Outside the Taihe Gate, there was a piece of vegetarianism.

Cao Hao stood in the queue, his face a little stiff from the cold wind. He had been standing for several hours since he entered the palace at five o'clock in the morning.

After standing for a long time, coupled with the fact that he didn't sleep well last night, he was a little groggy. Fortunately, although he lost his appetite, he still ate half a plate of flower rolls with millet porridge when he came out, so he didn't go hungry.

He looked at the old ministers in front of the queue, whose bodies were like dead leaves in the wind, and thought very unkindly, I was afraid that if a national funeral would continue, a few old ministers would have to "face the king". The Ministry of Works, who was only over 70 years old, fainted on the ground and was carried out.

It wasn't until the beginning of Youchu (five o'clock in the afternoon) that the official came over and led the hundred officials along the Yongdao and slowly went to the Qianqing Gate.

According to the rules at the time of the death of the ancestor, the civil and military ministers above the second rank lined up in the Qianqing Gate, from the Han civil officials below the second rank lined up outside the Jingyun Gate on the east side of the Qianqing Palace Square, the Han military officials lined up outside the Longzong Gate on the east side of the square, and the Manchurian and Mongolian officials lined up outside the Qianqing Gate.

According to the records of the Ministry of Officials, by the 60th year of Kangxi, there were more than 2,550 civilian Beijing officials and more than 4,330 military Beijing officials.

There are nearly 7,000 Beijing officials in total, not counting the clan and officials waiting for vacancies in Beijing.

These people can't all be allowed to pour into the outside of the Qianqing Palace, so only the officials above the fifth rank enter, the officials below the fifth rank and the seventh rank above mourn in the Taihedian Square, and the officials below the seventh rank to the small officials who do not enter the stream can only line up outside the palace gate.

Rao is like this, inside and outside the Qianqing Gate, there are hundreds of princes and hundreds of officials gathered.

Cao Hao was in the Qianqing Gate, lined up with other civil and military officials. Before the civil and military officers, he was the prince of the clan. The generals of the clan below the rank of Duke accompanied other Manchu and Mongolian officials to line up outside the Qianqing Gate.

In front of the prince of the clan, His Majesty Dan in front of the Qianqing Palace is the descendant of Emperor Daxing.

Cao Hao squinted his eyes and looked at His Majesty Dan's prince and grandson, a little strange.

According to the state funeral etiquette of the time of the ancestors, the prince and grandson were in front of His Majesty Dan and the prince of the clan; His Majesty Dan should be the wife of the clan above the duchess and the daughter of the county lord or above.

As Cao Jia, Cao Yi, and Chu Yu, they all have to enter the palace to mourn.

Now, they are nowhere to be seen.

After standing for half an hour, the sky was dark, and the palm lamps inside and outside the Qianqing Palace were immediately brightly lit and bright as day.

At the beginning of the year (seven o'clock in the evening), the mourning music sounded, and the emperor was buried.

In the middle of the gate of the Qianqing Palace, the fourth elder brother cried bitterly and fell to the ground.

The officials and guards inside and outside the Qianqing Palace Square also knelt down with all of them, and for a while, the crying shook the sky.

After the funeral, the fourth elder brother personally entered and set up a few feasts in front of the Zi Palace to pay tribute. The princes and hundreds of officials followed, and made a big salute to mourn, and so on.

This toss was not completed until eight o'clock in the evening.

The princes and grandsons of the imperial family, the princes of the clan, the scholars, the ministers, and the guards had to keep vigil in the palace, while Cao Hao followed the other officials and lined up to leave the palace.

From Ming to the Ming Dynasty, he only needs to go to the Qianqing Gate to cry in the morning, noon, and evening sacrifices.

Before he could get on the horse, he heard someone say a few things about the new emperor's wishes.

Because he wanted to mourn for the Emperor Daxing, the new emperor was deeply grieved, his heart was chaotic, and he couldn't take care of government affairs, so he ordered the third elder brother, the thirteenth elder brother, Long Keduo, and Ma Qi to be the prime ministers. Except for the affairs of the new imperial domain, other government affairs were entrusted to these four ministers.

The seventh elder brother and the thirteenth elder brother were all crowned princes, and the emperor's grandson Honghui was the king of the county.

The fourteenth elder brother galloped back to Beijing, and the northwest military affairs were taken over by Gong Yanxin and Nian Qianyao, the governor of Sichuan, and the general Yin Yi was temporarily handed over to Wang Nersu of Pingjun to act.

Sun Zhaqi, the secretary of the household department, acted as the affairs of the Ministry of Science and Engineering, the chief inspector of Liangjiang, Bi Na, temporarily managed the affairs of the Ministry of Rites, and Laxi, the first-class guard of the Qianqing Gate, temporarily managed the affairs of the domain.

