Chapter 39 Chapter 39 The Land Division

"Everyone was assigned land according to the order in which they registered, and the land was divided into thin and fertile plots. Some of the fertile plots had thinner plots, and some of the thin plots had fertile plots.

Wasteland isn't meant to be well managed. Even if every inch of land is fertile and fine, it's only a small difference. Carefully tended, it's all good land. Measure out what you have and let it be. Don't argue."

Chen Yushun unfolded the paper in his hand and sang: "The people who bought the wasteland and fertile land, Jiang Danian, Chen Erhu, Xu Yang..."

After a while, Kanghe heard the name of their family in the barren land.

Kang He, standing in the crowd, asked Father Fan, "Dad, is this order correct?"

"I remember the one recorded first was Wang Saner, no difference."

Kang He nodded. Today, in addition to seeing the village big shot Chen Yushun, he also saw three other impressive figures.

Ordinary farmers, whether they bought land and came to measure it, or just came to join in the fun, all wore coarse clothes and old trousers.

Only these three people were wearing fine cloth clothes, and their eyes were particularly shrewd, which made them different from ordinary villagers.

Kang He asked Fan Jing in a low voice, wanting to get to know these people.

"The man with the cane is surnamed Qian. The villagers call him Second Master Qian, but we have to call him Second Grandpa. He was the former head of the village.

"The village head is elected every five years, and he served for 25 consecutive years, making him the longest-serving head of our village. Everyone in the village respects him greatly. Even after his retirement, he still holds the same influence in the village, and the new head often consults him on matters he struggles with."

Fan Jing slowly spoke to him, "The middle-aged man standing next to him, with small eyes and a high nose, is called Kong Baocheng. The Kong family is the wealthiest in the village. The large, blue-tiled house in the east of the village is theirs. They not only own a lot of land in the countryside, but also own shops and houses in the city."

Kang He was just about to ask who the young man standing on the high ground with his arms folded was, but when he looked over, coincidentally, the man was looking over as well.

Their eyes met, and unexpectedly, the young man jumped down the slope and turned to walk towards Kang He.

“But Brother Kang from the Fan family?”

Kang He was surprised that this person actually recognized him and responded, "Exactly. This brother looks unfamiliar to me. I don't think I've seen him before. I wonder which family in the village he is from?"

The young man named Xu Yang looked at Fan Jing with a serious expression. Seeing that Fan Jing had no intention of introducing himself to Kang He, he introduced himself:

"My name is Xu Yang, and I was born and raised in our village. It's no wonder Brother Kang hasn't seen me. On the day Brother Jing held his wedding, I was away in another town and didn't have time to come back."

He was quite talkative. "I should have met Jing'er's new husband a long time ago and gotten to know him better, but my master wasn't feeling well a few days ago, so I had to take care of him for a few days and didn't have much time."

"So that's how it is."

Kang He said, "Da Jing and I are often in the mountains. We don't spend much time in the village. Today, we will take advantage of the hustle and bustle and go up there."

Xu Yang smiled and nodded. After that, he turned to look at the silent Fan Jing and said, "Brother Jing, how come you are still so silent after getting married?"

His eyes twitched as he spoke, "You didn't even bother to inform me beforehand about your wedding. I could have just moved it up a little and come back for the feast. After all, we used to play husband and wife when we were little, didn't we?"

Xu Yang said with a sad look on his face: "Now that you have become a real family, with new people laughing, I don't care about the old ones crying at all~"

Hearing this, Kang He raised his eyebrows and couldn't help but look at Fan Jing.

He thought that Fan Jing looked like a very honest man, taciturn and cold, but he had quite a few "old lovers".

Look, he’s still a top-notch young man.

Fan Jingben ignored Xu Yang and let him talk. When he had enough, he shut up.

Sensing Kang He's gaze, Fan Jing frowned, wondering why Xu Yang talked so much.

He silently looked at the smooth-talking Xu Yang and reached for the knife at his waist.

"Hey, hey! Come on, I'm joking, I'm joking!"

