diskusbooks Chapter 135 Small talk
Chapter 135 Small talk
"Later, the wealthy man went to that family again and offered twelve taels per mu for the land, but that family still didn't sell."
Since then, all sorts of things have happened to his land.
Today his field was ravaged by wild boars, tomorrow his field will be covered with dead rats...
In the end, the village chief found the family and persuaded them to sell their land. He said that since there were people in the family, they could just cultivate some more wasteland.
Don't try to fight a losing battle.
But the head of that family remained stubborn and refused to sell the land.
Because of this, he even took his family to the county government to file a complaint, but unfortunately, the wealthy man had already bribed him.
Instead, they accused them of slander.
...Because both sides lacked sufficient evidence, the matter was simply brushed aside by the county magistrate in a muddling-and-pull manner.
The family lost the case and not only had to pay the county government the money for the lawsuit, but every able-bodied man in the family also received ten strokes of the cane.
All the money in the house was spent.
The head of the household was already furious about this incident, and now that he had been beaten, he couldn't catch his breath and died on the way back to the village.
When the head of the household died, there was no money for a funeral. So the third son of the family took the initiative to go to the village chief and asked him to help sell the land, but not to the rich man.
But when the village chief went to the county, there were people willing to buy the land, but the price dropped to six taels of silver per mu.
Jun Wenhui was astonished. Could there really be such a stubborn person in this world?
Is this what Xiao Jin meant by the consequences of not knowing how to be flexible?
You said, a perfectly good family was ruined because of the stubbornness of the head of the family.
In the end, the land was sold, but half the money was still missing. What could she say about this family?
Losing both money and people?
That's not quite right either.
Yang Zhu was also startled: "And then what?"
Aunt Gu: "I heard that the land eventually ended up in that rich man's house, and that rich man also bought a lot of land in the vicinity of that land."
She even bought up the dilapidated houses nearby and built a large estate for her daughter.
He also asked the villagers to work on his farm, so he didn't need that family's help.
I heard that the family later moved away, but nobody knows where they went.
Yang Zhu sighed, "Why bother?"
Aunt Gu also sighed, "Who says otherwise?"
Jun Wenhui shook her head. If that family sold their land for twelve taels of silver per mu, they would not only have money in their hands, but they could also lead their children to reclaim wasteland.
With that money, I can still feed my family.
A woman's dowry is usually prepared from a young age. The fact that the wealthy man is in such a hurry to add to his daughter's dowry suggests that his daughter's future in-laws are of a higher social standing than he expected.
Thinking of this, I felt a pang of heartache; her daughter had a considerable dowry back then.
Now that she's eighteen... she can only let nature take its course.
Composing himself and forcing a smile, he said, "Take a look at the wheat that Xiao Jin asked you to plant. I think that method is feasible."
I'm not good at farming, but I find Xiaojin's words believable.
Aunt Gu smiled helplessly: "If you want your family to completely believe you, you have to let them see the harvest."
"It's really our land, all there is, and it only adds up to a dozen or so acres. We can't afford to lose it; our whole family depends on that little bit of food."
Yang Zhu: "Auntie, didn't Second Uncle say last time that there are plenty of chestnut trees in Daqingshan?"
Don't worry, your uncle's family definitely won't go hungry this year.
They ate all the chestnuts; they were soft, sweet, and filling.
She's brought home quite a few of her two kids.
Aunt Gu sighed again: "Alas, how popular it was back then, how preferential treatment it received from the imperial court, that's how miserable it is now."
When things are good, ordinary people don't benefit from it; when things are bad, ordinary people are the first to suffer.
You all don't know that, in order to keep their children alive, those people went to the village and spent twenty taels of silver to buy someone to take the blame in jail.
People sent their children away for money.
Some even gave away entire families, and some even gave away their newborn children.
Those corrupt officials, for the sake of money, openly made those people exchange it. You have no idea how many people died over there.”
Jun Wenhui was surprised to hear this: "Where are those people now?"
She had heard about this back then. It was when Rui Ge had just passed the imperial examination and gone there with his teacher and classmates to discuss learning. He told her about it when he came back.
She was shocked for a long time when she heard that.
Aunt Gu whispered, "I heard that someone later reported the situation here to the Emperor, but at that time the new Emperor had just ascended the throne and sent an imperial envoy to investigate."
But before anyone arrived, a huge fire broke out at the Qingshan Prefecture government office, burning the entire place to the ground.
After that, no matter which county the imperial envoys went to, the county government office was either dilapidated and collapsed, or it was flooded, or the roof was leaking... Isn't that strange?"
Jun Wenhui...
Was this all pre-arranged?
"So that's the end of it?"
"What if it's not finished? That's why people from the surrounding prefectures, counties, towns, and even villages of Daqingshan have been unpopular in recent years."
It also has the highest tax rate in the surrounding area. You tell me, if the tax rate is so high, do those officials and wealthy families suffer any losses?
No, it will still be the ordinary people who suffer.
My cousin, Grandma Bamboo, and I met when my aunt, who was in charge of the household, was still alive.
She went home to visit her family, took a liking to us two sisters, and then married us to Lingwu Village.
Over the years, our two families have only been able to make ends meet thanks to the occasional financial assistance from my sister and me…”
Yang Zhu had also heard about this from her mother-in-law: "I think they will send the chestnuts over in the next day or two. Didn't Xiao Jin say that she would offer a high price?"
"Yes, next year when we plant chili peppers, we'll let your uncles and the others plant them too."
It's just that they're too far away. If they were closer, they could learn how to make braised meat from you.
Even if we take the goods from you and sell them, we won't go hungry this winter.
……
Yang Zhu and Aunt Gu worked efficiently, and together with Junwen and his mother, they quickly finished three sets of cotton-padded clothes and trousers.
Before leaving, the two men each took a pair of shoes, saying they would return them to Gu Yumei's two children after breakfast the next day.
Gu Yumei sat on the side listening to them talk, and the sorrow she felt lessened considerably.
Dongfang Jin did not come out, but all their words were relayed to Ruyi.
And she couldn't judge who was right and who was wrong.
But one thing is certain: those who understand the times are wise; that's the only true principle.
You say you're a farmer, at the very bottom of society, what do you have?
Don't you understand the saying "a tall tree catches the wind"?
No wonder the people of Lingwu Village don't cultivate the land in one place; they're scattered here and there.
According to Lin Yu, the eighty acres of land they bought from Master Tang were the best land in Xiaowan Village in the early days, and almost every household had a piece of land there.
This is also why Mr. Tang paid such a high price back then.
……
Gu Chenglin gave each of his aunts, Gu Si and Yang Zhu, a packet of nougat.
The two of them did not refuse this novel food.
He found these nougat candies at the very bottom of the freezer when he was eating popsicles. They were in a transparent box and came in several colors.
When he asked his wife about it, she said she didn't know when she put it there; she had forgotten.
My daughter-in-law also said that this looked like something her sister-in-law had made herself, because there was no outer packaging and the thin film on top was glutinous rice paper, which is edible.
My wife said that her sister-in-law often makes these little things, packs them in bags or transparent boxes, and gives them to her brother's employees.
He also learned that the box was called a plastic box, something that was practically a necessity in every household in her world.
This thing can be taken out continuously, so it must be a good thing. He has already saved ten of these boxes.