Chapter 564: Desolate

The Holy Lord started his journey from Changchun Garden on April 26th this year. The Empress Dowager Feng escaped from the summer heat. The princes who followed him were the third prince, the fourth prince, the seventh prince, the fifteenth prince, the sixteenth prince and the seventeenth prince.

On the fourth day of the fifth lunar month, I arrived at the Rehe Palace and have been stationed for more than a month in a blink of an eye.

In May, in addition to the royal princes and princes from Mongolia who came to the court one after another, the military situation in the northwest also quickly reported to the front.

As early as April 29, Kangxi issued an order to allocate 500,000 taels of salt and silver for the Northwest war. He was already stating that three troops were chasing or forcing the Cewang Alabutan soldiers to surrender.

In the middle of May, there were decrees issued in advance before the military information was reported.

In addition to ordering the three troops sent by the court to fight the enemy northwest, Kangxi also issued an order to give the leader of the Chukubai city on the border of Oros, so that he could defend the border. If there were people from Cewang Alabutan who surrendered, he should take it in.

At the same time, he also ordered the Ministry of War to send twelve command arrows to each of the princes and princes in the western Khalkha. When it is critical, they can use the command arrow to send orders to the neighboring princes and princes to seek help. If they receive the command arrow and lead the troops to rescue and delay, they will be punished according to the military law.

After June, the news came from the northwest that the war was still in a stalemate.

Although Heshuo Army said to the public that he had prepared a year of rice and grain, Kangxi knew that it had not been a year, not to mention a year, but it had not been a year, but only a few months of chewing.

In desperation, Kangxi had no choice but to order Zhili and Shanxi to open an official warehouse, open a regular bribe and grain, buy 15,000 horses and mules and transport 12,000 shi of rice, and drive to the Heshuo army in July. Then he ordered Shandong and Henan provinces to buy horses and mules and send them to the army when the grass is green next year.

These two mules and horses that transported rice stones were left in the army to carry the load.

Kangxi was also a little confused when he remembered that Galdan had caused the northwest to be corrupt for several years. Therefore, he issued an order to ask the Artillery Bureau to transport 30 of the 80 mother artillery pieces of the Imperial Artillery Bureau to transport 50 of them to the Xi'an General's Seat Pillar, and to spare the general Fei Yanggu.

This place uses the money from the inner treasury.

At the beginning of this war, only more than 10,000 troops gathered, but the money and food were gone. Kangxi felt extremely heavy when he thought of this.

Now, I just hope that Cewang Alabutan can surrender and give the court room.

However, the Junggar people were unruly, and Cewang Alabutan had always been ambitions. Since he had committed Hami this time, besides the snow disaster last year, I think he wanted to take the opportunity to open up the road to Tibet.

Lazang Khan's eldest son was still in his hands. If he escorted his son-in-law to Tibet to "appreciate", the trouble for the court would not be just the northwest...

Kangxi was worried about the overall situation in the northwest, so the third prince and the fourth prince were naturally willing to share their worries for their father and remotely control the capital's ministry.

The other princes were very lazy.

Especially the Seventh Prince, it was the first time I came to Rehe after the Summer Resort was repaired, and my life was leisurely.

He was the prince who had already opened a palace and had his own house outside the villa. This time he was with the concubine Nala and the concubine Chen.

Chen is Xiyu, who married the eldest princess in her early years. She was the daughter of Chen Forty-nine, the prince's mansion in Chun County. Because she is gentle and has a good appearance, she has been favored by the Seventh Prince in the past two years.

It was already in the summer, and the prince and the royal family members did not have to stand in front of the imperial court. They would disperse after discussing the matter early every day.

The Seventh Prince doesn’t like human relationships. After returning from Yuqian every day, he will leisurely fish in his own yard, taste tea, etc.

Nala took Chen and accompanied him by his side, which was also very comfortable.

Although I sometimes feel a little jealous, Nala is not at all obvious, and it becomes more virtuous and considerate.

Compared with the Seventh Concubine, she is more like the Seventh Prince's wife. The two have three sons and two daughters, and all five children have grown up one after another.

Today, Hongshu has not yet appointed the eldest son of the prince, but in recent years he has learned to be a job, and outsiders regard it as the heir of the prince's mansion.

The Seventh Prince had long acquiesced, and in the impatient appearance of the relationship, Hongshu often gave out fabrics to cook.

Hongzhuo is already sixteen, and this year is the year of a talent show. By the end of the year, it is time to marry and get married.

