Chapter 32: Escape from the Troubled Times 30
The big knife that Lin Xia had managed to save with great difficulty was gone in a snap. So sad.
This big sword has been with her for more than half a year, and she has to throw it away today. She really can't bear to part with it.
It would be nice if the space was bigger or could change shape at will.
The sword was about 80 centimeters long, and the side length of her space was 36 centimeters, so it couldn't fit in even if it was placed at an angle.
Although she said she was reluctant, Lin Xia decisively handed the knife to the other party. She had to get on the boat anyway.
Seeing that Lin Xia was so tactful, the other party happily let her go up. After going up, there were two large empty rooms in total. There was nothing inside. Regardless of gender, each person occupied an area of two square meters.
They didn't just cross to the other side and let it go, but went with the flow.
After sailing for two or three days, everyone was a little panicked, fearing that the ship would drag them to an unknown place and sell them. Lin Xia was equally nervous. She couldn't eat or sleep well in the past few days, and there were screams in the room. She also had to worry about the other party's misconduct and whether she could learn to swim to save herself if she jumped into the river. Her head ached.
In addition, it is inconvenient to go to the toilet. If you ignore the embarrassment of the wind blowing on your butt, the scenery is still very beautiful. Obviously, Lin Xia cannot enjoy this beautiful scenery, so he can only save money to reduce the embarrassment of going to the toilet.
Finally, on the fifth day, the ship passed through mountains and hills, and after many twists and turns, it entered a big city and dropped everyone off.
Everyone got off the ship, and three clerks walked up to the crew with ease to hand over matters. Then, the ship left, leaving everyone confused.
"You guys, follow me." said one of the leading officials.
Everyone hurried forward, and a brave young man went up to talk to the official, only then did he realize that this was Qingshui County, and they were now being taken to handle identity and household registration procedures.
Along the way, everyone was whispering with anticipation in their eyes. The environment of this county town was quiet and peaceful, with a feeling of a Jiangnan water town. The pedestrians on the road looked relaxed, without any sign of distress.
After arriving at the county government office, each household began to register their identities. For single women, the other party was very humane and could establish a female household.
It is actually very quick to process a new household registration, and there is no need to verify identity, even for this group of people. They are just asked if they have any special skills. If not, they will be registered as farmers and assigned to the villages below.
The most important thing was that the county government gave each person five kilograms of coarse grains and ten kilograms of salted fish as relief food.
We were all refugees, and not many people had any food stored. We were only provided with a bowl of thin porridge every day for five days to prevent people from starving to death. Now, we were suddenly excited to see so much food.
Some people shed tears on the spot, murmuring excitedly: "We came to the right place, we came to the right place!"
The officials around were obviously accustomed to this scene and immediately shouted at everyone to line up quietly.
When it was Lin Xia's turn, she wanted to go to a village closer to the county town, so she secretly slipped some money to the official. The official understood and wrote Wuliao Village for Lin Xia.
After a while, she took the freshly issued household registration, which was very novel. This was her identity completely. From now on, Wuliao Village would be her hometown.
After everyone had completed their household registration, the chief clerk began to announce the land distribution rules to everyone.
Regardless of gender, each person is given one acre of wasteland, and is tax-free for the first three years.
This kind of wasteland can be used for farming, and it is the kind of land that farmers have to spend money to buy if they want it. If there is not enough land, you can reclaim wasteland yourself for free and get a land deed. The reclaimed land is also tax-free for three years.
You can also use silver to buy land, but the purchased land is not tax-exempt.
Everyone was very happy. It was a good thing to have land to farm. They thought that if one acre was not enough, they could start reclaiming wasteland.
After the explanation was clear, the three clerks at the beginning called out another official, and then pulled out a mule cart from somewhere, and led everyone out of the city to the village.
After an hour, everyone was called to stop.
At the fork in the official road and a small road, two officials led three families including Lin Xia and parted ways with the rest of the people.
They walked through the path through the green rice fields and arrived at the village at the end. One of the officials called out the village chief.
The village chief, wearing a coarse cloth garment with few patches, came over with great energy when he heard the voice.
"Village Chief Wan, I'm here to send new people to your village. These are the refugees who need to be resettled this time." One of the officials spoke first.
"It turned out to be Officer Liu and Officer Wang. Thank you for your hard work."
"But our village has resettled more than 40 refugee households. Didn't you say that the village will no longer resettle new people?" Village Chief Wan looked at everyone and then at the two officers.
"This is a decision made by the county, but the fields in your village have been almost divided up, and I don't think there will be any further arrangements in the future." One of the officers explained in a good-tempered manner.
"Hurry up and get it done. The standard this time is the same as last time. One acre of wasteland per person, regardless of gender." Another said impatiently.
Seeing that the other party was impatient, Village Chief Wan had no intention of arguing and arranged the group in a familiar manner: "You two households, follow me, go to the village to register your information first, and then we will go to divide the land."
It was obvious that the other party thought Lin Xia was from one of the households.
One of the officers, surnamed Liu, reminded the village chief: "Village Chief Wan, these are three households, and the girl lives alone."
The village chief looked at Lin Xia in surprise. In the past, the imperial court was not allowed to set up female households. This was a new regulation issued by the provincial capital last year. However, the village chief has not seen a woman setting up a household on her own yet. Only widows set up households with their children or grandchildren.
Although he was surprised, he didn't ask any more questions. In this world, if a woman lives alone, it only means that all her family members have died, and he didn't want to poke fun at her sad story.
The officer wanted to finish his work quickly and go back as soon as possible. He had finally gotten a short mission, so he urged the village chief to hurry up.
The village chief came to his senses and led everyone towards the village, introducing it to everyone as he walked: "You are lucky to be assigned to our village. Not only is the location good, but the fields are also good."
There are many mountains here, and the geographical location of Wuliao Village is indeed very good. It is located in the middle basin area of a mountain range. The village is backed by the mountain and faces the official road across the fields. Most of the villagers live in groups. The flat land between the village and the official road is very large, and there is a river running through the fields.
It is worthy of being a village filled with money. It has a superior location, is close to the county town, and the village chief looks very amiable.
Everyone looked around and soon arrived at the village chief's house.
After registering the information, Village Chief Wan led everyone through the green rice fields, around a protruding mountain and arrived at the fields west of the village.
Obviously, the west side of the village is a gathering place for outsiders, separated by the mountains in the middle, forming a "3" shape with the indigenous residential area.
When we arrived here, we saw that the progress of the work in the rice fields was different. Some people were digging the ground, some were digging ditches, some were planting rice, and some had already been planted.
Everyone in the fields saw the new villagers from Linxia, but because there were officials with them, they all tacitly pretended not to see them and kept their heads down to plant rice.
Village chief Wan brought the three families to the edge of the rice fields, pointed to the remaining wasteland and began to divide the land. Since Linxia had few people and little land, the village chief let her choose first, and the other two families did not say a word, just as they agreed.
Lin Xia chose a field that was close to other people's fields and had a ditch dug through it.
After making the selection, the officials took them aside to receive the land deed. Originally, the land deed had to be processed in the city, but special matters were handled specially, so as long as two officials were present, it could be processed quickly, saving efficiency.
After the three households had obtained the land deeds, the two officials said goodbye and left. The subsequent distribution of the residential land was no longer their responsibility.
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