Although he has heard a lot of rhetoric, after all, he has become a manor owner and owns a piece of land, so out of curiosity, Li Zhigao quickly drove his ATV, took Liu Runsheng and Marven, as well as a long-term entourage named Chen San, the original owner of the manor, prepared the title deed documents, and drove all the way to the manor that already belonged to him.

Of course, during this period, Li Zhigao also fulfilled his promise, taught Marven how to drive the car, and let Marven drive it for a while. But it's clear. Marven is a typical guy with an adventurous factor, driving more crazy than Li Zhigao, actually driving on the dirt road here to 80 miles, several times the car flew up, but the big guy was not light, and it was not light, but as a result, Li Zhigao couldn't stand it anymore after walking not much, and simply took back the right to drive, and never let him drive again.

After that, Li Zhigao drove at an average speed of 50 miles, during which he also passed by a lot of fields that were said to have belonged to him, and saw that many farmers were cultivating the land, and it was said that they were preparing to plant rice and rice, but because it was dry land, it was not easy to water, so they could only plant some upland rice or wheat.

After coming to the manor, Li Zhigao went in and took a cursory look, the place is indeed very large, built along a hill as a whole, and there are many pavilions and pavilions, but at first glance, it is in disrepair, and no one has come to live. And although it covers an area of 50 acres, the main building that can really live in people is not big, and the main ones that occupy the land are some large gardens, as for those pavilions and pavilions, they are mostly used for resting, and they usually stay but not good.

In other words, this is not so much a big villa as a private garden, in fact, according to the Chang Sui sent by the Chen family, this Zhuangzi was originally a private residence of the original master, which was built by the old man in his later years for the elderly, but the old mansion is not here, but in the county seat, in other words, the young master of the Chen family returned to the county seat, and returned to the ancestral house.

It can be seen that there should have been a lot of fruit trees and exotic flowers and plants in those large gardens, but because they have fallen into disrepair and few people take care of them, they are now all overgrown and dilapidated.

According to the elder of the Chen family, since the death of the old man, due to the lack of prosperity and the cost of maintaining this Zhuangzi, the young master of his own family simply dismissed a large number of subordinates, took the family back to the old house, and lived in the city for a long time, basically not come here, here is usually entrusted to a person named Uncle Sun to guard the door, due to the lack of people to clean up, slowly and naturally became like this.

In fact, the young master of the Chen family has long wanted to sell here, but this year, the market is not good for a suburban manor like such a pure luxury. You must know that the world is not stable now, there are many bandits, and there are too many dangers to live outside the city, which is far less stable than in the city. It's also because it's been dilapidated for a long time, and there's nothing of value, so it's been born in peace until now.

In other words, don't look at this house is only worth a few hundred taels of silver, but if it is repaired, it will never work without tens of thousands of oceans, and the maintenance fee after that is also very high, at least five hundred oceans per month, it is simply a money-losing goods. The real value here is the land attached to the estates.

It was not a hassle to hand over the property rights, and I showed the uncle the title deed papers, and then let the chief of the Chen family say it, and the people obediently handed over the keys to the house, and there was no nostalgia at all.

In fact, turnkey, that is, a symbolic meaning, is to declare the ownership of property rights, even if Uncle Sun does not hand over the key, it is useless, after all, the Chen family also has a set in their hands, and it has already been given to Li Zhigao, which is not a problem at all.

The walls of Zhuangzi here are all dirt, many places are damaged, for the bandits, it is basically unfortified, and the key is mainly to manage the lock on the house and the door, with the current dilapidated situation, there is no difference between there and not.

The reason why the bandits didn't like this place is also because it is easy to attack and difficult to defend, has no strategic value, and has been dilapidated for a long time, and it is very troublesome to clean up, plus the local tenant group is not vegetarian, it is very difficult to provoke, so they don't come here to occupy a seat.

Although in the eyes of the locals, this Zhuangzi is not good in this way, but Li Zhigao is very satisfied, not to mention anything else, just one big enough is enough, after all, he is looking for a foothold similar to a secret warehouse, so that it is convenient to cross back and forth later.

After the settlement is settled, the next step is to negotiate the agreement with the tenant representatives.

There are more than 220 tenants and more than 500 tenants who depend on Zhuangzi for survival. If you change the modern society, it is too easy to raise such a few people on two thousand acres of land, but in this natural economic era without chemical fertilizers and high-yield crops, it is very difficult to raise so many people on two thousand acres, in other words, the entire Zhuangzi was originally operating in a guaranteed manner, and more than 500 people relied on Zhuangzi, that is, barely making a living.

Since he had just bought Zhuangzi, he was in time this time, and he didn't prepare anything, so Li Zhigao didn't want to change anything too early, so he simply went along with the rules, and when he signed the agreement with the tenant representatives, it was basically the same as before, and the rent and everything was the same, but the name was changed.