The thirteenth elder brother and Long Keduo were in power, and Cao Hao was not surprised; To his surprise, his father-in-law, the Seventh Elder Brother, was promoted to prince at this time.

But if you think about it, it makes sense. Among the sons of Emperor Daxing, the top princes have already been crowned princes, and the fourth elder brother can no longer be gracious.

At this time, he has not officially ascended the throne, and if only one of the thirteenth elder brothers is crowned, it will seem a bit cronyism; Raising the seventh elder brother to a higher level, the Garn brothers, is also conducive to the stability of the clan.

There was no such thing as the new emperor ascending the throne and immediately raiding his house.

Cao Hao breathed a sigh of relief, it was good to have a smooth transition like this. Shengsheng stood all day, and now his legs, feet, and waist didn't seem to be his own, and he felt that he couldn't sit up straight when he rode on a horse.

Looking at other officials, they are not much better than him.

In the capital at night, there are white lanterns everywhere, and people are stunned to see it.

When he finally returned home, when Cao Hao dismounted, he was already a little unstable.

When he entered the gate and saw Jiang Jian there, he remembered that Jiang Jian's wedding date was set at 16, and because he was in the national mourning period, he was afraid that it would be postponed. This music is married, and the official ban is 100 days, and the people are banned for 1 month.

Jiang Jian followed Cao Hao as an errand in the household department, although he was only a scribe, but he was not a citizen. It seems that the wedding date will be postponed until March next year.

"Non-phosphorus, let people send a few sheep to Zhong's place." Cao Hao said with [***]: "It's better to say that the wedding date is rescheduled." ”

At the beginning of this national mourning, it was forbidden to slaughter animals within 49 days in the capital, and there was no pig or mutton to sell in the city after two days.

Fortunately, on Cao Hao's side, there were not only the dozen or so deer he got back from the paddock, but also the seven or eight carts of sheep condyles that the sixteenth elder brother sent later.

Jiang Jian bowed down and thanked him, and Cao Hao explained two more words to Cao Yuan, asking him to prepare the Seventh Elder Brother's Mansion and the Thirteenth Elder Brother's Mansion to prepare congratulatory gifts.

I heard that Chu Yu hadn't come back from the palace yet, so Cao Hao didn't go back to Wutong Garden, but went directly to the Orchid Courtyard.

In the upper room of the Orchid Courtyard, Tianyou, Hengsheng, and Changsheng were all there, surrounding the kang table and talking with the Li family.

Cao Hao saw it and felt quite relieved. He and Chu Yu are not there, Li's illness is not good, and there are children in front of him, which also saves the old lady from being too sad.

Seeing Cao Hao come in, except for the Li family, everyone got up and saw it.

Whether it's the flag school or the study, it's all stopped today.

When Li saw his son come back, he was full of questions and didn't know where to ask.

Seeing this, Cao Hao sent a few children down to settle under the pretext that it was late at night.

Changsheng is young, and when he has survived to this point, he is already dozing off, full of tears; Tianyou refused to leave, hesitated, and said, "Father, since the mother has not returned, the son and the younger brother will go to the front yard to wait, and wait for the mother to come back and then settle down?" ”

Even if the female relatives were later than the ministers to leave the palace, they didn't have a lot of work that night.

Cao Hao estimated that Chu Yu was almost home, so he nodded, fulfilling his son's filial piety.

Li had to give a few instructions, it was windy outside, so let the children add clothes and blow carefully or something.

Waiting for a few small ones to go out, Cao Hao sat at the kang table and said, "Mother, do you have any ready-made food?" The son stood for a while, but he was very hungry. ”

Li stretched out his arm, touched the back of his son's hand, touched a piece of coldness, and couldn't help frowning: "Could it be that you are standing outside the palace?" As she spoke, she called Xiuhe to prepare food for Cao Hao.

"The palace is full of palace concubines and clan wives, how can foreign ministers enter?" Seeing her concern, Cao Hao said, "My son is fine, a scholar standing in front of him has a fat physique, which shields his son from the wind." Pity those old men, the cold wind blew for a while, whether Ming'er could get up or not, it was two words. ”

Li Shi was a little stunned, and after a while, Fang lowered his head and asked softly, "Your Majesty...... Walk peacefully......"

"Yesterday, when I was ugly, I thought it was not good, so I summoned the prince and elder brother to the front of the palace, and said that the fourth elder brother would succeed to the throne, but there was no time...... At the time of the funeral, the new emperor ordered the princes and hundreds of officials to look forward to pay respects. Emperor Daxing has a peaceful demeanor, and he must be going to ...... tranquility" The first sentence was heard by Cao Hao, and the latter was guessed by him.

