As for the door-to-door inquiries, Lin Yuanqiu arranged for a group of scribes from the Yamen. More than fifty houses, with one unit for every ten households, have all been allocated.
What Lin Yuanqiu didn't expect was that he thought it would take some time, but only three days later, he was done.
According to the clerks, after they informed the residents of the resettlement terms one by one, the residents nodded and agreed without thinking for long.
Lin Yuanqiu couldn't believe it for a while when he heard that it went so smoothly. But just one day later, residents from the north of the city came one after another and asked the gatekeeper about when the new house would be built. This showed how much they were looking forward to the new house.
Since there was no objection, Lin Yuanqiu did not delay. He made arrangements to build a house before the busy farming season.
Soon, the government officials posted notices about corvee service in every village.
Every May is the time when villagers perform corvee work. Unlike in the past when they went to work in quarries or dig ditches, this year's corvee work involves digging soil to build houses. The notice also states that any portion beyond the specified time for corvee service will be deducted from the labor force. Each person is paid forty cents per day as wages.
For the villagers, this is a dream come true. On weekdays, when the farming season is not busy, they would also go out to look for work so that they could earn some money to supplement their family income. Building a house is much easier than moving heavy goods.
What's more, the villagers have heard that after these houses are built, the vacant land vacated will be designated for them to build houses.
With such motivation, it is rare that the villagers do not have any objection to this year's corvee.
…
When the house was built to be as tall as one person, Lin Yuanqiu received a letter from the clan.
Patriarch Lin didn't know that Lin Yuanqiu had been promoted to the prefect of Shizhou, so the letter was sent directly to the Yongning Prefecture Office. After Yan Tongzhi saw it, he took the letter to Feng Ji's workshop, and then Lin Yuanfeng sent it over.
In the letter, Chief Lin talked about the auspicious Ruyi cakes made by his clan members last year. He said that after receiving his letter, he taught the method to all the tribesmen, so when the persimmons turned red, everyone made auspicious Ruyi cakes according to his method. Then the selling price was the sixty cents per pound he said, so everyone in the Lin clan earned a lot of money last year.
It turned out that after the persimmon cake workshops opened in Dinghu County and Yongning City, Lin Yuanqiu wrote to Patriarch Lin about the method of making persimmon cakes.
Old Lintou and Wu also knew about this.
Lin Yuanqiu shared his belief with the two of them. In addition to making persimmon cakes, the letter also talked about the death of two clan elders at the beginning of this year.
After hearing this, Lao Lintou and Wu couldn't help but sigh. For older people, the most uncomfortable thing is the departure of familiar people one by one.
Mrs. Wu couldn't help but sigh, "Oh, time flies so fast. In the blink of an eye, I and your father are both old."
Lin Sanzhu didn't like to hear this, "How old are you? Now when your son goes out on the street, there are still people chasing him and calling him young. Think about it, all the sons are still young, but the parents are old. In the eyes of the son, You and dad are in your forties at most, so you are still in your prime years!"
When Mrs. Wu heard this, she couldn't help but laugh out loud, "If they call you a young man, then our Yuanqiu family will become a little kid."
Lin Sanzhu nodded, "That's not the case."
After being interrupted by their third son, Lao Lintou and Mrs. Wu felt much better.
However, when Lin Yuanqiu got up early the next morning, he saw Ye and Nai returning from the vegetable field with glowing faces.
Lin Yuanqiu knew that grandma wanted to stretch her legs by growing vegetables.
After arriving in Shizhou Mansion, Lao Lintou also cleared out one or two pieces of land in the garden to grow vegetables, just like when he was in Yongning City. He said that this not only stretched his muscles, but also provided fresh vegetables for the family to eat. Although You can buy it on the street, but it is not easy to pick it at home.
Lin Yuanqiu has always supported his grandma's approach.
It is said that life lies in exercise. It is necessary for older people to exercise more and strengthen their muscles and bones.
