Having finally settled down, everyone became much more enthusiastic about their work than before. A peaceful atmosphere prevailed in the spacious courtyard.
Seeing this, He Zhiran and Mo Jiuye also joined in.
After breakfast, Ba Ge called up Liang Hao and others, intending to go up the mountain to take a look.
Mo Jiuye also wanted to follow everyone up the mountain, but He Zhiran had an appointment with Henry today to help find a shipwright to repair the ship. He could not let such a beautiful daughter-in-law go there alone, so he had to give up on that idea.
The time agreed with Henry was not very early. The two set off in a mule cart after the hour of Chen (7-9am).
Just after they got to the middle of the road in the center of the village, they saw Zhao Zechuan walking towards the village entrance.
Mo Jiuye had a good impression of Zhao Zechuan, so he took the initiative to greet him.
"Is Scholar Zhao going into the city?"
Seeing that the speaker was Mo Jiuye, Zhao Zechuan immediately smiled.
"So it turns out to be Brother Mo Jiu of the Mo family. Please don't call me Scholar Zhao, it sounds a bit awkward. Just call me by my name like the villagers do."
Yesterday when he went to the school, he specifically asked the well-informed teacher if he had heard of any officials with the Mo surname in the court.
The Mo surname was not very common in the Da Shun Dynasty. As soon as the teacher heard this surname, he immediately thought of the Mo family in the capital's Duke Who Protects the Nation's mansion.
After communicating with the teacher for a while, Zhao Zechuan learned that the Mo family in the capital had already been exiled to the northwest.
That matched up perfectly. Brother Mo Jiu in front of him was undoubtedly the former Duke Who Protects the Nation.
He just didn't know why such a prominent figure had fallen to the point of exile?
Zhao Zechuan was not to blame for not being able to figure out the reason. Even the Mo family themselves did not understand why they had received such a result in return for shedding their blood on the battlefield to defend the Da Shun Dynasty.
Although Zhao Zechuan did not understand the reason why the Mo family was exiled, he still deeply respected a family that had defended the Da Shun nation with their lives.
Therefore, when facing Mo Jiuye, who was exiled by the imperial edict, he did not have any sense of superiority.
On the contrary, he felt that Mo Jiuye was the one he should respect.
"Brother Mo Jiu, last night I finished writing the petition and was going to deliver it to the county prefect early. If you're going into the city, could you give me a ride?"
Mo Jiuye shifted his body to the side to make room next to him.
"I'm going to meet someone near the county government, so it happens to be on the way."
After Zhao Zechuan thanked him, he sat on the other side of Mo Jiuye.
Driving a mule cart into the city would take at least an hour and a half. Mo Jiuye simply asked about the houses at the foot of the mountain.
"Brother Zechuan, who owns those houses at the foot of the mountain?"
"Those old residences all belong to our three families. More than ten years ago, before Cui Wen became the county magistrate, the Cui family had just moved here, and there were also fewer people than our two families.
So most of those courtyards at the foot of the mountain belonged to our Zhao and Zhou families, while the Cui family only had five or six. "
Mo Jiuye continued to ask, "I see there is still a lot of barren land around those courtyards. Do those wastelands have owners?"
As the eldest son of the head of a clan, he was still very clear about the situation in the village.
"That land was reclaimed by my father's generation just to get more harvest.
Later, our Zhao and Zhou families were bullied by the Cui family. They forcibly exchanged the wasteland they had reclaimed themselves for our good fields. So our two families simply stopped taking care of the land at the foot of the mountain.
After working hard for several years to improve the soil quality, we had to let the Cui family take advantage in the end. Therefore, our two families gave up the land there. It has been abandoned for more than ten years."
After a pause, Zhao Zechuan asked back, "Is Brother Mo Jiu planning to buy farmland?"
Mo Jiuye did not deny it. "Since we will be living here long term, we naturally need to acquire some land."
Zhao Zechuan continued to ask, "Does Brother Mo Jiu also plan to build a house in the village?"
"I do have this idea, I just don't know if those old houses at the foot of the mountain are for sale?"
Mo Jiuye knew clearly that those dilapidated houses were uninhabitable. Even if he bought them, it would only be to use the place as a homestead.
After all, both he and his daughter-in-law were very fond of that location.
He had expected Zhao Zechuan to patiently continue to clarify his doubts, but the latter instead advised him not to build a house there.
"Brother Mo Jiu, it's not suitable for long-term living there, especially in winter."
Mo Jiuye raised his eyebrows. "Why?"
"Brother Mo Jiu may not know, in the bad years before, the barbarians often climbed over mountains and crossed ridges to come and rob food.
If you live at the foot of the mountain, you will definitely become a target for the barbarians to rob. The reason why our several families moved away from there and built high courtyard walls was to prevent them from coming to rob.
Also, there were many people in our families who were united. As soon as the barbarians were discovered coming, everyone would gather together to drive them away.
Perhaps because those barbarians could not take advantage of us here in recent years, they have not come in the past few years."
Mo Jiuye had caught wind of this in the past few days.
Facing tens of thousands of enemy troops, he was not afraid, so how could he be afraid of these barbarians who existed like bandits?
Moreover, he and He Zhiran had already discussed that if they built a house there, they could also raise the height of the courtyard wall. When the time came, they would also raise a few dogs in the house. They would discover any movement at the first moment.
Therefore, he was not worried about the problem of barbarians coming to harass and rob them.
"I'm not afraid of barbarians. If they are discovered, beat them back. I just want to know now if those abandoned courtyards can be sold to us."
Zhao Zechuan also thought, this person led thousands of troops onto the battlefield to kill enemies. How could he be scared by a few barbarians?
As for whether those abandoned residences could be sold, Zhao Zechuan did not need to ask his father to give an answer.
"The old residences have been abandoned for many years, and we won't live there anymore either. If Brother Mo Jiu proposes to buy them, I think everyone will agree."
"It's just that the price must not be as suitable as buying wasteland and building new houses."
Mo Jiuye also understood this logic. Although the houses there were dilapidated and uninhabitable, after all it was still a courtyard. It was unrealistic to want to purchase them at wasteland prices.
His chat with Zhao Zechuan was also just to learn more about it. He still had to negotiate with the two clan heads if he wanted to purchase those houses and land.
There was no hurry about this matter. He had to carefully discuss it with his family before deciding.
There was also the Xie and Fang families. They had come to Xi Ling Village for his family’s sake, so he also had to ask their opinions when choosing land and building houses.
As the two chatted, they were nearing the county government.
From afar, they could see the county government gate surrounded by commoners, with officials pointing around and saying something unknown.
After thanking Mo Jiuye, Zhao Zechuan took the lead and walked over there with the petition.
