"In the ice and snow forest, different peaches and plums are mixed with fragrant dust. Suddenly, the fragrance of the night was scattered. ”

Layers of fresh snow fell on the carved wooden window lattices, the silver bamboo charcoal in the copper basin in the house reflected the orange-red light, and the brass animal's foot incense burner emitted a light blue incense mist, lingering around the whole room, and the tranquility was mixed with the elegant fragrance of Hui ink.

A burly, heroic middle-aged man stood at the desk, holding the wolf in one hand and the other behind his back, writing on rice paper like flowing water, and the beautiful Zhao style block letters on the paper, the pen was strong and powerful.

"General, General!" The little maid, who was only about eleven or twelve years old, stepped into the threshold with her skirt, and the smiles on her childish face were stacked together, and her eyes, which were originally small, were squeezed into two slits by the face that was piled up with laughter.

"Su'er, tell me slowly, what's going on in the backyard?" The middle-aged man held the brush that had just been dipped in ink in his hand and held it in the air, his eyes were fixed on the maid named Su'er, a pair of thick sword eyebrows were slightly wrinkled, although he still tried his best to maintain his composure on the surface, but the uncontrollable worry in his eyes had already been revealed.

Su Er gave a good fortune neatly, took a breath and said with a smile: "Congratulations to the general, congratulations to the general, Mrs. has added another daughter to the general." ”

The middle-aged man's eyebrows finally relaxed, he gently put the brush on the pen stand, looked down at the handwriting on the paper, a smile bloomed on his lips, as if he suddenly remembered something, and hurriedly raised his head and asked, "What about Madam?" How's Madame? ”

When Su'er heard this, she immediately restrained her smile, and said with worry in her expression: "Madame passed out at the end of her life, and the shaman said that it was because of the previous difficult birth, the time dragged on for too long, and the fatigue was excessive. ”

When the man heard this, he said eagerly: "Have you passed on the doctor?" As he spoke, he walked around the bookcase and said, "Let's go over and have a look." Before he could finish speaking, the man had already stepped out of the study door in a few big steps, turned a corner down the corridor, stepped over a hanging flower door, and walked towards the inner house in the backyard. Su'er has short calves, and he can barely keep up with the man's footsteps by trotting all the way.

This middle-aged man is the commander of the Zhengbai Banner of the Qing Empire guarding the northern frontier, and the general of the Zhengyipin Zhenguo - Ge Jitai.

Ge Jitai approached the door of the main house in the backyard, and the maid who was already waiting at the door asked for peace and opened the cotton curtain.

Ge Jitai stepped into the house, and the warm heat accompanied by the sound of everyone laughing rushed towards him, and it turned out that the main hall was noisy and surrounded by women. Seeing Ge Jitai coming in, he immediately stopped his voice and saluted one after another.

Ge Jitai waved his arm and motioned for everyone to be excused. When the ladies were flattened, they automatically retreated to both sides, and a road was made between the houses. In the middle of the hall, on the pear carved brocade couch, sat an old woman with gray sideburns, the old woman was wearing a phoenix fur and silver mouse piping jacket, her temperament was graceful and luxurious, her face was kind and gentle, and she was holding a baby wrapped in brocade in her arms.

I saw the old woman holding the baby in her arms, her slightly chubby body swaying gently back and forth, looking at the baby with a pair of kind eyes and smiling, dragging a long voice, whispering: "Little baby, you Ama has come to see you!" ”

Seeing this scene, Ge Jitai's face suddenly changed to a gentle smile, he walked close and leaned down, looked into the swaddling clothes, the old woman handed him both hands, Ge Jitai stretched out a pair of big hands, and carefully took the baby from the old woman's arms to study it carefully. The little guy opened his eyes at this time, and looked at Ge Jitai with a pair of big black and watery eyes on his pink face, and after looking at it for a moment, he actually giggled to himself.

