At night, the fields are silent, and there are few lights in Tao Village, except for a little candlelight in the dilapidated adobe yard in the west of the village.

This is a typical northern courtyard, no one has ever been an official here, no one has gone through business, they are all farmers who dig in the pit, and naturally they can't build any good houses, and they can only see that the courtyard walls are low, the houses are dilapidated, and the adobe surface has been baptized by wind and rain for decades, and it is inevitable that it will become potholes, and it is very ugly, and the only thing that can be praised is probably only the courtyard that is relatively spacious compared to the civilian courtyards in the south.

The length and width of this yard are five or six zhang each, the west side is the cowshed chicken coop and the thatched house, the east side is stacked with a lot of farm tools and sundries, in the corner not far from the courtyard gate there are also cow dung and chicken manure piled up, fortunately the weather is not too hot, the smell has not yet come out.

In the middle of the courtyard at this time, a square table with a mottled surface was placed, and the three brothers of the Zhao family sat in each of the three directions, and their relatives stood behind them.

The three rooms of the Zhao family gathered here to discuss the separation of the family. During the day, Zhao Xin had already communicated with the third brother Zhao Quan, and the third room had already had the idea of separating the family, so he naturally responded to it, but now only the big house is left and refuses to let go.

"When our father and mother left, they all said, let the three of us take care of each other, we must live a good life, we have all promised in person, and now you want to split up, it's really ......" Zhao Zhuang chattered to himself, and said coldly to the Wang family behind him: "Actually, it's okay to split the family, but the ugly words are ahead, our big house is a long house, and the eldest son and grandson are in our big house, so we should have more points." ”

The so-called sky-high asking price to repay the money on the spot, and now if you want to split up, you are afraid that the big house will bite and not let go, and now that the Wang family has openly opened the price code, Zhao Quan of the third room turned his head and glanced at his wife Liu behind him, and secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Zhao Zhuang turned around and glanced at Wang, his eyes were full of astonishment, and he said with a sneer: "Child, this family can't be divided." ”

Wang glanced at his man contemptuously, and whispered quickly: "This old lady can't handle it anymore for a long time, seven of them are dissatisfied and eight are not angry, and even the little fart child in the second room has not talked back to the old lady, not to mention the third room that has moved out early." Morning and evening are all points, it is better to take advantage of the fact that the deed and title deed are in our hands now, take the opportunity to divide more, you rammer and talk less next, look at the old lady. ”

Zhao Zhuang wanted to speak, but he didn't want Wang to directly reach under his ribs and pinch him, which hurt his nose sore, so he had to shut his mouth in a sneer.

Zhao Yan's third aunt Liu is not a fuel-efficient lamp, and when the couple finished whispering, she said slowly: "Sister-in-law, how do you want to divide it?" I also said ugly things ahead, justice is in the hearts of the people, since my father and mother left, how our family's life is lived, the people in the village can see it. ”

The subtext of Liu's sentence is to warn Wang not to go too far, although today's villagers may not be able to say such a crepe as 'human words are terrible', but the truth contained in these four words is clear.

Wang was not frightened by Liu's words, but only heard her say in a sharp voice: "His third aunt, we don't want much for the big house, as long as this old house and the old cow, and half of the field." As for the silver money in the public school, plus the total amount of more than ten yuan that his second uncle just handed over today, we will divide it equally among the three rooms. ”

Wang's words were so fast that it took a moment for others to react after she finished speaking.

Liu's frowns in the third room, she knows the inheritance left by her in-laws.

Let's talk about the fields first, there are a total of fifteen acres of fertile land at home, but the yield per mu of the northern fields is less, and the value is half cheaper than that in the south, and now an acre of land is about three or four taels of silver, and the old house has a complete range of living things, and because of the proximity to Gyeonggi, the agricultural tools promoted by the government are relatively complete, such as ploughshares, harrows, cocoons, etc., these plus the old house is worth six or seven taels, and the old cattle are worth nine taels.

The so-called eldest brother is like a father, and the eldest sister-in-law is like a mother, if there is nothing important, Zhao Xin doesn't want to face to face with his eldest brother and sister-in-law in any conflict in words, besides, he has been working outside for a long time, and his vision is broader than most people who live in the countryside all the year round.

"Eldest brother, third brother, since ancient times, those big families have the custom of passing on the family business to the eldest son, but we are ordinary people, regardless of the eldest and the like, but the eldest son is the patriarch, and he also contributes the most to this family, even if the family is divided, it should be more, don't you say?"

Zhao Quan of the third room sat on the west side of the table, he was only twenty-four years old this year, but he had a six-year-old daughter, his skin was very tanned, but his eyebrows were relatively delicate, and he always had a smile on his face, giving people a gentle and wooden feeling, although he felt a little wooden, but he was not stupid, after hearing the words of the second brother Zhao Xin, he knew that the second brother's words were mainly for himself.

Zhao Quan and the second brother Zhao Xin are eight years apart, and the eldest brother Zhao Zhuang is ten years apart, compared to the honest and honest eldest brother, he prefers to mix with the steady and responsible second brother since he was a child, and after a long time, he naturally understands his second brother very well, at this time, when he heard these words, he knew that the second brother had not finished speaking, so he only nodded and waited for the following.

