Chapter 2 Cao Song's worries

Sili Captain Cao Song was entrusted by Duan Jiong to do everything possible to squeeze Zhang Huan, but when the thank you gold was in front of him, he couldn't be happy at all. The reason is simple - change the emperor, everything has to start from scratch. Emperor Huan of the Han Dynasty Liu Zhi ended his thirty-six-year-old life in a coma, and only the empress Dou's father and daughter and Guanglu doctor Liu Shu were by his side at the last moment.Since he had no heirs, the new emperor Liu Hong who was elected was the son of Liu Chang, Marquis of Xiezhuting, and the distant nephew of Emperor Daxing. He was only twelve years old.Establishing such a little emperor, the Dou family clearly wants to monopolize power.Now Dou Wu, the queen's father, has leapt to become a powerful general, and other members of the family have also stepped into the family to become upstarts. Dou's dictatorship is a foregone conclusion.

As the adopted son of the eunuch Cao Teng, Cao Song has been adhering to the tradition of his adoptive father for many years and maintained a close relationship with the eunuch forces.Whenever the imperial court had any important discussions, he would naturally stand on the eunuch's side; if he got any foreign money, he had to respect the great eunuchs like Wang Fu and Cao Jie first.In short, the power of the eunuch is the big tree of the Cao family, and it is good to lean against the big tree to enjoy the shade... But now Dou Wu is going to cut down the big tree. Dou Wu was born as a Confucian scholar in Kansai, and he had a close relationship with the imperial students, and he wanted to reverse the case for the scholars who were imprisoned by the party, so how could he tolerate eunuchs like Wang Fu and Cao Jie in front of his eyes?Now he respects Chen Fan, the old man who had the deepest conflict with the eunuch, as the Tai Tuo, and uses Li Ying, Du Mi and others who were dismissed by the party. The life and death of the eunuch are already hanging by a thread.But if Wang Fu, Cao Jie and the others capsized, they would undoubtedly reveal many of Cao Song's ulterior secrets.Corruption and perverting the law, asking for bribes, communicating with princes, forming a party for personal gain, negligence and negligence... Many charges are floating on Cao Song's head. As soon as the eunuchs are finished, they will immediately put these charges on themselves.

It's not too late to throw yourself in the arms of Dou Wu!But is it too cheap to sell yourself in that way?And can Dou be tolerant and accept herself?The more Cao Song thought about it, the more frightening he felt. Unknowingly, he broke out in a cold sweat. He really wished that there was someone beside him who could show him the way.He has sent someone to invite his younger brother Cao Chi to come quickly, and the two brothers have to analyze the current situation carefully. At this moment, there was a loud commotion outside.Cao Song was annoyed at first, so he stretched his neck and looked out of the house, and shouted angrily, "Which bastard is acting wild? What's the chicken cat shouting at noon?"

"It's the young master!" A servant quickly walked into the study and reported, "Young master, he had a stroke!" "Really?" Cao Song heard that his son had a stroke, but he was not in a hurry. "He's having a stroke again! Why do you always have strokes recently?" He even laughed. "The young master is lying on the ground, master... Would you like to go and have a look, master?" "Yeah." Cao Song was stunned for a moment, got up and went out, "I have to go there myself. Why did he have a stroke?" "Just now the little ones were waiting for the young master to study! Later..."

"Reading? What book are you reading?" "It's...it's "The Doctrine of the Mean." ""The Doctrine of the Mean"? Haha..." Cao Song laughed out loud, "What kind of mediocrity is it? It's just useless! If he knew how to study, I wouldn't have gray hair! Tell me the truth, what did you play just now?" ?” "Master!" The servant smiled foolishly, "I really can't hide anything from you! Just now, the younger ones were accompanying the eldest master in a cockfight in the backyard. Later, the housekeeper said that the second master of our family was coming in the afternoon. The young master fell down before he finished speaking. But he scared the little ones out of their souls, and you are about to send someone to seek a doctor?"

"Okay! Which kind of doctor do you want?" Cao Song was already overjoyed. "What he suffers from is playfulness, and what he suffers from is an aversion to study. I'll treat him for this disease!" Said that he had already walked to the back garden. I saw a boy who was at most eleven or twelve years old lying sprawled on the ground.He squinted his eyes and slanted his mouth, and his mouth was still drooling; looking at him, he saw that his satin clothes had long been covered with yellow dirt, made them dirty and sloppy, and one of his buckskin boots had been thrown out. More than half a foot.The child squinted to see his father coming, and twitched more and more.

