The Xia family was busy making winter clothes, stuffing quilts, pickling sauerkraut, making soybean paste, drying vegetables, cleaning old household items, and taking apart and washing old cotton-padded clothes and quilts. They were so busy from morning to night that they were almost running around.
Xia Xuejiao brought a group of people to do embroidery work in the house, making handkerchiefs, purses, fan covers, and small embroidered screens, and they were very busy.
Xia Daohua and his team also want to make kimchi and pickled radish.
I had to move things around, wash and rinse, sprinkle ingredients according to proportion, and stir them desperately until all the dishes were mixed evenly. Only then could I take a break. I was so tired that I was sweating all over.
Living in the same compound, the landlord, Hu, and Zhao families couldn't help but be moved by the Xia family's enthusiasm. So, the other families also started to busy themselves with their own affairs.
Although the land has not been found yet, we have made sufficient preparations for this year's winter.
After looking at Xiaoliu together for a month, they still couldn't find a piece of land that suited them. Old Man Xia and Mrs. Zhou were getting anxious. They couldn't help but secretly slip a handful of copper coins to the broker, begging him to think more about his own affairs and remember to keep some for his family when he found the right land.
The brokers received extra benefits and started to work extra hard.
Finally, when the first snow fell, a medium-quality piece of farmland was found for the Xia family.
The land is not big. Even including the edges and corners, it is only about 26 acres. It is located in Fengwei Village, the suburb closest to Jixiang County.
Fengwei Village is known for its beauties, including the wife of a former emperor.
Of course, Fang Hua was born in a humble family, held a low position, and died within a few years of being favored, but the common people didn't care about that.
If a queen appeared hundreds of years ago, they would still talk about it with great relish.
What's more, this person's rapid rise to prominence happened only a few decades ago.
After the Empress became Empress, her family moved out of Fengwei Village and moved into the capital city, where they lived in the house that the Empress had bought for them.
But the reputation of Fengwei Village for producing beauties spread.
The villagers do not discriminate against girls as much as people in other places do. Instead, they cherish both boys and girls equally.
When the girls in this village turned thirteen or fourteen years old, wealthy families would come here to look for them. If they found a girl who was beautiful and charming, and outstanding in character, they would solemnly take her in as a concubine or even marry her.
The villagers will also move away.
Those who are reluctant to leave their homeland will move to live in Jixiang County;
Those who are reluctant to leave their daughters behind will move to the city where their daughters’ husband’s family lives.
Because of this tradition left by the empress who was favored by the previous emperor, there is land for sale in this village.
After the Xia family went to see it, they felt that this was a rare opportunity. Grandpa Xia and Mrs. Zhou nodded without hesitation and bought the land.
But the price of this land is not cheap.
According to the market conditions in Beiguan Village, an acre of good land is only worth four or five taels of silver.
But in Fengwei Village, this one acre of land was being priced at ten taels of silver. It was clearly just a medium-sized field, yet it was being sold at the price of a top-grade field!
The Xia family was somewhat reluctant when they heard this.
However, the broker secretly told them that although the price was a bit high, it was only slightly higher than the market price. If they could bargain it down to eight taels of silver, that would be the lowest price.
Because land of this quality could be sold for twelve taels of silver per mu in late summer or early autumn.
The family was in a hurry to move, so they didn't ask for twelve taels.
The Xia family frowned and calculated: if they calculated it at ten taels of silver, the twenty-six mu of land would cost two hundred and sixty taels. This did not include the commission paid to the broker and the taxes paid when registering the deed with the government.
If we can bargain down to eight taels of silver, that would be two hundred and eight taels...
Although that family was in a hurry to sell, the Xia family was also somewhat anxious to buy. After some negotiation, they finally bargained down the price to nine taels of silver per mu of land. However, the family's original house next to the field was given to the Xia family as a bonus.
Including the land and the house, it cost 234 taels of silver. Signing the red deed, paying taxes, and paying commission and thanks to the broker cost another 4 taels of silver.
After paying out this money, the old couple's wallets were almost empty.
The old couple were both excited and heartbroken, and their emotions were very complicated.
Twenty-six acres of land, even if it is just medium-quality farmland, can only produce 200 kilograms of grain per acre, which is almost enough to feed the Xia family.
When the old couple considered this matter, they seemed to have completely forgotten that the Xia family had already split up, and they still considered the whole family together.
However, if we simply rely on the harvest from this land, it will not be enough.
Because the harvested grain has to be used to pay taxes, labor service, and levies, all of which have to come from the fields.
So although the Xia family bought this piece of land, Grandpa Xia only took his four sons to make two trips and then handed over the affairs of the land to Xia Yougui, which did not delay their enthusiasm to continue looking for land elsewhere.
Old Master Xia and Mrs. Zhou didn't know that almost all of their sons, except Xia Youtian, had set their sights on this piece of land.
This piece of land is the closest to Jixiang County. Even if I don't cultivate it myself, I can rent it out to others for cultivation. If I want to visit the land, it would be more convenient to be close by.
It would be so beautiful if the old couple were willing to give this land to me!
For a time, starting with Xia Yougui and Sun, several sons and daughters-in-law seemed to have suddenly become much more filial for unknown reasons.
At the same time, Xia Youtian and Jiang Shi also had their eyes on a piece of land, but it was much farther away than Fengwei Village, which was less than fifty miles from the city wall of Jixiang County.
The land that the fourth couple had their eyes on was located in Huangtao Village.
There are many wild yellow peach trees growing on the local hillsides. Although we can't see the peaches now, we can see large areas of peach trees. Just thinking about the scenes of them blooming in spring and bearing fruit in summer and autumn makes people feel fascinated.
Unfortunately, Huangtao Village is about 230 miles away from Jixiang County.
The fourth wife and her husband liked the area, mainly because it looked very much like Beiguan Village. Surrounded by mountains on three sides and facing the water on one side, the village was not crowded and transportation was not very convenient, but the roads were not difficult to navigate.
When the couple from the fourth room saw the land, they liked it very much, but they also had some conflicts.
They always felt that they should inform the old couple, but the old couple had just bought the land in Fengwei Village. If the old couple also took a fancy to this place, they were afraid that the money they had would not be enough.
Moreover, if he told the old couple, they might even involve the Hu family and the Zhao family to buy it together. For some reason, Xia Youtian instinctively didn't want to go with those two families.
This piece of land is a full sixty acres, and it is also a medium-sized field. It is relatively close to the water source. The seller just quoted a price of twelve taels of silver per acre.
－－－－－－Digression－－－－－－
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