Reborn in the last years of Kangxi

Chapter 593

Nine elder brothers' mansion, side hall.

Brother Jiu took a cup of bird's nest, took a sip with a spoon, nodded and said: "It's a good thing, it's no worse than the one from the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Only your Fang family can get this good thing."

Opposite him stood a 25-year-old young man. He looked a little slender, and his appearance was different from that of northerners.

He bowed, but he didn't dare to answer Brother Jiu's words.

Brother Jiu glanced at him, put down the bird's nest, picked up the list of new year's goods next to him, glanced at it, tapped the table with his finger and said: "Tell your father, I have my master here, and I have your Fang family's oil and water to drink!"

The Fujian Fang family is one of the imperial merchants of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

The young man bowed and said, "My little father also said the same thing. My little father was on his way to Beijing. He had already sent someone to deliver a letter to let the little one tell Jiuye that the Fang family is the only one with Jiuye. Even if he loses the Ministry of Internal Affairs The Fang family will not go against Master Jiu's heart."

"Hehe!" Brother Nine laughed and said, "It's still your father who knows about the matter. If nothing else, your Fang family was able to intervene in the business of the Ministry of Internal Affairs because of the affection of the Eighth Master. If you dare to sweep the Eighth Master For the sake of face, hehe, the Lord will not spare you."

Although he had a smile on his face, the coldness in his voice could not be concealed, and the hearts of those who listened trembled...

*
Cao Mansion, Wutong Garden.

Cao Yong was holding a bowl of bird's nest, thinking of the packaged rice at Shisan Ye's mansion, and said to Chu Yu: "The green vegetables that Mr. He sent a few years ago have not been eaten these days. Let's also pack up the packaged rice to relieve the greasy food. .Besides, children are growing up, so it is also good to eat more grains."

When Chu Yu heard this, she couldn't help but brighten her eyes, and said with a smile, "My wife has had a bad appetite for the past two days. I was thinking about what to eat, but this package is good."

The husband and wife were talking when they heard hurried footsteps outside.

Cao Yong put down the bowl and looked towards the door.

Then I heard a servant girl say from the corridor: "Master, Grandma, Miss Xiuying is here."

Xiuying is Li's big servant girl, Chu Yu glanced at her husband, stood up, and said loudly, "Come in and talk."

Xiuying's face was a little panicked, and she entered the door and said: "Master, grandma, Master Qi is a little uncomfortable. The master and wife have already sent for the imperial doctor. The master asked the master to come over, and said that grandma should take good care of the young man. Go to the yard over there."

Cao Yong got up from the edge of the kang and walked out.

Tomorrow will be New Year's Eve, and Changsheng is sick today, but he doesn't know what happened.

Longevity is less than a hundred days, it is the time when children are the most delicate, and it is the cold winter and the twelfth lunar month.

Cao Yong was also quite worried when he thought that his parents were over half a hundred years old and had finally added this little blood under his knees.

As soon as I entered the orchid courtyard, I heard the cry of the child "Wow", which was extremely shrill.

Cao Yin frowned and paced the ground with a slightly heavy expression.Mrs. Li stood by the kang, looked at Changsheng in the rocking car, wept with a handkerchief, and softly coaxed Changsheng.

Seeing Cao Yong coming in, Cao Yin stopped and nodded.

Cao Yong took two steps towards Changsheng, but Cao Yin stretched out his arm to stop him: "Something is wrong, don't go forward."

Cao Yong's heart fell, and he looked into the rocking car. Changsheng's face was flushed, and he was crying heart-piercingly.

This season made Cao Yin so nervous, what else could there be?
"Is pox?" Cao Yong turned around and asked.

Cao Yin frowned, and replied: "Wait for the imperial doctor to look at it, if it's a flower..."

Li Shi heard the words from the side, tears were already falling down, but she was afraid of shocking Changsheng, so she covered her mouth with a handkerchief.