Seeing this, Xu Yang howled and quickly ran behind Kang He. He was afraid that Fan Jing's appearance was not completely fake.

Kang He felt that the face looked familiar, as if he had seen it before on someone else. Suddenly, he thought of Fan Jing's cousin Fan Xin.

I heard from Chen that Fan Jing had beaten Fan Xin many times in the past, so even though he was an adult, he still had to hide from Fan Jing.

Seeing Xu Yang looking like this, he couldn't help but find it funny again, and raised his hand to hold Fan Jing's arm.

"We are husband and wife after all. How can you fight with your family members?"

When Xu Yang heard Kang He say this, he opened his eyes wide and looked at him, thinking to himself, just shut up, it will be easy to beat you up later.

However, Fan Jing frowned, put the knife back into the sheath, and said as if to explain: "No."

"It's okay. I don't feel any pain at all."

Kang He said: "I can be a mistress."

Xu Yang burst out laughing when he heard that, and gave Kang He a thumbs up: "What a real man, he really has the capacity to tolerate others!"

"For a moment I didn't know who was feeding whom the drug of love."

Kang He smiled and said, "Maybe they all ate a little."

Xu Yang felt that Kang He not only had a good appearance, but was also quite interesting.

He had heard earlier that Fan Jing had found someone to come to his house, but he had never met him.

In those days, there were few men who could come to live with someone, and the Fan family was not well off. He guessed that Fan Jing's husband might not be able to satisfy her.

He had thought that the visitor would be a dull and stupid guy, so when he saw Fan Jing, he wanted to greet him. But then he saw the unfamiliar face following him. At first glance, he saw that the man was tall and good-looking, so he was not sure whether he was the son-in-law that Fan Jing was looking for.

It can be seen that the two of them behaved intimately and were still talking.

He had been secretly watching the two of them for a long time and never stopped talking.

Fan Jing was a person of that temperament, who could not say a word for a long time, yet he was so patient and talked so much, which really made him feel very unfamiliar.

After they came over and talked for a few words, Xu Yang saw that the two of them were really in love. He was happy for Fan Jing for a while, but he also had an indescribable feeling of surprise in his heart.

He originally thought that Fan Jing would never fall in love with a man in this life.

When he and Fan Xin were studying together, every time Fan Xin was beaten by Fan Jing, the boy didn't dare to cry at home. He had to come to their private school to cry secretly.

Because he would cry at home, his family would ask him about it. When they found out that it was Fan Jing who beat him, they would inevitably start arguing again.

At first, because of a fight between him and Fan Jing, the two branches of the Fan family had a big fight, and then they quarreled and divided the family. Fan Xin always felt that it was he who caused the family to be separated, and he always felt very uncomfortable.

He was afraid that his family would know that he was beaten by Fan Jing, and his mother and aunt would quarrel again.

Seeing Fan Xin crying so hard that his tears were mixed with snot and there was a bump on the top of his head, Xu Yang felt very sympathetic and said he would avenge him.

After school, the two of them went to look for Fan Jing in high spirits. As a result, Fan Xin had another big bump on his head, and he also went home with two lines of nosebleed.

The two of them didn't dare to provoke Fan Jing anymore, but they were still angry.

When others were dozing off while reading, the two of them would gather together and say bad things about Fan Jing, saying that he was so fierce and domineering, and that no man would want him in the future, and that he would have to be the boss at home for the rest of his life.

Who would have thought that when she grew up in the blink of an eye, Fan Jing really reached adulthood and had no husband. She was also dull and didn't talk to anyone. I was afraid that she would be lonely for the rest of her life.

He and Fan Xin felt bad again, thinking that maybe they had said too many bad things about Fan Jing when they were young, and made a wish to the Bodhisattva at the temple fair, so Fan Jing would be the eldest brother at home for the rest of his life, and now his wish has come true.

The two of them panicked and secretly looked for someone for Fan Jing. Zeng even brought a charming and handsome classmate to Fan Jing to see if he would like her.

