Chapter 9: Land
This is a difficult path to walk, it's a small mountain stream, with rocks piled up all over the place, and it looks like living inside would be very safe. Although there are no cliffs or precipices on this road, if you walk too fast, you'll trip and fall, and although you won't die from the fall, you'll still end up with a swollen nose and bruised face, and possibly even break some bones. Horses walking through here have to go slower than people, and if they're not careful, they might even break their legs.
Luckily, Yang Heng's cart was sturdy, and the three of them slowly pulled it in, as if carrying a thousand pounds of things. "Huffing and puffing, I'm exhausted," they said, having walked for over two hours on this mountain road. They had eaten a midnight snack after finishing their packing in the morning, but since then, they hadn't eaten or even drunk water, and were now drenched in sweat on this stretch of mountain road.
"Ah, grandfather, this is the old home you were talking about. The road here is really difficult to walk on, but this place is truly a paradise on earth." Yang Heng was originally complaining, but after lifting his head and taking a look, he changed his tone. It's too beautiful - green mountains, clear water, harvested fields, and in the distance, dozens of thatched cottages.
"What a utopia, it's just a poor mountain village, the people living inside can't even afford to eat their fill, and their annual income is not enough to pay taxes. Listening to you, I don't know if we can make ends meet or not?" The old man complained, what kind of vision is this?
Ah, right, Yang Heng is using a later generation's perspective to look at this place. Although in later generations, such places are also poor mountain valleys, roads can be built, and the mountain road isn't that long, but it's different in this era. What can be used to build roads? This road with big and small rocks almost overturned the wooden cart.
"Hey, Grandpa, where's the forest?" Yang Heng smiled mischievously, "East side, we'll get there by following this small path." The old man grumbled, "Speak nicely to children, I think this place is not bad." The old lady was unhappy.
"Here you three are, look, I've got all your land deeds back for you. Your uncle has gone to great lengths for you, and spent a lot of money to get things done quickly." Suddenly, the voice of Old Uncle came from behind, it turned out that he had borrowed a donkey and rushed to the county government office after parting ways with Yang Heng and the others, and had someone process the new land deeds, even spending his own money to speed up the process. Ah, right, without explanation, this uncle was a local official, although not a high-ranking one, but still had some face in the county, so much so that the county officials didn't even need to come and measure the land before directly issuing the land deeds.
Perhaps he thought this would drive Yang Heng and his family to their deaths, that is to say, if the land was not cultivated within a certain period of time, perhaps Old Dad would be convicted of violating the law. In order to help his cousin, he had no choice but to make an effort. He didn't know, however, that Yang Heng and his family had long been prepared. With 100 mu of land, they could cultivate it within a year with their own strength, thanks to having the right tools.
"Let's go, I'll go tell you about the boundaries of this land." The old man said calmly. Since things have been settled, it's too late to regret now, and there's no need to put on a smiling face to welcome these three people anymore.
Entered the mountain, although it is still a small path, but there are not so many stones on this small path. Along a small stream on the south bank all the way east, that is, the direction of the stream, came to the side of a larger river, and then along the north, came to a relatively flat place.
"Big brother, look, this small stream is the southernmost part of your family's land. Going north to the foot of the mountain is the northernmost part. On the east side, it goes up to one-third of the way across the river. Of course, the river itself doesn't count as part of the land; the land follows along this line. The length from south to north is roughly over a thousand meters, and the width is about 750 meters, measured from one-third of the way across the river going west. It's all written very clearly in the documents."
(The old man said calmly) "Alright, thank you, Uncle."
(The old father said gratefully) "No need to thank me, I'm just telling you ahead of time. If you can't cultivate the land later on and the government asks for your punishment, I won't go bail you out." The old man said very seriously.
"Alright, you all take care of it, I'm going to find your father. Do you want to come together?" But looking at his expression, it's like he's saying, "You'd better not come." Of course, Father wouldn't go look for someone who has lost face, and now that we're home, what's the point of looking from afar? "No, no, we still need to settle down. Thank you, Uncle. You can take your time." "Alright, I'm leaving." The old man turned around and left, but at this moment, Father's face was full of disappointment. It's been over a decade since he last returned home, and yet he couldn't even go back for a visit. But it wouldn't be good to go against Uncle's wishes either. This is really frustrating! All because of poverty! If it weren't for the chaotic times, with Father's abilities, we wouldn't have found Mother now. This is also why Father was ostracized - according to him, if he were still at home, life would be even harder. The land is too little, and there are many wild beasts. On our way here, we've already heard some wolf howls and even the calls of wild boars. As a group of outsiders, it's not bad that we have this mountain valley to settle in. But people are poor and weak; otherwise, this place would be great for hunting too."
Yang Heng and his family returned at the right time, which was during the early Tang Dynasty. Although the Tang Dynasty had been established for several years, the country was still not very stable. Yang Heng's household registration had not been officially registered yet, so they could travel and change their merchant identity to a farmer's identity. They didn't even need to spend money to buy land on the edge of the field. This was a desolate mountain wilderness, and no one needed it. If this were in the past, just going up a mountain would be impossible, let alone opening up wasteland. That place was actually a famous Daoist site, and it was not possible to even live there in the past.
Yang Heng walked for a while and found that this place might not be possible to come back and live in a few years. This place is close to Chang'an City, although the mountain road is difficult, but if you really take a good rest afterwards, this is indeed a good place.
"Grandfather, I think the fields here are not bad at all. They can be irrigated directly with river water. Why do you say they're no good?" Yang Heng was still curious. He was talking about the south bank of the small stream they had come from, where there were many fields along the way. As long as the stream was blocked, the water could flow directly into the fields. "You only see the surface, but haven't you seen what kind of fields they are? They're all sandy land, and the crops grow poorly. Sometimes wild boars even come down to cause trouble. If there's no water for irrigation, it'll be even more difficult. Our ancestors came here and stayed because they saw that the fields could be irrigated with water. It wasn't until they really settled down that they realized these things." The old man said helplessly.
"All right, you two don't say anything more, it's about to get dark soon, let's see how we can settle down. Looking around here, there is nothing, how are we going to live?" The old woman looked at the surrounding scenery and began to worry.
"This is easy to say, for the time being, let's set up a shed first. Our tools are not bad, we can use the fastest time to build a fence and block the beasts, then ignite a fire, and we can rest assured. Let's wait until tomorrow to arrange it properly. Now, let's hurry up! Mother, you start a fire, I'll go with Grandpa to collect some firewood first, then we'll sharpen our knives. Tonight, we'll set up a shed and build a wooden fence to block the beasts. I see that there are many trees inside that can be used."
Since neither Father nor Mother had any ideas, Yang Heng took charge of assigning tasks at this time. In the forest, some dry firewood and grass could still be found. First, use an axe without a blade to clear out a piece of land, clearing away all the weeds on top. Mother was also using a fire starter to ignite a fire on the side.