"The baby has already produced flowers, it's not a problem." Cao Yong said to Cao Yin, stepped forward to support his mother, and comforted him: "Mother, don't scare yourself. The imperial doctor hasn't seen it yet. Let's see it first."

Li's tears were unstoppable, but she didn't want her son to worry, so she pulled herself together and said, "If it's Hua'er, this yard will be closed. There are many children in the house, even if Yong'er has given birth to Hua'er, there are still daughter-in-law and Chu Yu." They should also be careful."

Cao Yong helped his mother's arm, and said: "Mother, don't worry, Chu Yu and his mother have planted flowers. My younger brother is not yet one year old, so I didn't think about planting them. When the new year turns, I will ask someone to plant flowers for my brother." .”

For a while, the imperial physician will come.

The thigh sockets of Changsheng's lower body were already covered with rashes, the imperial doctor looked at it carefully, pondered, with a very dignified expression.

Longevity is indeed blooming.

As early as the 50th year of Kangxi's reign when the capital was plagued by epidemics, the Shuntian Mansion issued a decree to report to the Yamen if it was discovered that there was an epidemic patient at home.

The Infantry Commander Yamen in the inner city also wanted to report, but Cao Yin sent someone to report but not to mention it.

On Li's side, he got the letter, but he didn't have the time to feel sad.

She sent someone to clean up the house for the "pox empress", and sent someone to pass down an order that from today onwards, frying is prohibited in the house.In addition, Cao Yin's luggage had to be packed and sent to the study in the front yard.

Cao Yong heart, more and more heavy.

Smallpox is an infectious disease, and there is no reason for it. The baby in the swaddle was infected with the flower, and it was designated to be infected outside.Maybe it's from the maidservants, or these female family members who are going to give gifts during the Chinese New Year.

The reason why everyone talks about this disease is because out of ten, three or four will die, and even if the rest survive by luck, they will still have pockmarked faces.

The fine and small white pockmarks on Kangxi's face and the pockmarks the size of copper coins on Li Wei's face were all caused by smallpox in his childhood.

Generally speaking, this pockmark is still a trivial matter. I don’t know how many families have experienced the pain of losing their sons and daughters.

"Vaccinium pox" was confirmed by Cao Yong and Cao Yin's father and son in the 51st year of Kangxi. It has been three years since Kangxi still has no intention of promoting it in the world.

You know, in the 21st year of Kangxi in the early years, Kangxi ordered all places to be vaccinated.

However, because of the risk of human pox, many elderly people do not want to vaccinate.In Mongolia, the Mongolians are not immune to smallpox. For human pox, the number of people who planted it and died is much higher than that of the Han people.

This makes the Mongolians afraid of acne like tigers, and avoid vaccination.

This caused the Mongols to form a delicate balance with the imperial court. The Mongols were willing to be vassals, but they did not enter the customs.

They meet Kangxi every year in Rehe to show their loyalty.

After 30 years, the "cowpox" prescription came out, which was hundreds of times better than the "human pox" prescription, but Kangxi did not intend to announce it to the world.

On Cao Yong's side, after the last pox epidemic, everyone in the house had been quietly infected with vaccinia.

Afraid of being convicted by outsiders, Mr. Zhuang chose a reliable person to do this job, and he only called it "human pox" to the outside world.

Although he has no compassion for the world, Cao Yong still feels depressed when he thinks of smallpox.

"Father, on the emperor's side, can this vaccinia formula turn a corner?" Cao Yong thought for a while and asked Cao Yindao.

Cao Yin shook his head and said: "I also want to understand what the emperor's intentions are. In the early years when the country was established at the beginning, after three times of chaos, the population dropped sharply, and the people were in trouble. The emperor is kind and gracious to the world. Living, the world is peaceful. Now it is different, the world has been peaceful for a long time, and the population is tens of millions. This court is going south to rule the Central Plains..."

Cao Yin didn't say the words behind, but Cao Yong also heard what he meant.

