The happy little days of the Ye family

When the two arrived in town, it was lunch time, and Mr. Ye invited Village Chief Ye to eat noodles at a noodle stall near the Yamen.

"Boss, please have two bowls of meat noodle soup."

"My brother is still very generous. My family hasn't had meat for a long time." In fact, the village chief's family is well off, but the village chief's wife is reluctant to eat it and is even more picky than Mrs. Ye.

After the two of them had eaten and drank enough, they entered the Yamen to look for the paperwork to manage land reclamation. Entering the room, there was only a middle-aged man sitting at the table looking through files.

"Sir, I am the village chief of Taohua Village. This is Ye Guitian, a villager in the village." Village Chief Ye came in and introduced the identities of the two people respectfully.

Mr. Ye quickly stepped forward and took a purse and handed it to the man. The man weighed the purse and found that it was about one tael of silver, and he put it away in a good mood. “Would you like to buy a barren land or a barren mountain?”

"Buying a barren hill, my family has little land. The emperor's grace has been good in recent years, and my family has accumulated some money. I originally wanted to buy fertile land, but there were very few people selling it, so I decided to buy a hill."

Ordinary people are afraid of seeing officials. Even if he has not committed any crime, Mr. Ye is still instinctively afraid and answers cautiously.

"Barren land costs 500 Wen per acre, and barren hills cost 200 Wen per acre. The imperial court has encouraged land reclamation in recent years. Although it takes longer to cultivate barren hills, the price is much lower than that of wasteland, and the tax is free for five years. You can't lose money."

Then he stood up and said: "You guys wait here, I'll call the two detectives to come over, and I'll go back to the village with you later to measure the mountainous land."

"Thank you, sir." The village chief and Mr. Ye bowed gratefully.

After a while, the middle-aged man brought two strong detectives over, "You will follow Village Chief Ye back to Taohua Village later to measure the mountainous land."

"Thank you for your hard work, brothers." After leaving the Yamen, Mr. Ye secretly handed two purses to the two detectives.

The purse contained five pieces of broken silver. The two detectives saw that Mr. Ye was informed and interested, and there was an ox cart riding to the village. They were very polite along the way, and even reminded Mr. Ye that he must buy the barren mountain. On the red deed.

When they returned to the village, they didn't take the main road, but went straight up the trail to the small back mountain.

The terrain at the foot of the mountain is flat. There are not only Chinese toon trees on both sides of the stream, but also various wild vegetable leaves growing around it. The old man specially asked two detectives to measure a large area of ​​land at the foot of the mountain.

The flat land at the foot of the mountain was originally considered a barren land, but the two detectives took advantage of Mr. Ye and turned a blind eye and turned it into a barren mountain.

Moreover, the two detectives were loose when they measured it. There were originally more than 160 acres of barren hills, but only 150 acres were written on the land deed.

After measuring the mountainous area, Village Chief Ye and Mr. Ye sent the two detectives back to the Yamen to find documents to buy the barren mountain.

"The mountain is not big. It is 150 acres in total. It costs 200 taels per acre. The total cost of the barren mountain is 30 taels of silver. Do you want to apply for a red deed? If you exchange it for a red deed, you have to pay one and a half of the tax." After seeing the document, Mr. Ye was informed and interested. Happy to give some advice.

The red deed is a land deed recognized by the yamen. The sale and purchase must go through the yamen and cannot be bought and sold privately. The white deed is anonymous and can be bought and sold privately. However, if the land deed is stolen or disappears, the land may not be yours.

"If you want a red deed, you can't save this money." Mr. Ye quickly gave the clerk the money to buy the mountain and the red deed.

There was a landowner in the next village. In order to save money, he signed a white deed. Unexpectedly, his son was a gambler, so he stole the land deed from his family and sold it. White deeds can be bought and sold privately, and people from gambling houses come to take over the land with the deeds, but there is nothing they can do about it.

The clerk counted the silver and found that he was given 32 taels of silver. Looking at the extra half a tael, the clerk didn't say anything. He wrote the red deed with a smile and handed it to Mr. Ye.

"Thank you sir."

On the way back, I passed by a snack shop, and Mr. Ye went in and bought two more kilograms of snacks. After coming out, he didn't say anything and stuffed the snacks into Village Chief Ye's arms.

Village Chief Ye didn't answer and asked Mr. Ye to go back and return it quickly. "You have so much money. Didn't you just buy some snacks this morning? Take them back and return them quickly. We've been old friends for decades and don't talk about these nonsense."

Mr. Ye refused and urged Village Chief Ye to go back quickly.

"What are you going to plant on the mountain? With just a few toon and bamboo shoots, I can only make back the money you paid to buy the mountain, not much."

Mr. Ye is a shrewd and capable person. He will definitely not just look at the wild vegetables and bamboo shoots in front of him. If he has any good ideas, he also wants to save some wealth for the younger generations of the family.

"Last year, didn't Dr. Li say that the drug store would collect honeysuckle at fifty cents per catty? I plan to plant some honeysuckle on the mountain. It only takes a short time to plant honeysuckle. If you plant it this year, it will bloom next year."

The town has a small population, and Luohe Town alone cannot afford much honeysuckle and mountain delicacies. Mr. Ye plans to send the honeysuckle and mountain products to the county for sale, so he is not afraid of Village Chief Ye and the people in the village knowing about it.

Village Chief Ye knew that honeysuckle could be sold in drug stores for money, and he planned to go to the mountains to find honeysuckle in the summer, but he did not expect that honeysuckle could also be grown, and he suddenly became enlightened.

In addition to the back mountain and the small back mountain, there are more than a dozen hills of various sizes in the village. Pick two smaller mountains, buy them, plant honeysuckle, and take good care of them. When he is gone in the future, the two sons will not have to worry about having a bad life.

"Brother, you also have an idea. If you want to buy it, buy it as soon as possible. In the summer, people in the village will make money selling honeysuckle. I guess many people will have this idea. There are many smart people in the village."

They have been old friends for many years, and Mr. Ye knew that Village Chief Ye was also attracted by him at a glance.

"I have some ideas. I'll go back and discuss it with my two sons. If there are too many people growing honeysuckle, will the drugstore stop accepting it?" Ye Cunzi was still a little worried.

"There are not many people in the town. If there are too many people planting, they will definitely not be able to eat. I plan to transport the output from the mountain to the county and sell it."

Taohua Village is not far from the county seat. It takes about an hour and a half to get there by bullock cart, and you can go back and forth in the same day. In addition, the weather has been good in recent years, and the people's lives have improved, and naturally there are no bandits or bandits.

"Brother, you still have the guts. I heard from my son before that a new wharf was built in the county, and there is an endless stream of ships coming and going. Many businessmen from other places bring goods to our county to sell. I heard that some people also buy dried bamboo shoots and mushrooms from us. Sold in the north.”

Village Chief Ye's youngest son works as the second shopkeeper of a restaurant in the county town. Moreover, the village chief's youngest son is very filial and brings his children back to stay for a day or two every month. The village knows a lot about what is going on in the county town.

Then the village chief said: "I heard that it snows heavily in the north when winter comes. Every year before autumn, we stock up on a lot of food. When I have time, I will go to the dock to find out."

"I've also heard that there is a shortage of vegetables in the winter in the north, and it's easy to get angry when burning the kang in winter. I don't know if that's true. If it's true, there's no need to worry about the produce in the mountains."

Mr. Ye now felt that this small back hill was a cornucopia. He was immediately interested in the dock in the county and planned to go to the dock to inquire about it.