bookrandom Chapter 85 Buying a House and Land
Chapter 85 Buying a House and Land
Soon, Si Shaoheng and an elder from the clan went to the county government office with Registrar Xu to process the transfer documents.
Including the house site and courtyard, the family received a total of 102 taels of silver from the Si clan.
At the same time, they also received certification documents issued by the clan.
This indicates that Si Shaoheng's family no longer owns any property or land within the clan, and the clan cannot provide alternative resettlement. They request the county magistrate to relocate them.
After the affairs of the Si family clan were clearly handed over, Registrar Xu took out the land register of Songshan County and asked Si Shaoheng to select it.
He deliberately probed: "Sanjia Village and Xiaohe Village, which are closest to the county government, are large villages with various surnames. They also happen to have contiguous stretches of thin farmland and homesteads. Although the prices are a bit higher, they should be the most suitable for you, Shaoheng."
Si Shaoheng glanced at the available options: three mu of homestead land and two mu of farmland per person. If he included Si Dalang and Xia Shi, who had not yet separated from their households, they could buy a total of thirty-six mu.
A plot of homestead land costs 1.5 taels of silver, while a plot of thin land costs 10 taels of silver. In these two villages, the land alone would cost 375 taels of silver. This doesn't even include the cost of building a three-section mud-brick courtyard, furniture, farm tools, or the biggest expense of digging a well.
He feigned a gasp, his eyes flashing with astonishment: "This...this will wipe out half of my wife's family's business capital. Sir, I...I have to go back and ask my wife. But she'll most likely disagree."
When she came, she told me that her family had practically emptied their savings and needed to buy property in a more affordable place, even if it was a bit far or remote.
Registrar Xu laughed and said, "It's my fault, it's my fault. Your wife handed over the medicinal herbs as soon as she asked, and even gave me the prescription. She's so generous. I thought she must be very wealthy."
Si Shaoheng sighed, "Those medicinal herbs were bought along the way. Originally, we were thinking that when we got to my wife's house in the north, we would go back to our old business and set up a medicinal herb stall."
The geography of the North and Southwest is different, and the woman worried that the medicinal herbs would grow differently here, making them difficult to collect. Therefore, she spared no expense along the way, investing everything she had.
"I see." Registrar Xu stroked his beard, seeing that his dejected and worried expression seemed genuine, and then turned to the last few pages of the land register.
"Shaoheng, take a look at this Daxi Village... Although it is a remote place, it is surrounded by mountains on three sides, and the mountains are rich in resources, which is convenient for Madam Cheng's family to collect herbs and hunt."
Taking the official road to the county town is indeed a bit far, but that's a detour, and the actual distance is only separated by a mountain.
If your family has a horse-drawn carriage, the round trip time can be greatly shortened. If the carriage is really busy, the herb gatherers are good at walking mountain roads and can cross the mountains to come to the county town, which won't be too slow.
The key point is that land here is cheap, and business registration is allowed.
Although Registrar Xu intended to be on good terms with Si Shaoheng and his wife, wouldn't it be wonderful if they could also help him solve his problems during their interactions?
The village of Daxi that he introduced was a new village that Magistrate Fang specially designated after taking office, in accordance with the imperial court's population policy.
Three years ago, this place was still an old forest. Magistrate Fang organized a local militia and even used his own troops. It took a whole year to clear the wild animals and beasts out of the forest. After that, it took another year to clear the forest of trees.
To this day, the land in Daxi Village hasn't been leveled much, otherwise it wouldn't be so cheap...
And for these reasons.
Those who were even slightly familiar with the situation in the north, and the people who had migrated from the surrounding prefectural cities, were unwilling to settle there. Now, the entire village, including the village chief's family who were forcibly assigned there, only has twenty-four households and about a hundred people.
The pressure of performance evaluation for Director Fang is immense, which puts a lot of pressure on his subordinates as well.
Xu, the registrar, lost a lot of weight trying to increase the population of Daxi Village.
Now that we've run into such a large family like Si Cheng's, with so many people, and they want cheap land, isn't this like a dream come true?
Si Shaoheng looked at the few pages of map that Xu Zhubu had opened and immediately took a liking to the location of Daxi Village.
This looks exactly like Hulu Village in Huilan City!
Hulu Village has two circles, while Daxi Village has only one. However, Daxi Village is better than Hulu Village because it is located west of a continuous snow-capped mountain range, and there are streams formed by melting snow from the mountain that flow down as a natural water source.
He felt that Cheng Ruoan would definitely like it here.
Even if war breaks out in the north, we are not afraid. The whole village will block the entrance and hide inside. It may be safer than the capital.
The only problem with this place is that the hall is too small; otherwise, the imperial court would probably have considered turning it into a city.
Such a place, easy to defend and difficult to attack, is practically a "sacred city of natural border defense".
Si Shaoheng immediately instructed Registrar Xu and others to leave the county government office and find a familiar bodyguard at the escort agency to help bring Cheng Ruoan from Si Family Village.
Cheng Ruoan was being taught by Doctor Hu how to perform acupuncture on patients like Da Niu when he heard that he could personally participate in site selection, so he ran off with the bodyguard in a flash.
Inside the county government office, in the registrar's office.
Cheng Ruoan and Si Shaoheng huddled together, looking at the land register and the map of Songshan County.
Seeing that the two were looking intently but didn't say anything, Xu, the registrar, assumed that they were worried that the place looked too remote.
He then explained, “Shaoheng, Madam Cheng, I’m not being rude to you. This place is indeed remote. There’s not a single piece of fertile land; it’s all barren fields and wasteland. Less than one in ten people are willing to settle here.”
But it's cheap.
These two words are not actually Cheng Ruoan's or Si Shaoheng's sore spot.
But on the surface, they have to pretend to be.
Cheng Ruoan seemed to breathe a huge sigh of relief and asked with a smile, "Then I wonder about the land prices in Daxi Village?"
She pretended.
Like Si Shaoheng, she was secretly overjoyed.
“One tael for a homestead, one acre for a poor field, five taels for a acre, and half a tael for a acre of wasteland.”
“This price sounds quite reasonable, but there are so many of us… Husband, what do you think?” Cheng Ruoan looked at Si Shaoheng and winked desperately.
Si Shaoheng understood, so he remained silent, pretending to be thinking.
Cheng Ruoan sighed, "It's cheap, but there are so many of us, it still adds up to a lot of money. The Si family clan only gave 102 taels, and after buying the land, we still need to build houses and make furniture..."
Registrar Xu grew anxious and pointed to the southwest side of the village, which is the innermost and deepest part of the village from the entrance.
“Look, Madam Cheng, this area has five acres of residential land and nearly forty-five acres of wasteland, all connected together and not scattered at all.”
Think about it, your family of eighteen people, plus Cheng Niangzi's family of three, wouldn't it be perfect if they all settled here?
"If you agree to have the land designated here, I'll definitely put in a good effort to get the village chief to mark out 45 mu for you when he surveys the land, but the land deed will still show 42 mu!"
Cheng Ruoan's eyes lit up, but she hadn't yet spoken.
Registrar Xu thought to himself, "I have a chance, let's try harder!"
He took out his abacus and showed it to Cheng Ruoan: "The wasteland is 42 mu, which is worth 21 taels, but in reality it is 45 mu, which is equivalent to 460 wen per mu. This price is something you can't find anywhere in the Great Xia."
The homestead is five mu, worth five liang, which is combined to twenty-six liang.
This price is for both of your families! And you want furniture made, right? This place is right next to the mountain, you see? You can cut down any trees on the mountain to make furniture!