Chapter 20 Returning Home in Glory: So the family genealogy is now published as a separate book? ...
As the time approached Shenshi (3-5 PM), Mu Chuan returned to Linjia Village.
As dusk settled, the villagers, who had already received the news, waited at the village entrance, led by the village chief and accompanied by the Mu family.
Another round of countless loud firecrackers that created smog.
Mu Chuan dismounted and stepped forward to bow, saying, "Father, Mother, I'm back."
Although he had already seen his son, this solemn scene still brought tears to Mu Dazhuang's eyes.
Of course, the village chief was only happy. He busily stepped forward to greet them: "Hurry back, it's cold outside. Let the adults taste the water and eat the food from their hometown first."
Although it's a bit obsequious, it's nice to have someone adding some spice to things.
The village chief led the way, and the two Mu parents started crying as soon as they opened their mouths. The village chief took over and asked, "Sir, have you noticed any changes in your home?"
Mu Chuan looked around and said, "I was still young when I left, and it seems to be not much different from my memory. But now that I'm back, let's repair the ancestral hall first, then repair my family's ancestral graves, repair the road leading out of the village, and build a private school. All of these are in order!"
The village chief laughed so hard his eyes disappeared, and said repeatedly, "Things will change a lot from now on. Those who went out to work this year will probably not recognize the way when they come back next year."
Mu Chuan then said, "Village chief, go back and ask who can read, the proper kind of reading, and what everyone else can do, who can wield a spear or stick, who can do accounting, who is good at farming, make a list of them, and give it to me later, I have a great use for them."
What does it mean when someone attains enlightenment and even their chickens and dogs ascend to heaven?
Although the word had a slightly derogatory connotation, the village chief didn't care. He laughed and said, "Yes, yes, it's all been tallied up. It's best if it can help you, sir. I've even taken the land deeds."
The village chief accompanied Mu Chuan all the way home.
The village paid for and provided the labor to replace the main gate, but the houses inside remain the same.
The village chief, being very perceptive, didn't linger: "My lord, please rest well. I will come again tomorrow."
As soon as Mu Chuan entered the house, he saw a courtyard full of people.
Second Uncle and Second Aunt. Second Uncle's family has an older brother, a younger brother, and a younger sister.
My own family consists of my parents, younger brother, and younger sister.
There were also several children, barely reaching waist height, held by their parents, looking at him timidly yet with great curiosity.
Almost everyone had tears on their face.
Mu Chuan laughed and said, "It's fine if you cry when I'm not back, but if you still cry when I am back, doesn't that mean you don't respect me, a first-class earl?"
Mu Chuan's biological mother, Huang Guihua, the most annoying old woman in Linjia Village according to Wang Gou'er's family, slapped him on the back—she wasn't as tall as him, so she could only slap him on the lower back.
"You child, what nonsense are you spouting? Don't you know—"
She cried again.
"Cry it out, but at least you made the noodles with minced meat sauce, right?" Mu Chuan asked.
Second Aunt wiped away her tears and wiped her hands on her apron: "I've made it, I've made it. My sister-in-law started making the sauce early this morning. It's the best pork belly, with fat five fingers thick, fried until it's fragrant. I had to wait for you to come back before I could cook the noodles, so they wouldn't clump together."
My second aunt rushed to the kitchen.
Mu Chuan turned to look at his men and laughed, "Come and have a bowl of zha jiang mian (noodles with soybean paste). I only remember this one; it's incredibly delicious."
Mu Chuan's men carried out a large round table and set it up in the courtyard. Everyone sat around the two tables. Mu Chuan smiled and said, "Noodles with soybean paste taste better in winter. First, it's too hot in summer, and you can't stay in the kitchen for too long, and you have to keep an eye on the soybean paste all the time. Second, pigs get fatter in winter, and the soybean paste doesn't taste good without oil."
Mu Chuan added a large spoonful of shredded red radish: "Finally, I love red radishes, they're sweet. And vinegar is a must."
He carefully added a few drops of vinegar, stirred it with his chopsticks, and then picked it up again, and most of the bowl of noodles was gone.
Second Aunt exclaimed "Oh dear!" and quickly stood up: "It's been so many years since I cooked for Third Brother. I completely forgot that he needs to eat three bowls."
