Chapter 51: Chapter 51: Finally Left_l
Translator: 549690339
The village in front of them had about forty to fifty households, each with at least one or two children under ten years old.
Wen Jingyan looked around and a sudden thought sprouted in his mind.
Why not start a medical academy here and let the village children learn some medical skills?
In this way, he could frequently interact with the Jiang Family and it would be convenient for him to act later.
These days, no matter how he tried to probe or even directly asked if their family had any ancestral secret medicine, Old Mr. Jiang denied it and chuckled, claiming that his ancestors were just farmers, how could they have any secret medicine.
He also secretly observed the expressions and mannerisms of the Jiang Family.
They appeared carefree, as if they had no secrets.
If it wasn’t for witnessing the medicine on the strand of hair and its magical effect, he would have thought that his junior had misdiagnosed Jiang Erlang’s illness.
As for Jiang Sanlang, he had been living here for three days but had only exchanged a single sentence with him.
It was not that Jiang Sanlang ignored people, but the young man was too busy and often disappeared for the entire day.
Unable to continue delaying here, Wen Jingyan felt impatient.
“Hengchuan, what do you think about setting up a medical academy here?” Wen Jingyan turned to his grandson and asked.
Wen Hengchuan looked doubtful: “Grandfather, why start a medical academy here? It’s quite far from our place and wouldn’t be convenient for us to travel.”
Wen Jingyan sighed, “I know it’s inconvenient, but you’re aware of the situation at home too. If something happens to him, our family will definitely be affected.
I think we should send one or two of our children to settle here, let them establish roots here as a backup plan for our family. Things won’t always be peaceful in Beijing.”
Wen Hengchuan fell silent.
His grandfather was right, once that person can’t be treated, their family would likely be in trouble.
“Let’s follow grandfather’s arrangement.” Wen Henzchuan calmlv said: “However, setting up an academy here will require careful planning.”
We not only need someone to settle here, but we also need to establish good relations with the local prominent families.
Neither he nor his grandfather would surely teach here, so they could only select one or two reliable children from their family to come.
Wen Jingyan nodded, “Since we’re setting up an academy, we must discuss the rules with the Clan Leader of the Chen Family as they also have a family academy and ours can’t conflict with theirs.
Why not start a women’s medical academy? Teach the girls here medical skills, perhaps it might help to continue the legacy of women doctors in the Wen
Family.”
Although the Great Qian Dynasty was considered liberal, very few women studied medicine.
This was because female doctors mostly specialized in treating other women, mainly dealing with gynecological conditions, including pregnancy and childbirth.
Women from wealthy families would never study obstetrics because a doctor inevitably has to examine the patient’s body, which would be regarded as impure. This would make it difficult for them to get married later on.
Those who are willing to learn are mostly women who have had children, but these “late-starter” doctors would not achieve significant success.
Wen Hengchuan chuckled, “Indeed, not considering others, Yingbao alone is quite talented.”
The next day, Wen Jingyan and his grandson bid their farewell.
Old Mr. Jiang saw them off to their carriage, waving his hand, sincerely asking them to visit again so he could offer some golden ears for the old brother to taste.
At the same time, Jiang Sanlang let out a sigh of relief.
Finally, they left.
Whenever those two spoke to him, their conversation was never far from the topic of Erlang’s recovery. They even inquired about any folk remedies or family secret medicines they might have, which had scared him into avoiding them these past few days.
Ah, they’ve left. Hopefully, they won’t return again.
“Chunniang, I’m planning to build a brick and tile house on South Mountain.”
While eating, Jiang Sanlang said: “These few days, I’ve ordered bricks and tiles for three rooms at the brick kiln. I estimate they should be ready by autumn, so then we can hire people to build our house.”
“Really?” Chunniang was very happy.
They now have almost a hundred taels of silver, building a three-room brick and tile house wouldn’t take up to a hundred.
In the future, when they earn more money, they can buy some good timber, hire people to make a few sets of furniture, build a large courtyard and some bamboo sheds.
“My two elder brothers are also ready to build with us. The three of us brothers will build houses of the same size, as well as courtyards of the same size.” Jiang Sanlang said happily: “I also bought ten acres of land from several villagers, and we’ll build the bamboo sheds there.”
“You bought land?” Chunniang exclaimed, “Does that mean our household registration level will be upgraded?”
If their household registration level increased, the taxes they had to pay would also increase correspondingly.
For instance, their current registration is a fourth-class lower household, hence they pay much less in taxes than Chen Cunzheng’s first-class upper household.
Jiang Sanlang: “Even without buying land, building a house here would cause our registration level to increase. As soon as we’ve built our house, Sun Licheng will come over for inspection and registration next year.”
The Imperial Court has numerous reasons for levying taxes. They need to keep track of how much livestock the common people have, how many houses, and how many pieces of furniture and farming tools. After compiling this data, they categorize households into five classes for taxation purposes.
Classes one to three are upper households and pay one-tenth more in taxes than classes four and five, which are lower households.
Therefore, many farmers avoid building houses or walls wherever possible. Instead, they just encircle their houses with bamboo fences.
Quite a few wealthy people even bribe officials to be classified as a fourth or fifth-class lower household, just to pay less in taxes every year.
As a result, common people like Jiang Sanlang bear the brunt of these unfair practices.
Chunniang started worrying again. “If our level increases and our taxes rise, what if they stop buying golden ears?”
“If they don’t buy from us, then we’ll sell somewhere else.” Jiang Sanlang was not afraid at all. “Since growing golden ears doesn’t require much capital, as long as we can sell them, we’re making a profit.”
He didn’t have any business experience earlier and was always worried and afraid. But now that he has money in hand, he feels much more confident. When he walks outside, he carries himself with pride.
Upon careful reflection, Chunniang agreed that her husband makes sense. She finally let go of some of her worries.
“Make sure to build the courtyard wall higher, South Mountain is secluded after all, it’s not very safe.”
“Of course.
Jiang Sanlang chuckled, “Don’t worry, even after it is built, we won’t move in immediately. We’ll wait until next spring and move along with my two elder brothers. ”
The sky is filled with the end of summer, the leaves echo with the sound of autumn.
In the blink of an eye, autumn arrived.
After the autumn harvest and sowing the winter wheat, the three Jiang brothers began construction on South Mountain, attracting the help of the entire village.
Not for anything else, but because the Jiang family provided a large rice meal at noon, along with a fragrant stewed pork dish.
The South Mountain was thriving.
Some were building walls, some were chopping and transporting bamboo, some were helping with cooking, some were picking up stones for foundation, while others went further to quarry stone slabs. There was incessant activity.
Yingbao and her two brothers stayed at home and didn’t go to South Mountain, but she heard about the progress of their house building from her mother every day.
Because it was three brothers building together and on the same line, the scale of the houses seemed particularly grand.
A month later, the houses on South Mountain were finally completed. After a few more days, the courtyard walls were also built and the doors and windows installed.
They still couldn’t move in though, because they had to wait for the dampness in the new house to dissipate fully.
At the same time, the last batch of Golden Ears also matured. Jiang Sanlang and his wife quickly harvested and dried them.
With all the work, they entirely forgot about their son’s first birthday.
“Just make a long-life noodle bowl, what kind of birthday does the little rascal need to celebrate?”
Jiang Sanlang didn’t think much of it, saying, “Their father never celebrated his birthday anyway.”
Chunniang gave him an annoyed glance, but didn’t say anything else. She really made a few bowls of noodles, topped with two poached eggs. The whole family had a hearty meal..
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