Chapter 878: Martial Arts

Sun took the maid down, but she was still a little worried about her brother. Only then did she realize that her younger brother was dressed in a wrong manner.

Thinking of this, she couldn't sit still and told someone to look ahead and ask her husband to come over as soon as he returns to the inner house.

"Why is he coming back to the south at this time? But is there something wrong at home?" Seeing her husband come in, Sun waved his hand, sent the maid out, and asked.

Li Nai accompanied his brother-in-law to drink wine for a while, and his mouth was a little dry. He asked his wife for a cup of tea before saying, "Do you have any money in your hand? You are ready to pay 200 taels."

"Silver?" Sun saw her husband's answer to the question, frowned and said, "Now, my wife is in charge of the family. Where can I have money here? Brother Cheng wrote to me and said that I might not be able to come back before the New Year. I also wanted to discuss with my master whether I could tell the master and send some money to the capital, so as not to let Brother Cheng and his brothers get tight."

Li Nai waved his hand and said, "I'm talking to my wife, why bother the master? Didn't you hear me mention it a few days ago? Why do you have to send money to Beijing?"

When talking about this, Sun couldn't help but complain a little more and said, "Since the old man got the two young men, the wife has changed her old style and held the money in her palms. She wished she could spend a penny in half. This year, she took out some old clothes to admire people, saving the money for cutting new cotton coats, and even wanted to be decent."

Li Nai knew the current situation at home, but he didn't think much about it. He said, "It's time for the mansion to make short investments in recent years, and it's also worthy of being frugal."

Sun was choked and said nothing, so he couldn't complain to Wang's stinginess with her husband, so he had to say embarrassedly: "If the old man wants to use the money, he will tell the old man directly that it will be cheaper than his wife's words."

Li Nai was a little drunk, pressed his temple with his hand and said, "It's not easy to pay it from the account, it's for my brother-in-law. You can give it from the private bank first, and I'll find a way to replenish you in a few days."

Seeing that her husband was uncomfortable, Sun walked behind him, reached out and pressed his head for him, while asking, "Okay, why do you think of borrowing money from our family?"

Because he was involved too much, Li Nai was unwilling to say more to his wife, so he said, "Maybe it's not cheap for a while. He came to the door and opened his mouth, so it's hard to ask him to leave empty-handed."

Sun pursed his lips. Although he was a little reluctant, he was his own brother and didn't say much.

However, Li Nai remembered his two nephews. They were raised in his brother-in-law's house earlier. If they accidentally met, it would be embarrassing. It seems that he had given the money early and sent his brother-in-law to leave Suzhou to be serious...

The next day, when Sun Jue saw the 200 taels of silver handed over by his brother-in-law, his face looked bad. He had already asked to borrow 500 taels, but he didn't expect to get 200 taels.

He snorted coldly and said, "Brother-in-law is this begging for food? I came from all the way, and my brother-in-law took out two hundred taels of silver. I'm so embarrassed? Now I see that I'm in a downturn. My brother-in-law doesn't like it either. I forgot to beg me last year?"

Last year, Li Nai begged him for the sake of having twins.

This is not a glorious thing. Sun Jue said with a thrill. Li Nai felt a headache and said, "Now our mansion is not living a good life. He still owes hundreds of thousands of yuan to the Ministry of Revenue. He also tightens his waist and lives. These are still your sister who has taken care of her and made up for you."

This is not an excuse. The money earned by the Li family in the past few years is mostly to fill the deficits that year when they received the tax.

But Sun Jue's face turned red and he was very angry.

Li Nai was afraid that he would keep talking to the twins, so he lost his dignity. He said in a different way: "It's not good to stay outside. When my father-in-law's anger is gone, Yushu should go back to Hangzhou to live as soon as possible. It's really not possible. It's okay to be near Hangzhou, it's better than being in Xuzhou."

When Sun Jue heard this, he was also disgusted and said, "If I go back to Hangzhou, I can kill me directly with my father's temper. Although it is a bit harder outside, I will finally hold on to this bad life."

Hearing his words pitifully, Li Nai lowered his head, covered the guilt in his eyes, sighed in his heart, thinking about whether he would come forward and persuade his father-in-law very much...

Beijing, Changping, Caojiazhuangzi.

In the afternoon that day, the weather was sunny, and the Ren brothers took the children to practice archery at the school. Cao Yong had nothing to do, so he walked over to join in the fun, and happened to see the Li brothers there too.

Li Cheng was afraid of the cold, so he wore cotton clothes and lynx leather vests, but he still looked weak.

Seeing this, Cao Yong frowned secretly.

Before, before Li wanted to bring the Li brothers to Zhuangzi, Cao Yong asked the imperial physician who treated Li Cheng, saying that Li Cheng's cold disease had been cured and would not give it to others after he had passed the disease.

