Chapter 13: Family and Country ()

On the eighth day of the 9th month of the 40th year of Kangxi, Cao Yong, who had been kidnapped for nearly two months, finally returned to Jiangning. The Cao family's carriage had been waiting at the dock, and Cao Yin brought people to greet his wife and children in person. Seeing that Cao Yong's injuries were healed, Cao Yin also breathed a sigh of relief. If there was only this son, if he had some disability in his body, let alone the old lady, he, as a father, couldn't bear it.

Sitting in the carriage, Cao Yong remembered the experiences of the past two months. He traveled in a confused manner, and was as contented as possible and wanted to be a spectator. Now the various hardships he has experienced reminded him that this is a bloody and real world, and he is already a part of this world. Unless he dies, he can only rise and fall in this world. He has no ambitions of "king and dominating". Now it is the period when the feudal imperial power in China is the most concentrated in the Kangxi Dynasty. How can yy change history after yy? He just wants to live, not die of illness when he was in his twenties, and not be confiscated after Yongzheng came to power. For this goal, he decided to start working hard.

In Xuanrui Hall, the old lady had been muttering for half a day. The eldest lady Cao Yan and several concubines of Cao Yin were waiting with the old lady. When the little maid outside reported that the wife and the old lady had returned, the old lady stood up and walked to the door to look around. Seeing Cao Yong from afar, the old lady was already in tears and murmured in her mouth: "Sun son, my life!" Cao Yan heard that her mother was sick when she was in Suzhou, and she was very worried. Seeing that she was just a little thin and there was nothing unusual, she felt relieved.

When Cao Yong followed Li to the door of Xuanrui Hall, before Cao Yong could greet him, the old lady bent down and hugged Cao Yong in his arms, crying. Although the old lady was kind, she was still solemn. Everyone had never seen her look so disobedient. No matter what, everyone knew that Cao Yong was indeed the old lady's heart. But Cao Yan was a little surprised, what was wrong with his grandmother? Even if he was separated for two months, he would not have to do this.

Several of Cao Yin's concubines came forward to present to Li. Liuli was wearing peach-red clothes and followed Feng and Qian, with her hair tied on her head. Seeing her makeup, Li knew that she had taken over the room, she was a little unhappy.

When Zhaojia, the Xifu family heard the news, brought the children over. Fortunately, Cao Ying was like Cao Yan, who thought Cao Yong had just gone to Suzhou's grandmother's house and asked about the customs and customs of Suzhou. However, Cao Song still remembered the disappearance of his brother in school and was full of questions. However, because his mother told him not to ask random questions before coming, she shut up and looked at Cao Yong curiously.

The old lady wiped away her tears, looked at Li with a few meaningful look, and sent her back to her room to change clothes first. Before returning home, Cao Yong and his mother had already talked to each other and were ready to deal with the old lady's question. But surprisingly, the old lady did not ask, but just looked at Cao Yong carefully, and felt relieved when he saw that there was nothing wrong with him. Cao Yong was in a state of great difficulty. Although Cao Yin and Li both mentioned that he was kidnapped and hid it from the old lady, for some reason he always felt that the old lady had known the details, so he was like this.

Li changed his clothes and mentioned that the people sent by the Li family to pay their respects were already waiting. The old lady nodded and asked someone to invite them over. The two women often went to Jiangning during the New Year. They invited the old lady and talked about their son for a while.

Following the words of the two, the old lady asked about the physical condition of the two mothers, Wen and Gao, and thanked the Li family for taking care of Cao Yong over the past period. The two mothers said they didn't dare to give the gift list prepared by the Li family. The old lady smiled and asked someone to take them to the guest room to settle.

Zhao Jia has been in her body for more than four months, and she is prone to fatigue. After staying for a while, she took the children back. Li wanted to ask her about Liu Ping, but she didn't know how to speak. Before going to Hangzhou, she was recuperating in Xifu. Zhao Jia took care of her wholeheartedly and almost didn't get tired of miscarriage. Although Li didn't say anything, she was grateful. She was both sisters-in-law, and now she is different from the past and there is no barrier. At present, Aunt Baodie in Xifu has just given birth to a son. Isn't it a problem for Zhao Jia? Besides, the old lady was originally considerate of Zhao Jia. If she knew that she had caused the Cao family to be left out, she would be afraid that there would be another turmoil. After thinking about it, Li decided to discuss with her husband in the evening before seeing how to settle Liu Ping.

