Chapter 93
"Our village only has a few hundred acres of cultivated land around the village, and most of the land outside is wasteland. If we want to reclaim wasteland, it's better to do it in one place. If it's scattered, it will be difficult to manage."
It would be inconvenient to connect their land with other people's land. It would be fine if they were honest and law-abiding people, but some people liked to play tricks, either picking a few cabbages from other people's fields, or trying to move the boundaries secretly.
Even though the Zhang family was now one of the richest families in the village, and ordinary people dared not act rashly. However, they couldn't guard against people with bad intentions, and the common people always hated the rich.
Zhang Fangyuan said so, and Xu He immediately thought of a place: "Haitang Bay."
"There is a large wasteland at the other end. It's very wide, at least 60 to 70 mu. Villagers often go there to cut grass and feed livestock."
Zhang Fangyuan laughed carelessly: "I was thinking of that piece of land, too, but..."
It was a sacred place for young men and women in the village to have trysts. If their family bought and reclaimed it, wouldn't it ruin the villagers' chances of getting married? Moreover, the two of them decided to get married in Haitang Bay. For many people, that place was more than wasteland.
Xu He tilted his head and asked him: "Then the only option is to buy land from villagers?"
"Never mind, I'm a person who likes to destroy the bridge after crossing the river."
[过河拆桥 guò hé chāi qiáo: lit. to destroy the bridge after crossing the river (idiom); fig. to abandon one's benefactor upon achieving one's goal]
After the two decided on the land in Haitang Bay, they first went to the village chief to get the documents, asked someone to measure the area of Haitang Bay, recorded the receipt, and after obtaining the village chief's fingerprint approval, they took the documents to the county government to handle the formalities.
Generally speaking, if the village chief was willing to give his fingerprint to give his permission, the people in the county government wouldn't say anything or ask any more questions.
The first thing was to get past the village chief. If it was in the past, even if Zhang Fangyuan had money, he might not be able to get the village chief to do things for him. But he ran around to help the villagers before, and now everyone in the village who wanted to sell fish and eggs had to rely on him, so the village chief naturally didn't make things difficult for him.
Xu He brought a chicken, a duck, and a basket of eggs to the village to pay the favor. He made the village chief's wife happy, and the matter was done very efficiently.
"There are 68 mu in total. If the village chief isn't afraid that the county government would bring people to measure it, he would have only counted it as 65 mu. He really knows how to behave."
Xu He carried out the money box, he took out the silver money from it and gave it to Zhang Fangyuan, this money would be used to handle the formalities.
"The village chief is a good person. He wanted to give us a lower amount. But when we get to the county government, the people there will give us a higher amount, perhaps it will change to 70 mu." Zhang Fangyuan carefully checked the documents written by the village to see if there were any discrepancies, then he said, "I'm thinking of bringing something to people in the county government. Otherwise, it won't be that easy to get it done."
Zhang Fangyuan had been to the county government office many times and was well aware of its nature. In the past, he always brought some things with him. Therefore this time, if he didn't bring anything when doing something important, they would be unhappy.
Xu He said, "We have everything in our village, so why not bring a few chickens and ducks and catch a few fresh fish? Although the gift for the village chief were also these things, and although these poultry may not look presentable, people eat five crops for three meals, these are something that can be eaten and used, and it's not counted as lacking in manners. "
[五谷 wǔ gǔ: five crops, e.g. millet, soybean, sesame, barley, rice]
"You're right. I'll bring two more jars of your homemade dishes. The most important thing is to pay the land purchase money in one lump sum, then it will be much easier."
"That's right." Xu He said, "Come and count the money."
The price of one mu of wasteland was 500 copper coins. It didn't seem seem like much, but for an ordinary poor family, it was enough to pay a whole family's taxes for a year. For this reason, many people sold their land, but very few could buy back the land.
It took a lot of energy and resources to reclaim wasteland. Generally speaking, the money spent wouldn't be cheaper than the price of the fertile land that villagers usually manage.
For example, the price of one mu good farmland in the village was three to four thousand copper coins. Poor farmland was a little more affordable, but still two to three thousand copper coins. This was the price in years of famine. In years of bumper harvest like now, the price would be even higher, more than one thousand copper coins higher. The couple felt that it was not cost-effective to buy either good farmland or poor farmland.
It would cost thirty-four thousand copper coins, or thirty-four taels of silver, to buy all sixty-eight acres of land. In addition, taxes and fees had to be paid after going through the procedures at the county government. It would cost forty taels of silver to complete all miscellaneous expenses.
The family spent such a large sum of money, and Xu He remembered what each sum was used for, building houses, renting shops... and now there was another use, buying land. Fortunately, the two hundred taels of silver from selling the secret recipe were added to the account, otherwise Xu He would have felt bad just spending the money.
Thanks for the update!!!!
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