Miao Ersao acted quickly. The day after the Lu and Jiang families had just finished their meal, news came from her parents' home that they could arrange a meeting in two days.
This season is also a good time to get married. After deciding, you can start preparing for the wedding after the autumn harvest.
After the autumn harvest, there is a slack season for farming. At that time, the team members will have time and the wedding can be held in a lively manner.
After learning that they were going to meet, Miao Xianghua specially dressed up the fifth brother Jiang Jiantao.
He usually wears a white shirt and army green pants, paired with Liberation shoes, and looks like a young man full of energy no matter how you look at him.
Miao Xianghua also asked Jiang Manyue to accompany him to take a look, saying that she had also been to the big city and had seen the world, so she could help her fifth brother to have a better opinion.
Jiang Manyue didn't care. If Fifth Brother wanted to see her, she could go and accompany him. After all, she was a married sister-in-law, and the girl's side wouldn't think too much about it.
On the day of the wedding, Miao Xianghua dressed neatly and used the snow cream given by Jiang Manyue. He took Jiang Manyue and Jiang Jiantao, and was led by Miao's wife to the girl's house.
When the four of them arrived at the girl's house, they were welcomed into the main hall.
After all, he was here to meet the girl, so it would not be appropriate to come empty-handed. So Miao Xianghua brought a small piece of bacon and ten eggs as a gift to the girl's family.
When the girl’s mother saw these gifts, the smile on her face became even brighter.
Seeing how generous he is, his family must be well off.
Miao Ersao quickly introduced them. "This is my aunt from my husband's family, Miao Xianghua. This is Jiang Jiantao, the fifth child in her family. She has four older brothers, all of whom are married. This is my younger sister-in-law, Jiang Manyue. She's also married to a soldier. She now lives in the military compound in Yunzhou and lives a good life."
When the girl’s mother heard this, it was a good idea. There were many laborers in the family, so the conditions would definitely not be bad.
In the countryside these days, labor is the bottom line. Whoever has more labor gets more work points, and they get the most grain and money at the end of the year.
Although she has a sister-in-law, she is already married and married well. She lives in Yunzhou, which is so far away, and has little relationship with her mother's family.
The family will not be disturbed by a troublesome sister-in-law, and there will be plenty of labor at home. It is a good condition no matter how you look at it.
"The girl's name is Gao Yingjuan, this is her father Gao Dajiang, and her mother Niu Ximei."
Gao Yingjuan is the second daughter of the Gao family. She has an older sister and an older brother, two younger brothers and a younger sister. Her family is also large.
Miao Ersao had already told them about these situations on the way here, so I won’t go into details now.
The two families sat down. Gao Dajiang looked at Jiang Jiantao twice but didn't say anything. However, Niu Ximei was very enthusiastic and chatted happily with Miao Xianghua.
After chatting for a while, both mothers were quite satisfied, so Niu Ximei called Gao Yingjuan out and asked her to meet Jiang Jiantao.
Jiang Jiantao was already feeling embarrassed, and when Niu Ximei went to call Gao Yingjuan, his face turned even redder. He kept rubbing his pants with his hands, looking very nervous.
Gao Yingjuan was soon brought to the main hall by Niu Ximei. She had a pair of pigtails and was not particularly pretty, but she was a pretty girl.
After taking a look for a few seconds, Jiang Manyue glanced straight at her fifth brother's face.
Jiang Jiantao's face turned even redder, and his eyes looked around aimlessly, but he didn't dare to look at Gao Yingjuan's face any longer.
Gao Yingjuan was also an introverted girl. She just took a quick look at Jiang Jiantao. Seeing that he looked energetic and well-dressed, she lowered her head shyly.
Niu Ximei happily pulled her second daughter over to sit down, not far from Jiang Jiantao but not too close. Both of them lowered their heads shyly, and neither dared to look at the other.
Miao Xianghua was also very satisfied after seeing Gao Yingjuan. The girl looked short but not thin, and was quite pretty. And judging from the reaction of his fifth brother, he seemed to like her very much.
After this meeting, both families were very satisfied with each other and basically had a tacit understanding about the next step.
After Miao Xianghua left Gao's house, he started looking for a matchmaker to go to Gao's house to propose marriage.
In this era, the term "matchmaker" is no longer popular. People call them "introducers." Visiting someone's home cannot be called proposing marriage, but rather promoting revolutionary friendship. However, villagers still call it "proposing marriage" in private.
The introducer was also very helpful. Just two days before Jiang Manyue was about to leave, good news came.
The Gao family readily agreed to the proposal, but they also had some requirements for the bride price.
In the countryside, the bride price for marrying a wife is basically 30 yuan, plus 200 kilograms of grain, a mixture of coarse and fine grains. If you are a little poorer, 20 yuan for the bride price plus 100 kilograms of grain will also do.
Miao Xianghua was not too worried about the betrothal gift. With the two hundred yuan borrowed from Jiang Manyue, she had enough money on hand.
As for grain, although there is not much now, according to the custom of giving gifts in the countryside, the grain gift is given after the autumn harvest, and the Jiang family is not short of these 200 kilograms of grain.
"Sister Xiang Hua, the Gao family wants fifty yuan as a betrothal gift, one hundred kilograms of rice, one hundred kilograms of flour, and one hundred kilograms of fine cornmeal."
Fine cornmeal refers to the fine powder made from pure corn kernels without grinding the cobs. It is considered a good fine grain in this era.
Jiang Manyue happened to be at home as well. After hearing about the betrothal gift, she couldn't help but look at her mother's face.
This bride price requirement is considered high among several nearby brigades.
Especially for a family with many sons like the Jiang family, it is not good to favor one over the other when choosing a daughter-in-law. The betrothal gifts for marrying several daughters-in-law were not that high, but so much money was spent on marrying the youngest son. It is inevitable that the sisters-in-law of the previous son would feel unhappy.
Miao Xianghua was naturally unwilling to pay so much. His family had married four daughters-in-law, and the betrothal gifts they paid were the same as the common betrothal gifts at that time. Now it was the fifth daughter's turn, so why should his bet be higher than that of other families?
By then, the daughters-in-law will be unhappy, thinking that her mother-in-law is unfair and favors the youngest son. How can the family live like this?
Besides, Miao Xianghua also felt that the price of the bride price was too high. Not to mention the fifty yuan, just look at the three hundred kilograms of grain, all of which were fine grains, and his family might not even have that much fine grain in a whole year.
There are a lot of laborers at home, and we have a lot of food. If we exchange all of it for fine grains, how will it be enough to last until next summer's harvest?
The Jiang family has always exchanged less fine grains and more coarse grains. The fine grains are kept for festivals and other important occasions such as spring planting and autumn harvest.
If they could exchange it for 300 kilograms of fine grains at once, the Jiang family would really have to tighten their belts just to barely make it until the summer harvest.
Miao Xianghua thought about it and felt that it was not feasible, so he asked the matchmaker to talk to the Gao family and asked them to provide 50 kilograms of rice, 50 kilograms of flour, 100 kilograms of cornmeal, and 35 yuan as a betrothal gift.
This is not considered a very good gift among the betrothal gifts in the countryside, but it is also in accordance with the rules and will not let the girl down.
The introducer did this job, so there was no other way, so he rushed to the Gao family.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