Who knew that this guy seemed to have no idea in his head, he didn't even lift his eyelids, and just kept fiddling with his bow.

The guy behind him is named Qin, they are both hunters, so it should be a good match, but I don’t see Fan Jing being warm to people at all.

Xu Yang felt that Fan Jingxu would never get close to a man in his life.

Maybe he was supposed to be born as a man in this life, but due to a mistake made by the Goddess of Fertility, he became a boy.

However, it was just like when I was a kid and was so confident that I could control Fan Jing, but ended up getting beaten up. I miscalculated again.

"It's better to eat more. It's not a big deal for Dajing to beat people up."

Kang He laughed.

Just as he was about to speak, someone called out from the head, "Xu Yang, it's time to measure your land. Come and take a look!"

"Hey, I'll be right there."

Xu Yang hadn't had enough fun chatting with the two of them yet, so he turned around and said to Kang He, "Brother Kang, I'm leaving first. Come to my house for a drink some other day."

Kang He said, "Okay. Brother Xu, go ahead and do your work. We'll talk again when we have time."

There were many families who wanted to buy land. Some got three points, some got five points, and the land was divided into smaller amounts. Everyone wanted to get the land quickly, so Chen Yu called on capable and strong laborers to help weigh the land.

Kang He originally wanted to ask Fan Jing who Xu Yang was, but when he measured the land to the Fan family, he went to look at the land first.

The two men who measured the land were from the village, dark and strong.

One was called Ma Zi, and as his name suggested, he had many pockmarks on his face; the other was called Er Zhuang, and he was wearing a long linen shirt with a cross collar. The shirt did not seem to be his own, and it was very big and a bit loose.

Kang He knew them because Chen Yushun had called them when they went to the mountain to carry Sun Dasheng. They listened to Chen Yushun's words and helped him all the time, just like servants in Chen Yushun's house.

The wasteland is measured with a measuring rope. Pull a certain length, tighten it, mark it, and then measure with the mark.

Several pairs of eyes were watching closely throughout the whole process. Ma Zi and Er Zhuang also measured carefully, strictly following the marks. They did not deliberately pull the measuring rope too tight, nor did they loosen it a little.

Because the measuring rope was prepared in advance, a roll of measuring rope is ten feet long.

If the rope was too tight, they would gain a little land, and if it was too loose, the opposite would happen. But the elders of the wealthy family were present, and everyone was watching, so no one dared to do it so obviously that they would be criticized.

But if it is not made conspicuous, there won’t be many fakes and the error will be very small.

The measuring rope was not very long, and it took a while to measure out one acre and five mu of land.

One measurement does not count, and you must measure again. If the final position determined by the second measurement is different from that of the first measurement, and the difference is more than two fingers, you must measure again.

Only after the measurement is correct will the boundary marker be erected.

It was during the boundary demarcation process that Father Fan walked back and forth on the newly demarcated land.

Seeing that Father Fan was frowning, Kang He and Fan Jing walked up to him and asked in a low voice, "Father, is there something wrong?"

“I always feel it’s too narrow.”

Kang He's brows furrowed when he heard this. "Dad, are you saying we measured less? But the error between our two measurements was less than two fingers, and I was watching the whole process, so I don't see any errors."

Father Fan was also worried in his heart. It was exactly what Kang He said. He had been watching it all the time and didn't see any problems.

He said, "I can't really say for sure, but after all these years of farming, I have a pretty good eye. I can tell the approximate value of a piece of land by a few centimeters with just a glance. It looks like our land is at least six centimeters short."

One acre is ten points of land, and one point is ten cents. These six cents are all driven towards one point of land.

According to the price of barren land, one mu is eight strings of coins. If it is six cents less, it means that four hundred and eighty coins have been lost!

Kang He thought about it briefly and felt that it was extraordinary.

"Or let's measure it again."

Father Fan also had the same idea in mind, and the two of them were about to call Ma Zi and Er Zhuang to measure again. Just as they took a step, Kang He grabbed Father Fan again.

