Forty-second year of Kangxi, February 2.

It is said that on the second day of February, the dragon raised its head. After the second day of February, the year has really passed.

Yinren is not easy at all, every year on the second day of February, Kangxi is going to hold a ceremony to worship the sky, in order to pray for good weather in the coming year. Kangxi doesn't have to do anything, just follow the procedure and go around and worship.

However, many things for the heavenly ceremonies need to be prepared by Kangxi himself. Kangxi is the emperor again, and he symbolically made two appearances and started to shake his hands. pushed these tedious and boring things onto the prince and elder brother.

Yinren can be said to be busy with his feet not touching the ground, and when he heard that Cao Hao had entered Beijing, he wanted to take time out of the palace to take a look. But in the end, I didn't even have such a little time, and I could only wait until the end of this heavenly sacrifice ceremony to have a chance to meet that Cao Hao.

At the same time, the forty-second year of Kangxi is Kangxi's fiftieth birthday. For this year's sacrifice ceremony, Kangxi can be said to have paid a little attention to it. The attention from above, the nature of the bottom will also come.

Just to prepare the three large and small animals for the sacrifice to the heavens, I don't know how much energy and money was spent. On the main altar alone, three of the three animals of pigs, cattle and sheep had to be put on display. This is still on the table, just in case, there are three copies to be prepared at the bottom as a backup. If something really happens, something can be replaced in time.

This is just the main altar, and the sub-altars in the capital are not one or two, but there are nine of them! The nine altars, each altar is also prepared with two pairs of large and three animals. One is on the table, and the other is on standby.

Pigs and sheep are okay, after all, there are not a few people who raise this thing. But cows are different. The cow was a symbol of wealth in this day and age. Cattle are such an important labor force, and under normal circumstances, it is good to have a cow in a village.

And this time to worship the sky, a full thirty cows were used alone. That's the equivalent of thirty villages' cattle reserves. Not to mention the chickens, ducks, and fish, each altar is like a lot of money.

There is also the salute cannon used to worship the heavens, which was specially found by craftsmen more than half a year ago, and it took a long time to make it, and the gunpowder used for experiments by these people every day is not small at all, and the cost is extraordinarily large.

It would be nice to say that such a large amount of gunpowder would be used for experiments and to study more powerful firearms and cannons. Now it's used to make such flashy things, and it's helplessly tight. Yinren looked at the huge salute placed on both sides of the avenue to the main altar, and felt a burst of distress.

That's not all, the utensils that were used in the previous ceremonies were old things from previous years. This year, from the bronze tripod to the small futon with small feet, all of them have been replaced with new ones.

There are not a few things needed for this heavenly sacrifice ceremony, so complicated procedures, and the things that need to be used in each program are extraordinarily complicated. Moreover, just like the sacrifice of the three animals, these utensils are also prepared in double portions for backup.

These large and small utensils add up to tens of thousands. Aside from the production process, the material alone is a huge expense. Gold, silver and copper can only be regarded as ordinary materials, and some are made of jade and precious stones. Even those wood products are made of fine yellow pear, golden silk nan, and red sandalwood.

After such a pass, Kangxi was happy. With such a pomp, he will be happy if someone else goes up. The altars in Beijing, the onlookers and the lively people are also happy, such a big pomp and circumstance will definitely be able to move the heavens, and this year will be smooth and rainy. This is something related to their interests, can they not be happy one by one?

Even Cao Hao, who was taken by Zhao You to watch this heavenly ceremony, was extremely happy. With such a big pomp as Jingzhong, he had never seen it when he was in Jiangning. In the process of watching the ceremony just now, I was almost not called a soil bun by the people around me.

If it weren't for the gold and jade he was wearing, I'm afraid those people would have said this a long time ago. However, although these words were not spoken, the eyes that looked at Cao Hao were not disguised at all.

Cao Hao was happy in his heart, but he didn't notice this. It seems that this time, the eldest brother really didn't lie to himself. This capital is really tighter than Jiangning, and there is no father's restraint, so he can be as happy as he wants.

So many people are happy, but some people are not.

After the ceremony, all the members of each department went back to their homes to find their mothers, what to do. The household department is naturally no exception, as soon as the ceremony is over, the household department Shangshu took the household up and down to the one acre and three points of land where he worked.

The ceremony was over, but their work was not over. The expenses in this place must be counted, and the report taught by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince will be handed over to Kangxi for review.

Before, because I was preparing for the ceremony of sacrificing to the heavens, things were extremely complicated. Other places came to the household department to pay money and reimburse the silver, but they only left a bottom case. I haven't had time to reconcile the accounts yet.

That's exactly what these people are going to do now. After working hard for a long time, these people finally sorted out the accounts. The people in this household, the others dare not say much, the ability to reconcile accounts is a real cow.

It's just that when the reports of various places were summarized in the hands of the household secretary, the household department was stunned in place. Without it, after this toss, the household department is almost out of money!

But if you think about it, you can figure it out, you must know that several places were affected by disasters last year, and the imperial court also exempted these places from taxes this year. As a result, tax revenues were reduced by a significant part last year.

At the same time, a few years ago, Geldan harassed the border, and the eldest brother and the fourteenth elder brother led the troops to the battle. This is a long road, and military spending is not a small expense. There is also the ceremony that has just ended, which can be said to be extremely extravagant.

The most important thing is that everyone wants to get a lot of money out of it. The military expenses for the expedition also include the cost of the festival to the heavens, and if no one else intervenes, it won't actually cost much. However, from top to bottom, this one fishes a little, that one fishes a little, and the gap is huge.

It's just that in this way, the book of the household department is in a hurry. If such an account is handed to the emperor, then he is not waiting to be cut? There are a lot of accounts on this for oil and water, but they are too obvious. People with a little common sense in this area can probably see the problem.