Reborn as the Blissful Wife in the countryside-Chapter 152: Buying Land

Jiang Mansion was located at the center of the county, only a quarter hour’s walk from the county government, and Scholar Shang and his group soon arrived at Jiang Mansion.

Third Grandpa and the others did not enter the Jiang Mansion but waited outside while Scholar Shang entered alone to find his elder cousin and told him about Lu Dezhu’s issue, handing over Lu Dezhu’s confession for him to see.

Upon hearing everything, Jiang Qi was furiously irate: "Old Thief Zou is persistently scheming, trying to test my Jiang family with this matter."

Previously, due to the conflict over the recipe, the Lu Family nearly faced ruin, and the father and son of the Lu Family were terrified. Normally, Lu Laosan was expected to behave himself for a while, but suddenly this issue emerged. It could only mean that County Magistrate Zou had hinted at this, intending to see whether the Jiang family could still handle such matters without his father around.

If they could not, then it meant that the Jiang family was powerless. Once his father was gone, they would pose no threat, and the Zou family could continue to dominate Tianfu County.

Unfortunately, County Magistrate Zou underestimated the Qin, Gu, Luo, and Tian families; before the Jiang family even made a move, the young ones from the Qin family had already captured Lu Dezhu and even forced him to write a confession.

Jiang Qi told Scholar Shang, "Brother-in-law, don’t worry. Have those families wait for a quarter hour and then proceed to the county government to directly find Gaozi. Gaozi will handle this matter perfectly for them."

Although the household registrations and land deeds were managed by County Magistrate Zou, the Jiang family also had people working in the Civil Affairs Office, and Gaozi was one of them.

As long as Brother Yang could keep Civil Affairs Office clerks Qian Xuezhi and Fan Pingshan busy, Gaozi could complete the land deed for the Qin, Gu, Luo, and Tian families in less than a quarter hour.

"Thank you, eldest uncle," Scholar Shang bowed to Jiang Qi.

Jiang Qi, who closely resembled Lord County Captain and was blunt and magnanimous, waved his hand and said, "We’re family, no need for thanks. I’m leaving now; have them follow later."

Jiang Qi swiftly left the study, rode out from the back door of the Jiang family, entered through the back door of the county government, went to the bailiff office, and relayed the situation to Squad Leader Yang, handing over Lu Dezhu’s confession to him.

Squad Leader Yang, after reading the confession word by word, laughed heartily: "This is no trivial offense, Brother Jiang, rest assured, this is an achievement delivered right to our doorstep, we’ll handle it properly."

Squad Leader Yang didn’t rush to apprehend Lu Dezhu but rather wrote a note, called over two government officials, and handed the note to them, directing them to immediately go to the Civil Affairs Office and fetch clerks Qian and Fan away.

The two officials, under orders, used a simple and crude method, found a random excuse, forcibly took them away, and handed the note to clerk Gao.

The two clerks, Qian and Fan, worried as they had been waiting for Lu Dezhu, realized something was wrong when they were taken away by Squad Leader Yang’s men under the pretense that the bailiff office had urgent matters for them, and knew they had to go.

Clerk Qian tried to resist, invoking County Magistrate Zou’s name, and threatened, "Let us go quickly; the County Governor had just summoned us to meet him earlier."

"What’s the rush? County Magistrate Zou has gone home to be with his maid; he’s not even at the county government."

To avoid suspicion, County Magistrate Zou had deliberately stayed away from the county government that day, and it was well-known throughout the county government that he had recently indulged in two concubine maids. Thus, the official’s words immediately refuted Clerk Qian.

The two clerks were quickly taken away.

Clerk Gao opened the note and read: In a quarter hour, families with the surnames Qin, Gu, Luo, and Tian will come to process their land deeds; the Gu Family is particularly favored by Lord County Captain, do not trouble them, assist them in their process.

Clerk Gao recalled Lord County Captain mentioning that his external granddaughter was saved by a girl surnamed Gu, which must be this Gu family.

