On the fourth day of the eighth month of the forty-fourth year of Kangxi, after staying in the weaving mansion for seven days, the holy driver left Jiangning and returned to the capital. In the past few days, there has been no mistake, and the weaving house has been relieved, and the internal and external servants have been rewarded.

Although the old lady dresses up according to the grade, Kangxi and the accompanying concubines have never been summoned. In accordance with the holy decree, the two concubines personally drove to Xuanrui Hall to visit the old man. Even Kangxi went to Xuanrui Hall in person and accompanied the old lady to gossip.

Kangxi attaches the most importance to filial piety, and does not forget his ten-year nurturing grace because of the identity of the old Taijun of the Sun family, and the reward for the old Taijun is also extremely rich, and the number of them includes:

Hanyu birthday star one, jade Guanyin one, agate Arhat one, gold Arhat one, Hanyu Ruyi two handles, gold Ruyi two handles, others such as mink clothing, tweed materials, silk and satin are innumerable.

Cao Yan saw these imperial gifts in Xuanrui Hall, although they were of extraordinary value, they were not useful at all. The treasures given by the royal family are all recorded in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and in addition to food and clothing, jewelry and antiques can only be offered high or put on the shelf. These objects have royal imprints on them, and who dares to buy and sell them at will? If it is included in the imperial history, a charge of "great disrespect" will not be able to escape.

Cao Yan returned to his old life, and every day he went to study in the clan, but the difference was that every three or two days, he took out the afternoon to gather with Ma Jun and Ning Chun. Although he was not appointed as a guard by Kangxi, Yongqing still returned to Beijing. This is because of Cao Yan, Cao Yan persuaded him to be a man based on heaven and earth, what can be bound, the family property title, not owned by himself, his parents are eccentric, they go with them, and they create a more brilliant achievement.

Yongqing realized that he decided to go to the capital to visit his grandparents first, and then go to his cousin in the Northwest Army. Although Yongqing hid from his parents, he did not hide from his three friends. Before parting, Cao Yan, Ning Chun, and Ma Jun each had Cheng Yi to send, Yongqing knew that the politeness was fake at this time, and after solemnly thanking him, he returned to Beijing by land and one horse.

Ma Jun, who was originally extremely confused, said that he was in a much better mood recently, and he was not as repulsive as he used to be in the face of the Bagu article, which was due to Cao Yan. Cao Yan's eyes lit up when he talked about historical allusions, but when he mentioned the autumn exam, he tightened his eyebrows and asked him why he didn't think of Bagu as a crossword puzzle, first obtained the qualification to lift people, and then went to Beijing to take the imperial examination. Whether you can be in the Jinshi and don't mention it first, but you can also breathe a sigh of relief when you leave your parents' noses. If you are lucky enough to get into the Jinshi, you can naturally study as you like.

Seeing that Ma Jun happily adopted his own suggestion, Cao Yan touched his nose and persuaded these rebellious teenagers to "run away from home" or "run away from home" in disguise, whether it was right or wrong.

Ning Chun just listened with a smile to Cao Yan's slightly quibble words, and recently said that his father's favorite concubine had given birth to a son, and his stepmother was fighting with that side, and both sides were vying to sell him as a sister-in-law.

In a flash, another half a month has passed, and a whole month has passed since Cao Yan went to the study to find Cao Yin. Cao Yin thought that Cao Yin was busy taking over the car and couldn't think about anything else, so he didn't look for himself. After the holy driver left Jiangning, Cao Yin still didn't look for him, which made him gradually become a little discouraged.

At present, Cao Yan only has the property of Lin Xia Zhai, excluding Cao Fang, the two masters and the sisters and brothers in the house, there are more than 100,000 taels of silver left every year. No matter how delicious the dishes are, they can only sell one table per day, all thanks to the support of the Cao family. As long as the Cao family does not fall, it should be able to continue. There are still seventeen years until Kangxi's death, and even if he saves all of this, he still has a deficit, which is still more than half. The plan of the Zheng family's brothers and sisters, after all, is to stay away from Jiangning, with him as a teenager, even if he has silver to support him, he will not be able to keep his property in the later stage, and it will not work without Cao Yin coming forward. If you think of something else, you should go to Cao Yin again, but Cao Yin didn't make up his mind for a while.

