Chapter Fifteen Countryside

  Yang Heng and his mother, really can't be said, in the more than a month since Old Man went out, they actually opened up more than 30 mu of land, which is not just cutting down the trees on top, but also turning over the land itself.

  During this time, whether it was Yang Heng or the four uncles, they all had their own gains. As for Lao Niang, she was still immersed in the melancholy of leaving home and her husband going to war, every day using hard work to numb her thoughts.

  Four uncles at Yang Heng's house actually didn't have a lot of work to do, but the food was pretty good during this period. They all looked rosy and plump after eating, not as weak and thin as when Yang Heng first saw them, or perhaps they would fall down with just one blow of wind.

  Yang Heng's gains were even more, first he had to consider his daily food, so he went to the mountain to hunt, and even needed to find some edible plants, his footprints spread throughout the surrounding area of over ten miles, so in some places where people rarely visited, he left his footprints. In this way, he also found some special plants, such as finding a few rowsan trees, which may be where the birds brought the rowans from, and the seeds they left behind grew into seedlings. He also discovered that the octagonal tree could be used as a spice.

  When he found the octagonal tree, Yang Heng suddenly remembered what he had been eating these days. It was all boiled meat, not even a pinch of salt was added. His mind had always been focused on the original flavor, but he hadn't noticed that he had gotten tired of this tasteless meat food, how could he swallow it?

  "What is this, octagon? How can there be an octagonal tree here? It's not fake, right? One, two... seven, eight. Yes, it has eight corners. Forget it, I don't want to think about it anymore, let's just dig it back up." When Yang Heng discovered the octagonal tree, he was puzzled for a while. After all, this octagonal tree wasn't native to this area, so how could one be found here? Since he couldn't figure it out, he decided not to think about it anymore. This world is full of strange and wondrous things; even he himself had managed to travel through time and space. If someone were to say that a small bird could fly across the Pacific Ocean from the American continent carrying corn seeds, Yang Heng would probably believe them."

  He had found the octagonal tree, and Yang Heng thought to find other species, but not, he was given another kind of pepper tree, but nothing else could be found. It's not that there weren't any, it's just that Yang Heng only recognized these two kinds of trees used as seasonings, and he wasn't familiar with the others. This is okay, the rest can be asked about, it's said that other seasonings are mostly medicinal materials, if you want to use them, you can go to a pharmacy to buy them. Besides, Yang Heng isn't particularly concerned about food, as long as there's something to eat, it's fine, otherwise, he wouldn't have been eating boiled meat for so long.

  Yang Heng's original plan was to first open up this hundred mu of land, and then see if he had time to take over or buy the other tree groves and open them up as well. That way, his family would be a small landlord. However, during this period, he heard from his uncles that in the Tang Dynasty, land was granted like this: only the head of the household, Yang Heng's father, had land grants, and not much at that - twenty mu of permanent property and eighty mu of allocated land. As for Yang Heng and his mother, they didn't have anything, and would only be allocated land when Yang Heng reached a certain age.

  Even if the 80 mu of mouth-divided fields were gone when Father was gone, this land would also be gone. Moreover, the Yongye field must be planted with mulberry trees, jujube trees, and elm trees, or it would be 10 mu of hemp fields. Therefore, Yang Heng stopped reclaiming land when he had reclaimed 30 mu of land. His current plan is to first sort out the 20 mu of Yongye fields and ask his uncles to find out where there are mulberry seedlings. He wants to plant all the 20 mu of land along the river with mulberry trees, and then reclaim the fields inside as grain fields.

  Next to the mulberry field, these ten mu of land, Yang Heng plans to build an orchard and a spice garden. For now, there's only hawthorn, but that can be done gradually.

  "Heng Er, you said, is our household registration not supposed to be in your grandfather's name?" When the old mother found out about this system regarding land ownership, she became anxious. To think that previously in the city, she was the head of the household, but now it had been changed to her father's, didn't that mean her inheritance was gone?

  "Mother, don't worry about this. When the time comes, I won't be listed in Grandfather's family tree. You can give birth to another son for Grandfather to inherit his business, and I'll continue to carry on the tradition for you." It was clear that Mother cared about the continuation of the family line, not just being the head of the household. So Yang Heng didn't hesitate to tell her everything clearly, and from then on, whatever happened, he would let Father handle it. "Mother's good son, Mother is relying on you, Heng."

  After Old Lady asked this, Yang Heng finally understood why his father had been overjoyed when he heard about the household registration from his uncle earlier, while his mother had looked puzzled. It turned out that there was a problem with family inheritance here. However, Yang Heng was now worried about his father. If his father could get an official position, perhaps being a son-in-law would become his biggest obstacle.

  "Daughter, you must remember that from now on, do not mention in front of anyone that your father-in-law is a son-in-law who was taken in by our family. This is a very important matter for our household." It can be hidden for the time being, but if Father really has some achievements in the army, perhaps others won't find out about him being a son-in-law.

  "Yang Heng, what are you doing?" "Come on, uncles, help me insert the branches. You see, just like this, insert them in and press down." Yang Heng didn't mind the uncles' astonishment, but instead had them work together with him.

  Yang Heng was inserting mulberry branches, before that he asked his uncles to inquire about the mulberry saplings, his uncles inquired and said there were none, if they wanted to plant mulberries, they had to buy seeds to plant, buying seeds was something Yang Heng did not want to spend money on, he remembered when he went hunting in the mountains, he had found some ownerless mulberry trees on the mountain, so this morning, early in the morning, he and his mother went up the mountain to cut back a few mulberry trees, cutting off all the branches that were over five inches long, then tidying them up into a piece of land, preparing to try inserting them to see if they could be planted alive, it was known that in past lives, some trees could be planted alive with insertion, even Yang Heng himself had experimented with this before, although the survival rate was not high, but this thing could succeed.

  However, the later generations used thin membranes to cover them, but in ancient times there was no such thing as a thin membrane. Yang Heng had no choice but to choose some wild grasses to cover these inserted branches, maybe they would work, maybe not, how could he know if they would work or not without trying? It's just a waste of one day's time anyway.

  "Yang Heng, can this really work? Besides, it's winter now, even if it lives, it won't freeze to death, right?" "Uncles, look, I've prepared a lot of hay, after we're done planting, we'll cover it with a thick blanket, can it still freeze to death?" After the uncles asked this, Yang Heng also had some doubts in his heart, "Can this really work?"