The Songhua River is the largest tributary of the Heilongjiang River, which runs through Heilongjiang Province, and the banks of the Songhua River are also the most prosperous areas in Heilongjiang Province, where most of the farms in the province are concentrated.

Large and small farms are scattered dotted on the banks of the Songhua River, the scale of these farms is different, less than one or two thousand acres, more than 10,000 acres, and most of the farms are centered on retired soldiers, and with a few households, it forms a farm with only a few households.

The courtyard of Li Ergen's house is in the middle of the village. The two small doors of the livestock pen face a small river connected to the Songhua River, and down is the riverbank, which is not so much a river as a fish pond - a net can catch dozens or even hundreds of catties of fish.

Six years ago, Li Ergen, who retired from the army, did not return to the salt works in Huainan, but stayed here. He used his retirement money to buy back two horses and three cows from the market, and brought back a woman, a petite woman in a cheongsam, and I heard that it was the daughter of General Bong-eun. There was always a bit of melancholy and sadness in her eyes. However, for Li Ergen, he is a bitter salt, and it is not easy to marry a daughter-in-law, not to mention, this mother-in-law is still literate.

After coming to the Songhua River from Shenyang, Li Ergen quickly arranged the family business - with the help of a Korean Lifu and two southwestern soldiers, he built a house for him, although it was an adobe house, but he also had a home, and then he fenced off the yard for raising livestock, and since then, he has settled there.

In the following two years, Wang Mingsong, Zhao Laosan, and the two southwest soldiers and Li Song, the Korean Lifu, followed him, and reclaimed 200 acres of land little by little, and the remaining 120 acres of land were used as pasture by Li Ergen, and he bought back more than a dozen sheep from Binjiang City by boat.

Later, Wang Mingsong, Zhao Laosan and the two of them settled next to them, Li Song became the slave of the Li family, and in the following years, they all took their families over, and there were three families here.

In the past few years, Li Ergen's life has been getting better and better, and even the woman who always had some melancholy and grief in her eyes gave birth to two sons and two daughters for him, and even Li Song's sister gave birth to a son and a daughter for him. He Li Ergen is also full of children, 200 acres of land, can harvest more than 100 stone of rice and nearly 300 stone of corn every year, grain can be said to be more than enough for their own food, even if they raise horses, cattle, and sheep to eat all the corn, but every year can sell a few horses and a few cows, as well as hundreds of catties of wool. It's been a very prosperous life.

But Li Ergen, in the past two years, has always been unable to sleep, and even a little uncertain, every time he is free, he will sit alone in the village, those few children who herd cattle for the family, cattle can always see, he will turn his back to the tree, sit alone on a stump, next to a firecracker, and then look into the distance for a long time, until the sky is completely dark, and then carry the wild things back home.

No one knows what he is thinking, but Li Ergen himself knows what he is thinking, the stable days of the past few years are indeed something he has never thought of, and he is willing to live such a life, but when he looks at his son, he can't sleep soundly.

Last fall, Major Jin of Jinjiazhuang died. That day, he and a few brothers from the nearby village rode a horse and took a hunting dog to hunt in the woods, but the horse was frightened for some reason and fell off the horse, and then the man broke his neck, and of course died.

According to the government's regulations, after the news of Major Kim's death was reported, Major Kim's eldest son, who was serving in the army, inherited the farm, and then he wrote a letter to the housekeeper - his three younger brothers and two younger sisters had been kicked out of the house, and they were the younger brothers and sisters born to Major Kim's Jurchen and Korean concubines.

According to the Law of Primogeniture, it is legal for the eldest son to evict the concubine and the second son from the house, but of course, they need to find a place to live for him and afford him until he reaches adulthood. Of course, this is not a problem, a few stone of rice grain per month, a few taels of silver per year, that's all. As for the place to live, it is just a few adobe houses.

Although not everyone will be so ruthless, what Jin Guoming did was quietly spread in the Zhuangzi hundreds of miles nearby, some people said that he was too vicious, and of course some people said that he would sit like this because the Jurchen concubine and the Korean concubine had failed him together when he was a child.

For most people, this is not ordinary gossip, but directly related to their interests, after all, for them, they also have to think about what is behind them, thinking about the future of their sons, after all, they have more than just one firstborn son.

Last year, they had a meeting and then went to the house of the commander-in-chief.

That day, Ding Shutao, the general soldier, walked up to the steps in front of the house and saluted everyone.

"Brothers, what are you doing here?"

The crowd stood silently in front of the steps, and no one spoke. In the end, it was still a drunken veteran, with a bit of alcohol, who first shouted loudly.