Although the fourth elder brother let the prince and hundreds of officials come closer, there are many people, and there are really people who can visit in front of the coffin, except for the prince, who is the prince of the clan.

I don't know, the fourth elder brother asked everyone to come forward, whether it was to show the whiteness and whiteness, to show that Emperor Daxing was indeed dying.

Cao Hao only knew that if there was no arrangement from the fourth elder brother, the civil and military officials who had lined up all day would not know so much about Kangxi's movements before his death.

He said these things a lot, but he was worried about the Li family, and after hearing this, he took a long breath, and saw his son looking at him with a worried face, and said with red eyes: "Don't worry, although I am sad for the emperor, I have no pain of bereavement." I know that because of the Queen Mother's different treatment, there has been nothing to say outside over the years...... However, the emperor didn't recognize me, and I won't brazenly think of myself as the emperor's daughter...... In my heart, the emperor is the emperor, and he is the person who is loyal to the three generations of our Cao family......"

Cao Hao looked at his mother and comforted: "There must be gains if there is a loss, although my mother is not in a noble status, she is a little more comfortable than others." ”

Li shook his head disapprovingly, and said, "A wife is more expensive than a husband, and a mother is more precious than a son." I can't compare with the nobles of the same clan, and compared with the people outside, I am already extremely satisfied, why am I not honorable? In the future, I will wait for the light of my children and grandchildren. ”

The earl of the Cao family is already high enough.

Now it's not like at the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, there is no military merit, and if you want to be crowned, you can only be a relative who pushes you. In this capital family, there are no more than ten civil lords who are crowned dukes, and Cao Hao, the earl, can be regarded as able to handle it.

"I'm afraid that my son won't have a chance to change to a military position, and when Hengsheng is older, he will earn military merits, and he will come back with a princess for his mother." Cao Hao said.

Speaking of his children and grandchildren, Li, who was originally a little sad, also showed a little smile: "They are all good children." Although Tianhui didn't come back, he also sent people back to the house to ask for peace......"

While the mother and son were talking, Chu Yu returned.

At this time, Xiuhe had already prepared a dinner table and came over to ask where the Li family was.

Seeing that his son and daughter-in-law were tired, Li said, "It's been a whole day, and you're all tired, go back to your own room, and set the dinner table over there." ”

Cao Hao and Chu Yu responded and returned to Wutong Garden together.

After freshening up, the husband and wife were so hungry that they didn't have the strength to speak, so they first cleaned up their empty stomachs. Although you shouldn't use it more at night, you can't take care of it now. Not only did Cao Hao eat a lot, but even Chu Yu drank two more bowls of porridge.

As soon as they finished eating, Li sent ginger soup again.

Cao Hao blew a little, and at this time he was a little hot, and he drank two large bowls of ginger soup while it was hot.

When the maids removed the dining table and the husband and wife went to the kang to settle down, Chu Yu talked about this encounter.

It turned out that she was supposed to follow the women of the clan to work in front of the Qianqing Palace, and later the new emperor graced them to enter the Qianqing Palace and arrange shifts with the inner women.

"Concubine Yi is afraid that she is going to be unlucky!" Chu Yu said with affection: "When the body of Emperor Marfa first arrived at the Qianqing Palace, the palace concubine knelt down, and Concubine Yi stood in front of the queen mother. Uncle Huang happened to come in, although he didn't get angry on the spot, his eyes were terrifying. ”

"Huh?" Cao Hao listened, a little curious.

In later TV dramas, there seems to be such a bridge, and Cao Hao thought it was apocryphal. Concubine Yi can thrive in the harem for decades, and become the head of the four concubines, so that she will not be so brainless, and she will press the newly baked queen mother in front of everyone's eyes, but she didn't expect it to be true.

"To be honest, you can't blame Concubine Yi Niangniang. Since Concubine De became the queen mother, the inner servants all stammered and asked her to be the first, but she still vacated the first place. The concubine was originally in the first place in the east, but when she saw that Concubine De was like this, she didn't dare to compare with it, so she just came out empty. Concubine Yi came late, Xu didn't pay attention, and she still stood in the first place......" Chu Yu said.

Listening to the twists and turns of the inner hall, Cao Hao remembered one thing, that is, Concubine De and the fourth elder brother's mother and son were not in harmony, and they did not accept the title of the queen mother.

Concubine Yi is on a business trip at this time, and I am afraid that she will become cannon fodder for the fourth elder brother's mother and son......

(To be continued)