Just when Cao Yin hesitated, Cao Yin sent someone to call him to the study. At that time, Cao Yan was begging himself to study the dressing box of Huixin and Dark Fragrance, to see if he could learn from those who traveled through his predecessors to invent a perfume, soap or something, and make some luxury money. As for distilled liquor, making glass or something, you don't have to think about it, there are many degrees of liquor at this time, according to historical records, it seems that distilled liquor was there when it hit the Northern Song Dynasty. Glass is not a rare thing, but the purity is not as high as in modern society. But he couldn't solve this point, and his knowledge of glass was still seen in novels, and he knew that it was made of sand.

After looking at the dresser, Cao Yan was a little unconfident. The Western perfume in the glass bottle has been available for a long time, and even Huixin has a small half bottle, which was given by Cao Yan. The soap was called "foreign pancreas" at this time, half a tael of silver coins, but it was not a Western product, but a merchant in the south of the Yangtze River invited a foreigner master to make it locally. A maid like Hui Xin, who earns a tael a month a month, where would she buy such a luxury thing, this is rewarded by the Li family. When Cao Yan heard this, he couldn't help but feel a little weird, no matter how Hui Xin looked at it, it was like an "attacker" treatment.

Hearing that his father asked him to go to the study, Cao Yan hesitated for a moment, went to the bookcase and took out a few pages of folded books sandwiched in the "Historical Records" and put them in his arms.

When he arrived at Cao Yin's study, Cao Yan greeted his father in accordance with the rules: "My son has seen my father, my father is safe!" ”

"Get up!" Cao Yan's voice was tired. During the drive, he was busy with affairs, and he didn't care about the deficit. In the half month that the holy driver left, he asked the account office to summarize the general ledger of the past years, and he was busy for half a month before he roughly sorted out the clue. In addition to the house and the things that could not be moved, the gold, silver, jewelry, and antique items in the house totaled 450,000 taels of silver. There are also a few granges and more than a dozen shops, which should be able to total 200,000 taels of silver. Even if all of them are sold, the deficit can only be repaid by half.

Although Cao Yin once said in front of Zhuang Chang that he would definitely pay off the deficit in his lifetime, he was also anxious in the face of so many debts. Although he is Yunwen and Yunwu, he is not good at management, and the shops outside the home are either rented or have a manager of the fabric. The money in his hand every year, such as money and fire, was not enough for the expenses of the house, and he often relied on the savings of the Cao family over the years and the money from the Grange shop.

Cao Yin didn't expect his son to have any way to solve the Cao family's predicament, even if he was just a child. Zhuang Chang reminded him three times and twice, don't underestimate Cao Yan, after all, there is an example of Lin Xia Zhai there, maybe there are other ways to make money. Cao Yin called Cao Yin to come, anyway, he is the eldest son of the family, and it is nothing to know some housework earlier.

Cao Yin pointed to the list of land deeds and gold and silver on the table, and said to Cao Yin: "This is the land and family assets accumulated by the Cao family for a hundred years, I want to discuss with your second uncle, go and pay the deficit, I am afraid that I will not be able to leave any family property to you in the future!" ”

"There are two or three hundred servants and men inside and outside the house, although the second uncle of the West Mansion is not as good as our house, but there are seventy or eighty people, if there is no more income from the field shop, how to maintain the livelihood of the family every month?" Cao Yan asked.