Nala now has become competing for favor and is dedicated to planning for the children. She is also much more respectful to the Seventh Concubine than before. She really doesn't want to have any more twists and turns, which will affect the children's future.

Chen has been quite favored in the past two years, but she knows that her family is from a low family and the concubines and concubines in the inner house are not something she can afford to offend. She acts very restrainedly and dares not go beyond the slightest presumptuousness.

The Seventh Prince was originally a Jing-like character and always avoided the Yang-like woman.

Because of the dissatisfaction with the legitimate wife over the years, in addition to the favored concubine, he could not stand the arrogance of the seventh concubine.

The Seventh Concubine was the legitimate branch of Emengge, one of the sixteen ministers of the Taizong Dynasty. His father, Fakka, became the deputy governor and a noble daughter of a noble family.

The side of the Concubine Nara said that she was her cousin in the next room. Because she was a side branch, her father was a small official position and had no status.

The Seventh Prince is not from a high background, and because of his inconvenience in legs and feet, he is somewhat inferior and depressed. In addition, he has no ambition and does not expect his wife to leverage his power, so his relationship with the Yue family is just mediocre.

Today, I was lucky. After sitting by the pond in the garden for a while, the seventh prince caught a few carp that were feet long.

Nala put the fish in a basin, served it in clear water, and smiled and said to the seventh prince, "Only half an hour, I caught six tails. Today's lunch is the light of my master, so I can taste the river fresh."

The seventh prince turned his body, looked into the basin, shook his head, and said, "It's too fat, this fish is too dense. The butler threw many tails into this small pool. When he saw what he had eaten, he wanted to jump out of the water."

But he lost the interest in fishing. The seventh prince put the fishing rod away, wondering if he would send someone to send two books to cool off in the pavilion by the pond, and saw the sixteenth prince and the seventeenth prince coming in with the manager.

When Nala saw the two princes coming, he had seen each other and took Chen to retreat.

The Seventh Prince sent someone to bring a seat and entertained his two younger brothers for tea under the shade of the tree by the pond.

Seeing that the two younger brothers changed into robes and folding fans in their hands, the seventh prince said, "Even if it is really leisurely, you don't have to show it so much. The emperor is worried about the matter in the northwest. Be careful not to be scolded."

Among all the princes and princes, the Seventh Prince is famously a "retrograde" person and is not close to each other with brothers. However, the Sixteenth Prince and the Seventh Prince are about the same age as his eldest daughter, and they are considered youngest brothers. The Seventh Prince still has some serious concerns.

The sixteenth prince shook the folding fan in his hand, raised his chin, and said with a smile: "Who said that brothers are idle? Even the emperor's side has already spoken. As long as I serve the queen mother with the seventeenth two, I will be the one who will be the one who will be the one who will be busy with the court. Although I am busy with the seventeenth two, I am sharing the worries of the emperor's mother; I am also performing filial piety with the emperor's mother with the seventeenth two, right?"

The Seventh Prince heard it with a smile, but he was a little envious of their freedom.

Although the Sixteenth Prince and the Seventeenth Prince are both in their twenties and have got married, they live in the palace because they have no branch and they live in the palace, and their words and actions are like children.

The seventeenth prince was drinking tea and shook the folding fan with great force. He pointed to the fan and said to the seventh prince: "Brother Seven, hurry up and take a closer look. The sixteenth brother who has been spared is showing off."

The Seventh Prince was quite puzzled when he heard this. The Sixteenth Prince had already sent the folding fan to the Seventh Prince, and said with a little pride: "Seventh Brother, what do you think this is?"

The Seventh Prince looked at his hand, but it was a red piece, full of seals of various colors, "Five Clouds", "Tiyuan Master", "After the Time of Life", "I cherish the yin in the morning", "I miss the ancients", "Jixi and Jingzhan", and then look at the back, "Tianlu Yongchang", "Children and grandchildren use the harmony between the two", "Peace", "Broad quilt", etc.

Among them, some of them were seen by the Seventh Prince, such as the "Tiyuan Master" and the "Great Que" side, and they knew that they were the imperial father's private seal.

This fan is a royal gift after the Dragon Boat Festival.

This is also an old example in the palace. Every year on the Dragon Boat Festival, the princes and ministers of the inner court will give gifts of chard and folding fans. Even if the external ministers are still prosperous, they will also receive rewards from this season.

Although most of the other seals of the Seventh Prince have never seen them, since they are tied to this imperial fan, it goes without saying that they are designated by the Emperor's Father.

