Reborn in the last years of Kangxi

Chapter 958 Sharp Weapon

On the seventh day of September, the garden of Prince Yong’s Mansion in Rehe.

The autumn cold is getting heavier, all the flowers in the garden are withered, only the chrysanthemums are in full bloom at that time.With his head down, Niu Hulu followed Si Fujin and came to Kangxi.

According to the rules, it is a crime of disrespect to look directly at Longyan. Niu Hulu didn't dare to make a mistake, so he lowered his eyebrows and looked at the back skirts of the four Fujin in front, and followed the rules.

Although she didn't raise her head, her body was tense because someone was looking at her.That gaze was like ice water, which made her body tremble.

It was Kangxi who looked at her.

Before coming to Si Age Garden, Niu Hulu's information had already been presented to the imperial court.

Her father's rank is not high, but in terms of origin, she is also the daughter of a common surname in Manchuria, the great-granddaughter of the five founding ministers of the People's Republic of China, Hongyi Gongerdu, and the niece of Queen Xiaozhaoren's family.

Looking at the appearance again, she is tall and slender, with the sassy style of a Manchurian daughter.The face is plump, but because the head is lowered, the eyebrows and eyes cannot be seen clearly.

"You are Hongli's biological mother? Look up!" Kangxi said loudly.

Niu Hulu always felt like a drum was beating in his heart, but because of his status, he was used to being submissive, so he still raised his head obediently.

She was in her early thirties, and she had lost the charm of a young woman, leaving only peace and gentleness.

Xu Shi had been serving Sifujin since he was a teenager, and was deeply influenced by Sifujin, and his expression and behavior all brought the grandeur and grace of Sifujin.Undoubtedly, this pleased Kangxi.

Sifujin, like Erfujin, is the daughter-in-law personally selected by Kangxi, and she is the most sacred among the prince Fujin.

Niu Hulu's family can somewhat resemble Sifu Jin, which in Kangxi's eyes represents virtue and generosity.

"Okay, okay, he is indeed a blessed person. Reward! Sifu Jin has a good teacher, reward!" Kangxi nodded.

The eunuchs Wei Zhu and Zhao Chang, who were standing by, each held a silver plate and sent it to Sifu Jin and Niu Hulu.

In front of Sifujin is a white jade ruyi; in front of Niu Hulu is a golden auspicious ruyi inlaid with green...

*
Outside the summer resort, there are six government offices.

Cao Yong looked at the official document in his hand, lost in thought.Is this Gansu drought or not?According to what the governor said, if there is insufficient rain and a severe drought, there will be less money and food in the treasury; according to Nian Gengyao, when there is enough rain and a good harvest, the money and food should be compared to a good year.

The saliva lawsuit between the two finally ended with the governor of Gansu being reprimanded, but the money and food list handed back was relatively insufficient.

If Kangxi believed that the governor of Gansu was lying, then the Ministry of Households would not be able to accept the money and grain orders.

Counting the days, this year's tax in Gansu should already be on the way to escort.

Compared with Gansu, Shaanxi reported a year of severe famine this year.Taxes are reserved for relief and military preparations, and are not transported to the capital; although Sichuan has not reported the disaster, the taxes are also kept in the local area.

These are secondary, the key is that the household department is out of money now.In the past few years, Kangxi has been kind enough to reduce and exempt taxes in many places. In addition, the taxes in several provinces in the Central Plains directly supply the military supplies in the Northwest.

The income is small, but the expenses are not reduced at all.

Every autumn and winter are the time for river workers to repair the river, but this year, due to lack of money, only a few places have started work.

I can't complain that Yongzheng ransacked the house when he came to power. If he didn't ransack the house, he would have no money to support it, and the court's affairs were difficult.

Cao Yong sighed, as the servant of the household department, more often than not, he was just doing clerical errands, and he didn't have the ability to turn stones into gold.

At that time, Kangxi had made an agreement with him to make money, but the two did not settle accounts in the end.However, counting, the Ministry of Internal Affairs' bidding, the Bank of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the sale of cigarettes and pipes all have Cao Yong's shadow behind them.In fact, Cao Yong is not a disappointment to the emperor.

