Hu Wenhua's purchase of land and construction of houses made the people of Shanshui Village anxious about having boys and girls of marriageable age, and also strengthened the desire of those whose families were too large to live in to separate and move out.
The Fan family had too many members to fit in, and the land in Shanshui Village was limited, so dividing the family property had been on the agenda for a long time.
Half a tael of silver can buy an acre of wasteland. This time, the Sun and Zhao families couldn't send anyone to deliver medicinal herbs to Shuiqing's family, so the quota was vacant. Their family has one more person. With two men going out, they can bring back at least eight or nine taels of silver!
Adding the savings from before, and even after deducting the cost of Fan Xiaoliu's marriage, there's enough money to buy land and build a house for his son who has moved out and is now living separately.
The new house was funded by the family's collective funds. It was still an adobe house with gray tiles. Because the place was large and the layout was square, the son and daughter-in-law, who were originally unwilling, were afraid that if they waited too long, they would not be able to get a good spot!
Most of the wives in other families thought about separating from the family and living their own lives, but none of the three wives in Li's family wanted to or were willing to do so. However, Li still managed to secure a piece of land for them.
Tian Tian is already seventeen this year, which is not young in the entire Ming Dynasty. Marriage arrangements are only a matter of the next two years, and at the latest, no later than next year.
Prepare in advance; it's only half a tael of silver, so you won't be caught off guard later.
Aunt Li vaguely felt that having silver made her much more confident. In the past, she would have hesitated and struggled to make a decision if she had half a tael of silver. Now, she could make a decision easily.
She looked at her eldest daughter-in-law, Feng Dayan, and instructed her, "The Hu family has asked you to be their matchmaker, so we have to handle this matter well."
Feng Dayan laughed and said, "Your daughter-in-law knows perfectly well. How did our family get such a good life? Wen Hua's mother and I aren't close. It must have been Sister Shui Qing who recommended me. If I don't do a good job, wouldn't I be the one who feels most sorry for her?"
Aunt Li nodded, relieved, and said, "Jiajia and Tiantian are the same age and are about to get married. Tiantian is old enough to be a potential wife."
Feng Dayan initially wanted to tease her mother-in-law about her haste, but then she realized that if it was about finding a son-in-law, and it was happening in the village, it would be different from before. "It concerns my little sister's happiness, so we must choose carefully."
"By the way, have the head of the household take the third son to clear that wasteland and build a fence around it. I reckon it'll be like here, with each household building sections. Since my younger sister is going to live there, we need to get it done quickly."
"Your sister-in-law cares for her even more than her own brother!" Aunt Li said with a smile.
While the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law were chatting, other households in the village were also discussing these matters.
Before the medicine was delivered, the whole village was unusually lively.
Shui Qing's family was originally quite leisurely.
Most of her family's fields and forests were planted with medicinal herbs last autumn. With a large number of livestock, the reclaimed land and the reserved land were plowed early. While other families in the village were busy harvesting potatoes, her family only needed to wait for the villagers to deliver the potatoes to their warehouse.
However, this leisurely life was gone after Wen Hua bought the mountain forest land. Spring is the season for sowing and farming, but the Zhao family's mountain forest was not well managed. It was full of miscellaneous trees, weeds and stones, and the wasteland below also needed to be cleared before it could be cultivated.
The horses and donkeys at home will be unusable by mid-February when we need to go out, and we only have one cow at home, so we're making the most of the time to do as much as we can.
Hong Daniu cleared weeds and rubble from the mountain, while Wang Qiuyue, Zhou Yu, and other women led horses to pull the cleared items down the mountain. The weeds could be used to make fertilizer, and the stones could be used to build foundations; both were useful.
Feng Dafeng and more than ten other men led donkeys to clear the land.
Hu's parents, Hu Wenhua, were responsible for planting medicinal herbs.
Shuiqing led her children in preparing three meals a day.
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