Dou Changzong, who came back with him, chuckled twice and glanced at Mu Chuan's bowl: "Such a big bowl, he'll need six."
After finishing their meal, Dou Changzong led the rest of the group out of the courtyard: "Brother Chuan, don't worry about us. We'll go find the village chief to arrange accommodation."
Mu Dazhuang had also heard that his son had a formal name, but he couldn't help feeling a little sad: "...Chuan, from now on I'll have to call you Brother Chuan."
Huang Guihua slapped him on the back again. Because Mu Dazhuang was short and stocky, the slap was quite solid.
“They call him Brother Chuan, but we’ll keep calling him Third Brother. You’re so pretentious. Don’t listen to your dad,” Huang Guihua complained to Mu Chuan.
“If I hadn’t gone to Wang Gou’er’s house every few days to yell and curse, your father would have just endured it all, knowing only how to endure and suppress his own feelings. The villagers would have thought that our family had no deep-seated hatred for them.”
Mu Chuan also said, "I also think we should go and yell at them; we can't just keep it to ourselves."
“Exactly!” With her son’s support, Huang Guihua began to criticize Mu Dazhuang: “If you don’t constantly remind them that Wang Gou’er is an ingrate, they’ll still be hoping to get something out of him.”
"Wang Gou'er is an ingrate!" Auntie Er suddenly said, "A few years ago they hooked up with some important people in Beijing, and now they're acting all high and mighty again."
"Wang Gou'er is bad!" someone's daughter suddenly chimed in. Mu Chuan looked at Huang Guihua and heard her say, "This is your brother's daughter."
"When I left, you were only twelve years old, and your daughter is already this big?"
The slightly hunched man nodded and called him "brother" again.
Mu Chuan asked him, "Can you read?"
"I only studied for half a year back then and could barely recognize a few characters. Fortunately, I haven't forgotten them over the years."
“My dad can read. People in the village even ask him to write letters. His handwriting is very neat.”
Mu Chuan smiled and said, "That's good. I'll arrange for you to work as a clerk in the county government later."
Although this would have been a pipe dream for the old Mu family, given their past perspective, their own brothers were all earls, so—
The old man squatting by the door, looking rather disheveled and smoking a pipe, was a third-rank official. It seemed quite possible that he would become a clerk in the county government.
After finishing his pipe, Mu Dazhuang tapped it against the new bluestone threshold, stood up, and asked, "I haven't asked you yet, but I'm a third-rank official, so how come your mother is a first-rank noblewoman?"
Mu Chuan laughed and said, "A woman's title is either requested by her husband or her son. I am a count of the highest rank. If I were to request the title, my mother would also be of the highest rank. However, my father is only of the third rank, so my mother can only be granted the first rank."
Huang Guihua burst into laughter: "You've dragged your mother down."
"What nonsense!" Mu Dazhuang looked angry but dared not vent it, yet his face was full of smiles.
Uncle Mu Daniu, who had been trying to laugh but dared not, finally spoke up, "Third son..." His hand subconsciously went to the broken leg, "Wang Gou'er, what should we do?"
Their cautious demeanor is heartbreaking to see, even though they are the victims.
Mu Chuan pointed to his father: "Third rank." Then he pointed to his mother: "First rank. According to the rules of officialdom, if you meet Wang Gou'er on the road, if he doesn't bow his head, you can beat him up; if he does, you can beat him up again; if he speaks disrespectfully, you can beat him up again."
Mu Chuan gave several examples, which his family members initially paid attention to, but later realized that they all basically meant: beat him up.
After years of feeling stifled, the second aunt suddenly stood up, grabbed her sister-in-law with one hand, and reached for the bolt on the other door with the other: "Let's go out for a walk."
"It's so late at night, it's already dark," Mu Daniu said instinctively.
"Hey, your legs aren't good, you can't really hit anyone. Let's go for a walk around Wang Gou'er's neighborhood. What did Third Brother say just now? If he dares to chase me away, I'll beat him up."
Mu Dazhuang wanted to stop him, but Mu Chuan stopped him, saying, "You can't be so hesitant and prevent him from venting his anger."
"There should be some of my men by the pile of carriages at the entrance. Give them a shout and tell them to come along and help Auntie hold down Wang Gou'er's hand."
