Chapter 56 Big and Small Matters
After the meal, Zhuang settled everyone down.
The little girl from the Song family fell asleep after dinner, and Mo Yi asked Xiangzhi to carry her to her room.
The three heads of the family stayed in the living room to discuss matters.
Mo Rushong was very tired, but he had something on his mind, and he wanted to finish talking before going to sleep: "...I married her, and we worshipped heaven and earth!"
"Isn't this just nonsense?" Mo Rushan was disappointed with his failure. "What's the point?"
"She is the daughter of a good family, and I promised her. I don't want to let her down."
"You don't want to wrong her, but you want to wrong Liu? That's the one your parents married you to! You're going to get beaten for breaking up your marriage and marrying again!"
"Hmph, my parents were also deceived by the Liu family!" Mo Rushong stiffened his neck.
"Okay! You're old and you've given birth to a daughter. What's the point of still worrying about this? Don't you know that this will hurt Mo Yuan? What else can you do? Do you really want to force them to death?"
"I won't force her, but she shouldn't force me either. As long as we're all living in peace, let's just leave it like this! If they make trouble, I'll move out with the three of them."
Mo Rushan sneered: "Oh, you've become so capable! Move out... You're so arrogant! If I hadn't protected you for so many years, who knows what life you would have lived! You want to threaten me? Move out, move out now!"
Mo Rushong's face turned red from being squeezed, "Come on! Brother, stop talking about this. I want to tell you something serious."
Seeing that Mo Rushan was about to say something, he first threw out a heavy bullet: "I'm afraid something is going to happen to our land!"
"What did you say!?"
Mo Rushan and Mo Ruhai were both shocked. "What's going on?"
"At this moment... I don't know where to start." Mo Rushong said sullenly.
"What happened to you? Tell the truth and don't try to deceive me!" Mo Rushan said.
"What about this year's harvest?" Mo Ruhai stretched out his hand to him.
Mo Rushong looked at his two brothers angrily. Well, one was thinking about himself in a wrong way, and the other was asking for money.
After being angry for a long time, he picked up the wooden box next to him.
There are accounts and silver notes from Yuanlong Silver House, which is accepted nationwide.
Mo Rushan took the banknotes and started counting them, and Mo Ruhai also leaned over to look.
"There's still some gold and other items in the box over there! Almost five hundred taels." Mo Rushong said.
The Mohist family is over there, with land, lakes, and forests. The land is pretty good, very close to Wenzhou. Wenzhou has a superior geographical location, a large population, and is considered prosperous, so they can also benefit from it.
But even so, if it is just to grow crops, it is still okay in the local area. If it is brought to the capital, it will definitely not be enough for the Mo family to live on.
It was for this reason that Mo Rushong was sent away, and he took Song Jiayou with him.
The Song family has a little boy who follows Mo Ruhai. He can read, is knowledgeable, smart, and can handle things. He is much more far-sighted than the local farmers.
It didn't take long for me to find the way. I raised chickens, ducks, fish, and some unpopular grains and vegetables. I also planted something called lucky bamboo, which is a small bamboo with coiled roots. I put it in a purple clay pot and sold it. I made a lot of money from this!
Moreover, he changes his method every two years, and others cannot learn it. Especially the Tremella fuciformis he grows, which is of good quality and is a good gift.
But even with all this, in a good year I could make two or three thousand taels, but in times of drought or flood, I could make less than a thousand taels, or even less. After I bought a shop in the state, I could also make some money.
Add these together, and it sounds like a lot.
But the Mohist family had to make a living, the boys went to school, the girls had to wear clothes, get married, and most importantly, find a job... Life was not rich.
Therefore, Mo Rusong could not go back to Beijing every year, because the travel expenses were high. Sometimes he would ask the local escort agency or silver shop to deliver the harvest.
The industry in the hometown is the basis for the Mohist family to survive and thrive.
If we only rely on their salary, we will have to send away the servants. The women in the family will have to do the housework themselves, or even do handymen to earn money.
"This... isn't this better than previous years?" Mo Rushan said after counting.