At this time, Mrs. Wu was holding a handful of rice onions that had just been picked from the field.
After seeing her little grandson, Mrs. Wu smiled and said, "I'll use the rice and green onions to fry you an egg to go with the porridge later. By the way, there's also hare meat for lunch today."
Speaking of hare meat, Wu's face was all smiles, "This rabbit was shot by Mr. Hong Zao. Yesterday, a total of two were delivered."
"Mr. Hongzao?"
Lin Yuanqiu didn't remember who this person was.
Wu explained, "Hongzao's husband is the one who injured his leg during military service in Chenjiacun."
When he heard about Chenjia Village, Lin Yuanqiu immediately remembered this person, and also thought of red dates, osmanthus, and lotus. They were the oldest among the twenty-seven people.
Hearing Wu continue to say, "Nai Yuan was still a little worried. He was worried that Mr. Hongzao's legs and feet were inconvenient and he wouldn't be able to do much work. He never thought that he could not only go to the fields to farm, but also go up to the mountains to hunt game from time to time. Such a hardworking person would definitely I can live a good life.”
Old Lintou also had the same idea. As long as people are diligent enough, there is no reason why they can't live a good life.
…
They say there is strength in numbers, and this is absolutely true.
Fifty-two houses were quickly completed in mid-June with the work of nearly a thousand people. In addition to the original length of the corvee service, the government paid more than 400 taels of silver for the remaining excess. In addition to the cost of building tiles and timber, the total cost of building these houses was more than 900 taels of silver.
Although the government office spent so much money, Lin Yuanqiu was not worried. As long as there were more people in the city, the economy would naturally improve. With the economy, there would be tax revenue. In less than a year, the money would return to the government office. Library.
Now that the house has been built, the next step is to move into a new home.
Seeing the brand-new houses one after another, the more than fifty families were already happy to see them.
For the sake of fairness, Lin Yuanqiu still used the old method of drawing lots to allocate houses to everyone.
After moving to a new house, the old house was demolished, and then dozens of government officials measured the land plots for each village as quickly as possible in their lives.
When the plot of land was measured, the joy filled the East City and North City.
After dividing the foundation, it is time for the villagers to build their own houses.
…
Since they discovered that the rice in their village grows faster than that of neighboring villages, the villagers of Housi Village have grown more carefully.
Lin Yuanqiu, as before, would go to Housi Village every three or four days, and each time he would record the growth of the rice, such as changes in height and the time it took for the ears to grow.
When July just entered, the rice ears in the fields were already growing. This is a great joy for the villagers of Housi Village. You know, in previous years, the rice they planted could not produce rice ears until mid-August, but now it has gone so far. If nothing unexpected happens, then in more than thirty days, will the rice in the ground? It’s ready to be harvested.
God, this is more than a month early. Thinking that the grain will be harvested soon, many villagers have prepared radish seeds and plan to plant radishes as soon as the grain is harvested.
Lin Yuanqiu analyzed the reason why rice ears grew so early, and he felt that the most likely reason was ventilation.
Because the transplanted seedlings are arranged regularly, the roots are more breathable than the seedlings grown from seeds, which means there is more breathing space, which naturally speeds up the growth process.
After the rice ears grew, Lin Yuanqiu shortened the time between visits, and would come to Housi Village almost every other day. It could be said that Lin Yuanqiu's footprints were left in the entire fields of Housi Village.
Food is the basis for people's survival. Even a small improvement in harvest is an extraordinary thing. Therefore, Lin Yuanqiu worked extremely carefully and had a thick stack of books recording the growth of rice.
Seeing her husband who had tanned a lot more, Zhong Yurou only felt distressed as she prepared some tea for her husband to take with him to prevent heatstroke.
"Dad!" Seeing his father coming home from work, Lin Moyi quickly ran over.
He is about to turn two years old. Not only does he speak clearly, he also runs without any delay.
