It was noon without wind, and it was summer again, and there was not a single pedestrian to be seen on the streets of Sai Wan, and even dogs were lying in the shade of the trees and spitting out their old tongues.

But even if you stay in the house, you still feel very hot.

Zhang Butcher asked the third-room concubine of Xinna last year to get him a pot of chilled bayberry soup and bring it over. The two little girls who spent five taels of silver each this year waved a fan made of pu straw and fanned the Zhang butcher in a daze.

Zhang Butcher opened his arms, revealing his bulging belly and his chest full of black hair.

"Didn't you eat, fan hard."

His dislocated arm has been connected, but he has been holding back a breath of anger in his heart. One hundred taels of silver, I can't sleep at night just thinking about it, and it's not fragrant to eat. One hundred taels of silver is a lot, enough to buy fifty big pigs and two hundred stone of rice. The little girl can buy twenty, and she can also marry a beautiful concubine.

But now he was robbed by the Liu family's two flutes.

Not only was he robbed of a hundred pieces of silver, but he was also beaten severely, and when he thought about the scene when all the scared and urine came out that day, he was very ashamed.

At this time, there was a sound of footsteps outside, "Who?" ”

"Sir, it's me." The housekeeper replied outside, "The fifth child is back." ”

Butcher Zhang suddenly came to his senses, "Lao Wu has come back from Suokou River, call him in." ”

The old man of the family came in, and Zhang Butcher hurriedly said, "What's the situation?" ”

"Good news, sir." Lao Wu wiped a handful of sweat from his head, and fanned the wind with his clothes, "Then Liu Er was stunned and did go to Liu's house to celebrate his birthday, and he also gave a famous painting, which is said to be very valuable." However, he seemed to have a holiday with Liu Jinwu's seventh son, and there was a quarrel at the door of Liu's house, and then the old lady Liu was stunned when he saw Liu Er, but quickly sent him out. According to the news I inquired about from the Liu family, this Liu Er was stunned to go to the Liu family to recognize his relatives, and claimed to be some relative of the Liu family, but the people did not admit it at all. ”

Butcher Zhang's face flushed, "Are you saying that Liu Erzi is not a relative of the Liu family at all?" ”

"The Liu family said that there are no relatives in this family."

"Hahaha!" Zhang Butcher couldn't stop laughing, and the stuffiness in his chest was always swept away for several days. "Great, this Liu Er was stunned, and he dared to deceive Lao Tzu. This time, the new account and the old account are counted together. ”

Butcher Zhang immediately waved his hand and asked the housekeeper to call the housekeeper and the butcher shop, "Let's go to Liu's house to settle accounts with Liu Erzi." ”

At this sultry noon, Zhang Butcher came to the Liu family's mansion with no less than twenty people murderously.

Father Liu is teaching his grandson Liu Hong to read in the front hall, and Bao'er has just cleaned up the table and washed the dishes and chopsticks on the stove.

The two young ladies of the Liu family were embroidering in the boudoir upstairs, and they kept screaming on the old tree outside the house.

At this time, the door of Liu's house was suddenly slammed open.

"The surname Liu, come out to Lao Tzu!" Butcher Zhang barged in with a group of people and shouted loudly.

The white cat resting by the patio was frightened and fled away with a meow.

Liu Xiu put down the book and got up to greet him.

"Master Zhang suddenly came to the door, I don't know what happened?"

"What's the matter, what else are you asking Lao Tzu, Liu Er is stunned, let him come out." Zhang Butcher raised his eyebrows angrily and shouted loudly.

"Brother Jun is out, not at home, if you have anything to tell me, it's the same." Liu Xiudao.

Zhang Butcher snorted coldly, "Okay, I won't talk nonsense, two days ago, Liu Er ran to my house in a daze, injured my Zhang family's master and servants, and robbed a hundred taels of silver." Now, you say, what should I do about this? ”

"Is there some misunderstanding about this?" Daddy Liu's face was ugly, and what he was worried about finally happened. At the beginning, he persuaded his son that Zhang Butcher's money was so easy to take, but his son was confident at the time, so he didn't persuade him to the end. Now it seems that this butcher is indeed difficult to deal with.

It's just that he endured it for two days before he made trouble, and why is that.

"Misunderstanding? Mistaken for your mother's meeting, old sour, Lao Tzu told you today, for the sake of us being neighbors for many years, I won't report to the official, and give you a chance to be private. Otherwise, you know that my son-in-law is a county magistrate, and if you start a lawsuit, you will have to break your family. ”

"I'm willing to go private, and I'll send the one hundred taels of silver and your soup and medicine to the door when I turn around." One hundred taels of silver is not a decimal number, but Daddy Liu can only choose to settle the matter at this time, otherwise, he really wants to sue the official, which of them is the opponent of the Zhang family.

"Very good, since you are willing to go private, then I will let it go. Before sunset today, five hundred taels of silver will be delivered to my house, and the matter will be settled. If not, we'll see you in the yamen. ”

"Five hundred taels?" Daddy Liu was surprised.

"Five hundred taels is still for the sake of the neighbors for many years, otherwise, if you sue the Yamen, Liu Lao Er robbed and committed murder, and it would not be too much to sentence one to hang. If you want money or people, you choose. Since Zhang Butcher knew that Liu Er's so-called brother with Liu Jinwu's son was just a lie, he was full of confidence.

Usually he has nothing to do, he has to figure out where to tear off a little meat, not to mention that now the Liu family has completely offended him. If the Liu family is not broken this time, he will not be surnamed Zhang, or if he cleans up the Liu family, how will he gain a foothold in Xiwan Town in the future.

