Chapter 297: Goal

It is the 29th day of the twelfth lunar month again.

The cold wind raged in Lushan. The biting northwest wind shook the strong bodies of the green pines and cypresses in the courtyard of the general's mansion, making a sharp and piercing whistle.

Chen Hui's face was full of alcohol. After the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, the brigade commanders, commanders, and battalion officers of the front-line troops of the Fu Han Army returned to Lushan to meet Chen Hui. Banquets and drinking were inevitable. The Fu Han Army is now very powerful, but Chen Hui still has the title of a general. He is not a duke or a king. The rules of respect and inferiority are inevitably a little worse. Moreover, most of the middle and senior leaders in the Fu Han Army are descendants of the three surnames of Chen, Huang, and Gao. Everyone has an inseparable family relationship with each other. Once they are drunk, they will pour Chen Hui wine in return.

The room was warm. Chen Hui took off his coat and only wore a white cotton coat. Chen Er brought hot water to soak his feet. The western clock in the room pointed to nine o'clock. "Master, it's time to go to bed. It's nine o'clock." Chen Hui leaned against the head of the bed with his eyes closed. People who didn't know him thought he was asleep, but Chen Er knew that he was thinking about something.

Chen Hui said "hmm" without opening his eyes, letting Chen Er wipe his feet and rest. He didn't go back to Gao's house today, but rested directly in the study, because Gao was already asleep at this time, and tomorrow their whole family would rush back to Xiaonangou to worship their ancestors. Everyone went to bed early tonight.

Chen Er was Chen Hui's close attendant and the second son of the old housekeeper of the Chen family. He asked someone to guard the outer room, and he came out wearing a cloak and a hat. Several soldiers from the personal guard camp held lanterns to illuminate him, or held umbrellas to cover him from the snow. There were many things to do tonight, and he couldn't sleep.

The snow on the ground had slowly accumulated. The snow in Henan this year was particularly heavy, and the Qing troops on the northern and eastern fronts retreated to their nests before October.

Chen Er's father had returned home to retire. The old man was capable enough to be a steward for a clerk, but he really didn't have the ability to be a steward for the general's mansion. But Chen Hui was also nostalgic, and Chen Er was still serving Chen Hui, and Chen Er's mother was standing in front of Gao. Many people from their family, such as aunts and uncles, walked into the mansion and served in the backyard.

Zhao Erxi, wrapped up like a bear, trotted over from a distance and said, "Second brother, I have asked someone to prepare the coal slag. There will be no delay tomorrow." He is Chen Er's cousin. Both of them are the second child in the family, and they are also meticulous in serving people.

Chen Er took him to the stable first, and asked the stable manager and the groom to take good care of them: "Uncle Sun, you must take good care of them, don't let anything happen tonight. Feed them well, remember to pile up more hay, and cover them with blankets, don't let them get cold."

Looking at the white snowflakes all the way from the stable to the outside, he told the stable manager: "Uncle Sun, this is a stable, you don't need to be too meticulous, but you can't just let it rain. Sweep it a little, don't lose the horse's hooves."

The stable manager is Lao Sun, Sun Youfu. When Chen Ming was kidnapped by people from Qingtiaoling, he was the one who drove the carriage. Now he doesn't drive the carriage himself, he has a group of good carriage drivers, each of whom is probably better than him, but they all have to bow and listen to him. "Second son, don't worry. Your uncle Sun won't make any mistakes." Watching the backs of Chen Er and Zhao Erxi leaving, Sun Youfu looked back at the batches of good horses in the stable, and said to the grooms and a group of people who worked the horses: "These are all masters. Even if we are frozen, we can't let them freeze, right?"

"Did you hear what I said just now? Get moving, check the stables, check the stables again. Those who are free, take the broom to sweep the snow outside."

The Grand Commander won the battle of northern Jiangsu in early October, swept the south of the Yangtze River in November, and easily captured Suzhou and Hangzhou. He killed Hangzhou General E Sengge, forced Zhejiang Governor Xiong Xuepeng to death, and almost captured Liangjiang Governor Yin Jishan, Jiangning General Rong Bao, and Fujian and Zhejiang Governor Cui Yingjie who fled to Hangzhou.

The Qing Dynasty really lost everything to the Grand Commander. With the capture of Taiwan Prefecture by the rebels, and the Fujian rebels capturing most of Jianning Prefecture and half of Fuzhou Prefecture, and besieging Fuzhou City, the Qing army in Fujian was suppressed to only half of Fuzhou and half of Funing near the sea. The general's mansion was rising and thriving. The servants worked even harder.

At the end of the year, news came from the south about the uprising of the Tiandihui in Guangxi and the uprising of Zhu Youfu in Guangdong. Wang Tiansong was unlucky before and was captured by the Qing soldiers in Guangdong and sentenced to lingchi, but there were still people who came after Wang Tiansong was killed. This is not the Zhu Youfu uprising.

Sun Youfu has been influenced a lot in the more than a year in the general's mansion. His butt is definitely sitting on the side of the Chen family. He has no good feelings for Zhu Youfu, a guy with a very similar name, because Zhu Youfu claimed to be the descendant of Zhu Ming when he rebelled. Sun Youfu wanted to spit at him fiercely, the **** descendant of Zhu Ming, he was really bold. What? Still thinking about overthrowing the Qing Dynasty and restoring the Ming Dynasty, still thinking about suppressing the Han army? What a big dog's courage.

But no matter what, the Qing Dynasty is becoming more and more unstable, this is true. To use the words of the Grand Commander: A single spark can start a prairie fire. Look, how capable and insightful! !

