Cao Yin, the grandfather of Cao Xueqin, the author of "Dream of the Red Chamber", was once Kangxi's attendant, and it is said that he was the prototype of Wei Xiaobao in "Deer Ding", which made Kangxi extremely trust Cao Yin, so he let him go to Jiangning Weaving.
Because of this relationship between his grandfather and the Kangxi Emperor, the Cao family was also a local famous family at that time. It can be said that Cao Xueqin also lived a life of brocade and jade food in her early years, and was a veritable clumsy disciple.
However, the good times did not last long, and in the sixth year of Yongzheng, due to the deficit problem during Cao Xueqin's father Cao Yan's appointment as Jiangning weaving, the Yongzheng Emperor ordered that the Cao family be raided, and Cao Xueqin had to move back to the old mansion in Beijing with her family. Backward in the family road, he had to "eat porridge and wine on credit" with the whole family. It can be said that this sudden event completely changed his fate.
Most people believe that the reason why Cao Yan created a huge deficit during Ren Jiangning's weaving period was related to his frequent driving experience during Kangxi's southern tour. It was precisely because of the huge consumption when entertaining Kangxi that Cao Yan had to embezzle the treasury silver in Jiangning Weaving Province.
So, why did Kangxi, who took good care of the Cao clan, live in the Cao family repeatedly, and did he not foresee that the Cao family might have an accident for this reason?
The truth may be exactly the opposite, for Kangxi, living in the Cao family and being taken over by his own son, who is a companion, is not a burden, but an exceptional favor.
First, let's talk about the origin of the Cao family.
One of the ancestors of the Cao family was a Ming dynasty officer, and during a battle, this ancestor was captured by the Qing army. However, the Qing army did not execute him, but used him as a royal coat (i.e., a domestic slave). Although the status of the coat is low, after the Manchu Qing entered the Central Plains, the treatment of the Cao family can also be regarded as a rise.
More coincidentally, Cao Xueqin's grandmother Sun Shi became the mother of the crown prince Xuan Ye (later the Kangxi Emperor), so that his grandfather Cao Yin also had the opportunity to enter the palace and become the attendant of the little prince. The attendants sounded like they had no status, but they were down-to-earth Tianzi close to them, and the Cao family took advantage of this relationship with the emperor to start their journey.
After the Kangxi Dynasty, Cao Xi (Cao Xueqin's great-grandfather) was sent to Nanjing as a "weaving langzhong stationed in Jiangnan". On the surface, this is just an agency set up in Nanjing by the Ministry of Internal Affairs to purchase satin clothing and various royal goods, but in fact it also has the responsibility of acting as the ear and ear of the Son of Heaven. Because of this, it was not only second only to the viceroy of Liangjiang in terms of status, but also more trusted by the emperor.
It was also for this reason that Kangxi made six southern tours, and four of them lived in Cao Yin's mansion. However, for the Cao family, this trust also implies a huge price, in order to do a good job in taking over the car, the Cao family has emptied the wealth accumulated by three generations of family owners in 60 years, not to mention, and has not hesitated to embezzle hundreds of thousands of silver in the Jiangnan Weaving Treasury.
In fact, Kangxi's southern tour activities are actually quite boring now, no matter where they go, they can be summarized into ten words: "inscriptions, banquets, silver rewards, official titles, and watching plays." But this "boring and boring" approach is not at all costly.
For example, watching a play, at that time, there was a saying called "can raise a thousand troops, not a play", which is about the financial resources and energy spent by these drama teams. Many experts and scholars believe that many passages in "Dream of the Red Chamber" are alluding to the extravagant expenses of Kangxi's southern tour, especially the chapters of "Grand Feast", "Beggar Qiao", "Immortal Edge" and "Leaving the Soul".
Whether it was Kangxi at that time or Yongzheng later, the two emperors really did not necessarily see the cost of these hundreds of thousands of taels in their eyes. Especially Kangxi, who had just enjoyed the warm reception of his own wrapped slaves, turned his face and did not recognize anyone, he could not do it. Therefore, when someone reported to Kangxi that Cao Yin had embezzled two pieces of silver from the treasury, Kangxi not only did not think anything of it, but directly excused the Cao family, saying that "Cao Yin li Xu used a lot of silver, and he knew the reason for it."
To put it bluntly, if the holy family did not fade, the Cao family would not be guilty of the deficit in the treasury at all. However, after Kangxi's death, the successor Yongzheng and the Cao family did not have so many feelings. This "anxious day and night" Emperor Sejong simply did not look up to the Cao family, which relied on nepotism to ascend to the throne.
In addition to the pure negative evaluation of Yongzheng in later generations, he often mentions his diligence, and the history books say that he "has no civil engineering, sound and color entertainment". How could such an emperor, who regarded diligence and frugality as his motto, allow his domestic slaves to waste their own money and grain?
In addition, there was another point that made Yongzheng lose his good feelings for the Cao family. In the process of the Kowloon conquest, the Cao family bet on the wrong treasure and sided with the Ninth Brother Yinyu. Therefore, the Cao family, which was not very close to Yongzheng, naturally lost his favor.
In this case, although these deficits are related to his own father, how can the thick-faced and dark-faced Yongzheng pay attention to this, so the problem of "deficit in the government treasury", which was originally shelved by Kangxi, was raised by Yongzheng again.
Of course, flies don't sting seamless eggs, if the Cao family itself really has no problems, Yongzheng will not always pinch the cao family's small braids. But unfortunately, unlike Cao Xi, who was loyal and diligent and did things sharply, his descendants were indisputable one by one.
His son Cao Yin was still able to write and be able to fight, but he also lost tens of thousands of taels of silver to the Ministry of Internal Affairs because of the resale of brass during his term of office, and when Cao Xueqin and his father Cao Fu and his fourth uncle Cao Fu were in charge of Jiangning Weaving, the weaving house was even more smoky miasma.
In particular, Cao Fu, who was arrogant in his daily life, openly embezzled public funds and demanded bribes, and even the errands assigned by Yongzheng himself were not at all favorable. What made Yongzheng most angry was that once the stone blue satin dragon robe he was wearing had actually faded, and Yongzheng, who felt that his face was greatly lost, checked it, and it was obtained that this cloth was made by the Cao family.
Think about it, this kind of slave who is not close to his master, and who is incompetent in handling affairs, does Yongzheng still keep the New Year? Therefore, in the sixth year of Yongzheng, Cao Fu was finally dismissed from his post and raided his home for financial deficits, harassment of the station, and transfer of property. And the Cao family, which was originally prosperous for a while, was also defeated.