"Don't you want to use the Liu family to scare Lao Tzu, Lao Tzu already knew, Liu Er was stunned to go to Liu's house to kiss, but people don't know your Liu family at all. If you know each other, you will immediately collect five hundred taels of silver and hand it over, otherwise, we will see you at the yamen. ”

Hearing this, Daddy Liu was really shocked at this time, Liu Jun failed to go to Liu's house to recognize his relatives?

In this way, the Zhang family will no longer be able to be suppressed.

"Five hundred taels is too much, you see how this is, we will definitely pay you back one hundred taels of silver, and I am willing to pay another ten taels of medicine, and that pig can be regarded as a gift to you to make amends, how about it?"

"I'm sorry, what you think is beautiful, ten taels of silver, what do you call Hanako? My eldest son is a lifter, my second son is a prisoner, and my son-in-law is a county officer, your son broke into my Zhang family to beat people and rob money, and you don't cherish the opportunity to give you a private son? ”

"But five hundred taels of silver is really too much, and we can't come up with so much money."

"If you don't have any money, that's easy to do, don't you still have more than 100 acres of good paddy fields, so if you take out 50 acres of land as compensation, it will be worth 500 taels of silver, and this will be settled."

Father Liu hurriedly said, "That is the best paddy field, now it is at least twenty taels of silver and one acre, not ten taels of one acre of land." The fifty acres of land are worth a thousand taels of silver. ”

"Hey, you still have to bargain with Lao Tzu? If you don't want to, then okay, let's see you at the yamen. "Zhang Butcher has no fear.

Father Zhang shook his head and refused, the Liu family's 100 acres of land were also handed down by their ancestors, and 40 acres of them were the dowry of the eldest daughter-in-law, which could not be regarded as the public property of the Liu family. Besides, fifty acres of land is worth one thousand taels of silver, how can it be sold at half price?

Besides, in this place of Macheng, it is difficult to buy land even if you have money. The Liu family's high-quality paddy fields are even more priceless.

"Or, sell it alive." Zhang Butcher's son sang and harmonized with his father on the side.

"It's okay to sell it alive, and if you sell your 100 acres of land alive to me, it should be worth the silver." Zhang butcher took advantage of the fire to rob.

In the south of the Yangtze River, because there are many people and little land, the land is precious, and ordinary people are unwilling to sell their fields unless they have to. Later, there were two types of land sales: absolute sale and live sale.

The so-called absolute sale refers to the sale of the ownership of the land to the buyer at a certain price, and there is no longer any right to the land.

A live sale, on the other hand, retains the ownership of the land, but sells the right to use the land. After the land is sold, the tenant rent can still be collected every year, and the grain produced by the land is generally used to offset the rent.

If it is not sold, a good paddy field like the Liu family can be sold for 20 taels of silver per mu. And live sale, an acre of land can only be sold for about four taels of silver, but in the future, you can also collect a rental grain every year, the general market is that each mu of land is not subject to abundance and drought every year, should be paid the noon grain, and sent to the door after the autumn harvest, not short.

However, in this way, after the land is sold, the right to use the cultivation will be all owned by the buyer.

Zhang Butcher also made a calculation early, the Liu family is about 130 acres of land, so he proposed a compensation of 500 taels of silver early for a private amount, and then first said that he would never buy 50 acres of land for the Liu family, of course the Liu family refused. At this time, he retreated and asked to buy the more than 100 acres of land of the Liu family.

According to the live purchase price of one mu and four taels of silver, it is just that the 130 mu of land of the Liu family can be bought alive to offset the compensation.

For modern people, no house can not be married. For the ancient people, land was the most important, meaning the livelihood of the family. Even for a wealthy man like Zhang Butcher, who monopolized the slaughtering business in the Xiwan Market, the ** for the land is endless.

Even if you can't buy it, you have to buy it alive.

The perpetual tenure of one hundred and thirty acres of land is also very good. Buy the tenant rights alive first, and then buy them again when you have the opportunity to get the ownership.

This shrewd way of buying alive was first invented by the Huizhou people in Huainan, but now this method has been spread in Jiangnan.

Zhang Butcher's abacus is very fine, the Liu family fell into his hands with such a big handle this time, he made this request, can the Liu family still commit it obediently?

Daddy Liu was suffocated in his heart, and he was about to faint with anger.

But he knew that there was no right to refuse at this time, and with Zhang Tuhu's character, if he didn't agree to him, he would definitely use more despicable means, and in case of a lawsuit, it would be a bottomless pit.

Gritting his teeth, Father Liu said, "The Liu family has 130 acres of paddy fields, all of which are good land, but 40 acres of them are brought over by my daughter-in-law for dowry, which is not considered the public property of the Liu family." In this way, I will sell the 90 acres of paddy fields of the Liu family to you as compensation. Then every autumn in the future, you will give me four stones of rice per mu, and this matter will be over, how about it? ”

Butcher Zhang glanced at Father Liu carefully, and saw that he had reached the limit of gritting his teeth, and it was not good to be too persecutive at the moment, for fear of backfire. It would be nice to be able to get the right to buy 90 acres of land at once. One acre is four taels of silver, which is equivalent to three hundred and sixty taels of silver. He was just taken away by Liu Er, and now he has multiplied three or four times back, not to mention, in this place of Macheng Xiwan, you have money and no land to buy.

As for the little injury, it's not worth mentioning.

"Okay, for the sake of many years of neighbors, I'll give you a face. This matter is settled, the third child, go and ask the chief of the first chief, and the secretary office of the county government to come and sign the contract for us to testify! When the matter was done, Zhang Butcher couldn't suppress the excitement in his heart and shouted loudly to his son.