Chapter 443: Retreat
Editor: Atlas Studios
Outside the West City of Lin’an City, there was a river called Clear River. Clear River circled around Treasure Mountain and faced Daming Mountain. The land that the agent mentioned was beside Clear River. The depressions by the river and three small hills occupied about 300 acres. The remaining 200 acres consisted about 50 acres between the hills. Mu Yangling had gone to take a look. The 150 acres that came from the depressions were not bad, comprising high, medium, and low-grade lands.
The depression by the river was about 120 acres. In her previous life, such land could be developed into a landscape or park, but now, this kind of land could not be farmed.
Digging a gully to drain the water out would probably allow them to obtain more fertile fields. However, that would destroy the wetland’s environment. Moreover, it would take a lot of manpower and resources. Mu Yangling did not think that there was a need to do that.
Mu Yangling rode her horse around the vicinity. When she returned, she smiled at the agent and said, “Tell Steward Liu that I’m buying his land, but I still hope that you can lower the price, considering these riverside depressions can’t be farmed.”
“Erm…” The agent was in a difficult position.
Mu Yangling said slowly, “I’ll give you half of however much you manage to bargain down.”
The agent immediately said, “Don’t worry, Madam. I’ll definitely do my best.”
Mu Yangling nodded slightly and brought her servants back.
Spring and Rain both knew how to ride horses, so the two of them took a step back from Mu Yangling and could not help but ask curiously, “Fourth Madam, why did you buy this? The farmable land is only about 200 acres.”
Mu Yangling pointed in the direction of Daming Mountain and said with a smile, “Look at the scenery there. Even though we can’t afford the land there, it’s not bad to live here and admire the scenery from here.”
Spring and Rain looked at each other in disbelief. Fourth Madam was not someone who only liked to have fun.
When Mu Yangling returned, she sent the two of them away and ran to Qi Xiuyuan’s study to search for a map. She took out a piece of white paper and drew seriously.
When Qi Haoran returned from outside reeking of alcohol, Mu Yangling was still in the study. He gulped down a pot of hangover soup before coming to look for her.
Mu Yangling pushed him away in disdain. “Hurry up and take a shower and change your clothes. You stink.”
Qi Haoran sat on Mu Yangling’s seat in a flash. He burped and muttered, “I don’t think I stink.”
He picked up the thing that Mu Yangling had drawn and shook his head. “This is the fragrance of wine…” Qi Haoran paused and narrowed his eyes. After looking at the paper in his hand seriously, he looked at Mu Yangling in surprise. “This is…”
Mu Yangling didn’t mind that he was smelly anymore. She went to his side and whispered, “How about it? Let’s buy this farmstead and stay there for a period of time from time to time?”
Qi Haoran’s eyes sparkled as he nodded and said, “Get someone to build it. After it’s built, you can stay there with Sister-in-law from time to time.”
On the map, not only was there the piece of land that Mu Yangling had taken a fancy to today, but there was also a road map to get to the main road from there. Qi Haoran understood at a glance that that was the backup plan that Mu Yangling planned to leave for them. From there, there were four official roads around Daming Mountain to get to the main road. No matter which direction they took, they would be able to return to Xingzhou Prefecture in the end.
If something really happened one day, this would be one of their backup plans. It would be even better than the backup plan that Big Brother had arranged for them previously.
This was also the reason why Mu Yangling was willing to buy that piece of land. Regardless of whether it was profitable or not, she had to buy it.
Qi Haoran picked up his pen and drew a circle at the bottom of the westernmost hill. “Let’s build the farmstead here.”
Mu Yangling nodded. “That’s my intention, too. When the time comes, we’ll build houses on the east side for the farmers to live in. Fortunately, after we leave the city, we’ll go east to west, so no one will see when we come out of the farmstead.”
“Build a bigger farmstead. When the time comes, I’ll send a few guards over,” Qi Haoran said in a low voice.
Smiling, Mu Yangling said, “Alright, but they have to know how to farm. Otherwise, it’ll be too obvious if they stay in the farmstead.”
Qi Haoran nodded, then folded and burned the paper. “Just keep it in your mind.”
In the end, the agent helped them lower the price to 1,800 taels. Mu Yangling kept her promise and handed him 1,900 taels. Instead of handling it personally, she asked a restaurant steward to follow the agent to complete all the procedures.
After the deal concluded, when Steward Liu realized that the person who bought the land was actually from the Qi family, he broke out in cold sweat. Although the Qin family and the Qi family were not enemies, they were definitely not on good terms. Wasn’t he courting death by doing business with the Qi family at this time?
Just as Steward Liu was about to take back the land, the restaurant steward said with a smile, “The deal is done. It won’t be right for Steward Liu to go back on your word.”
Steward Liu’s expression was ugly, but he watched him leave helplessly. If it were anyone else, he could still suppress them with his power, but he really couldn’t suppress Qi Haoran.
After Mu Yangling received the documents, she started to get people to buy servants and hire long-term workers. As for the steward of the farmstead, he was chosen from the people they brought. After all, this was a backup plan, so she was naturally worried about handing the farmstead over to someone unfamiliar.
Spring Quarter Examinations was in a month’s time. Many people rushed into Lin’an City, and even the slave market was much livelier. The chosen farmstead steward, Zhu Liang, bought 58 slaves in one go. Most of them were single, and only four of them had families.
Zhu Liang did not bring the slaves back to the Qi Residence. Instead, he ordered them to build a shed at the foot of the mountain and start building the houses.
These were Mu Yangling’s dowry in name, so the Qi Residence had no right to touch them.
Zhu Liang was Steward Zhu’s eldest son. Needless to say, he was loyal to Qi Xiuyuan and Qi Haoran. Unless he could disregard his parents, wife, and children in the north, he would not betray them. Therefore, Mu Yangling trusted him with this matter.
Zhu Liang didn’t understand why Fourth Young Master wanted him to manage the farmstead owned by Fourth Madam. Previously, he had been in charge of some intelligence stuff under Fourth Young Master, so it was impossible for him not to feel regretful.
However, he bore in mind what his father had said. All he had to do was listen to his master, so no matter how resentful he was, he would not show it. He would do whatever Mu Yangling instructed him to do.
“Fourth Madam, I’m afraid the long-term workers and those servants are not enough. Should we hire some tenant farmers to rent out the land?” Zhu Liang asked.
Having never recruited tenant farmers before, Mu Yangling frowned slightly. She took out the map of the farmstead they were building and pointed to a larger area in the east. “We’ll only rent this piece out, and use the long-term workers for the remaining land. We can build more houses. In the future, the long-term workers will live here, separate from our people.”
Mu Yangling pointed at the middle of the three hills and said, “Other than the houses built, the remaining fields will be farmed by the servants. Don’t let the tenant farmers come to the farmstead easily.” Mu Yangling smiled. “But don’t make it too obvious. Alright, since the spring sowing is about to start, just assign half of the people to build houses. We have to start preparing to farm.”
Zhu Liang became excited when he heard this. The tenant farmers were not allowed to come to the farmstead? Sounded like this farmstead was going to be of great use. As expected, why else would Fourth Young Master bury his talents in the fields?