xiang was a little worried and asked, "But when I fell to the ground just now, where did I hit?"

Cao Fu just sat down and squatted. It was really painful, but because he was so strong, he shook his head and said: "I didn't knock, I just didn't take precautions, and I didn't stand firm! I was thinking that the second brother didn't treat us well. In this way, the one who used to play with us a few years ago, how can he become a pedantic old master now, and that..." At this point, he felt a slip of the tongue, and looked back, only to see Cao Shuo was looking at him coldly.

Cao Fu couldn't help but want to give himself a slap in the face, why is he so sloppy, he just slandered a few words in his heart, but he wanted to say it out.

Cao Shuo stopped looking at him, and said casually: "Fifteen times of the "Book of Filial Piety", can you make it?"

How can Cao Fu find it difficult to find again, fifteen is fifteen, so he responded very obediently: "Yes, third brother!"

In the side hall, Cao Songfang heaved a sigh of relief when he saw that his brothers had all gone out, and returned to his seat.When he was still annoyed, Mrs. Zhao Jia spoke kind words for his youngest son: "Cao Fu was the most well-behaved since he was a child. These are also children. They don't know the severity, so we can't blame him all! Your father is not a rigid person... ..." When mentioning her husband, she couldn't continue, her eyes were already red.

Cao Song saw that his mother, who was always refreshing, was sick all day long, and he felt sorry for her, saying: "The son is also for his own good, so it's easy to talk about at home, flesh and blood, no matter how annoying he is, can he still hurt him? It's getting bigger when you see it, if you don't stay at home in the future, you still act recklessly like this, causing trouble, wouldn't it cause mother to worry even more!"

While the mother and son were talking about the family, a housekeeper came to report that Mrs. Dongfu had come back from Shandong.

*
Weaving Mansion, Kaiyang Courtyard.

After sitting in the carriage for six days, Mrs. Li felt her body was sore. After changing her outer clothes, she tilted on the side kang.While helping Mrs. Li pinch her shoulders, Xiuluan gave an overview of the household chores in the mansion these days.

Xiuluan is in her twenties, she is Li's housekeeper, and she has always acted safely.Although Cao Yin had two concubines, they didn't care about anything. In the past few years, it was Xiuluan who helped Li Shi a lot.

This time Mrs. Li went to Shandong to see his wife and grandson, but Xiuluan didn't go with her, and asked Mrs. Li to stay and take care of Cao Yin's daily life.

Hearing that his wife had come back, Cao Yin also came over from the Yamen in the front yard. Seeing her tired face, he blamed her a little: "I've gone so far away, why did I come back these few days? I'm so tired after running back and forth. Zensheng is good!"

Mrs. Li sat up straight, rubbed her arms, and said with a smile: "After all, he is getting old, and he feels sore after only a few days' journey! Master, don't worry, what kind of temperament is our son? It’s not that I don’t know. It’s just that if I want to stay again, I’m afraid I’ll be urged to come back to serve the master!”

After Cao Yin heard this, a little smile appeared on his face.In the past few years, Cao Yong has been very concerned about his health, looking for all kinds of medicinal materials; every time he writes to his family, there is a little half a month of mentioning this matter; even now, Wu Sheng is specially sent to Jiangning as an errand, also to prevent his parents from getting sick keep it from him.

Mrs. Li remembered her son's longing for his grandson's name a few days ago, so she couldn't help laughing, and said to her husband: "The master is also very patient. Didn't he start reading books when he knew his wife was pregnant? How come Tianyou's name hasn't been decided yet? Don't you?" I know, Yong'er will recite those days sooner or later, and I can't figure out what name the master will name here!"

Cao Yin shook his head, gloating a little, and said, "What's the rush, I'm in a hurry to think about it before entering school!"

Mrs. Li remembered that when her son was born, her father-in-law had passed away for many years, and her husband thought of a name, but it was still pending, and in the end it was the name bestowed by the emperor's grace.I have to admit that he really has no talent for naming names.

The servant girl came to report, and the second wife and the second master came.Mrs. Li said with a smile: "Please come in quickly, I am about to send someone to invite you!"

Cao Yin hadn't finished his previous errands, so after greeting Zhao Jia and Cao Song, he went back to the yamen first.

*
Jinan Mansion, outside the office of the chief envoy.

Cao Yong left the Yamen, and Chief Secretary Gan Guobi sent it out in person.Although Cao Yong is his subordinate when it comes to being an official, but when it comes to the status of the lord and the prince's son-in-law, it is much higher than that of Gan Guobi.Therefore, although he didn't deliberately flatter him, he was also unwilling to be negligent and rude.

Regarding Cao Yong's behavior of coming to the chief minister's office this time to take the initiative to seek "official affairs" to share the chief's worries, Gan Guobi is naturally more difficult to stop, and he also agrees very much.

Just at the time of the Shengshou Festival at the beginning of the month, Kangxi issued an edict to the household department, to make "lead the land and the common people, and everyone will be anointed".In provinces other than Zhili, Fengtian, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, and Shanxi, Henan, Shaanxi, Gansu, Hubei, and Hunan, land money and food in the 50th and 51st years of Kangxi were all exempted.Old money and food owed over the years are also exempted.In addition, for the four provinces of Jiangsu, Anhui, Shandong, and Jiangxi where droughts and floods are frequent, except for Caoxiang, the Kangxi 52-year-old land mu silver and renmin silver were all exempted from inspection.It owes silver over the years, and it is also exempt from taxation.

Even though this exemption benefited the Li Shu in Shandong, it also suffered for the chief envoy Si Yamen.There is not enough bank in the bank, and some decrees will be implemented next year, which will be inconvenient.

The expenditure budget for the coming year is reported to the Ministry of Household Affairs, and it is not known how much of it will be approved.Gan Guobi encountered this big problem just a few months after he took office. These days, he is trying to figure out with his staff how to proceed.

Cao Yong came just right, not only an old man from the household department, but also a noble status that is not easy to offend. If he returns to Beijing to run to the household department, he will not have everything.Therefore, he gave Cao Yong the opportunity to be on a business trip very reasonably.

On Cao Yong's side, he was naturally very satisfied, and he also said that he was very grateful for the care of the adults, and if he had the opportunity to repay, he would definitely serve him.

When he was far away from the chief envoy's Yamen, Cao Yong's face was ugly, and he couldn't tell the anger in his heart.Although it is true that Cao Yi is his cousin in terms of blood, but emotionally, he treats this little girl like a daughter.

That is, regardless of blood relationship, regardless of the relationship of the past ten years, just talk about the few days in Hangzhou that year.In this world, it is not only the fourth elder brother and the thirteenth elder brother who owe him life-saving grace, but also Pinger who stood in front of him and confronted others for a steamed bun.

Cao Yong really loves this girl who is kind to herself and hard-working.After accidentally hearing the old things in the capital in the gossip of the servants of the Daotai Mansion, and after further questioning, it turned out that the truth was so true, he really even wanted to kill Seshitu.

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(End of this chapter)