Cao Song smiled and said nothing, just silently looked at his son lying on the ground.He just laughed like this for a while before speaking: "Housekeeper! It seems that Ah Man is really sick, go find a doctor... that's right! By the way, tell the chefs (cooks) that there is no need to prepare any food and drinks at noon, just now I The brother of my family sent someone to say that he has something to do suddenly and he won't be here today." As soon as the words fell, the child sat up straight as if he had taken good medicine.I saw that his mouth was no longer crooked, his mouth was no longer slanted, his hands and feet were no longer twitching, and he wiped away the snot and saliva all over his face with a vigorous rub with his sleeve.Now it's clearly changed, with a small round face, thick eyebrows, and big eyes that reveal a sense of wit—what a little fine bean!

"What happened just now?" Ah Man asked the servant beside him, "Why am I lying on the ground?" "Master, you had another stroke just now." "Having had a stroke again!" A Man blinked his innocent eyes, "What happened recently?" "Your second uncle often comes here recently." Cao Song said to the point, "As long as he comes, he will scold you for being playful and persuade you to study. If you don't listen to him, you will pretend to be sick to deal with him. Am I right?" Hearing this, Ah Mo hurriedly patted the dirt on his body and stood up, then bowed to the ground, and said in a serious manner: "It turned out that my father was alarmed! The child is here to salute!"

Cao Song watched his son's series of performances, and was really angry and funny. He stepped forward and hugged his son in his arms, and wiped the dust off his face with his clean sleeves.He always doted on his son so much, even if Ah Man did something wrong, he would protect him.Why is this?He himself can't explain it clearly. This is certainly due to the nature of father and son, but perhaps more importantly, it is because he himself lacked true fatherly love when he was a child!He understands that his son loves playing and hates studying, and his temper is too flamboyant.But Cao Song didn't think it was a big deal, as long as he could have a good official career, he wouldn't worry about his son having a bad life in the future.So today, as usual, his doting feelings prevailed again, and he hurriedly called the servant: "Where is De'er?"

"The young master is studying in his room!" the servant replied. "Get him here quickly." "Young master has a tough temper, and we are not allowed to go in when we are studying." "He also has a weird temper! Just tell him that I told him to come out." Cao Song ordered, "It's such a good day, we should let them play in the garden for a while. This one doesn't know how to read, that one doesn't know how to read." He's a nerd, always bored in the room at a young age, don't be silly anymore!" Not long after, the servant brought the chubby De'er, and the two brothers played hide-and-seek in the garden; Cao Song was no longer busy writing the watch, and just sat on the big blue stone he used to sit on and looked at the two with a smile. son playing.He really loves children.When he was a child, his adoptive father never coaxed him to play. Later, when he grew up and got married, three sons died in succession. It was hard to keep these two, but their mothers died of illness one after another. Aman and Deer were his lifeblood. It's like the heart of a pearl in the palm of your hand!Although De'er is young, he likes to read and study, knows how to be modest and courteous, and looks like a grown-up; Ah Man is full of fun but is clever and adaptable, which is rare.