For Li Zhigao to know each other like this, the other party was also very satisfied, and he didn't want to take advantage of it too much. It's not that people don't want to, but when they saw Li Zhigao dressed in a Western-style dress, driving a foreign car that he had never seen before, and carrying a real foreigner, his heart was a little weaker first, so he honestly accepted the new contract, if Li Zhigao changed his identity and bought land without any ability, he might be swallowed alive by this group of fierce tenants.

However, this is not a long-term solution, for the time being, these people are fine, but if after a while, Li Zhigao has no background and skills, and if there is a natural disaster [***] or something, everyone will not be able to eat, it is estimated that these tenants will still make trouble. Don't think that the poor peasants turned over and made a revolution later, but in fact, this thing has always existed since ancient times, and it has never been broken. Of course, if you want everyone to have enough to eat, and the situation is getting better and better, then the tenants will not look for trouble, and they will even be grateful for Dade's sincere support.

After the delivery of the property rights, Liu Runsheng proposed to go back to the county, according to him, if you really want to live here, you must first find all the manpower, including the family nursing home or something, and then come to find someone to spend a lot of money to repair it, otherwise live in a place overgrown with weeds, foxes and mice scurrying, not to mention the uncomfortable living, the key is that it is not safe.

In this regard, the elder of the Chen family and the American Marven also quite agreed, and Marven also proposed that if Li Zhigao really wanted to be a farmer here, he could help get a batch of munitions and help him build an armed nursing group.

Hearing this, Li Zhigao was curious, so he asked if the government would take care of it if he bought arms privately to form an armed regiment.

At this moment, Marven hadn't spoken yet, and Chen San, the elder who came with the Chen family, spoke first. According to what he said, in these days, which big landlord's family is not armed with a nursing home, even their Chen family, although a little down, has twenty nursing homes.

As for buying arms privately, it has long been no longer a problem, as long as you don't buy artillery, don't go into the county seat, don't have more than 300 armed people, and don't blatantly play rebellion, the basic government will not pay attention to it, even if there are more than 300 people, as long as you do a good job, it will be no problem, and it's a big deal to buy a militia organization.

However, the most critical issue here is the issue of money. First of all, it costs money to buy arms, it costs money to hire people, it costs money to train people, and then it costs money to support a family. It can be said that raising an armed nursing home is a thing that keeps throwing money into it, and ordinary people really can't afford it.

In other words, as long as there is money, everything is not a problem, people will not talk about it, there will be people if there is money, and as for the way to buy arms, it will not be a problem. You must know that the most profitable foreign merchants who do business in the Qing Dynasty today are arms dealers and opium dealers, and the Qing government axe is also unable to ban guns, so the entire arms market is quite loose and quite flooded.

As far as Marvin himself is concerned, although his foreign bank is not mainly engaged in arms, it is because of his own lack of strength and lack of suitable needs for large customers. If he has a big customer, he can still easily buy arms, and his status as an American is a passport for arms sales.

"I see." After listening, Li Zhigao nodded, and had a deeper understanding of this world.

Li Zhigao was still misled by the education of the peaceful era, and in the modern society of China, it is extremely difficult to set up a private armed group, but this is the end of the Qing Dynasty, and it is the eve of the real troubled times. Now that the imperial court's control over the localities has been greatly reduced, there is no way to start regional autonomy, so it is too easy to engage in armed gangs in private without the deterrence of the government.

The reason why the revolutionary party has repeatedly banned it is not because the imperial court's control over the localities is too poor, otherwise, judging from the scale of the uprisings of those revolutionary parties, it would have been like a normal political axe would have been extinguished early.

Thinking about this, Li Zhigao also had a point in his heart, and knew that it was not good to be a farmer here for the time being, so he decided to go back to the county seat first and enrich his strength before coming back.

In fact, Liu Runsheng also means this, or rather, he is very satisfied with this result.

In fact, if you think about it carefully, you can understand that buying a manor is actually Liu Runsheng's idea, if it weren't for the manor he asked Li Zhigao to buy in the first place, there would be no such troubles.

Of course, Liu Runsheng is also well-intentioned, after all, the Qing Dynasty people in this era have relatively conservative concepts, and after making money in business, the second step is often to buy land and purchase local owners, and Liu Runsheng is no exception. Therefore, although he also knew that this manor might have a lot of trouble, he felt that it should not be a big deal for Li Zhigao.

After all, Liu Runsheng has been a merchant for many years, and one thing he knows very well is that the most important thing in running a manor is to have money, as long as there is money, there will be land, there will be families, there will be thugs in the nursing home, all the bandits and the like, it is not a matter at all.

Therefore, a master like Li Zhigao, who is destined not to be short of money, is still very easy to run a manor, as long as he passes this hurdle in the early stage, he will be better in the future.

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