Reborn in the last years of Kangxi

Chapter 25
On the fourth day of August in the 44th year of Kangxi, after staying in Zhizaofu for seven days, Shengjia left Jiangning and returned to the capital.In the past few days, nothing has gone wrong, everyone in the weaving mansion is relieved, and the servants inside and outside have been rewarded.

Although the old lady dresses up according to her grade every day, Kangxi and the accompanying concubines have never been summoned.Following the imperial decree, the two accompanying concubines came to Xuanrui Hall in person to visit the old man.Even Kangxi went to Xuanrui hall to gossip with the old lady.

Kangxi valued filial piety the most, and did not forget the ten-year nurturing grace of Sun’s old matriarch because of his status as a coat coat. The rewards for the old matriarch were also extremely generous.
One Hanyu birthday star, one emerald Avalokitesvara, one agate Arhat, one gold Arhat, two Hanyu Ruyi handles, two gold Ruyi handles, and others such as mink fur, woolen cloth, silk and satin are innumerable.

Cao Yong saw these imperial gifts in Xuan Ruitang, although they were of great value, they were useless at all.The treasures bestowed by the royal family are all recorded by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Except for food and clothing, jewelry and antiques can only be offered or shelved.There are royal marks on these objects, who dares to buy and sell at will?If the censor refers to a book, a charge of "disrespect" cannot be escaped.

Cao Yong resumed his old life again, going to the ethnology study every day, the difference is that every three or two afternoons he took out time to gather with Ma Jun and Ning Chun in the afternoon.Although he was not appointed as a bodyguard by Kangxi, Yongqing returned to Beijing.This is because of Cao Yong. Cao Yong persuaded him that a man should be based on the world. There is nothing that can be bound. The family property and title are not owned by himself. .

If Yongqing realized something, he decided to go to the capital to visit his grandparents first, and then went to join his uncle in the Northwest Army.Although Yongqing hid it from his parents, he didn't hide it from his three friends.Before parting, Cao Yong, Ning Chun, and Ma Jun each had Cheng Yi presenting them to them. Yongqing knew that the politeness was false at this time, and after solemnly thanking them, they returned to Beijing by road one by one.

Ma Jun, who was originally extremely confused, has been in a much better mood recently, and he is not as repulsive in the face of stereotyped articles as before, which is also due to Cao Yong's credit.Cao Yong saw that his eyes were shining when he talked about historical allusions, but when he mentioned the autumn examination, his eyebrows were frowned, so he asked him why he didn't treat stereotyped essays as a crossword puzzle, first obtain the qualifications for juren, and then go to Beijing to take the imperial examination.Whether you can be a Jinshi or not is not mentioned first, but you can breathe a sigh of relief after leaving the eyes of your parents.If you are lucky enough to win a Jinshi, you will naturally be able to study as you wish.

Seeing that Ma Jun happily accepted his suggestion, Cao Yong rubbed his nose and advised these rebellious youths to "run away from home" or "run away from home" in a disguised form, whether it was right or wrong.

Ning Chun just smiled and listened to Cao Yong's somewhat sophistical words. Recently his father's concubine gave birth to a son, and his stepmother was having a good fight with that side, both sides were vying to sell him first.

In a flash, another half month passed, and it was a whole month since Cao Yong went to the study to find Cao Yin.Cao Yong originally thought that Cao Yin was busy picking up the driver and could not consider other things, so he never looked for him.After Shengjia left Jiangning, Cao Yin still didn't look for him, which made him gradually feel discouraged.

Right now, Cao Yong only has one property, Linxiazhai. Excluding Cao Fang, the two masters and those distributed to the sisters and brothers in the house, there will be more than one hundred thousand taels of silver left every year.No matter how delicious Lin Xia Zhai's dishes are, the ability to sell only one table a day depends entirely on the power of the Cao family.As long as the Cao family does not collapse, it should be able to continue.There are still 17 years until Kangxi's death. Even if all these are saved up, it will still be short of more than half.The plan of the brothers and sisters of the Zheng family is to stay away from Jiang Ning after all. As a boy in his teens, even if he has money to support him, he will not be able to keep his property in the later stage. It will not work without Cao Yin.Think of another way, or go to Cao Yin again, Cao Yong didn't make up his mind for a while.