It's really interesting that Cao Song thought about Ah's feigning apoplexy.One day half a year ago, when Cao Song was receiving guests, his cousin Cao Chi ran to say that Ah Man had a stroke and fell down.Cao Song was terrified when he recalled the death of the first three sons, and ran to see that Aman was sitting in the house safe and sound.After that, the same situation happened twice again. Cao Song was very puzzled, and A Man said with aggrieved face, "I don't know why, Uncle doesn't like the baby very much, and he always speaks ill of the baby in front of you." From then on, when Cao Chi came to tell him that Ah Man was ill, that Ah Man didn't like reading, and that Ah Man was causing trouble outside, Cao Song ignored them all.As the days went by, this trick was no longer effective, and Ah Man played tricks again and began to pretend to be sick, and insisted on not letting his uncle speak, it was really cunning!Cao Song gradually understood the cause and effect of the incident, not only did not blame Ah Man, but felt that it was unusual for a twelve-year-old child to be so clever. At this moment, the number "twelve" suddenly appeared in Cao Song's mind.He recalled what he was like when he was twelve years old: he was taken to be the eunuch's adopted son at birth, and his childhood was naturally bleak.I remember that when I was twelve years old, my adoptive father Cao Teng was promoted to Da Changqiu because of his meritorious service in helping the late emperor, and he was awarded the title of Marquis of Fei Ting. That was an unprecedented honor and shame for the Cao family.He said glory because his father had risen impressively, and was increasingly favored by several late emperors until his death; he said shame because his father's title was widely criticized.Although I was still young at the time, I also heard a lot of gossip.It is said that Emperor Xiaozhi was poisoned by the "domineering general" Liang Ji, and his father was promoted to the rank after the incident - someone would always think that he was an accomplice in the murder of Emperor Xiaozhi!How can the adopted son of such an eunuch not be looked down upon by the world?It was from that time that I learned to endure, to endure my father's discipline, to endure the eyes of the world, to endure the criticism of my colleagues, to endure the pain of losing my wife and son, and to endure many things... I have endured until now, and I will continue to endure in the future go down. Cao Song patted his forehead, blamed himself for not thinking too much, and reminded himself that prevaricating Dou Wu is the most important thing at present.When I came back to my senses and looked at my sons again, I was immediately stunned: children are good, carefree all day long... Huh?How is this going?It was obviously two children playing hide-and-seek, how did it become three now? He rubbed his eyes, and saw that there was another ten-year-old child beside Ah Man and De'er, wearing dirty clothes and a broken hemp rope around his waist, playing with them. "Where did you come from, a wild child? How did you get in?" Cao Song hurriedly stood up. The child continued to play with him and ignored Cao Song at all. Cao Song was not happy, stepped forward and grabbed the boy's clothes: "I'm asking you something, how did you get in?" "Cross the wall!" The child was also bad, grabbed Cao Song's skirt and wiped his nose from crossing the river, "Why are you so anxious, it's not once or twice." "Bah!" Cao Song spat at him viciously, "What kind of family are we? Let a wild child like you come in and play casually? How did your parents discipline you? Come on I'm going!" I didn't want to finish this sentence, but Aman came running over: "Dad, don't blame him, when I went to his house to play, I also climbed over the wall to get in." He also said that other people's children were not educated well by his eunuchs, which made Cao Song blush: "Ah man, who is he?" "His name is Cai Mao, and we often play together." Cao Song didn't know who Cai Mao was, and seeing that he was sloppy, he naturally thought he was a child from a poor family: "Fuck off! You won't be allowed to come to our house in the future, what kind of wild child will lead us into trouble again. If you dare to come again, I will tell your parents to clean you up!" The child made a grimace: "If you have the ability, tell them to go, they are all in Xiangyang." Cao Song was also confused when he heard this. How can there be any reason why his family lives in Xiangyang and his teenage children come to Luoyang to play by themselves?Before he could ask any more questions, the housekeeper ran over in a panic: "Master, some servants of Mr. Dasinong Zhang's family are looking for someone outside." "Who do you want?" The butler replied: "They said that the nephew of his lord came out to play, but he didn't watch him for a while, and ran to our house." Ouch!This kid is the nephew of Da Sinong Zhang Wen!Cao Song buzzed in his head, how could he be offended?He hastily changed his friendly face, and personally brushed the dirt off the clothes for Xiao Cai Mao: "My lord, why didn't you say so sooner? I said to go and see Mr. Zhang these two days! How about it, I will personally Take you home, okay?" Cai Mao was young, so he didn't understand why his attitude changed so quickly: "No, no! You must be suing my uncle, and he won't let me out to play after that." Cao Song smiled and patted his head: "Young master Zhang, you are wrong. I want to take Meng De with me so that he can meet your uncle too. Make it clear, and if you play games again in the future, don't you just Don't you need to climb over the wall?" How could the child understand what he was thinking, Cao Song wanted to use this topic to establish friendship with Zhang Wenpan, and by the way, ask him about Dou Wu's affairs. "Really?" Cai Mao and A Man jumped up happily. Cao Song held Ah Man in one hand and Cai Mao in the other, and he spoke sweetly, and then told the housekeeper, "Get the car ready, and go to Master Zhang's house."