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"If you can't finish drinking the Fountain of Forgetfulness, I won't let you be like smoke..." Qin Mu hummed a song as he left the flower hall. Outside, dusk had already fallen and lanterns were lit everywhere in the back court.
He turned the corridor on the left and saw the garden behind it was brightly lit. In addition to Yang Zhi and Yun Qiaoer, Chen E and the three concubines were also there, and they seemed to be burning something.
Qin Mu curiously turned around the rockery and asked, "Madam, what are you doing here?"
"Oh, my husband, you must have forgotten that today is the Lower Yuan Festival. I saw you discussing official business with Ma Yongzhen in the flower hall, so I did not dare to disturb you. I brought Qiao'er and the others to worship our ancestors by myself." Yang Zhi stood up and explained with a smile.
"Today is the Lower Yuan Festival?" Qin Mu was a little surprised and muttered to himself.
In 21st century China, most people still know the date of the Shangyuan Festival, but many are unsure of the Zhongyuan Festival, and it is estimated that most Chinese have never heard of the Xiayuan Festival.
One thing we have to admit is that later generations of China are not as good as South Korea and Japan in inheriting Chinese traditions. After some festivals and customs were introduced to North Korea and Japan, they are still following these customs into the 21st century, while the Chinese have forgotten all these traditions of their ancestors.
The origin of the Lower Yuan Festival is related to Taoism. Taoism has three officials: the Heavenly Official, the Earthly Official, and the Water Official. The Heavenly Official bestows blessings, the Earthly Official pardons sins, and the Water Official relieves disasters.
The birthdays of the Three Officials are the 15th day of the first lunar month, the 15th day of the seventh lunar month, and the 15th day of the tenth lunar month. These three days are called "Shangyuan Festival", "Zhongyuan Festival" and "Xiayuan Festival".
The Lower Yuan Festival is the day when the Water Official and Emperor Yanggu relieve people from disasters. Legend has it that on this day, the Water Official makes investigations and reports to the Heavenly Court to relieve people from disasters.
Outside the doors of Taoist homes, there are sky poles with yellow flags on them, with words like "Heaven, Earth and Water Palace", "Good Weather", "Peace and Prosperity", "Away Disasters and Bring Blessings" etc. written on the flags; at night, three sky lanterns are hung on the top of the pole, and three officials are needed to make dumplings.
On this day, the imperial court banned slaughtering and postponed the execution of death penalty.
On this day, people worship their ancestors, fold red and green paper into immortal clothes, fold tin foil into silver ingots, put them into a bag made of white paper, write "Respectfully offer a seal of treasure from the underworld, a piece of colorful clothes to so-and-so, accept it" on the front, "Descendants so-and-so pay homage" on the bottom, and write "Respectfully sealed on such-and-such a year, month, and day" on the back, commonly known as "gold and silver bag". Burn it after bowing.
Qin Mu looked at the burnt gold and silver wrapped in fairy clothes and said with some shame: "Fortunately, my wife remembered it. Your husband... ....Alas."
"My husband, you don't have to do this. You are busy with official duties and rarely have a moment of leisure all day. It is understandable that you don't remember. These things should be taken care of by me. The fairy clothes and gold and silver bags have been burned for the ancestors of the Qin family. My husband, don't worry." Yang Zhi smiled gently and comforted Qin Mu softly.
Seeing her virtuous appearance, Qiao'er beside her couldn't help but pull her sleeve and said, "Sister Zhi'er, you are so good... well, yeah, anyway, you are so good..."
"Steal my line." Qin Mu raised his hand and flicked it on the little girl's forehead. Then he smiled at Yang Zhi and said, "Since we have finished worshipping, hurry back to the house. It will be very frosty after dark. If you stay for too long, you will easily catch a cold."
"Don't just stand there. Go back to the house." Qin Mu turned around and said something to Chen E and the others, then took his wife's hand and went back to the house.
Qiao'er followed beside him and asked, "Master, Brother Ma and the others have left, right? Where's Sister Dong? Why didn't she come with you?"
Thinking about how he had just made Dong Xiaowan moan softly... he said a little embarrassedly: "Well, your brother Ma and the others just left, and your sister Dong... uh, is cleaning up... the dishes."
"Hehe... ..Young Master is guilty. Young Master must have done something bad."
"How dare you slander me? Let me show you how I'm going to punish you." Qin Mu picked up the little girl, carried her on his shoulders and walked into the house, like a bandit kidnapping a young girl back to the mountains.
Qiao'er, however, was not afraid of him and kept giggling. Yang Zhi followed behind him with some emotion in her heart. Qiao'er was already twelve years old (according to herself), and was very beautiful. In this era, scholars and literati liked such beautiful girls in their prime the most. Perhaps only Qin Mu would treat her like his own child and spoil her.
Qin Mu put Qiao'er on the couch, raised his hand and slapped her buttocks twice, and then he seemed to suddenly remember something and asked: "Madam, I seem to have seen you studying the music score, I think your piano skills must be good."
"Sir, my sister is not only good at playing the zither, but also very good at playing the zither, chess, calligraphy and painting. It's just that you were not in Ganzhou a while ago, so my sister didn't have the heart to teach her."
"Qiao'er, don't talk nonsense. My husband, don't listen to her. I..."
"Don't be modest, bring the zither quickly, your husband wants to listen to it." Qin Mu laughed, slapped Qiao'er's buttocks twice, and said proudly, "I don't believe it. Without Zhang the butcher, we have to eat hairy pigs."