He put away the note, took out the land register from Qingfu Town, Da Feng Village, placed it on the table, and waited.

After a while, indeed, a group led by Squad Leader Yang’s men came to the Civil Affairs Office.

Third Grandpa took the lead, bowing to clerk Gao, "Sir, we are from Da Feng Village of Qingfu Town, here to handle the housing and land deeds."

Clerk Gao did not ask further, simply stating, "Bring the household registrations, for which house’s housing and land deeds do you want to apply?"

Third Grandpa took out the household registrations and house purchase receipts for each family, laying them on the table.

The house purchase receipts listed the size of the muddy courtyards they bought; as long as the area on the receipts matched the registered area in the county government’s land and property records, the county government wouldn’t need to send someone to measure the land again, which saved a lot of trouble.

Clerk Gao was someone from County Captain Jiang’s side, so naturally, he would opt for whatever was less troublesome.

Clerk Gao said, "Processing a house’s deed requires two taels of silver; handling a land deed, which is essentially purchasing land, requires two taels per mu."

Anticipating their concern about the cost, clerk Gao added, "Currently, the north is restless, and our Tianfu County has received a lot of disaster victims. With more people, the price of land has also increased significantly. Now, for vacant land, the price has risen to one and a half taels, and for land to build houses, it has reached three taels per mu."

Therefore, he was offering them the lowest price possible, and they should not consider it expensive.

Scholar Shang had previously informed Third Grandpa that clerk Gao was one of their own and knew that the quoted price was deliberately low, so they had no complaints and immediately said, "We’ll proceed."

Gu Jinli asked clerk Gao, "Uncle, we would like to also handle the deeds for the vacant lands, how much silver per mu is required?"

Clerk Gao looked at Gu Jinli, smiled, and held up one finger.

Gu Jinli was overjoyed, "Thank you, uncle."

After a pause, she asked again, "We also want to buy several old houses at the end of Da Feng Village, how much would that cost?"

She explained, "Even though we have houses and land, we worry that suddenly a group of riffraff might become our neighbors, which is very unsafe for our families who have both elderly and children."

Lu Laosan could devise a scheme to snatch their houses and land; he could also come up with the disgusting idea of having riffraff move into the village end to surround their families.

Those old houses weren’t expensive, and since clerk Gao was clearly helping them by offering them cheap deals on deeds, why not take advantage of this opportunity?

Hearing this, Third Grandpa and others were instantly frightened and anxiously said, "Xiao Yu is right, we must buy all the old houses near our homes at the village end to ensure safety."

"That’s right, we must buy them to prevent the Lu Family from causing more trouble," added Father Luo and others.

Seeing their agreement, clerk Gao took out a map, pointing to it and said, "This is the layout map of Da Feng Village, and here is the village end. Counting from the back to the front, six courtyards are yours, and you can choose those old houses to buy."

Gu Jinli didn’t expect that the county government of Great Chu would have a layout map of each village’s courtyards. After a brief moment of shock, she pointed to the three courtyards above Uncle Tian’s house and said, "We’ll buy these three courtyards."

The remaining old houses at the village end were these three, which were still habitable, while the others were mostly collapsed.

Turning her hand, she pointed to the empty spaces behind and in front of their houses, "We’ll buy these empty spaces as well."

These spaces were vast, and buying them meant they could be used for building new courtyards in the future.

Clerk Gao warned, "These two pieces of empty land are quite large, totaling about fifteen mu at the back and around forty-five mu at the front. They will require a considerable amount of silver, are you sure you want to buy?"

Before Gu Jinli could respond, Third Grandpa quickly nodded, "Yes, buy it. We are still living in old houses; when we have the money later on, this empty land can be used to build new houses."

Hearing Gu Jinli’s earlier comments, he too feared that one day riffraff would occupy the empty land in front of their homes to build houses, causing trouble for their families.

It was better to bite the bullet and decisively purchase those empty plots now.