"If the third brother saw this, I'm afraid it would be a secret." The seventh prince sighed as he looked at the brushwork of these seals.

The sixteenth prince raised his eyebrows and said with a smile: "If it were something else, he would dare to be secret. I am afraid that my brother would send this to him, so he should avoid suspicion."

The Seventh Prince didn't like to listen to these things, so he took the fan from the 16th Prince and said, "These are all built by you? The fans given in the palace this year are all stamps you have?"

The sixteenth prince nodded and shook his head again, "I built the fan of everyone, but this is not the case. I'm still begging me when I was playing with these private seals."

The two brothers, looking at their heads, gave a rough comment on the seals on them. Among them, two of them looked familiar, like the handwriting of a master of gold and stone.

When the Seventeenth Prince heard them start to talk about something else, he couldn't help but wonder, "Sixteenth Brother, didn't we come here according to the Queen Mother's order? Why did this go off topic?"

The sixteenth prince then put away the folding fan and said to the seventh prince: "Brother Seven, June's tribute has arrived in Rehe, including bayberry, Korean ginseng, etc. The queen mother has issued an imperial decree to give some of them. Needless to say, the fifth brother, but this year, the seventh brother has taken a big lead."

After hearing this, the Seventh Prince was puzzled.

Why did the Empress Dowager think of giving him something? Although he was the Empress Dowager's grandson, he did not take the eldest son, nor did he show his face in front of the Empress Dowager more often than the Sixteenth Prince and the others.

"Cough!" The sixteenth prince cleared his throat and said, "But the seventh brother is on the seventh brother's side, and half is on the big princess."

Speaking of this, the two brothers were speechless.

Since the end of April, Cao Yin's wife entered the palace, news has been spreading. Some say that the Empress Dowager did not like Li and scolded him; and some say that the Empress Dowager had a temper with Li and looked at him particularly...

I don’t know if the Empress Dowager’s method of rewarding is considered “saving the country in a curve”.

Before this, the emperor's father also used this method to reward Cao Yong.

When the Seventh Prince thought of this, he felt quite strange and always felt that there was something he didn't know.

This is not only the Seventh Prince, but also the Sixteenth Prince.

Although the Empress Dowager spent most of her life in the harem, she had never suffered any hardship due to the protection of the Empress Dowager in her early years, and was not a worldly and sophisticated person.

Like an ordinary old man, her joys, sorrows and sorrows were revealed on her face.

When talking about the Cao family with the sixteenth prince, the old man had unconcealed concern on his face. That kind of concern was no less than that she personally took care of the big fifth prince.

It is by rewarding the great-granddaughter to the Cao family. Who can't tell this discerning person?

The Empress Dowager was the mother of the country. This is the most noble woman in the Qing Dynasty. She was nothing to do when she was at ease, but it made the Cao family inevitably attract others' attention.

The sixteenth prince didn't want the Cao family to get into trouble.

The only one in the family of Cao’s parents is Cao Yong. If something goes wrong, Cao Yong will eventually have a headache.

Because of this, the sixteenth prince tactfully dissuaded the Empress Dowager, saying that the road was far away and the transportation was not cheap. Even without these, the younger generations could still understand the Empress Dowager's kindness, and so on.

The Empress Dowager could not understand this. She was just pretending that Daoyuan said this because of the hot weather, but she felt a little worried.

Then I remembered that the Seventh Prince came and asked the Sixteenth Prince to come out and send the order, asking the Seventh Prince to order two appropriate people to send these tributes back to Beijing.

The Seventh Prince knew the cause and effect, and the deeper the doubts in his heart. When he thought of Cao Yong, a son-in-law who was on a business trip to Mongolia, he really missed him a little...

Cao Yong, who was far away in Outer Mongolia, had already begun another long journey and followed the great lama toward the southwest Hami.

This was not the hard work he had when he came, because Cao Yong was now left in his felt tent by the great lama and no longer had to ride a horse.

The big lama's felt tent was not split again. He moved it directly to the ox cart during the day and pulled it with more than a dozen cows.

Although the speed of the ox pulling a cart is crazy, it is better to set off at dawn and stop at sunset. After a long time of endurance, you can walk dozens of miles a day.

I wonder if the great lama discovered that Cao Yong had "wisdom roots", or if he had been a living Buddha for many years and had been accustomed to receiving disciples, he taught Cao Yong about Buddhism.
To be continued...