Chapter 155 The Passerby Who Died Before the Famine Even Began (11)
"I know. We've bought everything we need. The food and furniture are all ordered. We'll just talk to the store tomorrow. They'll deliver it to our door since we bought a lot."
After discussing the move the next day, it was getting late, so everyone went back to their rooms to sleep. The next morning, after breakfast, they started packing. After the carriages were harnessed, Chen and Bai went out to buy some kitchen utensils. Once everything was ready, they set off. There was no toll when leaving the city, and a group of seven or eight carriages made their way home.
After walking for two hours to reach their destination, Jiang's father looked at the somewhat murky water in the lake and couldn't stop smiling. The people at the nearby grain store and carpentry shop scratched their heads, wondering what Jiang's father was laughing at. After checking and confirming that there was water, Jiang's father finally felt completely relieved. After walking for a while, they arrived at their lodging.
Mr. Jiang and Mrs. Chen looked at the spotless house with disbelief. It hadn't even been two days! When they entered the yard, they found that the people who had cleaned the house were still there, and the few remaining fallen leaves in the yard had been collected. The puppet saw Mr. Jiang and Bai Ze and walked over, saying, "Let me show you around. Are you satisfied with our work?"
After speaking, he led everyone on a tour. The room was spotless, just like a newly built one. When no one was looking, Father Jiang kicked a wall tile and muttered to himself, "I feel like it's become much sturdier." He then scratched his head, a little puzzled. Jiang Yue secretly smiled behind him. "Of course," she thought, "just in case, we reinforced it with a sturdy talisman."
After visiting the two courtyards, Jiang's father and Bai Ze each chose one. The rooms were the same layout and close to each other, so there was no need to hesitate. After making their choices, the cleaning puppet took its leave, saying that Jiang's father was lucky; the water came right after he bought the courtyard. Finally, it recommended its other services, such as cleaning wells and helping to find people. It was almost March, and it asked Jiang's father if he wanted to hire day laborers or tenant farmers, which it could recommend.
Actually, this was all Jiang Yue's idea. The world is not peaceful now, and the place where they live is relatively remote. By recruiting tenant farmers and other means, they arranged for some puppets to come over, so that their safety could be guaranteed. After all, Jiang Yue can't watch her family 24 hours a day. After discussing it, Jiang's father and Chen felt that they still needed some people. The land was not much, only a little over a hundred acres, so they didn't need to rent it to others. If the two families divided it, there wouldn't be much left. In the end, each of the two families hired five people.
After hiring people, while others were still unaware of the water, Bai Ze and Jiang's father went to the government office to buy land. If they didn't buy now, they wouldn't be able to afford it later. Fortunately, there were two barren mountains behind the peach orchard. After discussing it, Jiang's father and Bai Ze decided to buy them because now was the most affordable time to buy. Bai Ze had also surveyed the area and found that terraced fields could be built below the halfway point, and the upper part of the mountains would be suitable for planting fruit trees and medicinal herbs. It wouldn't be a bad deal to buy them.
Chen helped Jiang Yue tidy up the house. Since the puppet had cleaned it so thoroughly, there was no need to clean it again. They just needed to set up the rooms. With the help of workers, the tidying was done quickly. By the time Jiang's father and Bai Ze returned, Chen had already prepared dinner. The two families ate together again today. Because they were both busy, during dinner, Jiang's father mentioned buying the mountain and the wasteland behind it. Chen asked with concern, "Is the land you bought all wasteland? Can you grow crops on it? There won't be enough time to tidy it up this year, will there?"
It's no wonder Chen is worried. You see, now that you've bought the land, the government doesn't care whether you plant anything or what you plant or how the harvest is. They'll still collect the taxes as usual. After taking a bite of his food, Jiang's father told Chen not to worry: "No one is in charge of the two mountains. The wasteland on the back mountain won't be taxed for the first two years, and for the next three years, you only need to pay 30% of the normal tax. Speaking of which, Brother Bai is really something. The government was supposed to collect the taxes normally, but he gave us a lot of discounts when he treated the clerk to lunch."
"Huh? Is nobody doing anything about this? Aren't they afraid of being beheaded?"
"Haha, what season is this? Everyone is busy fighting for power and profit. Besides, this place is just a wasteland, surrounded by mountains on three sides. In their eyes, it has no value for development. If they sell it to us, they can make a quick buck. And maybe they can even get some bribes afterward. Why not?"
“This price is much cheaper. At the normal price, we couldn’t even afford those few hundred acres of wasteland on the back mountain. Now we’ve only paid half the price and even got two mountains for free. And with the current chaos of war, they’ll probably be able to sell another batch after we get into trouble. That clerk even asked me and Brother Bai today if we wanted to buy an official position.”
"What? You can buy an official position?"
"That's right! Just like you said, Da Chen is really finished, sigh~"
Bai Ze, who was standing to the side, smiled and said, "Why bother with all that? At most, it's just a change of emperor. What does that have to do with us? We should just live our own lives. Tomorrow, we'll find someone to tidy up the original land. It's almost March now, and time is running out. Then we need to figure out a way to reclaim these two mountains and the wasteland behind them."
"I don't think we'll be able to stay idle all year. Brother Jiang, what do you think of Li Si's gang?"
"I feel pretty good. He's also very efficient. Brother Bai, just tell me what you're thinking."
Li Si is the puppet leader. A few days ago, when Bai Ze was cleaning, he pretended to think for a moment and said to Jiang's father, "Besides the ones we hired, there are still more than 30 of them left. We need a lot of people to reclaim the land. I want to recruit them. In this chaotic situation, they will be a good helper."
"I have no objection, but are they willing to come? Why would perfectly good people come to farm for us?"
“I asked about this a few days ago. Some people want to settle down. Do you think they can easily get such a big order like ours? They usually just do manual labor and earn a meager living. I think we will give five acres of land to those who are willing to come, and each person can rent up to fifteen acres of land. After paying the taxes for the rented land for five years, we will only charge 10% of the land rent.”
After discussing it for a while, Jiang's father and Chen's mother decided that donating five mu of land each wouldn't cost much, as it was all wasteland and the cost per mu was less than one tael of silver. "I have no problem with that," Jiang's father said, "let's do as Brother Bai says." Jiang's father thought that even if they didn't donate land, they would still have to spend money, and clearing wasteland was never a simple task.
"By the way, do we have enough land? Twenty acres per person won't be enough to hire many people."
"The government has registered about 600 to 700 mu of wasteland on the back mountain, and about 200 to 300 mu of land has been cleared from the two mountains. That adds up to about 1,000 mu. That should be enough, right?"
"Do the people we've hired now count? It wouldn't make sense if they didn't. If they do, then 200 mu of land is gone, and out of 1,000 mu, only 800 mu remain. If each person is responsible for 20 mu, we can find 40 more people. But if we include the elderly and children, there aren't many people left who can work."
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