Chapter 641: Fasting (Part 2)

Puren Temple, outside the Buddhist temple.

The few people tiptoed to the window. One of them gently reached out and poked the window paper and peeked into the Buddhist temple.

With his back to the door were two men, one of whom was wearing a third-rank official uniform.

He peeked at the man, nodded to the companion beside him, took out a bamboo tube from his arms, and blew air into the broken window paper.

After a while, I heard two "thumps" sounds, and then I looked at the two people in the room and had fallen to the ground.

One of them even knocked down the candlestick. Although the candle was not extinguished, it made the light in the room suddenly dim.

When the few people outside the window saw it, they glanced around for a few seconds. Seeing that there was nothing unusual, the leader led the two to the door and pushed the door in. The remaining one was looking outside.

Then, a "Huh" sound came.

The candles in the room were extinguished and the room suddenly became dark.

Then there was the movement of the sword unsheathed, followed by a few muffled sounds.

The man outside heard the movement was wrong, stepped forward and said, "Boss, Boss..." Before he finished speaking, he had fallen straight down.

After a while, the lights were again found in the room, and a few guys like rice dumplings were lying on the ground.

Standing beside were Cao Song, Zhiran, Wei Hei and several palace guards.

Seeing that the monk's robes were covered with blood on the monk's robes of the fainted guys on the ground, Zhiran couldn't help but lower his eyelids and chanted Amitabha in a low voice.

The monk's hat had fallen to the ground, revealing his hair. These people were obviously not monks.

From this point of view, the real owners of these sets of monk robes have probably gone to the West to find the Buddha Lord.

How could Cao Song and the guards think of this? Their faces were a little more excited. Looking at the people on the ground, they became more and more excited, thinking about how to force confessions to see if they had any accomplices.

While everyone was not paying attention, Zhiran left the house.

It is the middle of the moon, and the full moon in the sky is like a silver plate.

Zhiran looked up at the starry sky and sighed in a low voice.

The room has begun to be tried, and it is a mess. Although these people on the ground look extremely vicious, they are not people with wise means, otherwise they would not have been arrested easily.

After asking for a while, he didn't say anything useful. The guards were the first time they encountered such a person, with a bit of a playful heart.

Wei Hei had also been in the world earlier. When he saw the farce in front of him, he felt a little noisy and came out of the house.

Seeing that Zhiran was still standing in the yard, Wei Hei said, "Master Zhiran, I have been tossing for a long time, go and rest quickly, I have to wait tomorrow night."

Zhiran nodded and the two went out together.

Cao Song and his team also noticed the problem of monk's robes and began to look for the unlucky monks according to what these people told me to see if anyone was spared.

Cao Yong knew nothing about the hustle and bustle here.

He was in full dream, and there were all kinds of dining scenes in his dreams. Even in his previous life, there were scenes of dining at the office. In the self-service barbecue restaurant, there were fat, tender and juicy beef, and a round-faced service lady...

On the other side, the Sixteenth Prince looked sideways, and his sleeping posture was much more than Cao Yong's rules.

On the roof, Cao Jia and Cao Yi were not sitting.

On this full moon night, sitting on the roof is too conspicuous. It doesn’t look like protection, it’s more like recruiting people.

Both of them were lying along the ridge of the green tiles, and then Cao Yi whispered: "Give it, boss!"

Cao Jia reached out to take it, and it was a few pieces of beef jerky as thick as a thumb. He threw it in his mouth and chewed it.

Cao Yi was not idle either. While chewing, he whispered: "Boss, this young master hasn't eaten a few meals. Do we need to throw a few pieces of beef jerky in?"

"Nothing is going to happen." Cao's family lowered their voices and replied.

In the wing room, in the courtyard gate, under the corridor, standing still in the secret place were the guards of the Sixteenth Prince.

When Cao Yong woke up, it was not yet dawn.

Because the candles lit in the house are as thick as children's arms, they have not yet burned out.

Cao Yong woke up from hunger, got up and rubbed his face, staring at the Buddha statue in a daze. What flashed through his mind was a beautiful dream that he had not yet completely forgotten.

The barbecue on the long stick and the marinated steak, thinking of this, his stomach couldn't help but rumbling.

Thinking that he had to insist on not eating for another two days, Cao Yong rubbed his stomach, which was really doubting his perseverance.

"When is it?" The Sixteenth Prince closed his eyes, not knowing whether he was awake or confused, and asked vaguely.

Cao Yong took out his pocket watch and took a look. It was only two o'clock in the morning (4:30 in the morning).

"Let's sleep a little longer, it's not even the hour of Mao." Cao Yong said.

After hearing this, the sixteenth prince rubbed his eyes and turned over and sat up.

The ground of the bluestone slab was hard, and the sixteenth prince rubbed his shoulders, elbows and waist.

"It's nothing to keep fasting, let's give someone a mattress?" Cao Yong asked. In fact, he was thinking in his heart whether he could give someone some jerky meat. However, thinking that this was in the temple and he was holding the big sign of praying for the Emperor's birthday, he swallowed the words behind him.

"Forget it, let's wait for another two days!" said the Sixteenth Prince: "Doing the day, the Emperor Ahma will also receive my memorandum. If he asks about the details on a whim and knows that we have been here for three days, wouldn't it be worth the loss?"

Speaking of this, he couldn't help laughing and looked at Cao Yong and said, "I know that if Fu is impatient with making trouble for these false things, sometimes it's easier to show loyalty than to some true things."

If there is no mattress, there is no mattress. How to solve this problem of washing?

Cao Yong stood up and stretched out, walked to the door, and wanted to push the door out, but he could not push it open.