When Ge Jitai saw the child smiling at him, he couldn't help but be more and more happy. I couldn't help but gently kiss the baby on the forehead. I don't know if it was his sudden "intimacy" action, or the stubble on his face was too hard, which hurt this little thing, but as soon as he finished kissing, the baby's expression immediately turned to a thunderstorm, and the pink little mouth cried with a pinch of "wow~".

When Ge Jitai saw that he had made the baby cry and cried, his hands and feet suddenly became flustered. The old woman hurriedly took the child from Ge Jitai's hand, trembled her arms and said softly: "Little baby, little baby, don't cry, don't cry, Ama hurts you!" ”。 While coaxing, he glared at Ge Jitai with a smile, and said angrily: "Beware of the cold on your body against the child, and it's not the first time you've been a father, and you're still so reckless." ”

Ge Jitai smiled and said, "It's the first time to be her father!" As he spoke, he couldn't help but reach out again to tease the baby's little face, causing a room full of ladies to laugh.

No one would have imagined that this tough guy who galloped on the battlefield in the eyes of everyone would be so delicate and affectionate in the face of his closest relatives, and he rarely showed a little humor, which became more and more cordial and respectable.

The old woman glanced at the door of the inner room and said to Ge Jitai, "Go and see your Fujin, Dong Guo'er has walked through the ghost door this time!" ”

"Hmm!" Ge Jitai nodded, his expression showed the worry when he entered the door, got up and stepped to the door of the inner room, opened the cotton curtain and walked in.

The ladies gathered around the old woman again, and continued to discuss the baby's appearance and posture, etc., and their mouths were full of beautiful words.

Everyone was chatting energetically, only to listen to the voice of the maid guarding the door, and then the curtain cage provoked, ran in a twelve or thirteen-year-old boy, everyone saw this young man, still saluted first, and then greeted warmly: "Young Master Chen, come and see, your mother gave birth to a little sister for you!" ”

The boy ran over excitedly, first greeted the old woman, and then squeezed the old woman next to the soft couch, and said excitedly: "Grandmother, show me my sister." ”

The old woman smiled and stretched out her arm to the boy, and said softly, "But be quiet, your sister has just fallen asleep, and she has woken her up carefully." ”

The boy curiously leaned over to look at the sleeping baby girl, and saw that the delicate little face was like a white-faced bun that had just come out of the cage, tender and lovely. Rubbing the cold air on his hands, he couldn't help but stretch out his index finger and gently stroked her face, and couldn't help but praise: "Grandmother, my sister is really good-looking." ”

"Yes, this girl looks exactly like your mother when she was a child." The old woman looked at the baby girl, and the love in her eyes shone with the softness of memory.

The boy said excitedly: "You don't know, I just heard the little girl run to my study and say that Eniang gave birth to a girl, and I have been very worried on the way here!" Everyone laughed when they heard this, and the old woman felt the novelty, and couldn't help asking, "Your mother has given birth to a daughter, and you haven't said anything yet, what are you worried about?" ”。

The boy continued: "My ancestor, don't you know, a few days ago, the concubine of Prince Yunrong also gave birth to a girl, I went to his house to find Tuhai, and happened to meet Mama holding the newborn girl in the courtyard to bask in the sun, I was curious, so I leaned over to take a peek, and I was startled!" The boy was very lively in his words, and the description seemed to be very interesting, and everyone listened to it with curiosity, and they inquired in detail.

The boy continued: "That girl looks like that, hey! It was exactly the same as the old monkey that Amma had caught during the hunt last year, and his face was not only black, but also wrinkled, and I saw that there were more folds on the old mother's face. I wondered in my heart at the time: Prince Yunrong is not bad, and the concubine is also a Peugeot, why did he give birth to such an ugly child? ”

The ladies couldn't hold back their laughter when they heard his description of having noses and eyes, and adding exaggerated expressions. Among the people in the underground station, someone really saw the girl, so he said: "What the young master said just now is not all funny, that girl is indeed born a little darker, and her eyebrows and eyes are not with her Ama and Eniang, and she is not very good-looking, but there is no small Gege pink and white logo on our house!" ”

