Chapter 102
After the beginning of spring, the heavy snow stopped and the sky that had been gray throughout the winter finally opened up to reveal some warm sunshine.
As the snow melted, water columns on the roofs and eaves kept sliding down, and the whole wilderness was filled with the sound of rushing water, which was even louder than the rain in summer.
At this moment, the wind was filled with the chill of accumulated snow, and it felt even colder when it blew on people than when it was snowing. The country roads were muddy and slippery with broken ice and snow.
Even though it was cold and the roads were difficult to walk on, the people who had been hiding for a whole winter still came out of their houses and took advantage of the sunny days to repair their houses that had collapsed under the weight of snow during the winter, and to go to the fields to loosen the soil.
Spring came late this year. It's still like this in February. The snow has just melted. I dare not plant the crops in a hurry for fear that the seeds will die of the cold.
The villagers are busy. Last year's autumn harvest was poor, and there were two disasters. Many people have no food left, and they have to go to the city to buy grain seeds. No matter how hard it is, there is no way. If they don't get the grain seeds together, the autumn harvest will be another tragedy. It's simply a vicious cycle.
In the past few days, some people have come to the Zhang family to borrow grain seeds. Xu He is very tired from dealing with them every day.
Zhang Fangyuan put on a pair of long boots early in the morning: "I have to go to the city to buy a house today. When the weather is clear, the price may go up. It may be a better deal to buy it now."
Xu He took out a cloak and gave it to Zhang Fangyuan to wear. It was already cold in late spring, and it was even colder when the snow melted. Zhang Fangyuan never liked to wear bulky clothes. If he didn't prepare clothes for others, he wouldn't wear them. Sometimes he was just like Xiaoli.
"Have you really decided to take the two-story house in Qingshan Lane?"
Zhang Fangyuan nodded: "Ruijin is still young, so he doesn't have to be sent to the academy. There are teachers living in Qingshan Lane. Maybe he can find an enlightenment teacher there. When he grows up, he can be sent to the academy. Then I can feel more at ease when he goes to and from school."
Xu He responded. It was a good idea, but he didn't know if it would go so smoothly. However, he didn't have many requirements. Anyway, the house was in the city. No matter where it was finally bought, it would always be much closer than from the village to the city.
"Ruijin and Ruili have lived in the village since they were young. If they move to a noisy place, they may not be able to get used to it. Qingshan Lane has a quiet environment, which is not bad."
"Then I'll go and pay the money today, and then I'll go to the county government office to go through the formalities, and I'll be able to get the keys back soon."
"Okay." Xu He fastened his coat and said, "I'll go check on the kids. It's cold outside today, so we won't let the two of you go out. I sneaked out the other day and fell hard, and my knees are still bruised."
Zhang Fangyuan laughed and said, "Just wipe it with medicinal wine. Countryside children should not be spoiled."
Xu He nodded, and the couple left the bedroom together.
Zhang Fangyuan went out on Xiao Hei. He did not take a carriage this morning. Although it was cold outside and riding in a carriage would be much more comfortable, the road was muddy, and the carriage was not only slow but also easy to slip.
He walked along the village road with his horse's belly between his legs. It was bustling outside. Everyone was inspecting their own land and greeted him when they saw him.
Because of the charcoal fire incident, everyone was very convinced of him. A while ago, the village chief wanted to expand his backyard and came to ask him what day and direction to choose. Instead of asking a Feng Shui master, they regarded him as a Feng Shui master.
He slowly pulled his horse onto the official road, which was several times wider than the village road. However, there was much more snow along the way through the woods than in the open space. There was the sound of crackling snow falling to the ground all along the way. Zhang Fangyuan covered his head with the bamboo hat tied around Xiao Hei's neck and avoided the attack of the snow.
The mud on the official road was thicker than that in the village, and it was wet everywhere. If you slipped, you could fall several meters away.
"Push harder! How can you get up there with such little strength?"
"Master, I'm afraid this won't work. How about sending someone to the city to buy a new horse and bring people over to help?"
Zhang Fangyuan was riding high on his horse and could see from a distance a carriage parked at the bend of the official road ahead. Several people were standing beside it and talking. Among them, the man who looked like the master was older and was holding a child in his arms. He was urging two servants to push the carriage forward.
He stopped Xiao Hei at the side, turned over and jumped down: "The mud has stuck the wheels. We need to clear the mud first before we can push it."