The population breeding in the world is a good thing and a bad thing for the imperial court.

The good thing is that there are more people, and the tax increases; the bad thing is that there are already many Han people, and they breed more, which makes it really difficult for the imperial court to rest assured.

Over the years, the imperial court has severely punished all kinds of incidents with the slogan of "anti-Qing and restoring the Ming Dynasty", and even opened up literary prisons.It's just that I'm afraid that a single spark can start a prairie fire.

Chu Yu arranged for the children, and visited Lan Yuan.

Although she has never produced flowers, she has had cowpox before, so she is not afraid of being infected.

In the Orchid Courtyard, except for the maidservant and Changsheng's wife who were serving by Mrs. Li's side, no one else was allowed to enter.All affairs in the mansion are decided by Wutong Garden.

Although God bless them all planted flowers, after all, children are delicate, and there is no guarantee that there will be a second infection, so it is strictly forbidden to enter the orchid courtyard.

Even Chuyu, who came here once, was also persuaded by Mrs. Li to go back.

Although Cao Yong was worried about his younger brother, but today, on the 29th, there will be a banquet given by Mongolian inner and outer vassals and inner ministers, university scholars and guards in the afternoon.He, the head of the House of Internal Affairs, is going to be in charge of preparing the banquet together with the Honglu Temple and the Lifan Academy, so he has to go to Dianmao.

After coming out of Lan Yuan, he changed into his official uniform and rode into the palace.

The banquet venue in the Hall of Supreme Harmony has been prepared, and many DVDs have been put on display.

The court musicians also hid in the dark, waiting for the vassal king to take his seat and Kangxi to come to court.

It's the end of another year, and it seems to be no different from previous years, a life of singing and dancing.

Cao Yong was counting the time in his heart, because he was not familiar with this period of history, he thought that the Northwest War caused by Cewang Allah Butan was in the 57th or [-]th year of Kangxi.

Even this year, Cao Yong did not regard it as a major event if he planned to commit Allah Butan's soldiers against Hami.

Because a clan, with tens of thousands of people, confronted the imperial army for several years, and it was not until Yongzheng came to power that peace talks were made. Isn't this a joke?

Unexpectedly, it was indeed not a joke.

The Eight Banners are so rotten that there are no soldiers or horses to use.

It is really embarrassing to let Cewang Allah Butan lead thousands of troops to plunder northern Xinjiang.

This war was dragged to the Yongzheng Dynasty, and Cao Yong had no doubts about this.

It doesn't matter if he is hypocritical, but he really wants to earn enough military expenses as soon as possible to quell the war as soon as possible.

As the war continued, the soldiers of the Eight Banners who led the battle on the battlefield actually fought against the Green Battalion of the Han Army, and the supply line of tens of thousands of people also alarmed the local people.

Standing in the distance, Cao Yong was thinking about the younger brother who was a flower at home for a while, and the soldier fan in the Northwest Army for a while.

Although he didn't do it deliberately, he also had a big pot meal with ordinary soldiers once.

Not to mention Chenmi Laoliang, there is still a lot of sand in it.

The amount of dried meat that each soldier gets every day is much less than the stipulated amount, and some people even don't see the smell of meat for half a month.

No matter how small a fly is, it is still meat. Even though military expenditures in the Northwest are tight, those moths are still daring to attack.

Although Cao Yong has heard about these things, he is not the kind of noble temperament, and he does not want to meddle in other people's business.

To this day, thinking of the protracted war in the Northwest, the lack of supply of troops and horses has something to do with it, as well as the lack of morale of the soldiers.

Although Kangxi was over sixty years old, Cao Yong dared not say that he was a foolish old man.

Even if the imperial court did not have Jin Yiwei on the bright side, Cao Yong also believed that Kangxi had his own eyes and ears.

It's not that I don't know, but I can't manage it.

From top to bottom, there is no one who is not greedy. If it is really investigated, who else can stand in the court?
Besides, he has been a king all his life, and he is also a person who loves fame. How could he make such a big splash to discredit the court?

