Reborn in the last years of Kangxi

Chapter 765

Although there is an old saying that "the parents are not far away", Cao Yong, the son of the eldest son of Cao, has been tossing a lot over the years.

Fortunately, there are letters from home all the time, so Li Shi feels a little at ease.Even so, Cao Yin and Li's husband and wife were overjoyed to see him return safely.

As an old father, Cao Yin can still restrain himself. Li Shi has already pulled his son, caressing his slightly clear face, his eyes are red.

It was Cao Yin who "coughed" and said a few words to Cao Song who had come to pay his respects, and sent him back to Dongfu first.

Chu Yu was beside her, looking at her husband with affectionate eyes.It's not easy to go forward because of the mother-in-law.

Cao Yin saw it, and said to Cao Yong: "Go back and change your clothes first, and come to talk later."

Cao Yong responded and went back to Wutong Garden with his wife.

"Where is Tianhui, why didn't you see it?" Cao Yong didn't see his daughter, so he asked.

"Big sister sent someone to take over the palace." Chu Yu replied.

In the previous family letter, Chu Yu also mentioned that in July, the Cao Jia family added another little elder brother named Fu Rui. This is the fifth child born to the Pingjun Wang and his wife after eleven miles of marriage, especially the husband and wife. The two are so loving, they are well-known loving couples in the clan.

There are nine out of ten unsatisfactory things in this world.

Even the loving couple, King Pingjun and Cao Jiashi, also have some unsatisfactory things.

They originally had a daughter, Fu Min, who passed away in the first month, and the husband and wife were devastated.Cao Jiashi was pregnant with a child at the time and almost had a miscarriage.It would be better if Mrs. Li went over and stayed with the girl to comfort her.

The husband and wife already have three legitimate sons, the eldest elder brother Fu Peng is ten years old, the fourth elder brother Xi Fuxiu is eight years old, and the sixth elder brother Fu Jing is three years old.

Ordinary people's families are mostly "preferring boys to girls", but the king of Pingjun is completely "preferring girls to boys".Clansmen in the capital, who doesn't know that Naersu's most precious palace is Da Gege.

A good daughter died at a young age, wouldn't it be a pain for the parents.

Since then, Cao Jia's family and King Pingjun have been looking forward to having another daughter-in-law, but they didn't expect to give birth to a little elder brother.

The late Great Gege Fumin and Tian Hui were cousins, so their appearances are naturally somewhat similar.This love for her daughter made Cao Jia transfer to her niece Tianhui.

Speaking of this, both husband and wife were a little silent.

After a long while, Cao Yong sighed and said: "It's better to have a little elder brother, but it's better than having a cute baby for more than ten years and then sending it to Mongolia."

When Chu Yu heard this, she felt a little heavy when she thought of Er Gege who got married last month.

"According to what Er Niang said, the fifth younger sister was mentioned in the palace, and I'm afraid it means that the decree of marriage will also be made." Chu Yu said.

Hearing this, Cao Yong only felt a headache.

It's true that the clan's family wants to caress Mongolia, and the right to marry this noble daughter of the Eight Banners is not in the hands of her parents.When Tianhui was blind before, Cao Yong and his wife could still take care of her and arranged for her life.This eye disease is cured, but in the future, he will be restricted by the palace.

"When the Queen Mother comes back, let my mother ask for a favor to see if our daughter can be exempted from the election. If I was raised by a baby bump, if I marry a jerk man in the future, I, as a father, will die of anger." Cao Yong said.

Seeing the angry look on her husband's face, Chu Yu couldn't help laughing, and said, "Look at what my son-in-law said, Tianhui is only a little older, so that's all I need to worry about."

"Men are afraid of entering the wrong profession, and women are afraid of marrying the wrong wolf. In the future, we must choose a son-in-law who is at ease before we are willing to marry Tianhui. Otherwise, I would rather let her be an old lady than go to someone else's house to be angry." Cao Yong said.

Seeing her husband being so serious, Chu Yu also felt worried when she thought of her daughter.When she first got married, Wu Gege was still a child. In the blink of an eye, didn't she also start discussing marriage?

After Cao Yong finished speaking, he took Chuyu to heart and regretted it.This child is the flesh that fell from the mother. No matter when, the mother always misses the child more than the father.

Just like what Chu Yu said, Zuo Tianhui is still young, so the matter of asking for grace is to be planned slowly.

Thinking of this, he changed his subject and said, "By the way, I just saw Cao Fang leading the shopkeepers of Daoxiang Village out in the front yard. How did they come to the mansion? They seem to have children with them. There is a younger one, who is bigger than Tianyou, Hang Seng is not a few years older."

He was in a hurry to enter the inner courtyard just now to greet his parents, so after everyone paid their respects, he just nodded and called everyone up before returning to the inner courtyard without having time to ask.