Cao Yong turned around, looked at the Sixteenth Prince, and said, "Sixteenth Master, isn't this washing away?"

The sixteenth prince glared at Cao Yong and said, "I'm not that dirty. I've already told people yesterday. Chen Shi asked them to open the door, change the toilet and send hot towels."

It was so tormenting. Cao Yong sat down again, thinking about the foreign governors and governors who said they had fasted for a week and had designated to steal food. Otherwise, how could they persist?

I felt my body stiff, but staying like this would make me feel hungry. Cao Yong picked up his pen and then copied the Diamond Sutra.

The sixteenth prince stood up and walked for a while. Like Cao Yong, he continued to copy the scriptures.

After Chen, after washing up, Cao Yong's Diamond Sutra was also copied.

The harder the days are, you can take out your pocket watch once a while, and you can't see the pointer going far.

There are still one and a half days left, how should I bear it? Although it is broad now, Cao Yong really feels hungry and cold.

The Sixteenth Prince also finished copying and was lying on his side, with his eyes open and wondering what he was thinking about.

What was his life like? Is it true that he was a "confused prince" as mentioned in the unofficial history, or is it that he was wise and foolish, knowing to protect himself and not fall for three dynasties?

It has been seven or eight years since Cao Yong met the Sixteenth Prince. It has been a time since he watched him transform from a young man to this day.

"What is the Sixteenth Master thinking?" Cao Yong spoke

The sixteenth prince sighed and said, "Furuo, the Eight Banners are destroyed. It has been less than a hundred years since the Eight Banners entered the pass, so what has it become like? Thinking back then, when our ancestors conquered the world, hundreds of thousands of Eight Banners cavalry galloped across the Central Plains and occupied the world of the Ming Dynasty. Where did they fear? Now, the trouble of ringworm on the frontier cannot be solved. The generals are weak, lack horses and food, and let the villain clamor."

Although Cao Yong lived peacefully and had no idea of ​​"anti-Qing and restoring Ming Dynasty", he still felt quite uncomfortable when he heard the Sixteenth Prince talk about the Eight Banners entering the Pass.

Yes, the Qing Dynasty entered the pass for less than a hundred years, and the "Ten Days of Yangzhou" and the "Three Massacres of Jiading" were less than a hundred years.

The taxes in the world account for two-thirds of the taxes in Jiangnan.

The court did not dare to ignore Jiangnan easily. In recent years, Huairou policy has been used a lot. Due to various floods, Jiangnan has various tax exemptions every year. Even so, the deep hatred of blood cannot be resolved in a short while.

As long as a literati can become an official, who cares about whether it is the world of Ming or the world of Qing Dynasty.

However, there are also many great scholars who hide among the people and never take office until their death, just like the father of Cao Yongmeng’s teacher, Master Song.

The "Kangxi prosperous era" praised by civil and military officials in the court is like a paper lantern, looking at the light, but it cannot pierce the window paper.

China will be even weaker in a hundred years.

Cao Yong looked at the Sixteenth Prince and said, "Sixteenth Master, do you know the East India Company?"

"East India Company?" The sixteenth prince pondered for a moment and said, "I know that in the past fifty years, they set up foreign companies in Guangdong and specially purchased tea. Although I didn't take care of the Ministry of Internal Affairs at that time, now those people in the Ministry of Internal Affairs mentioned this and said that the foreign devils' money is easy to make. By the way, most of the spices and indigo in the Ministry of Internal Affairs have been bought from them in recent years, and they also sold some silk to them."

"The sixteenth prince knows that the East India Company was authorized by the British emperor to occupy territory independently, mint coins, build its own fortresses and organize its own army?" Cao Yong asked.

"What?" The Sixteenth Prince was surprised when he heard this: "The 'Yingyang' was built by the East India Company itself? Didn't it mean that it was from Mexico?"

"It is true that 'Yingyang' is from Mexico, but the other silver ingots, the gold ingots are probably cast by the East India Company itself." Cao Yong said: "Anyway, India has gold mines, so it's not a big deal if they occupy it!"

The Sixteenth Prince frowned and said, "Didn't I hear that they only built factories in India? Why can even occupy mines? This is not like a robber."

Cao Yong smiled and said, "People are greedy, who has the strong power, who speaks. In the education received by those foreign devils, there is no such a set of false rituals as our Confucianism. People pay attention to benefits!"

"After all, it is a small foreign country, and it is not educated." The Sixteenth Prince shook his head, looked at Cao Yong, and said, "What did Furuo tell me about this? Could it be that they still want to rely on the dozens of people in Guangdong to grab territory in our Qing Dynasty? Isn't that a fool?"

Cao Yong continued: "Now, they are doing commerce in Guangdong, buying our tea and silk, and selling them to Europe. They can only sell them to us, such as watches and spices. They buy more and sell less. Over the years, more and more money flows into our place."

The Sixteenth Prince raised his eyebrows and said with a smile: "This is the best way to let these robbers work in vain. Moving all the gold and silver mountains of other places to our Qing Dynasty is also their credit."

"Sixteenth Master forgot what a robber is? A robber just wants to take advantage of others without work, but it is not for others to take advantage of others. If they continue like this, then they are called robbers. Wouldn't they be legal merchants?" Cao Yong said.

"Furuo means, are you afraid that they will be unfavorable to the Qing Dynasty?" The Sixteenth Prince thought for a while and said, "How many clowns can cause great storms?"

In fact, Cao Yong didn't know when the East India Company dumped opium in China.

I just knew that Lin Zexu banned smoking during the Daoguang period. More than 130 years later, opium had already become a disaster.

However, Cao Yong knew that the East India Company had a trade deficit with China. Although the amount was not large, the proportion was also very obvious.
To be continued...