Mo Rusong muttered: "The Song family has it, and they sold all the things they don't need for the time being. I'm coming back this time, and I won't go back!"
"Not going back?"
When the two brothers heard this, they became even more worried.
"What about the Song family?" Mo Ruhai asked hurriedly.
"He stayed and didn't come back. He only brought his wife and children back!"
Mo Rushan became nervous: "What happened?"
"I can't tell you exactly what happened. Anyway, there were signs of this a few years ago. For example, Yunniang's family is more than 500 miles away from us. They used to have hundreds of acres of fertile land. Later, not only was it embezzled, but the family was also destroyed.
She ran away. At that time, Song Jiayou and I were out on business and saw her being chased by gangsters. I saved her life. After asking around, I found out that her family was gone. I could only take her back...
We didn't pay much attention to some of the things we heard before. But we started to pay attention to her family's affairs and slowly got to know the news. The Song family has been running around for a long time for this matter, and then we found out: I don't know who is annexing the land. They are not small, some of them are bought, some are occupied, and some are robbed.
Big brother, you know that there is a large area of fertile land along the Xiang River a few hundred miles west of our home, and it has not changed hands for many years. Now when I ask around, I find that many of them have changed hands. It seems that they are heading towards our home. And..."
He looked around, got closer and said, "I heard in the Li County Tavern that many people were missing over there. They said they went out to work on repairing the granary. But they never came back. No one knows whether they are alive or dead."
"Ah? Granary?" Mo Rushan was a little surprised.
"Yes. One year, there were a few thieves who always made trouble in our land. The farmers couldn't catch them. Fearing that someone might die, they went to the county government to hire a bailiff. They worked hard for more than a month before they caught the thieves. I was familiar with the thief. Every time I went to the county, I would sit down and drink with him.
The last time, I took Song Jiayou to sell oil. I invited him to drink, and he said that he was going to investigate the grain warehouse. It was said that... the county magistrate had not heard of it. But if the court built a warehouse, why would it be so secretive? "
The Mo Rushan brothers knew something. The grain depots were divided into national treasury, military treasury, provincial treasury, county treasury, and private treasury.
The first few belonged to the imperial court, and their main purpose was to control food, food prices, prepare for famine, support soldiers, etc. The management and guarding of the warehouses were the responsibilities of government offices at all levels.
Private vaults were built by some big landlords, but they were smaller in scale than those at the top. But no matter what kind of vault it was, it had to be registered with the court. It was in the open, and there was no hiding. If a vault was to be built, it would definitely be known.
"Could it be that some big landowner built this small granary for himself?"
"But the problem is that we can't get any information, and with so many tracts of land changing hands, where do all these prodigals come from?"
Just like the Mohists, land is also passed down from ancestors.
"Later, when I went to the county again to look for the head of the yamen, I heard that he had died. I was shocked at the time. When I came back, Song Jiayou went out to investigate secretly and found many things that were wrong. Some villages have become private farms. Farmers have become serfs. Especially for families whose large plots of land have changed hands, some have sold them at a low price. Some have had accidents at home...
Song Jiayou came back and said something was not right, and went to a distant place in the name of purchasing medicinal materials. As soon as he arrived near the grain depot they mentioned, someone came to check on him. He was scared, so he came back.
Then, a few days ago, Lin Er fell ill, and Yun Niang and I took them to the state to see a doctor. We were gone for a while. When we came back, Song Jiayou said that someone was asking about our land. We were scared, and this time, we even sold our surplus grain. Song Jiayou asked me to hide back first, because the landlord was not there, and he was just a worker, so I had to deal with it for now. "
Mo Ruhai was concerned about his people: "Is he in danger? I hope nothing happens to him!"
"He said he would act according to circumstances. He also asked me to come back to get information. Brother, you really have to ask about this matter. It concerns our family's livelihood! Families with large tracts of land, their ancestors have been farmers and scholars, and they are not vegetarians. Many of them are officials in the court. If they can be moved by this... it's not a small matter!"
Mo Rushan nodded, but he was still confused...
The three brothers looked at each other, not knowing what to say.
At this moment, concubines and illegitimate children are no longer a problem.
(End of this chapter)
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