Zhang Fangyuan was so familiar with running on this road that he could tell where the trees were even with his eyes closed.
He found a stick from the roadside and scraped the mud off the wheels. Perhaps because he had traveled a lot, the wheels were covered with a thick layer of mud, which was as thick as a wheel after being scraped off.
Seeing Zhang Fangyuan's actions, the two servants hurriedly came to help. Several people worked together to quickly clean up the mud. Zhang Fangyuan exerted force, his veins bulged, and the carriage that fell into the puddle rolled forward and got out of the pit in an instant.
"Thank you for your help, brave man." The middle-aged man smiled when he saw that the carriage could be used again.
Zhang Fangyuan waved his hand and said, "It snowed for a season, and the roads everywhere are difficult to drive on. People are coming and going, and everyone is helping each other to travel. It's a small matter."
City dwellers with their wheels stuck can often be seen on this road. Zhang Fangyuan found the middle-aged man unfamiliar and thought that he had never been to the tea stall before, otherwise the two sides might have been familiar with each other.
Zhang Fangyuan glanced at the baby in the middle-aged man's arms. He looked like a little boy, about the same age as the two children in their family. His face was chubby and much whiter than the two children in their family. His tender skin seemed like it could be torn by the biting winter wind.
Maybe because he has children at home, Zhang Fangyuan is particularly fond of the child outside. It is freezing cold, and such a young child has to travel with the adults at home. It looks so pitiful. Zhang Fangyuan took out a few paper-wrapped candies from his body.
When the little boy saw Zhang Fangyuan's ferocious look, he seemed a little scared and hid timidly behind his master.
"Xing Ge'er, don't be disrespectful."
The middle-aged man spoke, and the child moved his dark eyes. After receiving the signal, he carefully opened his hand to take the candy from Zhang Fangyuan: "Thank you, uncle."
Zhang Fangyuan smiled and said, "Let's go."
After saying that, he turned around and went back to Xiao Hei, jumped on his horse and left.
"Master, let's hurry up and leave. It's still cold in Siyang. We will be able to enter the city soon. If we enter the city early, we will be careful not to let the young master get cold."
The middle-aged man looked at Zhang Fang's tall back as he walked away, then looked back at the candy the child in his arms was holding, and said, "Although the weather in Siyang is cold, the people's hearts are warm."
The servant said, "I didn't expect such a strong man to carry these things with him."
The middle-aged man said nothing more, and got back into the carriage carrying the child.
When Zhang Fangyuan arrived in the city, it was very busy. There were many people sweeping snow and streets in the market. Small stalls that had not been open for a long time were set up today. There were also farmers selling vegetables at the city gate. Siyang was lively again.
He ate a bowl of noodles nearby before going to find the matchmaker to get the house.
The house was originally priced at one thousand taels, so the couple went to the original owner to negotiate the price, and finally settled on an auspicious number of eight hundred and eighty taels.
Zhang Fangyuan took out a stack of banknotes and exchanged them for a bunch of keys. Without stopping, he immediately went to the county government office to complete the registration procedures. He had donated a lot of charcoal at the beginning of the year, so the county government remembered his favor and did not make it difficult for him. Soon, all the procedures were completed.
When I came out of the county government office, the sun was a little bigger. The city has a lot of people, so efficiency is fast. The snow on the roofs in the morning had been cleared away by now, revealing the original green tiles. The streets had also been almost cleaned, but they had not been dried by the sun.
Zhang Fangyuan untied his cloak and prepared to go back to the new house to see what else was missing. By then, everything would be ready and they could move in at any time.
"Go somewhere else. You can't open your eyes and see clearly what this place is!"
"Go, go, go, there's nothing, nothing at all!"
Zhang Fangyuan saw a loud commotion near the county government office, so he went over to take a look. He saw a group of ragged refugees who had come in and were begging for food from the government officials. They were then driven away by the officials.
"Where did these refugees come from? Didn't we just collect money and food for disaster relief last month?"
The yamen runner saw him talking and knew that he had just gone to the yamen to do some work, so he was quite polite to him: "They are not refugees from Siyang. After the donations a while ago, the refugees in this county have been settled. These are from other counties. Sir, haven't you been in the city recently? Our city is full of refugees right now."
Zhang Fangyuan frowned slightly: "But is it from Ningjiang Prefecture?"
