Transmigrating into a Turbulent Era as a Soldier, Starting with Marrying a Wife

The clerk Gou pretended to rest for a while.

Then he and a group of people came to the fields outside the village.

The old village chief and several elders confirmed the land register with the clerk.

Then they began to distribute the land to the newly registered soldier households.

The fields near the southeast side of the river are generally considered to be high-quality land because they are easy to irrigate.

The fields on the northwest side, close to the foot of the mountain, are far from water sources, inconvenient for irrigation, and have poor soil quality, so they are low-quality land.

The fields that these new soldier households received.

Are actually the fields of their household heads, the previous soldier households who died in battle.

This has become a customary rule in the soldier household villages.

Rather than saying it is land distribution, it is better to say that they are here to recognize the land they inherited.

The process of land distribution is that the clerk points to it on the land register.

Then the village elder takes the new soldier household around the field.

The soldier households are considered to know which piece of land is theirs.

Then the soldier household signs and affixes their seal on the land register, which is considered land ownership transfer.

Those who cannot write can put a fingerprint on it.

Most of these soldier households are rough men who do not know how to read.

They estimate the area of the land based on experience.

The document stated that an auxiliary soldier should receive ten mu, but what was distributed to the soldier households was probably only a little over eight mu.

However, he didn't say anything.

The water is very deep in the matter of land distribution, even if he can see it, he doesn't want to get involved.

Soon the fields of those auxiliary soldiers were distributed, and it was the turn of the official soldiers in the village.

The land of the official soldiers is usually ten mu of high-quality land and ten mu of low-quality land.

These lands are cut into many large and small pieces in the clerk's land register.

Anyway, for an official soldier, it is enough to make up twenty mu for you.

The result is that one person may have three pieces of land by the river and four pieces of land at the foot of the mountain.

Although it adds up to twenty mu, they are very far apart.

It is very troublesome to cultivate.

But this is also something that cannot be helped, it has been like this for many years.

Before long, it was Li Yuan's turn to distribute the land.

The clerk Gou pointed to two pieces of land by the river and four pieces of land at the foot of the mountain, and said to Li Yuan.

"Li Yuan, right? These are your fields, quickly sign and don't waste my time."

Li Yuan did not speak.

He raised his eyes to survey the land, then calculated the area in his mind, and said to the clerk with a smile.

"Sir, I'm afraid you have miscalculated."

"The area of my land is incorrect."

In fact, Li Yuan's attitude towards Gou clerk was already very good.

But this clerk obviously didn't think so.

He glared and looked at Li Yuan with a very angry expression.

"Nonsense! What do you, a small soldier household, know!"

"How could I miscalculate."

Li Yuan sneered.

Pointing to the plots of land assigned to him on the land register, he calculated them one by one.

"The two high-quality lands by the river are 3.4 mu and 4.1 mu respectively."

"The four low-quality lands on the mountainside are... 2.1 mu, 2.4 mu, 3.7 mu, and 1.7 mu."

"The high-quality land you have allocated to me is 7.4 mu, and the low-quality land is 9.9 mu."

"These add up to only 17.3 mu, which is far less than the 20 mu required for an official soldier household."

"I have to pay the military fort grain in autumn, which is calculated based on 20 mu."

"Sir, do you want to check again."

After speaking, Li Yuan looked at the clerk coldly.

The clerk Gou never expected that someone in the soldier household would see through his trick.

He couldn't help but feel a little uneasy.

The old clerk in the village, who was the father of the Chu sisters, died in battle at the Chishui River. This clerk was newly sent from the military fort this year.

He is a relative of a military commander in the military fort and is usually greedy.

He saw that most of the new soldier households in Dongxiang Village were illiterate and could not possibly understand land calculations.

He took advantage of the opportunity of the new soldier households' registration to make the land register extremely complicated, with the purpose of tampering with the land.

Transfer dozens of mu of land from these new soldier households for his own use.

Not only does this land not have to pay grain, but it is also high-quality land near the river.

