“Hmm, I’ll buy it. Guarantor Liu, if there are good cow in the future, I hope you can go to Xinyuan Restaurant to look for Shopkeeper Zhang, tell him that I ordered them. So he can send me the words.”
Now suddenly he got five more people in the family, apparently the milk from one cow was far from enough. Since Song Gengniu and his family were his people, he couldn’t treat them unfairly. Besides, he was considering of sending one to Zhao&Han couple, since they really did him a lot of favor.
“OK, no problem. Brother Ling, please!”
Having agreed joyfully, Guarantor Liu made a ‘please’ gesture. When they came to the shop outside, Ling Jingpeng who brought people to measure the land happened to come back.
“Big brother, according to your instruction, from Yuehua Ditch on the east to the foot of Xiaogong Mountain on the west, about one hundred meters away to brother Zhao’s house in the south, it’s 230 mu in total, we bought it all.”
Ling Jingpeng told Ling Jingxuan in whispers by the ear. This number far exceeded their expectations. Ling Jingxuan couldn’t help picking his eyebrow. He thought it was 100 mu at most. But now it doubled and more. But maybe it wasn’t bad since it could reach Yuehua Ditch on the east side. In the future, if he dug a fishpond, he could use the water there. And there was a brook at the foot of Xiaogong Mountain on the west. Besides, it was low-lying on the west side, it’d be convenient if he wanted to catch fish. The most important thing was, that brook was connected to the half-saline land. So it wouldn’t be a problem about the watering. Over two hundred two it is! He could accept it. Anyhow, very convenient, right?
“Brother Ling, it’s about 230 mu, because you demands an official deed, one a half taels of silver per mu, what do you say?”
At the same time, on the other side, Guarantor Liu also heard his worker’s report. Only one and a half taels of silvers for one mu, official deed, for homestead! Already very cheap! Even the ordinary dry land required five taels of one mu, and those a little better land needed seven or eight taels of silver. The best land was the most expensive, ten, and you might not be able to buy any even if you had the money. There was not so much land for people to purchase in Datong Town!
“OK, as the price you said, how much is it in total?”
Ling Jingxuan immediately agreed. Then Guarantor Liu asked someone to get him the brush, ink sticks, paper and inkstone, and an abacus. After calculating using the abacus for a while, he said, “brother Ling, the carriage including the horse, it’s thirty taels of silver, the cow, eight, people, thirty, 230 mu land, it’s 345 taels of silver, so it’s 413 in total. Forget about the odd, 410 it is, what do you say?”
“Well, no problem. Here is a 500 bank note. Please check it.”
Speaking of which, Ling Jingxuan handed the bank note to him. Since he needed to buy a lot of things today, so he brought 1,500 taels of silver with him today, only afraid it was not enough. At that very moment, the little bun nearly stared two blood holes out of his body. So as for the rest 1,000, he wouldn’t have the chance to spend any.
“Hang on, brother Ling.”
After taking the bank note, Guarantor Liu got up and went to the counter. With a shallow smile, Ling Jingxuan just waited there. What he didn’t know was, except Yan Shengrui, everyone behind him dropped their jaws! That was over four hundred taels of silver! And he just spent it without even blinking???
“Sorry to keep you waiting. Here is the change, 90 taels of silver, and the indenture of Song Gengniu and his family, and also the agreement of buying the livestock and the land. Take a look. If there is no problem, you can sign your name and leave your fingerprint here.”
Soon, Guarantor Liu came back with a pile of agreements and contracts in hand, and the worker following behind put the silver ingot on the table. Ling Jingxuan took over those agreements and checked carefully, only put them away after making sure there was no problem. Then he felt out a charcoal stick wrapped with soft bamboo skin. That was a charcoal pencil he made himself. Though it couldn’t compare with a ball-point pen in modern times, at least he could write words with it. He really didn’t know how to use a brush pen in ancient times.
After signing his name and leaving the fingerprint, their contract was completed. After checking it and making sure there was no problem, Guarantor Liu said, “three days later, I’ll ask someone to send the title deed for the land to your place. Brother Ling, just let me know if you need anything.”
A businessman is a businessman, in the end he still did not forget to say some ass-kissing words. Ling Jingxuan gave a faint smile, “Thank you then. Oh right, if I want to hire a lot of people for the land reclamation, can you also do the business?”
“No matter how many people you want, just tell me the number and I promise to send them to you the next day. But Brother Ling, hiring people is not the same as buying people. The wages must be paid day by day, because it’s the busy farming season and the average strong labor force is 30 copper coins a day. But during the slack season, it might be cheaper.”
Guarantor Liu instantly promised him, only thinking that Ling Jingxuan would reclaim his over two hundred mu land he newly bought.
pαndα`noνɐ1--сoМ “Hehe…Thank you then. Tomorrow, please hire me thirty people for me and send them to Ling village. Better let them bring a hoe each. Here is ten taels of silver as the deposit.”
Fishing out a silver ingot and throwing it to him, Ling Jingxuan said so as he walked out. Since he had bought the land, he needed to start as soon as possible.
“Thirty? Is that too many?”
Guarantor Liu really held good intention this time. Only over two hundred mu of land, thirty strong labours could finish it in less than a day. That’d be a waste to hire so many.
“Many hands make light work. Just do it as I told you.”
Face sunk, apparently Ling Jingxuan did not want to say more. As sophisticated as Guarantor Liu was, he immediately changed his tone, “Deal! They’d be there before eight in the morning.”
“Hmm.”
After going out, their newly bought carriage already waited there. And the cow was also pulled out. Song Gengniu climbed onto the carriage, took the whip from the worker. So he was gonna be their carter. Ling Jingxuan nodded satisfactorily, then turned to Zhao and Han, “Brother Zhao, brother Han, Shengrui, Jingpeng and I still need to buy some necessities. Can you take the four of them and the cow back for me?”
“OK, no problem.”
When they saw his extravagant spending, the Zhao&Han couple already got dumbfounded. Till now they were still in a trance. To them, over four hundred taels of silver was enough to support the rest of their life!
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