Compared with Zhao Quan's calmness, Zhao Zhuang, as the boss, was a little uneasy, he wanted to follow the last wishes of his father and mother not to divide the family, but now it is inevitable to divide the family, but in his mind, he is the boss and should take care of the two brothers, so it is okay to divide equally or share less, but there is his own tigress standing behind him, if he speaks in his heart, he doesn't know what kind of revenge and torture will be incurred, so at this time he can only blush and bow his head, looking silent.

Zhao Zhuang and Zhao Quan didn't speak, but Wang smiled and praised: "It's still his second uncle who is reasonable." ”

Wang smiled, Liu was a little anxious, if it was really according to Wang's division, then the rest of the family property was divided equally with the second room, and there was not much left, I am afraid that even the basic food and clothing could not be done, not to mention that she was pregnant again, even if the child was born safely, I am afraid that she would not be able to raise it, so she was in a hurry, and was about to open her mouth to speak, but was pulled by her own man with her back and pulled the corner of her skirt, Liu knew the character of her own man, so she could only force herself to hold back the eagerness in her heart, and looked at Zhao Xin with some resentment on her brows.

Zhao Yan stood behind the cheap dad and watched coldly, he had already seen everyone's reactions, he naturally didn't look down on the Zhao family's property, as long as he could get free, he was confident that he could gather enough money in the shortest possible time, so he was not so concerned about more and less points, but he was a little curious about the cheap dad's next words, as the so-called look at it, look at its reasons, observe its safety, and look at his heart, he wanted to take this opportunity to see what kind of person this cheap dad was, It's also good to be able to live in harmony with them in the future.

"Sister-in-law, it is appropriate to divide more property in the long house, but if it is divided according to what the sister-in-law said, I and Ah Chou are okay to say, the third brother's family may not even be able to do food and clothing, and if you can't say it, you have to send Xiao Nier out to survive this year, as the saying goes, blood is thicker than water, if that's the case, what will the people in the village think of you, what will they say about you behind your back, and Xiao Nier is so small, do you bear it?"

Zhao Xin saw that there was obviously a contemplative look in Wang's eyes, and continued: "Besides, Da Lang is not young, it is the age when he should talk about getting married, sister-in-law, you also know that although the marriage pays attention to the words of the matchmaker of the parents, but before the marriage, the woman must find someone to come to the village to inquire, if you hear others say that our family has a bad reputation, if it is you, are you willing to marry your daughter?" ”

Wang was stunned, although she was utilitarian and mean, she was not unreasonable, not to mention that what Zhao Xin said was the truth, and she also understood the truth of the accumulation of gold and gold in everyone's mouth, if she really had a bad reputation in the village, I was afraid that her baby son's marriage might really be delayed, so after thinking about it, Wang's tone had already loosened: "His second uncle, then how do you say it should be divided?" ”

Zhao Xin smiled when he heard this, and said, "Then I'll talk about it." My father and mother left a total of fifteen acres of land, the eldest brother divided into six acres, the third brother divided into five acres, and the remaining four acres were given to me, but I worked in the town all the year round, and I had no time to take care of the fields. ”

"History of the Ming Dynasty: Food and Goods" contains: At the beginning, Taizu set the world's official and private fields, and the tax per mu of official land was five liters and three he, and the private land was reduced by two liters, that is, the private land only had to pay three liters of tax per mu. At that time, in the rice-producing areas of the south of the Yangtze River, when the year was good, each mu of land could generally produce more than two stones of rice, and the taxes were generally heavier than those in the north, while the northern provinces produced more than one stone per mu.

Ten for a liter, ten liters for a bucket, ten buckets for a stone (Hu), in this way, the standard of agricultural tax in the Ming Dynasty is between thirty taxes and forty taxes, compared with the previous dynasties can be said to be relatively low taxes, but the Ming Dynasty is not only agricultural tax, but also Ding tax (poll tax) and various miscellaneous taxes, so on the whole, nearly half of the income of an acre of land of self-cultivated farmers has to be used to pay taxes, and the rest of the income is their own.

The big house has the most acres, the third house is second, and the second house has the least, the Wang family is barely acceptable to this division, and in the end, Zhao Xin gave his four acres of land to the other two houses, as long as one percent of the income is every year, so it is very kind, so others have no objections, just wait for him to continue to say how to distribute other family properties.

Zhao Xin looked around, and when he saw that no one refuted, he continued: "The rest are the old house, farm tools, old cattle and the silver money of the gongzhong. I think so, the old house and farm tools belong to the eldest brother, the old cow belongs to the third brother, every year when ploughing, this farm tool and the old cow will be together, first plough our family's own field, after ploughing, you can also go to others to plow, the money earned by you two houses equally. As for the ten pieces of silver in the public middle school, the eldest brother can divide it into two, the third brother can divide it consistently, and the rest belongs to me. Big brother and third brother, what do you think of this division? ”