When the time comes, the clerk will rent out these lands and can enjoy a beautiful life without working.

The mud-legged people in the village naturally don't understand these things.

The old village chief can actually see some clues, but he, an old man, doesn't dare to offend the relative of the military commander of the military fort.

He can only turn a blind eye.

Unexpectedly, this Li Yuan directly exposed the clerk Gou.

The clerk was furious, he felt that his authority had been challenged.

So he pointed at Li Yuan and shouted loudly.

"You little broken soldier household, how dare you act presumptuously in front of me!"

"You are slandering this clerk, I don't have your land here."

"If you are not convinced, you have the ability to go to the military fort and appeal to the superiors."

Ordinary soldier households, where would they dare to find any superior to appeal? Being frightened by him, they would be at a loss.

They would immediately give in and obediently let him manipulate them.

But this Li Yuan is an exception.

Li Yuan first sneered, then stared at the clerk's eyes and slowly said.

"Sir, if I go to the military fort to appeal, I won't just say that my land is not enough."

"I don't have any other skills, but I am quite proficient in arithmetic. I have been helping you estimate the amount of land distributed to the soldier households just now."

"It just so happens that the amount of land you distributed to the soldier households just now is almost all insufficient."

"You distributed at most eight mu to each auxiliary soldier, and you only gave seventeen mu to each official soldier."

"Do you want me to talk about this matter with the soldier households in the village?"

"Moreover, this land register has been sealed. As long as the superior sends someone to investigate, they will be accurate."

"What do you think the military fort superior will do with you, the clerk, when they know about this?"

Hearing Li Yuan's words, the short and fat clerk Gou couldn't help but tremble.

The military fort garrison commander, Lord Lin, is very upright and hates corruption the most.

If this matter is known by the superior, his life may not be guaranteed.

"You! You! You!"

Clerk Gou pointed at Li Yuan but couldn't speak.

Li Yuan said in a low voice.

"I don't care about other people's land, but my twenty mu of land, Li Yuan, can't be short of even a fraction."

Clerk Gou glared at Li Yuan.

His heart was full of resentment.

He carefully calculated in his mind, but was thinking about how to harm this hateful soldier household.

Clerk Gou's eyes rolled.

An insidious idea quickly came to his mind.

The expression on his face changed rapidly, from extremely angry to suddenly very gentle.

"This little brother, maybe I really miscalculated."

"How about this, I will make up for it to 20 mu for you."

"What do you think of this piece of land?"

After speaking, clerk Gou added another piece of land to Li Yuan from the land register.

Li Yuan came over to take a look and found that the land the clerk had added to him was actually a barren land at the foot of the mountain.

This piece of land has an area of more than seven mu, but it is far from water sources and has extremely poor soil quality.

Although it is also counted as a piece of land in the land register.

But no one has ever been willing to cultivate it, because even if you plant grain, you won't get much harvest in autumn.

You also have to work hard to loosen the soil and remove weeds. It is not worth the loss to plant this land at all.

So this piece of land has been barren in the village.

Unexpectedly, this insidious clerk actually added this piece of land to Li Yuan.

Li Yuan couldn't help but frown.

This clerk is really good at calculating.

If you report the clerk for insufficient land, the reason is justified.

Enough to make this clerk get out.

But now, from the books, his land area is already more than 25 mu, only the ratio of high-quality land and low-quality land is incorrect.

The clerk can shirk the responsibility in many ways, such as saying that there is not enough high-quality land, so low-quality land has to be used to supplement high-quality land.

Even if you report to the military fort, the superior will not pay attention, and may even think he is nosy.

They will say, you already have more than 25 mu, even if the land is a little worse, you are taking advantage.

But this piece of land cannot grow grain at all, and after the autumn harvest, you still have to hand over the grain to the military fort according to the number of seven mu of low-quality land.

It can be said that whoever takes this piece of land will be in great trouble.

Li Yuan thought to himself, this clerk Gou is really insidious enough.