"This field was earned by the blood and sweat of our brethren, and we can leave it to whomever we want! Why didn't the government give it to outsiders, but to its own son, what's wrong? ”

"That's it, what's wrong!"

"Why can't you divide it!"

"Isn't this given to us by His Majesty?"

"What is given to us is ours, why can't we divide it!"

"We will distribute it to whoever we want, if we divide the field, we can no longer exempt the field tax, then the imperial grain and national tax that should be paid will be a lot of money for the court in the future!"

In the face of the surging crowd, Ding Shutao stood on the stage and persuaded loudly.

"Don't argue, don't argue, there's nothing to be noisy about! …… This eldest son inherits the family business, it is the law of the country, and the emperor is like this, as subjects, we naturally should do what we should do, otherwise how to repay the favor of the king! Besides, if this field is divided, the life of the sons in the future will no longer be able to be broadened, and at most three generations will be divided into families, not only will it not be good, but they may even go hungry, and they will starve to death at that time! ”

"The great-grandson in the future will starve to death, and the son who is starving to death now can't take care of his own son, so why ...... grandson?"

The people shouted at the front of the steps, perhaps because of the anger of the crowd, and even clashed with the house slaves of the general army, and the last bang broke the noise of the people. The patrol who rushed over directly caught a few brothers, and although they were not deprived of their medals at the intercession of the general soldiers, they were still fined fifty military sticks and one hundred taels of silver for rioting at the crowd.

Subsequently, the proclamation of the government was posted in each village, clearly telling everyone that the inheritance of the eldest son is the law of the Ming Dynasty, from the royal family to the common people, and the law must be obeyed, but anyone who dares to divide the property will be returned to the eldest son, and the second son will be exiled......

Since then, Yu'er, who already has a smile, has become dull-eyed, holding the three children who have not yet been weaned in her arms, and many times, she will wash her face with tears.

Even when she looked at the boss, there were some complaints in her eyes.

In a month's time, the eldest will go to the Datong Hall of the Holy Temple, like other children of the same age, to receive the opening ceremony. Then, he will get a name, and Li Ergen has already chosen one of the several names enshrined - Li Zhi. In another twelve years, he will grow into an adult, and when the time comes, he will enter the army, and at that time, he Li Ergen can be discharged from military service.

But what about his brothers?

Thinking of this, Li Ergen sighed again, although he knew that the eldest would not drive his younger brothers out of the house, but when he was a father, he always had to worry about the future of his sons, whose daughter would they marry as a daughter-in-law in the future, and how would they live in the future?

What will happen in the future?

Unless he can be conscripted into the army again, or if there are local people who make a rebellion, and then get dozens or hundreds of acres of merit land in the north of Heilongjiang by virtue of military merits, and then he can give that piece of merit to his second son, otherwise, the other two sons will never get the land.

The sky was dark, and again, carrying two hares and three pheasants, Li Ergen hung his head and walked towards home, the original adobe house has become a red brick and tile house, but this mood can not be relaxed.

On the day of the boss's opening ceremony, this important day, the family put on a new dress, Li Song drove the carriage, and took the carriage to the holy temple in the city more than ten miles away, the road through the holy temple was just a road pressed out by too many cars and horses, and on the way, Li Ergen met Wang Dong, they were brothers in the army, he was invited to participate in his son's opening ceremony, because his daughter-in-law was about to give birth, so he only took two sons, let the son sit in front of the saddle.

"Brother Li, have you heard?"

Wang Dong, who was riding on a horse, followed the carriage and looked at Li Ergen and said.

"Chief Wang's youngest son has been admitted to Shenyang Academy."

"Academy?"

Li Ergen looked at Wang Dong with some doubts,

"Yes, the best academy in our northeast, in Zhongdu, there is also Qinghe Academy, Jingshi has Jingshi Academy, I heard Chief Wang say that as long as you can be admitted to the academy and graduate, even if you can't be an official, you can be a scholar, and you will have a skill in the future."

Go to the Academy!

Wang Dong's words made Li Ergen's eyes light up, and he almost immediately subconsciously thought of his sons, why do you have to let them farm, in addition to farming, there are many other options? Go to the academy, study, and you will have food in the future.

"You don't know, I heard that in Nanyang, in those vassal states, as long as you are a student in the academy, when you get there, you don't have to worry about food, I thought, in the future, if the mother-in-law has a handle in her belly, if it is not for the material for studying, let him go to Nanyang to be a soldier, and when he gets there, he can not be a master......"

Isn't this the truth, this world is so big, what's there to worry about!

Suddenly, at this moment, Li Ergen seemed to have figured it out, and looking at those young sons, his heart suddenly relaxed, and he no longer had the previous troubles......

After all, the world is so big, there is always a place to stay......