When Cao Yong hesitated, Cao Yin sent someone to tell him to go to the study.At that time, Cao Yong was studying Huixin and Anxiang's vanity boxes for himself, to see if he could learn from those time-traveling predecessors who invented perfumes, soaps, etc., and earn some money for luxury goods.As for distilled wine, making glass or something, you don’t even need to think about it. At this time, there are all types of liquor with different degrees of alcohol. According to historical records, it seems that distilled wine existed in the Northern Song Dynasty.Glass is not a rare thing, but its purity is not as high as that of modern society.But he can't solve this problem. He still knows about glass from novels, and knows that it is made of sand.

After seeing the dressing box, Cao Yong lost confidence.Western perfume in glass bottles has long been available, and even Hui Xin has a small half bottle, which was given by Cao Yan.Soap was called "foreign soap" at this time, and it cost half a tael and a piece, but it was not a Western product, but was made locally by foreign masters from Jiangnan merchants, with patterns and patterns on it, which looked very good.A maid like Hui Xin who earns a tael a month, how could she buy such extravagant things, this one was rewarded by Li Shi.When Cao Yong heard this, he couldn't help but feel a little weird. No matter how you looked at it, Hui Xin looked like "attacking people" treatment.

Hearing that his father told him to go to the study, Cao Yong hesitated for a moment, and before going to the bookcase, he took out a few pages of folders from "Historical Records" and put them in his arms.

When he arrived at Cao Yin's study, Cao Yong followed the rules and greeted his father: "My son has met his father, and my father greets you!"

"Get up!" Cao Yong's voice was tired.During the welcoming period, he was busy with business, and he didn't care about the shortfall.During the half month since Sheng Jia left, he asked the accountant to compile the general ledgers over the years, and after half a month of busy work, he finally got a general idea.In addition to the house and the imperial gifts that cannot be moved, the gold, silver, jewelry and antiques in the mansion total 45 taels of silver.There are also a few farms and a dozen shops, which should also be able to add up to 20 taels of silver.Even if you sell all of them, you can only pay back half of the shortfall.

Although Cao Yin once said in front of Zhuang Chang that he would definitely repay the deficit in his lifetime, he was still devastated with so many debts.Although he is gentle and courteous, he is not good at management. The shop outside his home is either rented out or someone in charge comes forward to take care of it.His annual salary, fire expenses, etc. are not enough for the government's expenses, and he often relies on the savings of the Cao family over the years and the money from the farm shop to make ends meet.

Cao Yin didn't expect his son to find any way to solve the Cao family's plight, even if he was clever, he was just a child.Zhuang Chang repeatedly reminded him not to underestimate Cao Yong. After all, there is an example of Lin Xiazhai there, and maybe there are other ways to make money.Only then did Cao Yin call Cao Yong. Anyway, he is the eldest son of the family, so it doesn't matter if he knew some housework earlier.

Cao Yin pointed to the land deed and the list of gold and silver on the table, and said to Cao Yong: "This is the land and family assets accumulated by the Cao family for a hundred years. I want to discuss with your second uncle to pay back the shortfall. I'm afraid it will not work in the future." What property can I leave for you!"

"There are two to three hundred servants, women and men inside and outside the mansion. Although Second Uncle Xi's mansion is not as good as our mansion, there are still seven to eighty people. If there is no income from the land and shop, how will the family's livelihood be maintained every month?" Cao Yong asked.

Cao Yin replied: "There is nothing we can do. If we can't do it, we will release a few elderly people. It's just that we have to wait a hundred years for the old lady to reduce the population. It's okay for us to be children and grandchildren. The old lady has enjoyed a lifetime of blessings. It’s the truth to worry about your descendants when you’re old!”

