The happy little days of the Ye family

The family has just bought 55 acres of wasteland. Many people in the village have also bought wasteland and hills. Ye’s mother is worried that she will not find anyone to open up wasteland.

"There are so many barren mountains and wastelands waiting to be reclaimed in the village. Can these wastelands at home be reclaimed before spring? Will it delay this year's spring plowing?"

Father Ye had already thought about it, "The village probably won't be able to recruit many people, but we can go to other villages to find people to open up wasteland."

Ye's father had worked as a salesman before, and he was familiar with people from other villages. The wages were higher, so he didn't have to worry about no one coming to help open up wasteland.

"On the dock side, merchants will slowly come over at least after the Lantern Festival. During this time, I will be responsible for finding people to open up wasteland in other villages."

A few people were chatting enthusiastically, and the village chief's grandson went from door to door to inform them that after dinner, at least one person from each household would go to the ancestral hall for a meeting.

Father Ye looked at Mr. Ye curiously, "Dad, what does the village chief want to inform you about? Did the village chief reveal anything when you went to buy the wasteland?"

"It's probably a matter of land reclamation in the village."

On the way to the Yamen, the village chief persuaded other people in the village to buy more barren hills and wasteland.

The barren hills and land at home have been purchased. Father Ye is not very interested in this, so he drags Mr. Ye to continue discussing the reclamation of wasteland at home.

After dinner, Father Ye, Mr. Ye, and Tangshan father and son came to the village ancestral hall together. By this time, there were already many people in the ancestral hall.

Today, several families in the village have bought barren hills or land, and everyone is discussing how to open up wasteland.

"Hey, I heard that your family bought a hill and planned to use it to grow honeysuckle and jujube trees?"

"I bought a hill. Barren hills are cheap, and now we can reclaim land tax-free for five years. It's more cost-effective to slowly reclaim land than to buy land directly."

"When you say that, I also want to open up wasteland. The few bastards at home are becoming more and more edible. If we don't open up more fields, the family will be destroyed by them."

"I heard that many people in the village want to buy barren hills and land to open up wasteland. If you want to buy, you should do it as early as possible, otherwise all the good places will be picked out."

At this time, the village chief came over and coughed twice to signal everyone to be quiet.

"Okay, everyone, please calm down quickly. Anyone who dares to say another word will be fined ten cents per sentence."

For a moment, the entire ancestral hall was silent.

The village chief nodded with satisfaction and continued: "I came to see you today mainly because I want to talk about the land reclamation in the village."

"In recent years, the weather has been good, the country is peaceful and the people are safe, and everyone's life has become better and better. The imperial court has shown mercy and specifically allowed everyone to buy wasteland and mountains for reclamation."

"The emperor's grace is so great that the government issued a document in the middle of last year, desolate mountains are tax-free for five years, and desolate lands are tax-free for three years. Everyone knows this."

"But this grace does not always exist. There is news that officials and wealthy businessmen from other places are hoarding barren mountains and wasteland. The court is thoroughly investigating this matter and may prohibit further land reclamation in the future."

"I suggest that you buy more barren mountains and wasteland as soon as possible. Anyway, it was tax-free in the past few years, so you can slowly open up wasteland."

"Although the fields created from wasteland are much less fertile, if you slowly cultivate them for a few years, you can always cultivate them well and leave more family property to future generations."

"The other thing is that there are a lot of barren mountains and wastelands in the village, and we can't just cover up all the families."

"So each household can only buy up to two hills and 80 acres of wasteland." Then the village chief took out a simple map, which showed the barren hills and wasteland in the village.

"There are a lot of barren hills and wastelands around the village. Those with names written on them have already been bought by others. For the rest, you can decide for yourself which barren hills or wastelands you want to buy."

"We agreed to come to me early to sign up. If you start late, you will have to admit that you are unlucky. I have said everything I want to say, and you can ask if you have any questions."

A woman swooped up to the village chief and said, "Village Chief, are you really not allowed to continue to open up wasteland in the future?"

"The court didn't say, this is just my guess. Now the barren mountains are tax-free for five years and the wasteland is tax-free for three years. You won't lose money if you buy it to open up wasteland."

Some people said they wanted to go back and discuss with their families first, while others directly asked the village chief to register the places they had long been interested in.

This incident has little impact on the Ye family. Anyway, their family has already bought hills and wasteland, and they cannot take care of any more.

Tangshan has no intention of continuing to open up wasteland. More than 50 acres of paddy fields have just been opened up in his family's valley, and he can no longer take care of it.

However, Tang Xiaojing took a fancy to a hill near Stone Mountain, and Tang Xiaojing bought it with his own money.

The hill that Tang Xiaojing was interested in had average products, but there were more small animals on the hill, and it was relatively close to Stone Mountain, so it was easy to take care of.

Originally, Tang Xiaojing hadn't made up his mind to buy this hill, but now there were too many people who wanted to buy Barren Hill. He couldn't find anything else that was more to his liking, so he simply bought the hill.

Tonight, the entire Taohua Village basically stayed up all night. Every household was lit by candlelight, discussing which barren hills or land to buy.

There are even several families who get together and plan to buy a hill together, or several families directly surround a certain valley.

Most of the people in the village are ordinary farmers and cannot afford to buy a mountain or dozens of acres of wasteland like the Ye family and the village chief's family.

Early in the morning, the village chief's house was crowded with people who came to register to buy barren hills and wasteland.

Most people buy more than ten acres or more than 20 acres of wasteland in this way. Most of the hills are bought by several families in partnership.

In two days, almost all the barren mountains and wastelands near the village were carved up, leaving only a few relatively remote mountains with wild beasts and the mountains behind the village.

The back mountain was specially left by the village chief. The back mountain is rich in products, including wild vegetables, wild fruits, chestnuts, sweet potatoes, yams and kudzu that can be used as food, as well as firewood. There is no shortage of these. It can be said to be the vegetable garden of the village.

Moreover, people in the village like to pick mushrooms or dig bamboo shoots in the back mountains. Many poor families in the village rely on the products of the back mountains to survive.

Ye's father had already found good people to open up wasteland in the neighboring villages, and had just cleared away the stones, weeds and trees in the wasteland.

Because every household in Taohua Village was clearing up wasteland, several surrounding villages followed suit. The people who originally came to help Ye's father clear up wasteland all went back to clear up wasteland for their own families.

For a time, a wave of land reclamation craze swept across the country.

The family's wasteland had just begun to grow, but no one could be found to open up the wasteland. Mr. Ye was so worried that he sighed all day long.