"The people's livelihood plan", these four characters hang on the wall of this official office.

Cao Yong stared at these four words and realized something.I was too rigid, and my mind was full of thinking about money, so I fell into the path.He is an official, not a businessman, and what he should be most concerned about is not the amount of money in the household treasury, but whether the livelihood of the people is getting better than before.

As long as the official rules remain the same and the officials are so corrupt, the more silver in the treasury, the more moths will be raised, which will not benefit the country or the people.

Thinking of this, Cao Yong picked out an official document from the Yamen newspaper of the Chief Secretary of Jiangsu from the case file, which was about the second-crop rice experiment in the south of the Yangtze River.

Two-crop rice has been tried for several years in the south of the Yangtze River, and the results have been remarkable.Changing the yield of rice from two to three shi per mu to four to five shi per mu doubled the output.It's just more picky about the ground and water.

The double-cropping rice in the south, coupled with the implementation of sweet potatoes and bracts in areas with poor land, has solved the food problem first.

Thinking of this, Cao Yong felt that he had strength.

After he sat at the desk, he wrote a note on the promotion of miscellaneous grains and the cultivation of high-yield grains.Originally, I wanted to mention the local grain reserves, but the corruption of the local granaries involved too much, and Cao Yong could not intervene.

Regarding the corruption of local granaries, as early as the early years of Kangxi, the San Francisco Rebellion sparked court discussions.

At that time, the country was initially determined, and the Eight Banners dignitaries sent down as officials scraped the land vigorously for themselves and the masters behind them. This granary was fat, and they wanted to bite it hard.

When the chaos broke out in San Francisco and food needed to be transferred, it was discovered that most of the granaries in various places were empty.

The imperial court was furious, but it was followed by rejoicing.Because the San Francisco rebellion swept across the southern provinces, and because the granaries were empty, the soldiers and horses of the San Francisco had to attack the local gentry in order to raise food and pay. Lost the odds, lost to the imperial army.

In the following decades, regardless of the population growth rate, few local granaries were added.Regarding the granaries of many names in the local area, except for a few key uses, other imperial courts also turned a blind eye.

When Cao Yong was Daotai in Shandong, he was shocked by the empty local granaries; when he arrived at the Ministry of Households and stood high, he could clearly see the intention of the imperial court not to rectify the local granaries.

After writing the report, Cao Yong carefully read the official document that needs to be replied.

After finishing these, it was already noon.

Since Chu Yu didn't come to Rehe with him, no one would bring Cao Yong lunch.

He put down his pen and greeted Jiang Jian to go out for dinner.

Not far from the six government offices, there are several restaurants, which are kept clean.The officials of the six ministries who are on duty usually have lunch in these restaurants.

The two chose a private room to sit down, Jiang Jian was still a vegetarian and did not touch any meat or fish.Xu Shi has been in the Cao Mansion for the past few years, and he has not been named as a criminal, which made him fade away from the hostility of the early years, and looked at the Taoist fairy, gentle and elegant.

Cao Yong recently had poor digestion in his stomach and intestines, so he used two bowls of porridge with a few small pickles.

After lunch and still having free time, the two let Xiaoer serve a pot of tea and talked in the private room.

"In a few days, Shengjia will return to Beijing, and the day of Feilin's great joy is not far away!" Cao Yong said with a smile.

When Jiang Jian returned to his hometown a few years ago, some elders of his clan made an appointment for a marriage, a girl from a scholarly family.In the spring, we exchanged letters and decided to send someone to Beijing to get married at the end of this year.

Since Cao Yong got the news, he made people buy real estate in the back street of Cao Mansion, which was to prepare a new house for Jiang Jian.

A boy in his 40s, Cao Yong looked at Jiang Jian and laughed unkindly a few times.

Jiang Jian grew up in a monastery, influenced by Buddhism, with a pure-hearted and ascetic temperament; then he traveled all over the world, mostly working as a screener in local prefectures and counties, and the criminal cases he handled were nothing more than rape, robbery and murder.