Every time Mr. Wu saw him, he would smile and say that the child's legs and feet were just like his father's.
Lin Yuanqiu knelt down, spread out his arms, waited for his son's small body to rush into his arms, picked him up, and then lifted him up again.
Little Mo Yi smiled happily, he liked his father the most.
Lin Yuanqiu scratched his son's nose and asked, "Is Bao'er good at home today?"
"Be good!" Lin Moyi nodded repeatedly. After thinking for a while, the little guy said again, "If mother is not good, she won't eat."
Hearing this, Lin Yuanqiu hurriedly looked at his wife.
Zhong Yurou's eyes were full of smiles. As she had given birth to a baby, she naturally knew that she was feeling nauseated and had no appetite, so she was very likely to be pregnant.
Seeing his wife's smile and the gesture of touching her belly, Lin Yuanqiu immediately reacted and said in surprise, "Yu Rou, are we going to have another child?"
"Yeah." Zhong Yurou blushed a little, "Bao'er is probably going to have younger brothers and sisters."
Lin Yuanqiu was overjoyed and hurriedly called Ping An and went to the hospital to ask for a doctor.
The doctor came very quickly, and after checking her pulse, he informed the young lady that she had been pregnant for more than a month.
Wu and Lao Lintou were naturally happy when they heard that their family was about to have a new member.
As for Mrs. Feng, she immediately opened the box and rewarded everyone in the family. Especially the ones on the stove were rewarded twice as much as the others, and they were told to pay more attention to the young mistress's food. If they did well, they would definitely not be rewarded again in the future.
Several women responded one after another and immediately said that they would do a good job.
Lin Yuanqiu, on the other hand, was discussing with his wife whether to buy some girls back.
Since Liu Ye gave birth to a child at the end of last year, Zhong Yurou asked her to take care of the child more and not have to come over to wait on her all the time.
Therefore, at the moment, except for a woman who helps take care of the baby, they have no other staff.
In fact, Zhong Yurou said that she has now adapted to the days of doing everything in the house by herself, and it really doesn't matter if anyone helps her. But thinking that now that I am pregnant, if this is still the case, my husband will definitely be worried, so he nodded and said, "Just listen to your husband."
…
After entering August, Lin Yuanqiu became even busier.
At this time, the fields in Housi Village were already ablaze with yellow. Gusts of wind blew by, and the heavy ears of rice were swaying bulkily. What was floating in the wind was the tangy fragrance of grain.
These days, the villagers in Housi Village wish they could grow in the ground.
Looking at the plump bunches of grain, the smiles in everyone's eyes were as bright as the sun.
The villagers have suspended the construction of houses in the city and are preparing to wait until the grain is harvested and then sow radish seeds before continuing to erect roof beams and build tiles.
Anyway, there are still nearly two months until October, and they will definitely have time to finish building the house before the weather gets colder.
As early as five days ago, the villagers drained the water in the paddy fields to make it easier to harvest food.
A few barefoot old farmers went down to the fields and stepped on them, and then said with smiles on their faces, "Sir, the ground has been dry."
Lin Yuanqiu nodded, "Okay, let's start cutting tomorrow."
All the villagers nodded in unison. Their sickles had been sharpened again and again.
…
The next day, Lin Yuanqiu, Lin Sanzhu, and Lao Lintou all got up early. After breakfast, the three of them took a carriage to Housi Village.
Along with them, there were Gao Tongzhi and Qian Tongpan, as well as more than a dozen clerks and cadres in the yamen.
The scribes brought pens and ink today to prepare for recording the amount of grain.
The government officials, on the other hand, were carrying scales, which were used to weigh the grain harvested from the fields.
…
Chapter 220 Increase in Grain Production
Ever since the prefect announced the rice harvest yesterday, the villagers in Housi Village have been excited all night.
Months of hard work are about to pay off, and it's so many days early. How could you not be happy?