After he whispered a few words into Fan's ear, Fan nodded and turned away. However, Du Kanghe called Ma Zi and Er Zhuang to measure the land again.

"What's wrong?"

When Ma Zi heard that Kang He wanted to measure again, he looked a little impatient.

Kang He was quite polite and said, "Measuring the land and demarcating the boundaries is a big deal. Our family always wants to be more appropriate. It would be helpful to measure it again so that we can feel at ease."

Ma Zi directly exposed Kang He's words and said with a loud tongue: "Every household is eager to get more land. Even with the naked eye, they feel that the amount they have is not enough!"

If there were any errors, I could have measured with you three or five more times, but after two times, the difference wasn't even a foot. The two previous times, the difference was more than a foot, and no one asked to measure again."

"You guys are the ones who are always fussing about weight, so I'll just take a day to come and measure it at your house!"

Kang Hejiao Ma Zi said that what he said was not without reason.

An acre of land is about 400 square meters in today's terms. It is difficult for ordinary people to see that a few centimeters are missing with the naked eye. Maybe Father Fan has a very good eye. He loves this new land and wants more of it, so he makes it look like there is less land.

If Ma Zi had said in a gentle tone that there was no problem with the first two measurements and that the weight was the real problem, Xu Kanghe would still have thought that it was just Father Fan who was overthinking it.

But Ma Zi's scolding made Kang He feel something was wrong.

He was not familiar with Ma Zi and Da Zhuang, but when they went down the mountain together that day, he took turns carrying Sun Dasheng back, and both sides were very polite to each other along the way.

He and Fan Jing had never offended them, so they could understand their impatience, but this look was beyond impatience.

Seeing the man being so rude, Kang He didn't say anything nice and just said toughly: "Since it doesn't matter, why not measure it with me again?"

Chen looked at Kang He asking for the weight, but she didn't understand what was wrong. She said to her family, "That's right. If you find it troublesome, we'll measure it ourselves and you can just watch!"

Hearing the arguing over here, the villagers who were looking at the land elsewhere came over.

Seeing this, Ma Zi said in a loud voice: "Let you measure it yourself, your calculations are really loud. I just want to ask you why you are making a fuss about re-measuring. If there is no difference, what about the time wasted?"

Kang He said, "If it's all right, I'll treat you two and the other villagers who delayed me to tea and apologize."

"We don't even want to drink your cup of tea. Measure more, and let everyone in the village see how nosy you are!"

Ma Zi said coldly, and then he and Da Zhuang pulled the measuring rope again and started measuring.

The villagers who came to watch the fun stretched their necks to take a closer look.

Someone murmured, "Didn't Fan Lao Er just buy a few more acres of land? Why is he making such a fuss? He's like he's afraid we don't know about it, so he's causing all this trouble."

Kang He heard everything that was said. He didn't bother to argue with anyone, nor did he stare at Ma Zi and Er Zhuang as they measured the land again. With so many eyes watching, he wasn't afraid of anyone tampering with the land.

He was just waiting for Father Fan to come back.

When Fan Shoushan came running back, he had already measured most of the land. He said to Fan Jing and Kang He, "Everyone else's land looks fine after being measured, but ours is wrong!"

Upon hearing this, Kang He looked at Fan Jing. Without saying anything, they went to take measurements in silence.

Father Fan's brows were so tight that they could kill a fly. He looked anxious, knowing that what he said would make people think that he was looking for trouble.

There's nothing wrong with other families, but theirs is the only thing wrong. Isn't this just the way Chunchun's father sees things? But he is just telling the truth.

Under more than a dozen pairs of eyes, Ma Zi and Da Zhuang carefully measured the land again, and finally decided on a location that was exactly right, with the difference being within a fingertip from the previous two times.

Ma Zi called out to everyone, "Everyone, come and have a look. See how much Da Zhuang and I have taken away by just a finger.

Everything was going well, but you still want to frame and blame others. How narrow-minded of them! If we can't trust the people in the same village, we won't dare to do business with your family anymore!