"Ahem!" These words made Second Aunt Shan Liniang beam with joy: "It's so good that Third Brother is back."
Mu Chuan added, “Don’t beat them too hard, or they’ll just run away. My plan is to let them see that the ancestral hall is repaired, the road is paved, and the private school teacher is in good hands—oh right, I’ve also ordered oxen and mule carts, so they should at least see what they’ve missed. Then we’ll chase them away.”
Now even the two men in the courtyard, who had been forced to tolerate each other for decades and never lost their temper, started laughing.
It wasn't too dark yet, and on a winter night, the stars were especially bright, and the moon was still more than half full. Wang Gou'er could see clearly that there were people on the path outside.
"It's those two crazy women from the Mu family!" he whispered to his wife.
Liu looked worried: "What are they going to do so late at night!" She also peeked out the window, "They're carrying sticks!"
Wang Gou'er couldn't help but complain to Granny Liu: "You said you were going to get reinforcements, is this the Rongguo Mansion's way of mediating?"
"What else can we do?" Granny Liu was sewing shoe soles, and she remained calm, having seen a lot in the world.
"They're not coming in, so let's just stay here. Think about it, if the Rongguo Mansion doesn't say anything, won't they rush in and beat us half to death?"
Thinking about it that way, it makes sense, but he'll definitely get a beating. Wang Gou'er sighed, "Rich people have no conscience! When they need you, they call you brother this and brother that, but when they don't need you, they won't even bark at you like a dog."
Several days have passed since the beginning of winter, and the Minor Snow solar term is just around the corner. The village is freezing cold. Huang Guihua and Shan Liniang walked around for a while, and the warmth from a big bowl of oily noodles with soybean paste was blown away by the cold wind.
Huang Guihua shivered and said, "Liniang, let's go back first. We don't want to get cold before we even get to fight Wang Gou'er."
Shan Liniang was a little excited, but she calmed down now. She shook the stick in her hand and said, "I'll come back to stop him tomorrow."
Mu Chuan slept well and woke up early the next morning. He smelled the aroma of porridge and went out of the house, but only his father and second uncle were in the main room.
"Where's my mother?" Mu Chuan asked, then found it amusing. Throughout history, people always turn to their mothers first, whether there's a problem or not.
Mu Dazhuang gave Mu Chuan a reproachful look: "You went to beat up Wang Gou'er with your second aunt."
Mu Daniu seemed much more carefree. Last night, Shan Liniang told him how she went to ambush Wang Gou'er in the middle of the night. Although she didn't manage to catch him, it did relieve his years of frustration.
"I'll eat first." Mu Chuan served himself a bowl of porridge. "Then I'll walk around the village with the village chief. We need to choose a place to build a private school, and also—"
"We hit them! We hit them!" Shan Liniang came in excitedly: "Your mother and I each hit them twice with a stick."
Mu Chuan looked up and saw his second aunt and mother coming in one after the other, followed by his men carrying the door bolt.
Needless to say, he must have been so excited after beating the person that he forgot the door latch at the scene.
"Come and have some porridge before you leave," Mu Chuan invited.
Although the rice from Mu Chuan's family was ordinary and nothing special, the porridge was personally served by the general, something he could brag about for three years. This subordinate drank three large bowls before he was full.
After breakfast, the village chief came again.
The group left Mu Chuan's house, walked around the main road of the village, and then stood at the edge of the village to look at their fields.
Linjia Village has 93 households, and even including the newly reclaimed land that yields little harvest, the total cultivated land is just over 3,000 mu.
After looking through it once, Mu Chuan had a clear idea of what to do, so he said to the village chief, "I want to rebuild the old house. The original space is not enough. I plan to use the original land as a private school and then allocate another piece of land to build a new house."
The village chief nodded repeatedly: "Which piece of land has taken a fancy to, sir?"
Mu Chuan pointed: "It's the area near the mountain."
“This land is excellent! It's nestled against the mountains and beside the water! The feng shui is great—and the land where your old house is located is also excellent. If it's used as a private school, our village will surely prosper in the future.”
Mu Chuan didn't mind his flattery and asked, "Where is Wang Gou'er's land? Let's go take a look."