Sun Youfu didn't have the ability to serve the Chen family on the battlefield, and he didn't dare to work in a hail of bullets. He still had a pair of children to support. Unless forced to do so, Sun Youfu cherishes his old life. But it's not like he doesn't have daydreams. Just like the sons and grandsons of the House of Internal Affairs and the Forbidden City, if the old Chen family will dominate the world in the future, then there should be a House of Internal Affairs, right? Sun Youfu felt that if he continued to endure like this, he would have a place in the Ministry of Internal Affairs and earn an iron rice bowl for future generations...

Chen Erke didn't know Sun Youfu's 'dream', so he walked out of the stable and took Zhao Erxi to the front office.

The General's Mansion is not big. Chen Hui has just taken power and has focused all his energy on government affairs and military affairs. There is only one daughter of a local squire in Lushan who lives in the backyard. The backyard of the Lushan County Government Office can still accommodate the entire General's family. .

The road from the backyard to the front office is mostly paved with bluestones. It's okay to walk normally, there are gaps in the stone slabs and no water accumulates, but the trouble is in the snow. It's easy to get a thin layer of ice on it, and if you step on it if you're not careful, you'll be thrown into pieces.

Chen Er walked on the bluestone slab, his feet clicking. He pointed at the bluestone slab and said to the soldiers of the Guards Battalion beside him: "Don't let the slab freeze over. You guys have to come over and knock on it from time to time tonight. If you see anything, If it's freezing, shovel it away immediately. Don't pour hot water on it, you know? It gets cold very fast in winter, and the water in the cracks between the slabs turns to ice, making it even more freezing!"

A group of top soldiers were stunned by what he said. Who asked Chen Er to serve in front of Chen Hui? It's no wonder that some people cursed him as a eldest son or a general manager. His words to the Chen family's back house chores were more effective than those of Chen Hui's concubine.

After instructing the soldiers inside the gate, Chen Er went to the gate. Zhao Erxi said with envy: "Second brother is still very good, he knows everything."

Chen Er was also very proud, "We brothers will work in the field of serving people in the future. Don't think this is a small path, the path inside is no less than being an official outside. These things in my mind are all passed down from your uncle. only now The Chen family is ten times, a hundred times more noble than before, and must be more refined. If you want to serve the master well, you should study hard for a few years. Only by serving people well can you have a future and create a career for future generations. A rich man..."

A prince who doesn't want to be the emperor is not a good prince, and a slave who doesn't want to serve the emperor is not a good slave. Chen Er had no ability to go to Beijing to curry favor with Qianlong. All he could think about was that when the old Chen family has an emperor, he will be truly awesome!

Zhao Erxi said sweetly: "How can I compare with my second brother? Your family has been serving you since the old man's generation. Now that my uncle has retired, who among the servants in this house can be better than you? Follow me. Having you behind me is better than anything else.”

Going out from the corner gate, the road outside the gate has been covered with a layer of white snow. Seeing the snow getting heavier and heavier, the concierge was already crying. As soon as they saw Chen Er, they rushed forward to greet him. The soldiers standing guard on the other side were still smiling. They were on duty tonight and would rest in the middle of the night. There is no need to follow the general and his entourage back to the mountains to worship ancestors on a snowy day. The security work can make people die, nor do they need to be like these people on the concierge to ensure that there is no trace of snow in the open area in front of the gate.

Chen Er looked at the snow on the open space in front of the door and frowned and said: "Look at the snow that won't stop for a while, and it will be harder to sweep when it gets thicker. Just work hard, sweep it now, and sweep it again after a while. Scan more times.”

The concierge had no choice but to agree bitterly. After Chen Er and others were sent away, they all took big brooms and swept from the front door steps to the end of the street, where snow piled up on the roadside. But after just cleaning it for a while, it accumulated again within a moment, so I would clean it again.

The concierge is not as senior as Sun Youfu. When Chen Er meets him, he has to respectfully call him uncle. Before, the Chen family’s concierge was Liu Wu and Liu Wen’s father, but now Old Liu is in charge of Fei Ge’s mail in the backyard of the General’s Mansion. The concierge in front of him was forty years younger, and he still fawned over Chen Er. The steward set an example and took the lead in the work. He stood at the door of the house with a big broom, blowing on his fingers that were as thick as radishes from the cold, looking at the snowflakes falling in the sky, and said bitterly: "Damn God."

At 3:30 the next day, Li Xiaomei opened her eyes and heard the voice of her personal maid: "Young Madam, it's time to get up."

After washing and dressing up, ten or twenty minutes passed. Little Chen Ding was also led in by his grandma. He was dressed thickly and had a cloak on the outside. The white fur was exposed on the sides of the cloak. , taking advantage of his little red face to become even cuter.

"Hurry up and ask for food." After eating, it was time to meet the mother-in-law and the old lady, and then go to the front office to meet the father-in-law, and the family could leave the house in a special steel carriage. There are only a few masters in the General's Mansion, but there are as many as ten carriages. Unless they are serving them closely, the guards and soldiers nearby will not know who is riding in which one. Along the way, we have to meet Chen Gang's family, as well as his second uncle, fourth uncle, and fifth uncle. Qi Gong and Jiu Gong have returned to Tumenji early. After arriving at Tumenji, the group will expand even more, but if they go further into the mountains, There were no more members of the Huang family, only the Chen family was left, and they rushed all the way to the ancestral home in Xiaonangou. I don't know how long I can rest. I got up at midnight to formally worship my ancestors, and then drove all the way back to the General's Mansion. There was also a big banquet on the first day of the new year...

Speaking of which, Li Xiaomei has nothing to do every day of the year, and the busiest time is during the New Year.

…

Heavy snow covered the world, and the streets in the city seemed to be made of silver, so bright and glorious. Long icicles hung like crystal daggers in front of the eaves along the street, and the breath of the surrounding guards turned into a cloud. White smoke...