mesbooks Chapter 274 Wasteland
Chapter 274 Wasteland
The next morning, when the people of Shenjia Village followed the village head Tang Guangzheng and walked westward, they passed by neatly arranged farmlands.
Although there were not many people in the fields at this time, many people knew that they were going to see the wasteland west of the river today and came to watch the fun.
As the group crossed the wooden bridge one after another, Shen Zhiqiu couldn't help but ask, "Li Zheng Tang, I'm afraid this wooden bridge won't work. Do we have to build a stone bridge ourselves?"
Tang Guangzheng frowned. He originally wanted to blurt out, "Of course you build the bridge yourself when you cross it," but he remembered that the people from Tangjia Village also crossed this bridge to Fangshan.
The wooden bridge itself is indeed not convenient, and they have also discussed whether to build a stone bridge. The village has also accumulated a lot of stone slabs over the years.
"If we want to build a stone bridge, the whole village can work together to build it, but you live on the west side and you cross the bridge a lot, so you have to do your part."
This request was not excessive, Shen Zhiqiu nodded: "Okay, but I hope to arrange it earlier, that is, should we hire someone to build the bridge or what?"
Tang Guangzheng explained: "We have to hire people. This river is prone to disasters during the rainy season. We have to find a professional bridge construction team to take a look. As for manpower, we can provide more."
Shen Zhiqiu nodded. It seemed that this village head was still communicative and not as unreasonable as he had worried at first.
After crossing the bridge, all you see is green thatch, which is almost taller than a teenager. There is also a large patch of thorns on the side of the mountain. Although the trees are not dense, there are still quite a few.
It seems that no one has ever farmed here, at least for decades.
Tang Guangzheng said: "The west side is all unowned wasteland. The government will let you settle down this time but you need to pay for the land yourself. The price of wasteland is two taels per mu."
As soon as these words were spoken, everyone in Shenjia Village gasped. The wasteland in their hometown, which was one tael per acre, was relatively easy to cultivate. But this one, which still had trees growing on it, was worth half a penny.
Tang Guangzheng also knew that the price was not cheap, but this was Shuntian Prefecture where every inch of land was valuable. Not to mention that their village had large tracts of wasteland, even in other villages, if one wanted to reclaim wasteland, especially small pieces, the price would be the same piece by piece.
Shen Zhiqiu looked at this old piece of land and found that it was at least 2,000 acres, and that was only the flat land. There were also several hillsides next to it, which were about 100 meters high, and some were probably less than 100 meters.
But he had estimated that he would need to reclaim the wasteland himself, and no matter how expensive it was, it would be about one tael of silver per mu. They probably had more than two thousand taels, so they bought one thousand mu first.
Although the remaining silver was not enough for them to build a blue brick house, it was almost the same as building a mud and tile house. The most important thing was to leave some money for buying food.
After all, they have to buy food from now until next autumn harvest, and the most they can do on the newly opened land is grow some vegetables such as cabbage and radishes.
But now I heard from the head of the village that the price is two taels per mu. If they buy one thousand mu, the maximum amount of silver they will have left is three hundred taels.
Even if they bought enough food for all of them to last until next autumn harvest, they wouldn't even have enough to eat, let alone build a house.
Of course, he could have bought less wasteland, but he was afraid that after the development, the people in Tangjia Village would become jealous and come here to open up wasteland. By then, it would be too late to say anything.
Seeing Shen Zhiqiu remained silent, Master Shen pulled Shen Zhiqiu aside and asked him to speak: "Little Third Son, what do you think? How many acres should we buy?"
The main reason is that the old man thinks that buying too little is not a good idea. After all, the grain output is not high. There are nearly three hundred people, and at least each person should have two acres of land.
Shen Zhiqiu said he would take a look, so he took a dozen men from Shenjia Village and walked around the foot of the mountain that belonged to Tangjia Village.
Several men from Shenjia Village who were good at farming also checked the soil condition of the wasteland: "Xiao Sanzi, this land is not barren. It looks good. It is next to the river. It is probably because of wild beasts coming down the mountain, otherwise Tangjia Village would have come here to reclaim the wasteland long ago."
Shen Zhiqiu wanted to buy them all directly after hearing this. He was really afraid that when they came to live here, the land would be well reclaimed. In addition, in order to fight the wild beasts in the mountains in the future, the villagers of Tangjia Village might also come to reclaim other land.
Tang Guangzheng saw Shen Zhiqiu coming back and asked again: "Have you decided how many acres you want?"
Shen Zhiqiu replied: "Why don't we measure it first to see how many acres of flat land there are."
Tang Guangzheng raised his eyebrows, what did he mean? "You still want both?"
Shen Zhiqiu neither nodded nor shook his head, but said: "Measure and calculate first, at least half is needed."
Tang Guangzheng only now took a serious look at this group of people. He really didn't expect that although they were not dressed well, they could still come up with several thousand taels.
However, the more wasteland Shen Zhiqiu and his people buy, the better. The land will just sit there wasteland anyway, so it might as well be sold. Half of it will belong to the government and half to the village. Each family will probably get a lot of money by then.
"Okay, I'll ask a few village leaders to follow me, and you can send some people to follow as well."
Shen Zhiqiu nodded: "Dad and Uncle Gao will take Ma Zi and the others to follow the headman to measure, and the others can go back and prepare the tools for land reclamation."
A total of more than 20 people stayed behind to follow the people from Tangjia Village to survey the wasteland.
Shen Zhiqiu didn't go because he had something to discuss with his wife, daughter and son.
At the same time, he also called Li Quan and Dahu and Erhu.
Soon after, in the main hall of the mud-brick house where they temporarily lived, they were the only ones who had a direct relationship with the ancient father-in-law.
Li Quan: "Son-in-law, what can I do for you? Why are you so sad?"
Shen Zhiqiu said: "Uncle Li, it's like this. I estimate that there are more than 2,000 acres in the west, but the government's money is enough to buy 1,000 acres. I..."
"Son-in-law, you don't need to discuss this with me. The money left by the master is for you and the young lady. You can use the money to buy the remaining one thousand acres."
Li Quan obviously knew what Shen Zhiqiu was going to say as soon as he started talking. Li Quan thought that there was no need for his son-in-law to say these to him.
Although the son-in-law called him uncle, he was always a loyal subordinate of the master, and spent the rest of his life helping the master take care of the young lady's family.
Shen Zhiqiu: "No, I have decided before. There is also Luming here. When I asked Jingshu to marry me, I promised that if I had two sons, one would be named Li. Now I am not aiming for Jingshu to have another child.
But if Lu Ming has two sons in the future, one of them can have the surname Li. Our family has discussed the money left by my father-in-law and will leave it to that child.
But now is obviously a good opportunity. This is the land under the feet of the emperor, and the value of the land will only become more and more. I am thinking of buying one thousand acres of land from the village, and using my father-in-law's money to buy the rest of the land, and then it will be registered under Jingshu's name.
Write it in her dowry list, and no matter how much the land appreciates in value, it will still be left to the future child with the surname Li."
Li Quan sighed. It seemed that the young lady had married the right person. However, he shook his head and said, "Sir, there is no need for that. This money is for your family. Besides, the master said that there is a dowry for the young lady in it."