What else can I say? I've wasted so much of everyone's time!"

"Second Brother Fan, you guys are being really unfair. Dazhuang and Mazi did the measurements properly, but now you have someone else measuring you back and forth, making you sweat profusely."

"Yeah, why would they give you a small amount? You can't take it home for your own use."

Everyone was talking at the same time, and Fan Dadjiao's old face turned red with embarrassment. Chen was in the wrong and she didn't have the energy to argue.

"Well, I'm going to put up a boundary stone here. Even if you keep saying it's wrong, I won't agree."

At this moment, everyone's attention was on Ma Zi who was in the right. Fan Jing suddenly stepped forward and held down Er Zhuang who was crouching in the dark.

"Fan Jing, how shameless of you to put your hands into my clothes!"

Everyone's attention was drawn to the sound, and they saw Fan Jing pull out a roll of measuring rope from Dazhuang's loose clothes.

Seeing this, Er Zhuang hurriedly tried to grab it, but Fan Jing snatched the other roll of measuring rope from his hand and tripped him to the ground.

Fan Jingleng shouted "Get out of here" and handed the measuring rope to Kang He.

"What's going on?"

Kang He didn't rush to answer. He shook out the two rolls of body measurements and compared them. One roll was obviously shorter.

The shorter one was the one Er Zhuang held in his hand to measure the land, while the longer one was the one Er Zhuang hid in his arms.

"Fellow villagers, we don't know why Erzhuang came to measure our land today, bringing two rolls of measuring rope. If he was worried about breaking one of them, it would be fine, but why did he use one roll, hide the other, and make the two rolls different lengths? Is it possible that one of the rolls is broken?"

"Since it's broken, how can we use it normally again?"

Ma Zi, who was so talkative before, suddenly became mute. Da Zhuang stammered, "It's just that I made a mistake for a moment."

"You measured three times, and you got the wrong amount three times?"

Father Fan's eyes widened. He had been concentrating on the markings on the ground and hadn't paid any attention to whether there was any problem with the measuring rope.

These measuring ropes are public property of the village and were distributed by Chen Yushun. He saw that the same roll was used for measurement in front of him, so he didn't think much about it. When he got to his place, he took out a new roll from his pocket.

"This is bullying! This is bullying! You used a fake measuring rope to measure our land!"

Chen Sanfang immediately understood what was going on. He slapped his thigh and shouted, calling on Grandpa Qian and Kong Baocheng to be the boss of their family.

Those who were measuring the land elsewhere stopped measuring and rushed over to see what had happened.

Chen Yushun also came over here.

After hearing the whole story, Xu Yangli took the roll of measuring rope used to measure the fertilizer land and compared it with the two rolls from Erzhuang. One roll was exactly the same as the one in his hand, but the other roll was indeed shorter.

The people who had measured their land earlier saw this and had never expected such a thing to happen. They started arguing and complaining that their land was also measured too little.

So they took the correct measuring rope to remeasure, and the result was just as Fan Shoulin said. The other families' measurements were about the same, but the Fan family's was wrong, as they gave a full seven centimeters less.

Xu Yang looked at Chen Yushun and said, "This is interesting."

Upon seeing this, Grandpa Qian and Kong Baocheng remained silent. Although they both had considerable influence in the village, the official village head Chen Yushun was also present, so it was not appropriate for them to interrupt him.

Then everyone looked at Chen Yushun. Under everyone's gaze, Chen Yushun put on a serious face and said dignifiedly:

"How could you two do this! You're so stupid, you even messed up the measuring rope! You're not careful at all. You gave a small amount to someone, and it's not like you could pocket the money. Why don't you apologize to Brother Fan's family? You even have to bring the things to Brother Fan's house to apologize!"

Kang He chuckled when he heard this. This meant that the matter was to be left unintentional.

Seeing Chen Yushun's face, he was even more certain that he was the one who caused this.

Originally, he listened to Fan's father and did not offend Chen Yushun, thinking that the township head was the judge of the village and people had to bow their heads under his roof.