However, these days, seeing that Li Chengbang's symptoms had disappeared and even coughing occasionally, Cao Yong was worried that he had pneumonia.

His symptoms are not obvious and he does not have high fever. Adults are not afraid of infection. The children are weak, so Cao Yong doesn't want him to get too close to the children.

Seeing Cao Yong coming, the Ren brothers put down their bows and arrows and brought the children to greet them. The Li brothers also walked over and met Cao Yong.

Cao Yong waved his hand and asked the children to continue. Then he turned his head and said to Li Cheng: "It's winter after all, it's getting warm. It's hard to take a break and take care of yourself before coming out."

"My nephew has done everything he wants. He is so bored in the house that he has come out to bathe the sun and will go back now." Li Cheng looked very well-behaved and replied in a regular manner.

"If you are so bored, read more books, and then I will send someone to send you more books. You can also go to find Zheng Xie for academic matters." Cao Yong said.

Li Cheng bowed and agreed, and the two brothers left together.

Cao Yong looked at the backs of their brothers and pondered in his heart.

According to what is known in later generations, the decline of the Li family was at the beginning of the Yongzheng Dynasty. Because of the Li family, the relationship between the Cao family and the Li family could never be completely broken.

No matter what the Li family is, in the eyes of the world, the Li family is the Li family and Cao Yong's mother family.

When the Li family is in trouble, others can watch coldly, but Cao Yong, the "nephew" of the Li family, cannot. Otherwise, he would be regarded as a "meaning and ruthless" person by the world.

Instead of taking care of the backward Li family, Cao Yong really hopes that there are people among the Li family who can support their families.

In the earlier history, the decline of the Cao family was due to Cao Yin's short life. Although they were all scouts, Yongzheng's attitude towards the Cao and Li families was completely different. Otherwise, the Cao family would not have been allowed to continue to jump to the Qianlong Dynasty and scouted the house for the second time.

Now that the Cao family has Cao Yong, his life will be relatively stable as long as there is no major change in history. The Li family is defeated by Li Xu's "longevity".

Cao Yong thought very unfavorable that if Li Xu had finished his life early and with Li Nai's honest character, he would take over the Li family and do his duty as his ministers peacefully, the Li family might not have ended so miserable.

Li Cheng is not upright, but Li Yu has a restrained temper.

Cao Yong narrowed his eyes. If the Li family could not get rid of the mud, it would be better to support the Li family's children to take over.

Just as he was thinking, he felt his sleeves move, and someone said, "Father, father..."

It was Hang Seng who came over with admiration, raised the small bow in his hand and said, "Father is the most powerful, shoot arrows for the child..."

His son was always pleasing to the eye no matter how he looked at him. Cao Yong's expression softened as he listened to these childish words.

At this moment, Tianyou and the others also came over and surrounded Cao Yong.

The Ren brothers competed with Cao Yong in their early years to shoot archery. Although they were better than Cao Yong, they were serious in riding and shooting skills, but they were not as good as Cao Yong.

Seeing that Cao Yong was in a good mood, the two of them made fun of each other and took the bow and quiver in their hands and said, "Since the old man is here, let's show you both hands for the young man."

The one said, "Yes, yes, I haven't seen the old man shoot an arrow for a while, and I just opened my eyes today."

Cao Yong took the bow and straightened his back.

If there are other people in the family who are in charge of the court, he wants to be a military officer. Instead of intrigueing in the six ministries, being a military officer is free and easy.

After all, most military officers who can lead troops to the battlefield experience danger are just leading troops to train troops, and they are very busy waiting to die without any brains.

When Tianyou saw his father holding the bow, he took the quiver from Ren Jiyong and hugged it, and followed his father.

Cao Yong entered the schoolyard, looked at the target in front, and took a visual inspection, standing at a distance of eighty steps away from the target. Then, he lowered his head and drew a feather arrow from the quiver.

Fortunately, others have seen Cao Yong shoot arrows. Sun Li and Sun Chu have seen each other for the first time, and they even looked at each other with a gaze. Especially Sun Chu, he was still surprised.

In his heart, Cao Yong's uncle was a civil servant. He was like his father Sun Jue, and he wanted to transform into Confucius and talk about ethics. How could he do martial arts?

Nine shots in a row, except for one, because the arrow feather was broken and lost its correctness, it fell off the target and fell to the ground. The remaining eight were all hit, some of which had red hearts.

The children came forward and cheered.

Now they are just using small bows to shoot arrows ten steps; Cao Yong stood for eighty steps, and in their opinion, they are the most powerful figures.

Without wearing a ring, Cao Yong's thumb hurts by the bowstring. He handed the bow back to the Ren brothers, and was quite satisfied with his achievements.