The more he saw it, the more he kept his distance from women.

If it wasn't for the strong pressure from his clan elders, he would never have thought of marrying a wife.

Therefore, after listening to Cao Yong's words, he was not happy at all, but left a little helpless, saying: "I am still greedy for the world of mortals, and I don't want to hurt the kindness of the elders. I have a beautiful face and white hair, and I miss the wedding. After all, it is not a good match. Or If you don't enter the mountain gate, you will be at ease."

Cao Yong shook his head and said: "In life, one has to take some responsibility. If one can feel at ease as a monk, then there will be no ordinary people in this world. Fei Lin should happily wait to be the bridegroom. There is no woman to take care of her. , it won’t work in the end, Feilin has been delayed for too long.”

"My lord, don't worry, Mrs. Zhong is young, and she is going to the north to be married, and I will take care of her properly, so that she will not be wronged." Jiang Jian nodded.

When it comes to becoming a monk, Cao Yong thinks of Zhiran, who has not returned a letter for more than half a year.

The two have lived together for only three years, but they are close relatives of flesh and blood, and they have a different friendship.

Because they were outside, it was inconvenient to talk about political affairs, so the two chatted a little more, then settled the bill and went back to the official office.

Hang Seng and Fu Peng stood outside the official office and had been waiting for quite a while.

Seeing Cao Yong coming back, the two of them went up to meet each other, and Fu Peng said what they wanted to come. The two of them came to pick up Cao Yong to go to the West School of Xinggong under the order of the sixteenth elder brother.

Although he didn't know what happened to Brother Sixteen, Cao Yong still explained to the government office and went with the two of them.

Fu Peng went to Mongolia to visit his aunt, and only returned to Rehe a few days ago, and he and his uncle and nephew have not seen each other for several months.

During the journey, Cao Yong asked a few questions about Baoya's recent situation, and Fu Peng answered them one by one.

During the period, he also talked about his visit to Mongolia.Cao Yong knew about the folk customs of Mongolia, but Hang Seng didn't know everything about it, and only listened with gusto.

What he cares most about is the herd of wild horses on the grassland, as well as the wolfhounds produced by the crossbreeding of wolves and domestic dogs.

A Mongolian prince came to court this year and paid tribute to two little wolf dogs.Kangxi gave it to Hongli, and Hang Seng saw it every day, liked it very much, and made a special trip to talk to Cao Yong several times.

There is a kennel in Cao's mansion, which is allocated to the nursing home.Cao Yong disagrees with keeping dogs as pets.In this era, there is no breeding of rabies, and the Cao family has many children. Wouldn't it be too late for a mistake?

Cao Shun has already learned from the past, so Cao Yong is naturally more careful.

Hang Seng is already ten years old, and he already knows something about birth, old age, sickness and death.Cao Yong did not shy away from the past. He told his son about his younger brother who died young, and named the harm of raising a dog.

When Hang Seng heard this, his face changed immediately, and he never mentioned raising a dog at home again.There is no other reason, there are too many children in the family, the seventh uncle is young, and the younger brother is even younger.

Although he doesn't think about keeping them at home anymore, his love for wolfdogs has not diminished, but he no longer raises puppies by himself like in the past.It's not that he is timid and afraid of being bitten by a puppy, but that he doesn't want his parents to worry about him.

Ever since he fell ill after being teased by Hong Zhou in the twelfth lunar month of last year, Hang Seng has realized that the truth lies in his own body and the pain in his parents' hearts.

Seeing this change, Hongli only said that in the future, he would change and send Hang Seng to be a hunting dog.They are kept in Waizhuang for hunting, and they are used vigorously without worrying about anything.

Hang Seng knows that this thing is rare, and he is not very attached to it, but he has just heard it.

Today, when he heard his cousin Fupeng mention his trip to Mongolia, he had to pay attention to his favorite horses and wolf dogs.