Seeing that Liu Ping had disappeared after entering the mansion, Cao Yong asked his mother in a low voice, and knew that he had been placed in his mother's yard first, so he felt relieved. Because the old lady concealed his injury, Xiao Liuping, the "benefactor", was not easy to enter the house. Why did he think of a reason and arrange a reasonable explanation for her so that she could settle down in the Cao family?

Weaving house, front yard, study room.

Cao Yin took a sip of tea slowly, with a smile on his face that could not be concealed.

Zhuang Chang looked around and sighed. Cao Yong was safe and sound. In addition to the Cao family, Zhuang Chang was also very happy. He taught Gu Na for two months and was very satisfied with this intelligent disciple. Cao Yong's affairs were ultimately the fault of Gu Na's father. If Cao Yong had a mistake and Gu Na's identity was awkward, Zhuang Chang would not be able to keep him by his side. In the past two months after Cao Yong was kidnapped, he saw Cao Yin's haggardness and "poor parents in the world". However, was it too early to be happy now? Zhuang Chang shook his head and put a secret report from the Tongzhengsi downline on Cao Yin's table.

Cao Yin picked it up, glanced a few times, and looked solemn. He secretly reported two news, one was from Jiangbei, and the Tiandihui opened a mountain in Xuzhou, Anhui; one was from Hangzhou, and the eighth halls in the Tiandihui rebelled. The head of the Tiandihui master Wan Yunlong was poisoned and disappeared after fleeing. His personal disciple Bu Jingzhi died. The eighth halls split, and the left guardian Su Hongguang led the three direct descendants of Wan Yunlong to sea from Fuzhou on a boat. The leader of the Zhengtang Hall Mu Dajiang gathered the remaining five forces to establish themselves in Jiangnan.

The leader of the Heaven and Earth Association is Wan Yunlong, known as the Heaven and Earth Association to the outside world as the "Heaven and Earth Association" and the "Hongmen" internally. In the 13th year of Kangxi, the mountain opened in Fujian. Because of his secret actions, when the court noticed it, there were already tens of thousands of disciples. When Cao Yin's father Cao Xi was there, he wrote secret letters to Emperor Kangxi many times on this matter. After many discussions, the monarch and ministers believed that it was better to be silenced than to block. Even if the Heaven and Earth Association was destroyed, there were still countless warriors everywhere in Jiangnan, and it would be better to take it in their hands and use it to gather forces from all sides. Therefore, since the 20th year of Kangxi, the court sent a certain number of secret spies to infiltrate the Heaven and Earth Association every year. After twenty years, the Heaven and Earth Association, which originally acted mysteriously, became transparent.

The rebellion of the Neibatang was written by Zhuang Chang. Seeing that the Tiandihui has developed rapidly in recent years and is developing towards Jiangbei, he discussed with Cao Yin and planned the matter. Bu Jingzhi, who was killed by Wan Yunlong's palm, was the first secret spy who joined the Tiandihui. Originally, he wanted to give in to Bu Jingzhi to take the opportunity to take over the power of the Tiandihui, clean up the anti-Qing and turn the Tiandihui into the opposition forces of the imperial court. Unexpectedly, things were not as good as others wished. Although Tiandihui was damaged, Bu Jingzhi, who had the highest status among the secret spy, was killed. Now Mu Dajiang, who holds real power, is a fanatic of "anti-Qing and restoring the Ming Dynasty".

It was really troublesome, Cao Yin rubbed his forehead and asked, "Where is Waiba Hall, what news is there?"

Although the eight inner halls of the Tiandihui are all backbone, there are not many people, and if it is chaos, it will not be widely affected; if it involves the eight outer halls, it will be complicated. The eight outer halls of the Tiandihui are distributed in the eight southern provinces, and there are 100,000 disciples under the hall. If they lose control, local turmoil is inevitable.

Zhuang Chang sighed: "What we are talking about is the Ba Hall of the West. Zhejiang Hall surrendered to Mu Dajiang, Suzhou Hall was eradicated by Mu Dajiang, Hunan Hall disappeared, Hubei Hall surrendered to the court. Guangdong and Guangxi and Yunnan and Guizhou provinces are too far away, and no news has been heard yet, but the heads of the Yungui Hall are all from the court, so it should not be in chaos."

"Hunan Hall, Wu Tiancheng!" Cao Yin recited this name and understood why Zhuang Chang sighed. Wu Tiancheng, the leader of Hunan Hall, was Wan Yunlong's adopted son. He is second only to Wan Yunlong and Su Hongguang in the Tiandihui. The Hunan Hall under his jurisdiction is the first of the eight outer halls and has the most strict management. The spies sent by the Tongzhengsi have never been able to enter the Hunan Hall for many years. Hunan Hall disappeared and was out of the control of the court, which is probably a big trouble.