Chu Yu recounted what the Han Jiang family said before the Mid-Autumn Festival, and what happened in these days, Cao Yong frowned.

"What does she mean, is she wants to return the shop to us?" Cao Yong said after a little thought.

Chu Yu nodded, and said: "She mentioned twice that she wanted to take her daughter back to Yangzhou and attach herself to her mother's family. The uncle is not in Beijing, so I can't say anything, so I just kept vague. I was still tempted by the matter of donating my future. , Later, seeing that she wanted to return, I also wanted to delay, but I couldn't bear her to grind."

"Except for Cheng Mengxing, none of her uncles were close to her. I heard that Han and Jiang were going to file a lawsuit against her, and her uncle was among them. She had a wealth of money behind her, but she had no power to protect herself. It’s just a big piece of fat everywhere.” Cao Yong shook his head and said, “Wait two days and ask her to come over to talk, and see if I can persuade her to stop thinking about it.”

Cao Yong was somewhat surprised by Han Jiang's move.The business in Daoxiang Village is booming, with a [-]% profit, which is a lot of income in a year.Although Han Jiang's family has a fortune of millions, the brand of Daoxiang Village is still worth a lot now.

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

It turned out that it was Tianyou and Hangsheng who heard that their father was back and came to pay their respects to him.

Cao Yong took a look at Chu Yu and said, "Has Hang Seng remembered? Will you forget me as an old man?"

Chu Yu laughed and said, "Tian Hui will probably forget, Hang Sheng is usually the most sticky, and it's only been two months, how can he forget?"

When the two brothers came in, they greeted Cao Yong politely.Cao Yong saw that the two brothers had grown a bit, Tianyou had a gentle appearance, Tianyou's small body was getting stronger and stronger, and he was already shoulder to shoulder with Tianyou, and looked like he was the same age.

It seems okay, the two children have remembered things, apart from being respectful to the father Cao Yong, there is only trust left in his eyes.

Cao Yong asked Tianyou about his homework, touched Hang Seng's forehead, and asked someone to take them down.

After the sons went out, Cao Yong said to Chu Yu: "Tianyou is becoming more and more like a bookworm. Is it because of the master?"

Tianhui shook her head with a smile, and said: "The master has talked a lot about it, saying that Tianyou is like the master when he was young, and he is still like the master when he was young, but he doesn't like riding and shooting like the master. I heard from my wife that when I was a child, the master was very careful in martial arts. At that time, my wife My master and I thought that my uncle was going to take the martial arts examination."

Hearing about the Jinshi examination, Cao Yong thought of Qian Chenqun.He is considered a famous Confucian, and he wants to be promoted in the imperial examination.It is now less than half a year before next year's spring, and he should be preparing to take the exam.

"Did Mr. Qian say anything else these days?" Cao Yong asked.

Chu Yu thought for a while, then shook her head and said, "No, I just asked the housekeeper twice when the uncle will come back."

"He is also in a hurry when he thinks about it. I was negligent and forgot that he also has to take the test." Cao Yong said: "Tomorrow is free, so I will go talk to him. It seems that I have to change Mr. Tianyou and Hang Seng..."

*
Cao family, Dongfu.

It was also the return of his son, but Mrs. Zhao Jia was not as happy as Mrs. Li.When she heard that Cao Xiang was going to resign and come back to take the examination, her face drooped immediately.

"Well, the seventh-rank official was wrong, and he came back to take the exam. As an older brother, you just let him torment you?" Zhao Jia said, ignoring his wife's presence, staring at Cao Song.

"I persuaded him to come back. How old is he, even if he fails the exam, he should take the exam twice more. The fourth brother is smart, has the best homework, and is on the list in the designated meeting. My mother has never been to Henan, but Luoyang It’s more prosperous, but the bottom is very poor. The best food in the post station is all kinds of noodles and noodle soup. It’s not easy to eat a chicken.” Cao Song said.

This is not all a lie, Cao Song had this in mind before he went to Henan Mansion, and when he saw his younger brother came back from a catastrophe, he also wanted to persuade him to resign.

Before he could speak, Cao Xiang spoke first.His own brother immediately nodded in response.

When Zhao Jia heard this, he was too angry to speak, and said: "Don't think that I don't know if you don't tell me how much money the family paid for his release. This sentence is afraid of suffering, so I came back? If you really fail the ranking, no You still have to chew and use it from home. Ask your wife, is this home a mountain of gold and silver, and can it make you prodigal?"

Cao Song was tired after traveling all the way, and was dragged and nagged by his mother for a long time. He only felt a pain in his brain, and got up and said, "My son is sweaty, go back and change first, and come back later to talk to my wife."

