Reborn in the last years of Kangxi

Chapter 76
In the palace, go to the study room.

Cao Yong was still a little bit worried at first, afraid that someone would jump out and give him a bad name when he just arrived here.When I arrived, I realized that I seemed to think highly of myself. Those companions were all the children of the Eight Banners family, and even the clan. I, the son of a foreign official, was not worthy at all.

When he was just seated, someone asked about his father's grandparent's official title. He heard that he was the son of a third-rank official, and his father's title was only a second-class male. The other party's expression immediately turned cold.

Cao Yong secretly laughed in his heart, these little brats, all young, have learned so much in the world.However, that's fine, no one is paying attention, just hang out with brother sixteen for a while.

Generally speaking, the smell of gunpowder in the upper study room was still very strong, but it was concentrated between Hong Xi and Hong Sheng.Hong Xi has a 13-year-old younger brother, Hong Jin, who lives in the study room. Although Hong Sheng has two younger brothers, one is seven years old and the other is six years old. They are too young.Two-on-three, plus a few people to accompany the reading, the spare time is a big show.

During the break between classes, Elder Sixteen went to Cao Yong's side, introduced the emperors and grandchildren to him, and watched the excitement with him at the same time, which was very bad.In fact, those princes and grandchildren are also easy to distinguish.In addition to the three princes, the ten grandsons come from the knees of four elder brothers.The prince and the fifth elder brother each have two, and the third elder brother and the seventh elder brother each have three.The fifth elder brother was brought up by the queen mother, while the seventh elder brother became disabled when he followed the retinue to attack Galdan in his early years. Both of them consciously or unconsciously avoided the struggle for succession.Their sons also acted in a low-key manner, quite like a father.In contrast, the sons of the prince and the third elder brother are more ostentatious.

At a quarter to an hour, Kangxi came to the upper study.After everyone greeted them, he kindly asked a few young grandsons about their homework, and finally persuaded them a few words before going out.Cao Yong was a little strange, because he found that the old man seemed to look at him several times, and even smiled at him.

At the beginning of the morning (seven o'clock in the morning), morning classes were over in the study room, and it was time for everyone to have breakfast.Breakfast is provided in the dining room in the palace, whether it is the princes and grandchildren, or your companions, there are certain rules.

At this time, the sound of drum music could be heard clearly not far away, and Emperor Kangxi was listening to the government in the early court of Qianqingmen.

After breakfast, at the second quarter of Chenchu ​​(07:30 in the morning), it was Master Han who came to teach. The learning content was "Four Books", "Five Classics" and "Zi Zhi Tong Jian".These contents, Cao Yong has been studying in Jiangning for seven or eight years, and he is already very familiar with them.Because the accompanying teachers are all from the Hanlin Academy, the lectures have a different flavor, and the courses are not boring.It's just that the teaching time was too long, and it didn't end until noon ([-]:[-] noon).

Brother Fifteen and Hongxi were both 15 years old, and they left at the beginning of noon ([-]:[-] noon), which caused Brother Sixteen to envy him for a while.

After lunch, another master changed to teach everyone calligraphy and poetry.This class lasted half an hour, before the second day of junior high school (01:30 pm), Cao Yong finished the class in the study room.

He went to the elder brother's house with the sixteenth elder brother. Afterwards, Cao Yong went out of the palace from Donghuamen according to the route he came in the morning.

*
Xiao Man, Wei Hei, Wei Bai, and two other long followers named Wu Mao and Wu Sheng, led their horses and stood guard outside the Donghua Gate. When they saw Cao Yong coming out, they all came forward to meet him.Wu Mao and Wu Sheng are also two brothers, they are not very old, one is seventeen, one is fifteen, and the Cao family has a son.Their father was a steward of the Cao family in the capital. He died of illness a few years ago, leaving only orphans and widows in the family.

After Cao Yong entered Beijing, the chief steward Cao Zhong chose him as his long-term follower, and because he thought of the honesty and honesty of the Wu family brothers, he picked them out.The two didn't talk much, and Cao Yong was more satisfied.The two brothers Wei Hei and Wei Bai also have a good impression of these two honest and responsible children, and in their spare time, they would point out their fists and kicks.

After Cao Yong left the Donghua Gate, he couldn't help stretching his waist. Apart from half an hour for breakfast and dinner, he took four hours and eight hours of class. This homework was really not easy.Compared with going to the study, the homework in Jiangning Shizuo Xue is not a weight at all.

Cao Yong saw two blue satin bundles hanging on the side of the saddles of the Wu brothers, one was bigger and the other was smaller, and he asked Xiaoman, "Is that a gift from your sister Zijing?"

Xiaoman replied: "Well, Sister Zijing said that the uncle told me that the small bag is a wedding gift for Ma Ye; the big bag is all kinds of medicinal materials brought from the south."

Cao Yong took the reins from Xiaoman and got on the horse. He didn't go back to Cao's mansion directly, but went to the horse mansion in Dongsishitiao.This is the mansion of Ma Yan, Minister of Rites, and Ma Jun's uncle's house. Ma Jun lived here after he entered Beijing.

A few days ago in the VIP building, because I met Cao Yin, a scholar who arranged for me, everyone's interest was swept away. In the end, everyone chatted a few words and then dispersed.