Cao Yin replied: "This is also a matter of no choice, if you can't do it, you will release a few old people, but if you want to reduce the population, you have to wait for the old lady for a hundred years." It's nothing for us to be a descendant, the old lady has enjoyed a lifetime of happiness, and there is no reason to worry about her children and grandchildren when she is old! ”

"The second uncle's family has not been separated, and my father has repaid the debt with kilometers of industrial property, does the second uncle know about this?" Cao Yan thought that his aunt Zhao Jia was the most shrewd and good, and the second uncle was afraid of guilt, so he asked.

Cao Yin nodded: "I told your second uncle, not all of them are sold, whether it is our family or your second uncle's family, leave 3,000 taels for each of the younger generations as wedding funds." The property in the old lady's name, and the dowry of your mother and second aunt are not included in the public school. ”

Seeing that Cao Yin had no good initiative other than selling his property and reducing the population, Cao Yin took out the booklet he had written for a long time from his arms and handed it to Cao Yin with both hands: "This is a little suggestion from my son, please refer to my father!" ”

There are two things mentioned in the booklet, one is to send people to Anxi in Fujian, Longjing Village in Hangzhou, and Junshan Island in Taihu Lake in Suzhou to find land for growing tea trees to buy and build a tea factory, and the other is to buy a piece of water in Taihu Lake to develop freshwater pearl farming.

When he saw the tea garden, Cao Yin frowned slightly, and when he saw the pearl farming, he couldn't help but shake his head: "Nonsense, picking tea and making tea, although it is cumbersome and the profit is meager, it is still a protégé." This pearl farming is unheard of, and you read it from some anecdote and take it as true. ”

"Most of the tribute tea in the Qing Dynasty today is group tea, and the green tea is only the 'Biluochun' named by the 38th year of Kangxi. In the past two years, the first-class Biluochun has a price, and the second-class Biluochun is equivalent to gold. After all, green tea will gradually replace the group tea that people have drunk for nearly a thousand years. The son listed in the booklet, are all beautiful mountains and rivers, rich in tea trees, West Lake Longjing tea, although the reputation in Beijing is not obvious, but in the south of the Yangtze River has a little fame. The Longjing tea of West Lake and the pine needles of Junshan are both good teas with a taste no less than Biluochun. The southerners have a light diet, the northerners have a greasy diet, and they have always liked to drink strong tea, and most of them are Pu'er from Yunnan. The Tieguanyin produced in Anxi, Fujian Province has a strong taste, suitable for the four seasons to quote, and it is more effective than Nabi Luochun. Cao Yan summarized the famous tea information he knew in his previous life and said to Cao Yan. He is very confident in these three kinds of tea, because in history, these three kinds of tea are tribute teas, but they are known to the world to be included in the scope of tribute in the middle and late Qianlong periods, fifty or sixty years later. As for the method of frying tea, there is no need to worry about it, the working people are the greatest, and each tea is first recognized by the locals.

Cao Yin listened to what Cao Yan said reasonably, nodded, Biluochun went from not being known to the world to having no price, and it only took a few years. If the tea of the three places is really as Cao Yan said, then it will take a few years of hard work to save a fortune.

"What about pearl farming?" Cao Yin hesitated: "How specifically, is it really feasible?" ”

"This is to be prepared. On the side of the tea garden, in the name of tribute, it is sold at a high price, and most of them will make profits for seven or eight years, and some will make profits for three or five years. If the wind and rain are smooth, the country and the people are safe, and the people live and work in peace and contentment, our family's deficit will almost be able to make up for it! If the year is not good, the local law and order are uneven, and the situation is fickle, who has the Yaxing to taste tea. Or, like the tea garden that produced Biluochun, it was remembered by the magnates in Beijing, and several princes snatched their heads and broke their blood, and finally belonged to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. If you encounter all kinds of troubles, and the deficit in the house is not repaid, pearls here is another way out. Cao Yan replied: "This pearl cultivation is difficult, and there may be no income in three or five years." However, this is not something that has never been done before, and some people have already begun to cultivate pearls in the West, but they have not yet spread to the Qing Dynasty. He said it in a vehement, but in fact, he remembered in a trance that cultured pearls seemed to have only begun to appear in the 20th century.