The yamen runner nodded and said, "Yes, they came from that side. After the heavy snow, the epidemic was cured, but the poor people didn't survive the several disasters. Many people sold their property and land, and had no place to stay, so they wandered around. Not only did they come to our county, but many refugees from other counties also poured in."
The yamen runner was helpless as he said, "The higher-ups have issued a notice that all localities are not allowed to expel disaster victims and must resettle them as much as possible."
Zhang Fangyuan suddenly understood after hearing this. No wonder the government office was so busy and flustered. It turned out that they were worried about this matter.
Siyang was also among the disaster-stricken areas this time. Although the disaster was not as serious as that in Ningjiang Prefecture, a lot of refugees had been sent out before. The county government had already raised funds to help the victims. If the same trick was used again, the merchants would probably not buy into it, and it would probably cause dissatisfaction among the local wealthy people.
If we leave these refugees alone, they will beg on the streets and starve to death, which will affect the cityscape. The common people will complain about it, and when the higher-ups come to inspect and evaluate their performance, they will just ask people on the street and the county magistrate will forget about promotion if he mentions this matter.
As Zhang Fangyuan walked towards Qingshan Lane, he observed the refugees on the street, which were quite numerous. They floated along the streets like wandering souls, with unkempt hair and dirty faces, their faces had become gray and had lost their original flesh color, their eye sockets were sunken, their lips were cracked and white, and they were so thin that they had to rely on bamboo sticks to support their bodies.
It is normal for such a situation to occur after a major disaster, just as a locust plague is likely to occur after a severe drought. Those who had to flee to other places to beg were considered lucky, because many people had already lost their lives in natural disasters.
Zhang Fangyuan thought about it for a while and originally planned to go back to the new house first, but then he came up with a plan. He went straight to the stable to pull Xiao Hei, and rode the horse back to the village first.
"We have a place to live on our one hundred acres of land!"
Xu He was making lunch. The two little guys followed him like little ducks. They followed him when he went to get water and when he went to get vegetables. So he simply left the job of cleaning the vegetables to Gancao and Huangqi, and took the two kids out of the kitchen.
What a coincidence, they just happened to see their father coming back.
Seeing that Zhang Fangyuan was in high spirits, Xu He did not talk about the house first, but talked about the family's land first, so he could not help asking, "What did you say?"
"Everyone is busy working on their own land in the spring, so it may be difficult to hire someone to plow the land."
In fact, it is easy to hire someone as long as the money is in place, but who is willing to spend more money to hire someone to do something? Zhang Fangyuan was worried about his hundred acres of land before. He had bought it with great joy, but in the end he had to use a cold stove to do the job, which was a joke.
He pulled Xu He into the house, and the two followers followed behind them. He handed the key he brought back from the city to Xu He and said, "I went to the city today to complete the formalities, and I saw a lot of refugees begging on the street. They were all from other counties, and the county magistrate was worried about how to resettle them."
"We need people to cultivate our land. I originally wanted to find hired farmers. Now, aren't these refugees ready-made?"
Xu He immediately understood what Zhang Fangyuan meant: "Do you want to take the refugees here and give them the land to farm?"
Zhang Fangyuan responded, "A family in the village has no more than ten acres of land. Our one hundred acres of land can be divided among ten families, but most of these refugees are not households, so we can accept more refugees. Hired farmers are not servants of the employer, so the employer does not have to pay taxes to them. When the autumn harvest comes, a portion of the grain will be paid to the court, and the remaining 90% of the grain will be divided among them."
Xu He thought about it and realized that the life of a hired farmer was not easy, much harder than that of ordinary people. The grain grown in a year had to be paid to the court first, and then to the employer. Usually, the remaining grain was only enough for the family to barely eat. This was if they met a kind employer. If they met a stingy one, not having enough to eat was commonplace.
In other words, hired farmers completely borrowed the landlord's land and worked for the landlord to make a living. They were a group between free ordinary people and those who had lost their indentures and become slaves.
Many people would not be willing to be hired farmhands unless they had no other choice.
Xu He was not sure whether he could recruit these refugees as hired farmhands. If he could, it would be killing two birds with one stone.
"Okay, let's do it as soon as possible. The weather will warm up in the spring when the snow stops. Our land is newly reclaimed, so the harvest will definitely not be as good as the land that the villagers have carefully cultivated. We need to turn the land over and apply fertilizer. We can't delay for too long."
Zhang Fangyuan said, "I came back to discuss this idea with you. Let's first settle the land issue and then find a suitable teacher for Ruijin and Xiaoli."
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