The village chief then took him to Wang Gou'er's land: "It's a total of 135 mu of land, 20 mu of paddy fields, 50 mu of dry fields, and the rest is sandy land. I've designated all of it as top-grade land."
Mu Chuan patted the village chief on the shoulder to indicate that he understood.
The land tax in the Great Wei Dynasty was eleven percent. This is an average figure. For medium-quality land, the tax was one-tenth, and for high-quality land, it was about 15 percent.
As for Dingtian and others, that falls under the village chief's authority.
Of course, even though the land tax isn't high, the corvée labor, poll tax, wages for odd jobs in the government office, and even the cost of replacing a table all come from these fields. So, if you can get 50% of it in your hands, that's considered a lot.
Mu Chuan said, "I'm only entrusting you with matters concerning the village."
Village chief Lin Dashan was overjoyed. What was this? This was a sign of respect for him. There were still many elders in the village, but Zhongyongbo hadn't been found. This was a reward for his years of taking care of the Mu family and suppressing Wang Gou'er.
"I'll take 30%," Mu Chuan said. "Of course, I'll say 40% to outsiders. You keep a close eye on the village and make sure the news doesn't get out, or I'll be in a difficult position."
Lin Dashan nodded repeatedly: "They're not fools. If word got out, where would they find such a good thing?"
Mu Chuan added, “I won’t accept this 30% for nothing. I’ll hire the private school teacher, and I’ve also ordered two pieces of white marble. The larger one will be placed in the ancestral hall, and the smaller one will be placed in front of my Mu family’s ancestral grave.”
Lin Dashan was too grateful to say anything else.
"There's not much work to do," Mu Chuan said. "We'll try to finish the ancestral hall and the road ramming before the New Year."
Mu Chuan gave instructions one by one: "There are still ten oxen to go. They should arrive in the next couple of days. Find some young boys to raise the oxen. Once they are trained, they can plow the fields."
The original owner's family had oxen, which could plow about three acres of land a day. They would need to rest for a day after plowing for three days, so ten oxen were definitely not enough.
"These are all yellow cattle now. I also ordered Mongolian cattle, which can plow five acres of land a day, but they won't arrive until after the New Year."
"Mules are easy to find. I brought back four mule carts. From now on, there will be mule carts going to the capital every day. We won't accept copper coins from Linjia Village, but we will accept them from other villages at the market price."
"Don't cause trouble when you get to the capital. If anyone tries to cause trouble, don't be afraid. Just mention the name of the Marquis of Zhongyong."
Lin Dashan didn't know what to say.
He meticulously planned out what he needed to do, only to realize with a start: "We don't have enough people!"
Mu Chuan had already considered everything: "Some of the soldiers in the camp were demobilized. They were all forcibly conscripted back then. They are illiterate and don't know their hometown, so they were settled in our village. Besides, aren't my mother and my second aunt from the next village? Surely some people will come to join us. You can take them in."
At first, Lin Dashan was grateful for the trust that Zhongyong Earl placed in him, but now he felt that he was going to let Zhongyong Earl down because he couldn't handle so many things.
"Someone will help you," Mu Chuan said with a smile. "Take advantage of the time approaching the New Year, when you don't have to farm and have a lot of free time, practice more."
Lin Dashan was not only encouraged, but he also ate so many pancakes that he was stuffed. However, that was not the end of it.
“There are many government offices in the capital,” Mu Chuan sighed. “Our village isn’t known for its academic atmosphere, but you still need to be literate. I’ll vouch for you and get you jobs as menial laborers in the government offices. I remember the neighboring village in the mountain valley is competing with us for water. You can take people to their village to collect land taxes later.”
"Those who want to join the army should go to Pingnan Town. With me here, you won't be forced to charge to the front like a cannon fodder, nor will you be overly demanding of merit. Of course, you can't just coast along either."
Mu Chuan let out a long sigh, his tone slightly unreal: "From now on, when the county magistrate invites the local gentry to dinner, Village Chief Lin—you will also be seated in the seat of honor."
Lin Dashan was deeply immersed in the foreground, middle ground, and background depicted by Mu Chuan, and he lowered his head in submission.
"My lord, for such a merit, let alone a separate page in the family genealogy, you should make a separate book for it."
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