The gate collapsed, and the surrounding earthen walls were shaking. She had no doubt that Jiang Nian could knock down the earthen walls with just half a kick.
The two walked in and saw a devastated scene. The two rows of servants' quarters near the courtyard wall at the first entrance had completely collapsed. The roof of the main house in the second courtyard had also collapsed, leaving only the slate walls eroded by wind and rain.
Jiang Nian suddenly pulled Jiang Yue behind him and whispered, "There's someone in the main room."
Jiang Yue listened attentively and heard a faint rustling sound, as if someone was talking.
She called out, "Who's in there?"
The talking in the room stopped. After a while, a dirty head popped out from the corner of the wall. It was not very old, but when it saw Jiang Yue and the others, it quickly hid back.
Jiang Yue had no choice but to continue shouting: "This place has been sold to us, please find another place to live."
After a while, four people came out of the house cautiously.
They were half-naked and had disheveled hair, but their eyes were clear and they didn't look like they had any mental problems.
One of the four was an older couple, with a son and a daughter who were between ten and thirteen years old.
After coming out, he knelt down in front of Jiang Nian.
The man spoke tremblingly, "Sir, Madam, are you the new masters of the manor?"
"yes."
He spoke hurriedly, "To answer your husband and wife's questions, my family's surname is Yuan. We were originally the head of this village, and my wife was a cook. During a natural disaster, our master was brutally murdered by bandits, and my family escaped the disaster, so we hid in this house to make a living..."
The whole family lowered their heads, looking quite honest. But she wouldn't believe their words so easily. If they were truly honest, they wouldn't survive to this day.
"The police must have come to check on the manor a while ago. Were you not discovered?"
"We hid in the cellar, and the officers left without checking carefully..."
Jiang Yue was silent. Perhaps it was because she saw how dilapidated the place outside was, and she didn't expect that there were still people living in it.
"Have you been to the city in the past few years?"
He nodded, then shook his head. "We once left home, hoping to escape famine. But halfway through, we were robbed. My family got scared, so we hid back. Our former owner left us some food, and if things got any worse, we could go up the mountain and dig tree bark to eat."
"You guys get up and answer first."
Jiang Yue walked into the house and found that they had built a small cabin with a few large wooden boards and hid in it to sleep. The cabin was full of small stoves, large and small pottery pots, and other things. It was obvious that they had not lived here for long.
The Yuanzhuangtou family followed behind trembling with fear, feeling uneasy about whether this would displease their husband and wife.
Jiang Yue turned around and said, "I won't pursue your faults."
Several people's faces lit up with joy, and then they heard the lady say: "Now the city is recruiting common people, you can come into the city, work for the government to earn food, and you can also get houses and land in the future."
When they heard the news, they didn't seem very happy.
Yuan Zhuangtou hesitated, then knelt down again. "We don't know how long the city will be stable, so my family would like to ask you two to take us in. We have lived in this village for more than ten years and are very familiar with the place. If you two don't mind, we are willing to serve you like slaves."
The woman behind him quickly pulled the child over and knelt down to beg for mercy.
Jiang Yue's heart moved. Such a large manor must be managed by someone. This manor head is a good candidate. However, she still emphasized again and again, "Now that you have entered the city, you are good citizens. If you want to stay and work for us, you will be selling yourself to us. Your life and death will be decided by us. You must think carefully."
Jiang Nian's situation is special, and she can't live with someone she is not sure of.
Yuan Zhuangtou smiled bitterly and said, "We all understand what my wife said, but my family is really scared. Although we have no freedom, we have food and drink, and being alive is good enough."
Who can guarantee what the weather will be like this year or next? What if there's no harvest? Even if you own a house and land, what good will it do? Many farmers have sold their children, even themselves, because of a poor harvest.
"We'll talk about whether to take us in or not later. First, take us to see the situation of this village."
“Yes, yes, yes…”
Yuan Zhuangtou led the way in front, and his wife followed closely behind with the child.
There were many houses in the courtyard, but most of them had collapsed. Tiles were scattered all over the ground, and the good ones had been collected by the Yuanzhuangtou family for recycling.
Jiang Yue sighed. These woods were no longer useful, but the stones could be used to make the courtyard wall higher and deeper.
To her surprise, there was also an osmanthus tree in this courtyard, which was several years older than the one in the city. It was now sprouting new buds and looked very prosperous.
According to the yard planning of the previous owner, the farm is vast, and a two-courtyard house is larger than a three-courtyard house in the city.
There is a carved stone screen wall in the front yard, a dried-up lotus pond and a small rockery in the backyard, and the small pavilion in the southeast corner is dilapidated, but it is not difficult to see the owner's preference, which has a certain Jiangnan charm.
What Yuan Zhuangtou said was true. His family was very familiar with this place and could clearly describe the original use of each room.
After visiting the house, the group headed towards the fields.
A stone tablet has been erected at the junction of this village to mark the boundary. The words on the stone tablet have been eroded a little, but they can still be distinguished.
Originally there were 300 mu of paddy fields and 200 mu of dry land, but the weeds had grown to half a man's height, and the boundaries between the fields were unclear. Jiang Yue walked around and found something was wrong.
Jiang Nian squatted down and let Jiang Yue sit on his shoulders, then he stood up and looked around with squinted eyes. The more he looked, the bigger the area seemed to him.
The Yuanzhuangtou family was shocked and quickly lowered their heads, not daring to look.
How could a wife sit on her husband's head?
"Yuan Zhuangtou, why do the fields here look so big to me? They must be more than 500 acres."
"To answer my wife, the farmland is indeed five hundred acres. Because the area at the foot of the mountain has been left uncultivated and not used for growing crops, it's not included in the land deed. The original owner's surname was Jin, and this was part of their ancestral property. Ancestral teachings state that a portion of the land must be left vacant; this is called the ancestral land."
Yuan Zhuangtou added silently, "If you plant grain, you have to pay land tax."
Jiang Yue raised an eyebrow. Is this considered hidden land? As long as it's not cultivated, there's no tax to pay. However, it has been designated as the site of this manor, which means she has several hundred acres more land.
"How much land is not listed on the deed?"
"About three hundred acres."
Jiang Yue smiled, so her farm, in total, covered nearly a thousand acres!
People, doing more good deeds can bring you more luck! It can't be stopped!
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