But keeping your head down did not bring you peace. Instead, it made people feel weak and easier to take advantage of, causing them to deceive you again and again.

Whether you have offended me or not, it has already come to this, so why should I endure the humiliation?

Kang He said: "If you say he is confused, Brother Erzhuang usually does his work very efficiently and effectively. Today he was running around in the fields doing hard work, but he wore loose clothes. It really doesn't look like he was confused and made a mistake with the measuring rope.

However, what the headman said was also true. Erzhuang and Mazi brothers deliberately measured the land incorrectly, but the less measured land would definitely not fall into their hands. Why did the two brothers insist on doing such a thing that would harm others but not benefit themselves?

I thought we had offended the two brothers before, but our Fan family is honest and upright, and we have never offended them~"

When Kang He said this, Chen Yushun's face suddenly turned pale.

Everyone in the village knew that last month, Ren had angered the Fan family and driven them away in front of Sun Dasheng's funeral hall.

After hearing what Kang He said, everyone couldn't help but wonder who had instructed Er Zhuang Ma Zi to do this.

Everyone in the village knew that Erzhuang and Mazi were very close to Chen Yushun, and they often came in and out of his house like his godsons.

Seeing this trend, Erzhuang said angrily, "It's none of the village chief's business! I just don't like you. How can your family own so much land?"

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone fell silent.

Xu Yang said with a half-smile, somewhat provocatively, "Er Zhuang, no one's talking about Township Chief Guan. Look, the Fan family is unhappy about buying so much land, but the other family bought much more fertile land than the Fan family, so why don't you seem unhappy?"

Er Zhuangjiao was so confused by the questions that he was speechless. Ma Zi kept his mouth shut, wondering how there could be such a stupid person. It seemed as if he had opened his mouth and could speak.

Chen Yushun originally wanted to mediate and smooth things over between the two people, but ended up getting himself into trouble.

He calmed his anger, pretending he hadn't heard what had just been said, and made a firm decision: "Er Zhuang, stop measuring land with the villagers, and don't do anything with the villagers from now on! We are from the same village, we should be united, but you are doing these dirty things to people from other villages!"

"I'll come to Brother Fan's house and re-measure the land myself."

Chen Yushun put on a kind face towards the Fan family again: "This incident almost caused the second brother Fan's family to suffer losses. It's also because I, as the village head, didn't treat good people well. So, the fertile land in Zaoershui that I have is shared with the second brother Fan's family for farming!"

Kang He was not willing to do so. Their family wanted to take over Chen Yushun's things.

Originally they suffered losses and were wronged, but in the end the villagers might even envy them, and it would become like they were the ones who gained the advantage.

At that time, people will have to praise Chen Yushun for being kind and able to settle things.

"How can we do this? If we make a mistake, we can just measure it again. It's not the headmaster who asked Erzhuang brother to do this. It's not right for our family to take the headmaster's things. If we don't know the truth, people will think it's the headmaster's fault."

Chen Yushun looked at Kang He, gave him a deep look, and forced a smile: "Xiao Kang is right. I didn't mean anything else. I just worried that I might have wronged you."

"The village head is fair, how could we feel wronged?"

Kang He said, "Brothers, please explain clearly in front of the elders and fellow villagers why there were two rolls of measuring rope and why the measurement was wrong. If you apologize, the matter will be over."

Everyone was stunned when they heard this.

It is embarrassing enough to apologize in front of so many people in the village, but you still have to tell the whole story again. Isn't that like putting people on the fire?

Fan Shoulin felt that this was a bit too much, so he secretly pulled Kang He.

Kanghe did not compromise. Grandpa Qian felt that Erzhuang and Mazi's behavior was not good, and it would be a good idea to use this incident to warn everyone, so he nodded.

Chen Yushun had no choice but to host the event in this way.

After this incident, everyone in the village said that the son-in-law of the Fan family was a very powerful person and would not show mercy to others.

This Fan Jing is domineering, and there is only one man who is more domineering than him!