Yang Zhi was secretly surprised by the second half of Qin Mu's words, but she wisely asked nothing. She pursed her lips and chuckled as she went to get the piano.
Dong Xiaowan tidied her clothes in silence and sighed deeply. For the sake of the Mao family, she endured humiliation and submitted to Han Zanzhou and came to Changsha. She knew in her heart that her body would be taken by Qin Mu sooner or later.
But she could not forgive her reaction just now. Under Qin Mu's various caresses, her body could not help but react, and this reaction was unprecedentedly strong. She almost forgot where she was, and even blurted out shy moans. She really wanted to die.
Dong Xiaowan returned to her bedroom alone in a daze, her mind full of confusion. At this moment she suddenly heard the sound of a piano coming from next door. Dong Xiaowan knew immediately that it was the tune of "Ou Lu Wang Ji".
The sound of the zither is light and meaningful. The fingering of the person playing the zither is delicate and skillful, and his zither skills are extraordinary. The artistic conception of "the morning sun shines on the sea, the blue sky shines on the west, and the birds fly in unison, all in harmony, and it is like a natural mystery" is fully expressed through the sound of the zither.
After listening to it, one feels as if one is in a garden, listening to the wind in the pine trees and the chirping of birds and insects at night. One's heart becomes pure and innocent, naturally indifferent, and one regards all things as dust, always following them without a care... ...
Dong Xiaowan was a zither lover, and she longed for a secluded life among the mountains, rivers and white clouds. When she heard the music, she was soon intoxicated by it...
The next morning, as soon as Qin Mu entered the second hall, he called Huang Lianshan over.
"What do you want, sir?"
"I am going to set up a new department, um, called the Department of Commerce. I have decided that Xu Yingjie will be in charge. Your scout battalion must fully cooperate with Xu Yingjie to set up the bank as soon as possible." Qin Mu then explained to him in detail how the bank operated, and Huang Lianshan wrote it down one by one.
Qin Mu continued, "In order to make things easier, let's change the name of the Scout Camp to 'Bachelor's Home'."
"A bachelor's house?" Huang Lianshan's eyes almost popped out.
"Do you remember how we used Cheng Erhu to carry out the anti-treason plan? In the future, try not to recruit people with families. Do you understand?"
"Yes, sir."
"I want you to recruit a group of death warriors immediately. Remember, they must be brave enough to die. They don't need to engage in intelligence work. Their only mission is to lurk and assassinate."
There were too many civil officials and military generals who surrendered to the Qing Dynasty during the Ming Dynasty, such as Hong Chengchou, Wu Sangui, Kong Youde, Geng Zhongming, etc. The destructive power of these traitors was even more terrible than the Qing cavalry. Without these people, it would be almost impossible for the Jurchens to control the whole of China with just their few men. Kill them, they must be killed!
Qin Mu handed a list in his hand to Huang Lianshan and said in a deep voice: "Some of these people have surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, so it is difficult to assassinate them. But no matter what means you use, you must arrange for assassins to infiltrate them and use all means to assassinate these people;
In addition, most of the people on the list are still officials or generals of the Ming Dynasty. You should also arrange people to lurk around them in advance. Once they surrender to the Qing Dynasty in the future, the civil officials will immediately assassinate them, and the military generals will wait for my order... You don't need to ask too much, just do what I say;
If this is done well, it will be worth 100,000 elite soldiers in the future, so you must find ways to do it. You can bribe the people around them with money. I don’t need to teach you all the methods, right? Just tell me how much money it will cost. As long as you are sure, I will not hesitate to spend millions of taels. "
Spend several million taels
Huang Lianshan could not help but be shocked. This also made him understand how much Qin Mu valued this matter. How could he dare to neglect it? He looked at the list Qin Mu gave him, which had more than 26 people.
Among them were Henan General Xu Dingguo, Left General and Prince's Grand Tutor Liu Zeqing, Guangchang Earl Liu Liangzuo, Qian Qianyi and many others. Huang Lianshan knew that it was not easy to arrange people to lurk around these big men, but Qin Mu had already said that he would do it at any cost, so he had to agree quickly.
"In addition, you have to arrange a group of people to go to Jiangnan to rob houses. You heard it right, rob houses. You have to target those rich people who are unkind and harm the people for their own benefit. On the one hand, you can raise funds for the bachelor's family. On the other hand, you can create a certain panic in Jiangnan and make those rich people feel that it is not safe to hide their money at home, which will help our bank to make money."
Huang Lianshan thought for a moment and said, "Sir, this matter may be a bit troublesome. After all, Jiangnan is not like other places..."
"If Jiangnan was as chaotic as other places, would I still need you to plan it? There are countless refugees flowing into Jiangnan now. You can start from this aspect and organize a thousand people to do this. This matter must be clean. Except for you, all the participants must not let them know that they have any relationship with me and the bank."
"Yes, sir." Qin Mu's words gave Huang Lianshan a big hint. It was not difficult to set up an external organization among the refugees...
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ps: The Chinese New Year is just a few days away. Have all the relatives who went home for the Chinese New Year arrived home safely? Well, I wish you all a safe and happy Chinese New Year.
Well, it's the end of the month, if you have monthly tickets, don't forget to support Hao Yuan, so that Hao Yuan can also have a happy new year. (To be continued...)
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