Seeing that he had been away from home for three months, Zhao Jia felt a little distressed, waved his hand, and said, "Go, go. The 1000-mile land is not for fun. Ask the kitchen to burn some more for you tonight." Vegetables, so healthy and nourishing..."

*
Cao Yong was also tired. After dinner, he took a rest early.Xiaobie is better than newlyweds. There are two husbands and wives, and London and London are indispensable.Seeing Cao Yong's eyes shining, Chu Yu felt as if he had eaten honey.

After her husband went out, Chu Yu never inquired about it, which is also the trust between the husband and wife.She was not uneasy, she couldn't refuse to socialize in the officialdom.The husband is so talented and beautiful.

The next day, Cao Yong, who had slept well, was relieved of his fatigue. He first went to the Ministry of Officials to hand over the errand, and then went to the Yamen of the Ministry of Households as an errand.

What happened in Henan has already been spread in the capital, but no one dared to say "rebellion", only that it was the apportionment by local officials that aroused public anger, and so on.

Cao Yong went to March, and seeing that he had succeeded, he changed to the minister of the Ministry of punishment, and the credit seemed to run away.

Colleagues mentioned that there are many people who complain about Cao Yong.When Cao Yong came back, apart from exchanging pleasantries and reporting important events in the past few months, he just asked about the Henan government.

Although the Kang brothers are now in the governor's yamen prison, the imperial court has no intention of escorting them back to Beijing, but instead sent officials from the Ministry of Punishment to find out about the matter in Henan.

Cao Yong didn't know what crimes the court would use to close the case, and he couldn't say much, so he mentioned a few general sentences without elaborating.

After several months of squeezing, the official documents that required him to review and sign were piled up two feet high, and Cao Yong was busy for a while.

When Cao Yong heard the movement outside and felt his arms sore, it was already noon.

Brother Sixteen is here.

Brother Sixteen has a lot to say to Cao Yong, so naturally he can't wait for him to go to the Yamen.

It happened that Cao Yong was a little hungry, so the two went out together, found a restaurant, and asked for a private room to sit in.

This side is next to the six yamen, and the officials who come and go don't say anything, so Cao Yong's official uniform is not eye-catching.Brother Sixteen is at ease, except for court meetings, he wears ordinary clothes, and the two of them are not eye-catching.

"What kind of source of income is it that requires the Ministry of Internal Affairs to provide 10 taels of silver every year?" Elder Sixteen ordered a few random dishes, sent Xiaoer out, and asked impatiently.

Knowing that he was outside, in order to prevent the wall from having ears, he lowered the volume.

This is not something that can be explained clearly in one sentence or two. Cao Yong said: "It's just a few new additions to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The sixteenth elder brother came to me after he was in office. Let's talk about it in detail."

"If you have a capital of [-], how much profit will you make in a year?" Elder Sixteen asked with sparkling eyes.

Cao Yong thought about it for a while, and said: "More than a few percent? If you say less, you can double or double it, and if you say more, you can get it three or five times?"

"What kind of business makes you so profitable?" Elder Sixteen was overjoyed when he heard the words: "Fu Ruo, you don't know that the internal treasury is not well-off now, and you still have to allocate money to the household department and repair several gardens. If you don't mention it, I will I also want to urge you to think of a few ways to make money, or else I will top the tank before Huang Ama. The Ministry of Households has paid the donation, and it can last for a while, and the internal treasury can't be empty."

Ever since Elder Sixteen smoked opium and gave it up, he not only hated opium, but also hated tobacco.

What Cao Yong thought about this time was the cigarette business.

Although the people have no money in their hands, the bureaucratic landlords are all silver owners, and Cao Yong can only play the idea of ​​luxury goods.

Tobacco was introduced to the mainland from the Ming Dynasty, and over the past few hundred years, it has become very popular, and there are many smokers.If the big tobacco pouch can be developed into cigarettes, it will be a free profit.The second is foreign trade.

According to Wei Xin's previous news in Guangzhou, there should be no cigarettes in Europe and America so far.

Just when Xiao Er brought up the food and wine, Cao Yong said with a smile: "Eat first, and we will talk about it later when we find a secluded place."

Although the sixteenth elder brother was impatient, he saw that Cao Yong was unwilling to speak, and knew that this was not the place to speak, so he stopped talking.

After dinner, Cao Yong went back to Yamen.Brother Sixteen made an appointment with him, and went to his house in the afternoon before going back to the palace.

Back at the Housekeeping Department, Cao Yong couldn't help but think deeply, is it a bit difficult for Brother Sixteen to touch the tobacco he hates?
It is said that in the last years of the Ming Dynasty, the imperial court had a "ban on smoking".The "smoke" here is not opium, commonly known as "big smoke", but tobacco.

The promotion of tobacco among the people will affect the number of crops, and the imperial court naturally cannot tolerate it.