"The south of the Yangtze River is not peaceful. The capital is involved too much, and it is so uneasy below. I will be troubled if you or I will be in trouble in the future!" Zhuang Chang touched his beard and said.

Cao Yin nodded. This time, Emperor Kangxi used the affairs of the Cao family to dismiss Jiangsu Governor Hazhan and Hangzhou Governor Shi Guozhu, which had a deep meaning. Hazhan was a student of Mingzhu, and was considered the eldest prince's sect. Shi Guozhu was the prince's in-laws, so naturally the prince's sect. The two of them tried their best to win over the affairs of the Jiangnan officialdom and did their best for their respective sons. Although the eldest prince's mother's uncle Mingzhu was dismissed from prime minister last year, the eldest prince had previously accompanied Kangxi to the west and had outstanding military achievements. When the emperor granted the prince three years ago, he was named Duoluzhi Prince when the emperor granted the prince, and his power spread throughout the court. The prince was always wary of his elder brother's sect. With the support of his uncle Soetu, he vigorously developed his party members in the court and competed with the eldest prince Mingzhu's sect.

Thinking of the incident in Jiangnan, Cao Yin and Zhuang Chang looked at each other and said in unison: "Soetu is about to step down!"

Others don't know that Cao Yin knew Mingzhu's achievements best. He pacified the three cycles, regained Taiwan, and negotiated with Russia. Mingzhu's achievements were in the country. Later, he changed from being able to be the prime minister to being powerful. The national governor was lacking, and he had to follow his own way to find a job. Half of the six ministers were Mingzhu's followers. No matter how great Mingzhu's achievements were, his actions had already touched the dragon's rebellion. Of course, the emperor could not tolerate him. Last year, the chief censor Guo Xiu impeached Mingzhu's eight major crimes, and every item could be killed. The emperor was annoyed that he "had too deep favoritism, too broad friendships, and could not abide by the official precepts", but "thought that he had praised the military affairs when he pacified the "Three Feudals" and believed that "rights and wrongs were not covered by each other", so he was removed from the position of Grand Secretary of Mingzhu, which made him a false title of Minister of the Interior.

Although Cao Yin was worried about Mingzhu's encounter and Suo'ertu's future, he did not take it seriously. He was determined to be a pure minister, only knowing to be loyal to the emperor and ignoring the rights disputes in the court. At this time, he did not know the impact of the changes in the situation on the Cao family.

Before he arrived in Jiangning, Cao Yan thought that he would talk to Cao Yin as soon as possible after he came back. He didn't want to live the original life of "Little Cao Yan" and was kept in the inner house by the old lady, so he could only stay among the maids all day. There were too many things to learn, including literary and martial arts, and art that would not suppress him. No matter what he did in the future, he would always have to have some real skills.

On the first day of returning home, except for meeting at the dock, Cao Yong only met Cao Yin during dinner, but he had no chance to talk to him. After dinner, the old lady asked Li to take someone to take Cao Yong to the east bedroom to rest, leaving Cao Yin to speak alone.

There was only mother and son left in the room. The old lady stared at Cao Yin for a long time before sighing: "Thank God, my ancestors for blessing!"

Cao Yin was surprised and asked in surprise: "Mother?"

"Hmph!" The old lady glared at Cao Yin, took out a piece of jade Guanyin from her sleeve, put it in her hand, and said angrily: "Are you still want to hide it from me now? I really think I am a deaf and dazzled old woman!"

The jade Guanyin was something Cao Yong wore since childhood. After Cao Yong was kidnapped, he was put into a pawn shop in Suzhou by Gu Sandang, and was later redeemed by Cao Yin. Somehow, he got into the hands of the old lady.

Seeing that the old lady was angry, Cao Yin quickly knelt down and accused him of the crime.

When the old lady saw Cao Yin's white hair, she felt unbearable and waved her hand: "Get up, I asked someone to inquire, I can't blame you. Fortunately, Yong'er is safe, and I have eaten the long vegetarian for the past two months!" When Cao Yin got up, she said: "I force you to take a concubine on the Mid-Autumn Festival just in case. If Yong'er makes any mistakes, she will leave her blood early, and she will be worthy of her ancestors. I have wronged your wife. I guess she is also worried and scared these days. Please comfort her!"
Chapter completed!