Zhangjiazhuang, only less than 100 miles away from the Song-Liao border, the whole Zhuangzi is a square layout, the most central Zhuangzi is a courtyard with three entrances and three exits, just compared with the kind of heavy buildings and pavilions in the mainland, the three-entry courtyard that pecks at each other with the eaves, it is inevitably much simpler, the whole courtyard does not see any attic pavilions, but the houses are numerous, and many evergreen trees are planted in the free space in the courtyard, but it adds a bit of heavy momentum. This courtyard is the mansion of the owner of Zhangjiazhuang.

There are more than 100 small courtyard houses around Zhang's mansion, and they are all inhabited by people with relatively high status in Zhang's mansion and small landlords with some land. On the periphery of these courtyards, there are dense ordinary tenant households, and there are always thousands of households. If this is in the interior of the Great Song Dynasty, it would be a fairly large town, but on the border of the Liao and Song Dynasty, this kind of Zhuangzi is not uncommon.

Because skirmishes broke out between the Liao and Song dynasties from time to time, and every autumn harvest, whether it was the Liao soldiers or the Song army, there were always stragglers who bravely entered the territory of the other party to rob and plunder, and the border area gradually became deserted. The bold Song people (Liao people) bought land on the border and recruited tenant farmers from the territory to cultivate it. Most of these tenant farmers who are willing to come to the border are due to living in poverty, and also because the grain money given by the Zhuangzi here is several percent higher than that in the country. Over the generations, such a great Zhuangzi has been formed.

In order to defend against the enemy, these Zhuangzi built weapons, and each household drew out the hard-dressed men to form a village army, and went to the field when the farm was busy and practiced when the farm was slack. Naturally, the government is also happy to see this happen, which is tantamount to indirectly increasing the strength of the border army.

Zhangjiazhuang is located in the plain, in order to defend against the cavalry of the Liao people coming and going like the wind, the blue brick wall of more than two people was specially built around the Zhuangzi, and there was a ladder behind the wall, which could be used by archers to shoot at the wall. Of course, these can only defend against scattered enemies, and if you have to encounter more than a thousand enemy troops, these simple fortifications can only delay time and wait for reinforcements.

The wall of Zhangjiazhuang opens three gates, three roads extend out, the east and west two are leading to Hujiazhuang and Zhujiazhuang dozens of miles away, and the south road connects the official road leading to Zhendingfu.

Outside the walls of Zhangjiazhuang, there are large pieces of farmland, most of which naturally belong to the Zhang family, and a very small number belong to the senior servants or small landlords who live in the courtyards around Zhang's house. These people's land has been rewarded by the owners of the Zhang family for generations, although it is not much, and it generally has a few acres, but compared to the tenant farmers who can only sell coolies to earn food and drink, they are superior people. The tenant farmers called these people "landlords".

For these tenant farmers, whose eyes can only see the Zhang family as far as possible, becoming a "landlord" is their lifelong goal. Because in Zhangjiazhuang, "landlord" means that he has become a master, and he has a status and status, and he can speak loudly to other tenants.

Da Niu was one of the tenant farmers, when he was thirteen years old, his parents passed away, and since then he has taken on the burden of raising his sister, who is only five years old, and now ten years later, he has also changed from a thin little boy to a big black man like an iron tower, from a child who is still out of breath against a small bag of grain to a strong man who can walk like a fly against two sacks of grain.

Now the big cow is the most powerful man in Zhangjiazhuang, and he is also the tenant who rents the most land in Zhangjiazhuang, and he planted more than a dozen acres of land alone, not for anything else, just to save money to buy an acre of thin land here, and become the "land household" of the master.

Da Niu leaned against a dead tree next to Zhuangwai Avenue, looked at the goose feathers and snow falling from the sky, sighed, and thought that he could buy an acre of land in a few years. Who knows that this year, the owner of Zhang Zhuang suddenly increased the rent, as if he was going to the south to be a big official, and ran out of money, so he increased the land rent by a few percent, and it seems that the rent is not much lower than that in the south. Now that the owner of Zhang Zhuang has got what he wants, he doesn't know if the land rent will be lowered next year. If the land rent is lowered, at the current rate of saving money by himself, he can save more than 100 wen a year, and now he has saved more than 300 wen, then he can buy an acre of land in six years.

But if the owner of the village does not reduce the rent, he can only save a few dozen yuan a year, and he doesn't know when he will be able to buy an acre of land.

"Brother, it's time to go home for dinner, why are you running here here again in a daze." A slightly childish voice interrupted his thoughts. Da Niu looked at the small figure running towards him not far away, his heart was warm, and he quickly stood up and said: "How many times have I told you, I will go back when the time comes, this boss Xue, what are you running out for!" ”

Zhu'er stretched out her hand to help her brother beat the falling snow on his body, and reproached: "I've been waiting for you for a long time, if you don't come again, I'm afraid that my brother will become a snowman." Zhu'er knows that her brother will come here every day in a daze, and she also knows why her brother is in a daze, although she is not very old, she is very sensible, in the case that Da Niu does not know, she has secretly taken the needlework since she was ten years old, and she has saved more than 100 yuan over the years, she also envy those who have fields, and she is also thinking that one day she will help her brother save enough money, and quickly buy an acre of thin fields, so that her brother will no longer have to work hard to manage more than a dozen acres of land.

Da Niu twisted his sister's frozen red little nose and said with a smile: "I will be stubborn, and I will not be scolded by my mother-in-law in the future." ”

Zhu'er blushed and said, "Zhu'er won't marry, Zhu'er has to find a sister-in-law for her brother before marrying." His eyes rolled and he said, "Brother, Sister Chunhua is very good, why don't you agree to come to you and say kiss?" ”

Da Niu shook his head, his mood suddenly fell, and the arrogant face of Zhang Quan, the person in the inner room of the Zhang family, appeared in front of him, and his arrogant words were remembered in his ears, "Chunhua was taken by Uncle Ben, and you are a little tenant farmer who also wants to compete with me for women?" Let's go in the next life! If you are obsessed, don't blame me for not telling you in advance, the third young master of Steward Zhang's family has been in love with your sister for a long time, and I helped to suppress it, think about it yourself......"

Da Niu looked at his sister who tilted his head and sighed in his heart, although his sister is still young, she is an out-and-out beauty embryo, more beautiful than the Guanyin Niangniang on her own painting. But looking at her cloth dress with patches, Da Niu was distressed for a while, she was really useless, and her sister suffered with herself.

Zhu'er let out a "ah" and said, "Why is the snow getting heavier and heavier?" Brother, let's hurry up. ”

The big cow let out an "ah", and the snowflakes around him really fell more and more urgently, and the heavy snow of goose feathers gradually turned into fine snow particles, hitting the face and causing pain.

The two of them hurriedly quickened their pace, and Zhu'er shouted: "Brother, let's compare who is faster!" Said the first to run out, Da Niu looked at her cheerful figure, smiled and chased up, the two chased, laughing, looking at the village door closer, then slowly slowed down, looked at each other, and laughed together.

Zhu'er's face suddenly changed, and she shrank behind Da Niu with a little fear, and said in a low voice: "Brother, Third Young Master Zhang is at the gate of the village......

Da Niu looked up, but no, the third son of Steward Zhang was laughing with a few Zhang family members under the gatehouse of Zhuangmen, and laughed from time to time.