However, like "prohibition of alcohol", it can be banned where it can be said to be prohibited. Over the past 100 years, tobacco has become popular among the people in Northeast China and North China.

Cao Yong himself did not smoke in his previous life, but there is definitely a reason why cigarettes are popular all over the world.This point, Cao Yong no doubt.

Didn't Kangxi stare at him to urge money?What will neither offend the gentry and officials in power, nor harm the people's livelihood, is to develop luxury consumption.

At this time, people had silver at home, and few people said they were saving money. They all poured large silver ingots and hid them at home.It is not uncommon for a landlord with a better family background to have 8000 taels of silver in his hand.

As Cao Yong thought, when he got out of the Yamen, he went to Cao's house with Cao Yong, and when he heard what Cao Yong said was the "tobacco plan", the sixteenth elder brother's smile froze immediately.

"Furuo, are you confused? It's a thing that harms people. I still want to wait for when to hand over the booklet and ask Huang Ama to ban smoking. You actually think of 'government' or 'official sale'?" Sixteen Elder Brother looked at Cao Yong and asked in disbelief.

It is not the first time that Cao Yong had the idea of ​​making cigarettes. Before the Ministry of Internal Affairs called for bids, he thought about making cigarettes a big item.It's just that the affairs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs were complicated at that time, and they were all mature business ways. The new idea of ​​cigarettes did not receive the attention of Sixteenth Brother, and finally it was ignored.

Elder Sixteen seems to have thought of this too, and then said: "The year before last, you were going to get this. At that time, I didn't know the harm of this thing, I just thought it was troublesome; now I have suffered, Furuo still wants to with this."

"Although both tobacco and opium are addictive, they are not the same thing at all. The sixteenth master should know it." Cao Yong said: "Even if the sixteenth elder brother is tired of the tobacco industry because of the opium , Can you stop yourself, can you stop others from smoking?"

Although Elder Sixteen had always trusted Cao Yong, he was still a little awkward at the moment. He frowned and said: "As far as I know, good tobacco leaves are more expensive, but it's not outrageous. Cheaper ones are only more than ten yuan a catty. A huge profit?"

The sixteenth elder brother paid attention to the tobacco shops in the city because of the opium, so he knew the approximate price.

"Why not? Master Sixteen has also heard that people need clothes and Buddhas need hardcover. Besides, the real taste of this cigarette is that it has been roasted to remove the astringency of raw tobacco leaves, and the taste is more mellow. In addition, it is rare It is not a problem to earn several times or even ten times the profit." Cao Yong said with a smile.

Elder Sixteen was a little interested when he heard him speak so confidently, and said: "You also know that there are folk tobacco shops everywhere, and if the cigarettes are really good to smoke, they will be everywhere in a few years." , what money do you make?"

"For the past few years, it's a lot of money. Is it not unusual for the Sixteenth Lord? Besides, the reason why it is government-run is to be justified. Apart from earning money from the landlord's old fortune, this cigarette is mainly intended to be sold to foreigners. Earn money from foreigners." Cao Yong said: "At that time, even if the people open hundreds or thousands of tobacco factories, what is the use? Those who can go to foreign trade must be designated by the imperial court. Those factories, the imperial court can be smoked Heavy taxes and another regular income.”

Listening to Cao Yong's eloquent talk, Elder Sixteen also felt itchy in his heart, nodded, and said: "Wonderful, in this way, Furuo has not only added a business to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but also added a business to the Ministry of Household Affairs. The new tax is beneficial to the country and the people. I didn’t go to Henan in vain, but I’ve been thinking of such an idea for a few months, but why should it be located in Henan Prefecture, so far away from the capital?”

"Henan Prefecture is full of hills, and the yield per mu is extremely low. Which province has few such barren places like Henan Prefecture? If we can come up with some supplementary income based on the situation of each place, it will also be good for the local people's livelihood." Cao Yong thought of the Henan mansion and replied.

After listening to Cao Yong's words, Elder Sixteen stopped laughing, looked at Cao Yong for a long time, and said: "Furuo, today I want to admire Huang Ama's insightful eyes."

Cao Yong was uncomfortably stared at by him, "coughed" twice and said: "Is there any suitable candidate for Elder Sixteen? Those servants of the royal family can use it if they can. There are not many honest and practical people except for hugging money."

Brother Sixteen raised his eyebrows when he heard the words, and said, "Fu Ruo has a good candidate? Who is it?"

Cao Yong thought of a person in his heart, nodded, and said: "I don't know if the other party is willing to mix, wait to ask the other party, and then tell the sixteenth master..."

*
Xiao Cao's road to the God of Wealth has taken another step forward, asking for a guaranteed monthly pass.It is about to fall to fifth, the first month of the new year, please give me some motivation, thank you.

(End of this chapter)