Eighty steps are the distance during the martial arts exam, and even if you pass the Nine Arrows Three, you will be considered a perfect match.

Cao Yong thought of Li Cheng who was in decline, and thought of several children from the Wei family in Jiangning, and said to the Ren brothers: "Prepare more stone piers and train them in strength, but it cannot be full of flower squids."

In the martial arts, in addition to cavalry and shooting and step shooting, there are also three types of "skills and courage", which are all compared to strength.

Cao Yong hopes that the children will be both civil and military, so that when they grow up, if they don’t want to rely on family care and want to become an official in the imperial examination, they can also have multiple choices.

Ren Jiyong heard Cao Yong mention Shi Dunzi and said, "I was about to discuss with the old man whether to ask someone to buy some unblack swords for the young man, or wooden swords. In recent years, in addition to shooting archery, I have taught the young man a few sets of long fists. It is enough to strengthen his body. If you are defending yourself, you should learn one or two weapons, which is serious."

Cao Yong nodded and said, "Then tell the butler to go and buy it for them. But Tianyou and the others are still young. If they learn weapons, they will have to worry about your brothers keeping a close eye. Otherwise, the wife will know that she will not follow her."

Speaking of this, he paused and said, "Even if you buy it, you can buy some hard bows and big swords."

After hearing Cao Yong's words, the Ren brothers looked at each other and felt quite excited. They had already heard that this was all needed for the "skills" of martial arts.

They left their hometown and joined the Cao Mansion, first for Changsui, and then for the martial arts masters of the little masters.

Two years ago, when the imperial court opened donations, Cao Yong asked their brothers what they meant, whether they wanted to become officials. The two brothers were used to wealth and honor in Cao's mansion, and they were no longer keen on being a sesame official.

It’s just that people value literature over military affairs. These two martial artists are not as confident as the literary masters in the mansion.

Now that I heard Cao Yong's words, I wanted the young masters to practice both civil and military affairs, and they also felt hope in their hearts. If the young man had become a military official, they would have made some contributions, and their status in the Cao Mansion will be different in the future.

Tianyou and the others were young at the end. Compared with the boring Four Books and Five Classics, they liked the martial arts on the school ground more. They heard that they wanted to add weapons, and they were all excited.

Only Sun Li was around, he was a little confused.

I only have half a day of classes every day, and the rest is to play in the school. Is this considered "not doing my job"?

Why is my uncle still so indulging in the fun?

After leaving the school ground, Cao Yong remembered the martial arts incident and sent someone to look for Wu Sheng.

A few days ago, he ordered Wu Sheng to find a martial arts master in the capital, which was prepared for the Wei family in Jiangning.

Half a month has passed, and I don’t know if I have found it?

"Master, I have asked someone to inquire about these days. There were a few good ones, but I couldn't meet them." Wu Sheng replied.

After hearing this, Cao Yong frowned and said, "Why not? If you really have good skills in riding and shooting, you can add more money."

This time I look for a martial arts master, which is based on the good riding and shooting. With a large gentry like the Wei family, there is no shortage of servants to protect the hospital. The three "skills and courage" skills are not a concern for the master. The main thing is to pick someone who is proficient in riding and shooting, and step shooting.

"The silver is enough, but I heard that I was going to leave Beijing, no one was willing to go. It's not easy to find a bannerman. Banners don't need ordinary people. Ordinary bannermans have two taels of silver every month, which is enough to chew. Who is willing to leave their hometown to dig for food?"

"How is that good?" Cao Yong thought of finding a good master for Wei Wenzhi so that the child could get his wish and take the path of martial arts.

The reason why he wanted to find people from the bannermen but was unwilling to find people outside was because he was afraid that he would not know his family's background and was unstable.

The Wei family is a big family in Jiangning. If the people sent by Cao Yong to the past have evil intentions, it would be a good intention to do bad things.

Wu Sheng hesitated and said, "Uncle, from the young man's opinion, it's better than a servant who is good at riding and shooting from someone he is familiar with. It's more appropriate than someone hired outside..."

When Cao Yong heard this, he understood that what he was talking about was the Prince's Mansion of Pingjun and Prince Chun's Mansion.

The royal palace has servants and servants, and many of them are outstanding, who act as guards and followers.

With Cao Yong's relationship with these two royal palaces, not to mention borrowing people, or asking for it directly, it is just a trivial matter.

Thinking of this, Cao Yong nodded, thinking that after a few days of returning to the city, he would go to his father-in-law's house to pay his respects.

My brother-in-law was not here and my eldest nephew was in the palace. Cao Yong was unwilling to go to his sister's house to poach, so it was better to pick people from the Prince Chun's Mansion.

As the two were talking, they heard the footsteps of "Tata" outside.
Chapter completed!