"Wolves are common on the prairie. There are also wolf dogs in my aunt's house. Except for their tails, they look like wolves. They were raised by my aunt. They are fierce to others, but they listen to my aunt." Fu Peng saw that his cousin was interested in wolf dogs, so he added a few sentences: "If my cousin likes it, I will write to my aunt. This hybrid wolf dog is still fierce. When this wolf dog gives birth to puppies, it may be wild and go away." .”

Hang Seng shook his head and said: "Thank you, cousin, I don't want it anymore. I just look at it rare, and I don't have much effort to raise it. Several brothers in the family have passed the hospital examination, and I am the only one who failed in school. It's really shameful. If I fail this subject, I will take part in the military test next year."

Fu Peng is the eldest son of the county prince's mansion, and his status has been extraordinary since he landed.However, he never underestimated the mother clan who was born in Baoyi just because he was a clan.

He knew that the Cao Mansion was the last support of their mother and son.

As the elder brother of the royal family, he has known all the children of the rich and powerful since he was a child. He really can't understand his cousin's obsession with the imperial examination.

With the family status of the Cao family, Enyin, a son of the Cao family, became an official, and his promotion would never be slower than those officials who were born in the imperial examination.

However, Cao Yong, the parent, didn't say anything, and Fu Peng, a man with a foreign surname, couldn't say anything.

He is a bit confused about this mild-tempered uncle, and Cao Yong is not the only one who treats his adopted son as his own.But the family relationship of flesh and blood will eventually have closeness.

However, because Hang Seng is the second son, the Cao family is more favored than Tianyou, who is the eldest son.

It is so natural and calm to be born with this kind of love.This made Chunjun Prince's Mansion follow Aiwu and Wu, and even the emperor joined in the fun, and ordered Hang Seng to accompany the emperor's grandson to read.

The prince and grandson who went to the study accompanied the reading, which one is not the queen of the lord?Hang Seng looks simple and honest, but he is by no means a thing in the pool.

A group of people wentssiping and arrived at the west school grounds of Xinggong.

This is a secluded place, far away from the Xinggongtang. The sixteenth elder brother brought the twenty-first elder brother, the twenty-first elder brother, the twenty-second elder brother, and Hongli here.

They gathered around a case, not knowing what to say, and a row of targets stood dozens of steps away.

Seeing Cao Yong coming, Brother Sixteen waved at him.

Cao Yong stepped forward and saw several princes and grandsons, and his eyes fell on the case.

Red velvet cloth was laid on the table, and several pistols were placed on it.

That's right, it's a pistol, seven or eight inches long, and looks like a revolver that is common in TV dramas in later generations.

You know, this firearm is something that is taboo among the people. Even if it is kept by the rich and powerful, it is mostly an old-fashioned brass hand. When it comes to critical moments, close combat is not as convenient as a dagger.

It was the first time Cao Yong saw this pistol.

Before Wei Xin went to sea, what Cao Yong ordered and ordered was this western pistol.Unexpectedly, I waited for several years and failed to get what I wanted, but now I see it here.

"This is a tribute from France. It can hold six bullets at a time." Elder Sixteen picked up a pistol and handed it to Cao Yong.

When Cao Yong was in the study, he had learned firearms, but he was still unfamiliar with this new type of pistol.

Picking up the pistol, his hands trembled slightly.This was something he had been looking forward to for many years in the early years. At that time, he thought that with this, his life would be more stable.

Brother Sixteen saw Cao Yong staring at the pistol intently, and said with a smile: "Is it too delicate, so people can't take their eyes off it?"

Cao Yong nodded, Elder Sixteen hesitated for a while, and said: "If it is an ordinary hand system, if Fu Ruo likes it, I will tell you. This is a tribute, and there are only a few. Huang Ama said that this thing is too expensive. It's against the harmony of heaven, so don't let them leak out. I grind these four for them to practice with. I thought that Fu Ruo would like them too, so I asked you to shoot a few shots too..."

*
I had a fever yesterday, and I obviously edited it again, but there were still many mistakes. When I read it again, Jiu didn’t know why those words appeared. I’m ashamed, I’m sorry, I won’t do it after Jiu.

(End of this chapter)