The old woman shook her head with a smile and said, "Haven't you heard the old saying: Eighteen changes in women's colleges? When my daughter's family was a child, she couldn't tell whether she was handsome or not, just like the flower, can you tell if it's beautiful or ugly when it's still a flower? You have to wait until she grows up and develops it to see it. ”

At this time, the cotton curtain in the inner room was raised again, and Ge Jitai came out, and when the boy saw it, he immediately got up and saluted, and said, "The child has seen Amma." ”

Ge Jitai answered, looked at his son with a kind smile and asked, "Qi Buchen, do you like your little sister?" ”

Qi Buchen nodded and smiled: "Well, I like it very much!" I just said that my sister is really good-looking. ”

When the old woman saw that Ge Jitai's face was calm, she asked, "Is Dongguo'er awake?" ”

Ge Jitai smiled and nodded slightly, and replied: "I just woke up, I fed her some honey water, and this time I look at the spirit is not bad!" After speaking, he instructed the maids standing by the door: "Fu Jin is awake, you can go in and wait." ”

The old woman instructed carefully: "Go and bring a bowl of millet porridge cooked in the tea room, don't hold more rice, just put two spoonfuls of brown sugar on the noodles, and give her a hot drink, drink this at this time, it is more useful than ginseng." The maids agreed to go down to Zhang Luo.

"Amma, has my sister been named? What is it called? Qi Buchen asked.

When Ge Jitai heard his son ask, he smiled and said: "I have been patronizing and happy for half a day, and I forgot to name my child, and I am sorry for Chen'er to remind me." After that, he looked at the old woman and said, "Eniang, this child is not yet the day of birth, and I am in a hurry to come out to see you when I see you coming." It must be your fate, so you can give her a name. ”

The old woman nodded and smiled, "It's not you who said, even I feel like this." It stands to reason that I am at this age, and there are a large number of grandchildren, granddaughters and great-grandchildren under my knees, but when I saw this child today, I immediately took her heart and felt sorry for her. After that, looking at the quiet sleeping face of the girl in his arms, he thought for a moment and said: "I pondered, she was born in winter, so it hurts people in the heart, so let's name it Huai Sleeve." ”

"'The deep love of the sleeves, the beauty of the mother's family' is a good name! It's called Huai Sleeve, Xie Eniang gave the name! Ge Jitai bowed deeply to the old woman. Before he finished speaking, he only heard the baby girl in the old woman's arms laugh sweetly in her sleep.

The old woman smiled and looked at the girl in her arms, and inadvertently, she looked sideways at the side of the bronze birds, beasts, flowers and plants with a pattern of incense, and said in a harmonious voice: "Fu Jin gave birth to Xiao Gege, his body is weak, and the smell of this sandalwood is heavy, and he will take the ambergris given by the emperor in my room." ”……

The year when Huai Sleeve was born was the seventh year of Kangxi. The year before, that is, in the sixth year of Kangxi, the Kangxi Emperor Xuanye, who ascended the throne at the age of eight, was fourteen years old at the time and officially announced the pro-government of the Dragon Emperor in the world.

Although Kangxi had promulgated the pro-government edict, the government at this time was still essentially in the hands of the auxiliary ministers appointed by Emperor Shunzhi: Sony, Aobai, Sukeshaha, and Kubilong.

The elderly Sonny was critically ill, and Ao Bai took the opportunity to monopolize the court, which was quite a coercion of the Son of Heaven to order the princes, and regardless of starvation, he put people's livelihood in fire and water, and wantonly occupied the land. In northern Xinjiang, there were also times when the fighting was tense, and the Geldan tribe took the opportunity to harass the border and other weak tribes in the steppe.

The few folds that Ge Jitai sent to the imperial court were all sunk into the sea......

Although the heavy clouds kept low, the north wind still blew vigorously, as if it was trying its best to blow away the dark clouds. As long as there is wind, no matter how thick the clouds are, they will eventually be blown away, and when winter comes, spring will already be on horseback and start galloping.