Kangxi also kept his heart for the real honest officials.

For example, Zhang Boxing, with the body of "waiting for crimes and avoiding death", is now appointed as the governor's warehouse assistant.

In this world, there is really no way to explain clearly.

Cao Yong shook his head gently, but he warned himself in his heart that being an official is only an official, as a means of protecting the family, and he must not lose his heart.

One cannot ask for profit, and if one seeks profit in officialdom, one will inevitably lose one's conscience and unknowingly do something harmful to nature; one cannot ask for fame, otherwise one will easily become stubborn, attract villains to attack and annihilate, and the king will be jealous.

What is needed in moderation is "a thousand words are worse than a silence".

Just as he was thinking about his background, he heard someone behind him say: "What are you thinking, sir? The Ministry of Rites has already invited people to sit down."

It was Yi Duli, wearing a white pheasant men's suit, but his expression was a little stiff.

A few months ago, he was impeached by the imperial envoy for taking a concubine in naturalization, and was demoted three ranks in a row, from the Shaoqing of the Taipu Temple to the Langzhong of the House of Internal Affairs.

Among the internal ministers and guards who came to the banquet today, several of them are family members of Yiduli.He was wearing the clothes of the fifth-rank official, running forward and backward, he couldn't hide his face, so he kept hiding in a corner where there was no one, but he happened to meet Cao Yong.

Cao Yong has been working with him for a year and a half, and he knows his temperament. Although he is enthusiastic and forthright, he also has full self-confidence and love for face.

In the words of Yi Duli, life is a matter of face. If you are poor or miserable, you are not afraid. This face cannot be lost.

"It's just a small punishment. My lord, it's better to stop for a year, and wait for the limelight to seek reinstatement." Cao Yong persuaded.

Yi Duli shook his head, and said: "Shaoqing of the fourth rank, I don't care much about the decoration of the yamen." Speaking of this, he smiled and said to Cao Yong: "It's my lord, this time it's my lord. Actions, everything you say outside, but I believe you. Even if you wear a fifth-grade top wear? From now on, I will follow the adults, and the adults must remember to be careful. To make some real achievements, I will I don’t believe it, I won’t be able to make it to the imperial court. If that’s the case, I’d have no face to be in the officialdom, and I’d just take off this skin and go to serve as a soldier.”

Yiduri said with a smile, but his eyes were full of trust.

His arrogance is concealed by his foolishness, but in fact, as the son of a university scholar, he also looks forward to success and fame.

Cao Yong was quite moved by this trust, nodded, and said: "It's hard to say whether to support it or not. Your Excellency has ambitions, and Cao Yong is willing to do his best."

While talking, the sound of silk strings and drums reminded me that the Mongolian kings and Taiji had already entered the Hall of Supreme Harmony to take their seats...

*
Outside Anding Gate, Prince Yong's Mansion, Study Room.

The fourth elder brother buried his head in the files, finished sorting out the official documents, and wrote a personal letter to several disciples in the foreign office, his wrists were already sore from exhaustion.

He put down his pen, rubbed his right wrist, but frowned.

Compared with his younger brothers, he is already middle-aged.

Recently, his spirit has been far worse than in the morning. He took out a ceramic vial from the desk drawer, poured out a brown pill from it, and took it with water; Fang felt more energetic.

At this moment, someone said outside the door: "Master, Fujin sent a servant to see the master."

Hearing the voice was Su Peisheng, the eunuch of the inner courtyard, the fourth elder brother put down the water glass and said, "Come in."

"Master, there are flowers blooming in Sigege, Fujin invites master to come over..." Su Peisheng bowed and said.

The fourth elder brother couldn't help but change his face when he heard that, these four princesses were born by the Nian clan of Xifu Jin, and he is his most beloved young girl...

*
On the last day, roll around and ask for a monthly pass, everyone, don't waste it, order it.Well.

(End of this chapter)