Ma Jun decided to leave Beijing on the second day of October to serve as magistrate in Changsha County, Hunan Province.

Cao Yong is going to the study room tomorrow, and he has no time to see him off, so he will send Cheng Yi off across the house today.Because everyone knew that Cao's family was short of money right now, so Cao Yong was spared the gold and silver things, and only let Amethyst find some high-quality medicinal materials.Hunan is very humid, and the climate is not as pleasant as that of Jiangning. It is appropriate to prepare more medicines.In addition, when Ma Jun got married, Cao Yong did not catch up with him outside the Great Wall, and this wedding gift was also made up. It was some delicate objects prepared by Amethyst for the two brides.In duplicate, it does not appear to favor one over another.

*
Dongsishitiao, Mafu.

Ma Jun heard the concierge's announcement and knew that Cao Yong was coming, so he went out to greet him in person.

The two arrived at the living room. Ma Jun will get up early tomorrow to go on his way, and his luggage is all ready.

Although the Ma family is not a bannerman, they have inherited poems and books from generation to generation. The grandfather's generation became an official in the court. In Ma Jun's father's generation, both brothers were Jinshi. Among them, Ma Jun's uncle was Tanhua Jidi.There are two brothers, one is a Beijing official and the other is a foreign official. Now one is a second-rank servant and the other is a fourth-rank Daotai. They are also considered prominent among Han officials.

Uncle Ma Jun was still on duty in the ministry, and my aunt heard that it was my nephew's best friend who had come, so she asked someone to come out and spread the word, asking the guest to stay for dinner.Cao Yong and Ma Jun both wanted to talk, so they didn't refuse.Although I ate some at noon in the palace, those meals only looked decent, and they really didn't suit my appetite.However, from this detail, we can also see the difference in Manchu and Han rules.Housewives of the Manchus do not shy away from foreigners, and the housewives of the Han people have stricter rules of etiquette.

There is a saying in the official circles of the Qing Dynasty: "Three lives of misfortune, the county magistrate attaches to Guo; three lives of evil, attaches the provincial city of Guo; evil pervades, attaches Guo Jingcheng." Among them, "prefect county attaches Guo" refers to the same city as the magistrate and prefect; In the same city as the governor: "Fuguo Jingcheng" is Jing County.

Ma Jun has a bit of a scholar's nobility, and he is unwilling to use his uncle's relationship when seeking a vacancy, so he ends up being attached to the county magistrate of Guo.However, look at his spiritual head, he really looks very confident.He has been in the servant's mansion for several years, and he is far from the old Amon. Cao Yong has nothing to worry about him.There is only one seedling in the Ma family, so of course the elders cannot stand by and watch.There are people above who are good at being officials, not to mention the person above is a second-rank Beijing official.Even for the face of Uncle Ma Jun, I believe those officials in Hunan would never dare to make things difficult for him.

After dinner, Cao Yong and Ma Jun talked a few more gossips, checked the time at the second quarter of Shenchu ​​(03:30 in the afternoon), and thought that Ma Jun had a lot of business on his long trip, so he left and returned home.

Not long after leaving the Ma Mansion, someone rode over from the opposite side, but they were familiar. It was Zhao An, the servant Li brought from Jiangning, Hui Xin's husband.

Seeing Cao Yong and the others, Zhao An got off his horse and beat him a thousand times, but Cao Yong was startled by what he said: "My lord, someone is coming from the palace. The butler sent a servant to invite you back!"

Cao Yong raised his eyebrows: "Is the sixteenth elder brother here?" But he was thinking in his heart, isn't the prince not allowed to leave the palace at will?What reason did Little Sixteen find for coming out?

After hearing this, Zhao An quickly shook his head: "It's not the prince, but a young father-in-law who came here with an imperial edict!"

Kangxi's will?Cao Yong was a little surprised, and nodded at Zhao An: "Understood, let's go back home!"

*
West of the city, Cao Mansion, living room.

A servant in his twenties was sitting and drinking tea with a smile, and the chief housekeeper Cao Zhong was standing beside him and talking with him.

In the back hall, both Amethyst and Zhuang Xi looked solemn.About the dispute in the VIP building, Xiaoman went back to the house and told the two of them.The Cao family is in an embarrassing situation, and now both of them are worried, not knowing whether this so-called imperial decree is a blessing or a curse.Thunder, rain and dew are a gift from heaven, so how can the Cao family have room for maneuver?

When Cao Yong returned to the mansion, he saw the servant, but there was a little more smile on his face. He was actually an acquaintance, and hurriedly clasped his fists and said, "Eunuch Wei, I haven't seen you for seven or eight days. You look good!"

The person who came was Wei Zhu, the eunuch of Qianqing Palace. Cao Yong met him several times, and he brought him to introduce him.

Wei Zhu got up and said with a smile: "The guard Cao is in the study now, and it will be common in the future. Let our family settle the errands first, and then we can gossip!"

In the hall, Cao Zhong had already prepared the incense case to receive the order.

Cao Yong stood with his back to the door, Wei Zhu faced south and turned his back to the north, raised the imperial decree in his hand, and said loudly: "Cao Yong, the first-class captain of Qingche, third-class guard of Qianqing Palace, accepts the decree!"

(End of this chapter)