noffsinger Chapter 472 Choosing a Place
Chapter 472 Choosing a Place
As Village Chief Wu listened to Xu Wenshan's words, he kept smiling no matter what he was thinking.
He looked at Lu Tianming and Yao Xiancheng in front of him. Although his attitude was not as close as that towards Xu Wenshan, he still said politely:
“You have come from far away and it must have been very hard.
Since you are on good terms with Lord Xu, I will never let you suffer any loss.
We will all live together in the future, but we should visit each other more often!"
Upon hearing this, Lu Tianming and the others all responded with a smile.
Xu Wenshan patted the head of the village Wu on the shoulder, turned around and said to Lu Tianming with a smile:
“Brother Lu, a large area of Baoshan Town is now vacant.
Now that I'm here, I'll help you choose a place and land to build the house.
How about we park the carriage here first, and I'll let Brother Wu show you around?"
Lu Tianming readily agreed.
Upon seeing this, Village Chief Wu hurriedly asked his eldest son to invite several yamen runners in for tea.
He took some people from Xu Wenshan and Lu Tianming's team and began to wander around Baoshan Town.
The entire Baoshan Town is high in the west and low in the east. The river flows out of the mountains, along the ditch at the foot of the mountain, all the way to the dam in the east.
As for the fields, they are distributed on the east, south and west sides of the village.
Among them, the most was divided on the east side.
The group first went to the east side of the village.
From a distance, the vast green land was divided into pieces, and rice was planted in them.
The men were busy working in the fields. When they saw Village Chief Wu coming, they all greeted him.
Looking at the group of people following behind Village Chief Wu, they were looking them up and down and talking in low voices.
Village Chief Wu didn't pay much attention to them, just nodded and started introducing again.
He pointed to a small piece of vacant land in the east and said to Xu Wenshan:
"Master Xu, of this piece of land in the east, only that small piece remains to be divided."
Lu Qingqing looked in the direction of his finger and saw that a lot of weeds had grown in the empty field.
Xu Wenshan nodded and said to Lu Tianming:
“Brother Lu, I remember this piece of land is the best in the entire Baoshan Town.
Not only is the land fertile, it is also not far from a water source.
The only downside is that there isn’t much land left.”
The old village chief listened to Xu Wenshan's words, squatted down, grabbed a handful of soil on the ground, squeezed it with his fingers, and nodded secretly.
This land is really good and fertile.
If the soil in Yidu County was originally so fertile, the grain yield would have increased by 10%.
Thinking of this, the old village chief stood up and patted the dirt off his hands.
Lu Tianming had been observing his father since the morning, and when he saw him nod, he had an idea in his mind.
At this time, Xu Wenshan pointed to a place not far away and said:
"Look, there's a river over there. Let's go and take a look."
Lu Qingqing followed the crowd and saw that the river was almost dry, with only a stream of water slowly flowing downstream.
This scene made everyone frown.
Judging from the water flow, if the drought continues for a period of time, the river will probably dry up.
Xu Wenshan seemed to see everyone's concerns and explained:
"Everyone doesn't have to worry about the water problem. A dam was built downstream of the river a long time ago, and a lot of water is now stored there.
In fact, in normal years, it is very convenient to draw water directly from the river to irrigate the fields.
It’s only in the last two years, when there have been disasters, that we’ve had to go to the dam to fetch water, which is a bit troublesome.”
Lu Tianming expressed his understanding and followed Village Chief Wu to visit several other locations.
Among them, there are large open spaces on the south and west sides of the village.
When he reached the south and west, the old village chief checked the fertility of the soil as usual.
The soil in both places is very good.
The only downside is that these two places are a bit far from the water source, and the west side is farther away.
At this time, Lu Tianming and the villagers also had a choice.
The east is preferred, followed by the south.
These two places are enough for them to divide.
After inspecting the land, Village Chief Wu led his men north to select a site for a house.
There are mountains on the north side, and the terrain becomes higher the further north you go.
Nowadays, most people in Baoshan Town live in places far away from the foot of the mountain and with slightly lower terrain.
Among them, there are also a few indigenous families living near the foot of the mountain.
After going around in a circle, Lu Qingqing and her group also discovered it.
In the entire town, only Wu Lichang's family lives in a large blue brick and tiled house.
Most of the other families live in brand new half-brick and half-mud houses, and a small number of them live in low thatched houses.
Not to mention the blue brick and tile house, even this half brick and half mud house is already very good in the countryside.
On the way from Yining County, they had seen several villages with thatched houses.
From this we can see that raising silkworms and reeling silk is indeed profitable.
When Lu Qingqing wandered to the northernmost part, she fell in love with an open space at the foot of the mountain.
There was a large flat area, though now it was overgrown with weeds.
But this place is spacious. After the house is built, there will be enough space to turn into a large yard where we can grow some vegetables.
Not only Lu Qingqing, several families in the team also took a fancy to this place and planned to build their houses here.
When Village Chief Wu heard this, he secretly laughed at these people's impracticality.
You know, building a house requires a lot of bricks, tiles, wood and other things.
Why do most villagers live on the flat land far away from the foot of the mountain? It is because it is convenient to build houses there!
Not to mention other things, just transporting materials upwards is much more troublesome than transporting them downwards.
But seeing the look of agreement on Xu Wenshan's face, he just smiled and said nothing.
Now that he has come a full circle, Lu Tianming plans to secure the homestead and farmland while Xu Wenshan is still around.
No one in the team had any objection to the fields.
Let’s choose the east side first. I have just asked Village Chief Wu for the remaining acres on the east side, which is about seven acres in total.
Because the land was good, the whole team discussed and decided to divide it among each household, ensuring that each family could get more than half an acre.
If there is not enough left, go to the south side.
As for whether it is easy to divide an area of less than one acre, there is no need to worry about it at all.
As a country with thousands of years of farming history, these problems have long been solved by the working people.
In fact, not only in this era, but also in modern villages, when dividing land, each family’s household land is mostly divided into several small pieces based on the quality of the land.
Often a family may have one and a half mu of land in the east of the village, two and a half mu of land in the south of the village, and the remaining eight mu of land in the west of the village, and so on.
After each family has decided on the land, they begin to choose a residential site.
This time, many different opinions began to emerge in the team.
Many families have chosen different places where they want to build their houses.
Some people want to live near the current residents of Baoshan Town because the terrain is flat and close to the fields.
Some people also want to live a little higher up, not right at the foot of the mountain, but not next to the original villagers of Baoshan Town.
There is also the largest open space at the foot of the mountain that Lu Qingqing has her eyes on.