The fierce peasant woman is busy farming

The whole family tightened their belts to support the eldest brother, who was a scholar.

Even so, every time the eldest brother came back, he would complain that the family was too poor and that they could not allow him to study in the provincial school, get better teachers, make friends with more powerful classmates, or get the latest exam information.

The eldest brother blamed these things for the fact that he had not passed the imperial examination for many years.

After many quarrels with the second son of the Ning family, old man Ning finally became fed up and agreed to divide the family.

In fact, this separation is not a real separation.

Because the emperor of the Dahui Dynasty ruled the world with filial piety.

The imperial court stipulated that the family could not be divided while the parents were still alive.

Moreover, due to Ning Yuancai's status as a scholar, although the amount of rice allocated by the court was not much, it was not enough for Ning Yuancai to use for himself.

But the status of a scholar has a huge advantage.

The Dahui Dynasty was founded only for a short time. During the war at the end of the previous dynasty, many scholars followed the peasants in the rebellion and died in the chaos.

When our dynasty was first founded, there was a severe shortage of scholars to serve as officials.

Therefore, several emperors of this dynasty encouraged people to read.

Moreover, the rule that the sons of merchants could not take the imperial examinations was changed. In this dynasty, except for the sons of criminals, anyone, regardless of whether they were scholars, farmers, merchants or artisans, could take the imperial examinations and change the fate of their family.

The biggest advantage of having a scholar in a family is that the scholar's family can be exempted from taxes and corvee labor.

Of course, military service cannot be exempted.

These taxes and corvee labor were a heavy burden.

Not to mention the distant past, let’s just talk about the Ning family. If they could not be exempted from these every year, they would not be able to support these children with just those few acres of thin land.

The second son of the Ning family said that he wanted to continue enjoying the benefits, but he was unwilling to continue supporting his eldest brother in vain so that he could take the unattainable title of Juren.

So in the end, five years ago, under the auspices of the Ning clan leader, Old Man Ning split up the family.

The twelve acres of fertile land left by the Ning family's ancestors were divided into three parts.

Mr. Ning has four acres of land, Mr. Ning has four acres, and Mr. Ning and his wife have four acres.

Whoever the old couple follows will have their land cultivated and the output belong to that person. The other son does not need to provide additional pension money to the old couple.

As for if the second Ning has children in the future, the Ning old man and his wife will have to look after them just like they look after the Ning eldest's children.

A hundred years later, the old couple's four acres of land were divided equally between their two sons, and their funeral arrangements were jointly undertaken by the two sons.

As for those dry lands with pitifully low outputs and which depend on God for their survival, they are divided into two.

The piece of dry land close to home, called Xishanao, along with the surrounding mountains and forests, was given to the eldest son of the Ning family.

The piece of dry land a little further away from home, called Scorpion Tip, along with the forest, was given to the second son of the Ning family.

As for the old couple, they had some money, which they used to build another house.

Together with the old house, the two families drew lots to decide who would live where.

In the end, the eldest wife of the Ning family had bad luck and got the new house.

Why is it said that getting a new house means bad luck?

That’s because the so-called new houses are actually many, because there is too little money and a large population, so there is a lot of houses that need to be built.

You can only cut corners.

The house you live in will be passed down to your descendants after it is built, so cutting corners cannot affect safety.

Therefore, the cunning and skillful old man Ning came up with an idea, which was to use old wood.

He is a carpenter and can also do the work of a bricklayer.

The stones used for the house in the new courtyard were all fished out from the river and picked up from the mountains by him, his son, daughter-in-law, and grandchildren.

The wood he collected was from people who had demolished old houses. He originally wanted to burn the old wood as firewood.

He bought it at the price of firewood.

He had a pair of skillful hands and took care of his granddaughter Ning Yangmo, who was less than ten years old at the time.

The grandfather and grandson tinkered with the old wood and gave it new value.

This is also why the new house, which was built only a few years ago, still looks like an old house, with a sense of decay everywhere.

This division of the property appears fair on the surface, but it is not.

Not to mention that there are only two people in Ning Laoer's family, and those few acres of land are more than enough to provide food and drink for the two of them.

On the other hand, the eldest child has four children to raise. The eldest daughter is only seventeen years old, the eldest son is thirteen, the second daughter is nine years old, and the youngest son is only five years old.

Only the eldest daughter and the eldest son are considered laborers and can work in the fields.

Mr. and Mrs. Ning, along with their four children, a total of six people, were supported by the four acres of land and some barren dry land.

Besides, Mr. Ning doesn't do farming, and it costs a lot for him to study.

The family's labor force mainly depends on Ning Xiucai's wife Zhou Yue and two half-grown children.

Also, when they split up, they only announced it within the clan and did not announce it in the village.

Therefore, Ning Laoer continued to enjoy the exemption from corvée and taxes from his elder brother, Xiucai Gong, but he no longer had to bear the cost of his elder brother's studies. He got a great deal.

Fortunately, it was decided that the family's military service would be performed by Ning Yuande, the second oldest son of the Ning family.

The old couple Ning felt sorry for the hard work of their eldest son and daughter-in-law, and they also loved their grandchildren, so they chose to live in their eldest son's home for their old age.

They moved the four acres of fertile land under their name to their eldest son's home, so that their grandchildren could barely have food to eat and not starve to death.

One year after the separation, Ning Laoer's wife gave birth to their only son, Ning Taomo, which made Ning Laoer and his wife Sun more convinced of the correctness of the decision to separate the family.

Sun was unable to get pregnant for two years after her marriage, but she soon became pregnant and gave birth to a child after the family split up, although she never got pregnant again after giving birth to her eldest son.

But it did not prevent her from believing that the whole family lived together and that she had no children.

Although she envied her eldest sister-in-law for having two sons and two daughters and a large family, her own children were not bad either and were particularly naughty.

The old man said that this naughty child is smart.

That's right, this child will definitely be like his uncle. In the future, he will pass the imperial examination to become a scholar, and then a juren, and become a high-ranking official in the capital, and his whole family will live a luxurious life.

The village chief was thinking about something and slowly walked back to his home.

Zhou Yue woke up shortly after the village chief and others left.

She opened her eyes and looked at the dusty roof. For a long time she didn't know where she was.

She only remembered that she had dropped her son off at school that day and was driving to work.

It was a narrow street with no distinction between motor vehicle and non-motor vehicle lanes.

She drove slowly and saw an old man on a bicycle with a radio hanging on the handlebars, listening to the Peking Opera "The Dragon and the Phoenix".

Then they stopped at the same time and waited for the red light. She smiled as she listened to the familiar singing on the old man's radio.

She couldn't help but sing along. When the old man heard her singing along, he turned around and saw her with the car window open, and smiled at her.

"Master, the dragon and the phoenix are playing."

Life was good, and she couldn't help but want to talk to the old man.

The old man's smile immediately became sincere and he nodded: "Yeah, that's right."

Soon the green light came on, Zhou Yuechong waved his hand, released the handbrake, slowly merged into the traffic flow, and parted ways with the old man.

She drove to the next intersection and stopped to wait for the red light again, but the old man was nowhere to be seen. Perhaps he had turned a corner.

She was getting bored waiting when suddenly a few people came running from behind the car.