"Second Uncle's family has not been separated, and my father used the property belongings of kilometers to pay the debt. Does Second Uncle know about this?" Cao Yong thought that his aunt, Zhao Jia, was the most shrewd, and Second Uncle was afraid of guilt, so he opened his mouth. asked.

Cao Yin nodded: "I told your second uncle that not all of them are sold off, whether it is our family or your second uncle's family, we will leave 3000 taels for each of the younger generation as a wedding gift. The old lady's name is Your property, your mother's and second aunt's dowry are not included in the public house."

Seeing that Cao Yin had no good proposals other than selling property and reducing the population, Cao Yong reluctantly took out the booklet he had written for many days from his bosom, and handed it to Cao Yin with both hands: "This is a little suggestion from my son, please Father's reference!"

There are two things mentioned in the brochure. One is to send people to Anxi in Fujian, Longjing Village in Hangzhou, and Junshan Island in Taihu Lake in Suzhou to find land with tea trees to buy and build a tea factory. The other is to buy a piece of water in Taihu Lake. , to develop freshwater pearl culture.

When he saw the tea garden, Cao Yin frowned slightly. When he saw the pearl cultivation area, he couldn't help shaking his head: "Nonsense, picking tea and making tea is cumbersome and the profit is meager, but it's still a job. Pearl cultivation is unheard of. Which anecdote did you read about this, and you took it as true."

"Most of the tribute tea in the Qing Dynasty today is group tea. Among them, the green tea is only 'Biluochun' named by the Long Live God in the 38th year of Kangxi. In the past two years, the first-grade Biluochun has no market, and the second-grade Biluochun is equivalent to gold. Up and down, After all, green tea will gradually replace the group tea that people have been drinking for nearly a thousand years. The son listed in the booklet are all places with beautiful mountains and clear waters, rich in tea trees. Although West Lake Longjing tea is not well-known in Beijing, it has a little reputation in Jiangnan. Longjing tea from West Lake and pine needles from Junshan are good teas that taste as good as Biluochun. People in the south have a light diet, while people in the north have a greasy diet. They always like to drink strong tea, and most of them use Pu'er tea from Yunnan. This tea produced in Anxi, Fujian Tieguanyin has a strong taste and is suitable for reference in four seasons, and it has more health-preserving effects than Biluochun." Cao Yong said to Cao Yong, summarizing the famous tea information he knew in his previous life.He is very confident about these three kinds of teas, because in history, these three kinds of teas were tribute teas, but they were known to the world only five or sixty years later, it seems that they were included in the scope of tributes in the middle and late Qianlong period. .As for the tea frying method, he doesn’t have to worry about it. The working people are the greatest, and every kind of tea is first recognized by the local people.

Cao Yin listened to Cao Yong's reasoning and nodded his head. It took only a few short years for Biluochun to go from being unknown to the world.If the tea from the three places is really as Cao Yong said, then a fortune can be saved in a few years.

"Then pearl cultivation?" Cao Yin hesitated, "How about it? Is it really feasible?"

"This is to be prepared. On the other side of the tea garden, they sell it at a high price under the name of tribute. If it is more profitable for seven or eight years, it will be profitable for three to five years. If the weather is good, the country is safe and the people live and work in peace, our family will be short-lived. It can almost make up for it! If the year is not good, the local law and order is uneven, and the current situation is volatile, who has the taste for tea. Or, like the tea garden that produces Biluochun, it is missed by the dignitaries in Beijing. The prince robbed his head and broke his blood, and finally belonged to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. If there are all kinds of troubles and the deficit in the mansion has not been repaid, Pearl is another way out." Cao Yong replied: "It is difficult to cultivate pearls. It must be difficult, and there may be no profit within three to five years. But this is not something that has never happened before. People have started cultivating pearls in the West, but it has not been spread to the Qing Dynasty." He said it firmly, but actually he remembered it vaguely Cultured pearls seem to have only begun to appear in the [-]th century.

(End of this chapter)