There are about forty or fifty households in the village, and each household has at least one or two children under the age of ten.
Wen Jingyan looked around and suddenly an idea came to his mind.
I might as well open a medical clinic here so that the children in the village can learn some medical skills.
In this way, I can have frequent contact with the Jiang family, which will make things easier in the future.
These days, no matter how he tried to ask indirectly, even asking directly whether their family had any secret medicine passed down from generation to generation, Old Man Jiang denied it outright and laughed that his ancestor was just an old farmer, so how could he have any secret medicine.
I have also secretly observed the expressions and behaviors of the Jiang family. They look calm, as if they really have no secrets.
If he had not seen with his own eyes the medicine on the strand of hair and witnessed the miraculous effects of the medicine, he would have really thought that his junior fellow apprentice had misdiagnosed Jiang Erlang's condition.
As for Jiang Sanlang, he had already lived here for three days but had only spoken one sentence to him.
It’s not that Jiang Sanlang ignored him, but that the young man was too busy and often disappeared for the whole day.
Seeing that they could not delay any longer, Wen Jingyan became extremely anxious.
"Hengchuan, what do you think about opening a medical clinic here?" Wen Jingyan turned to ask his grandson.
Wen Hengchuan was puzzled: "Why did Grandfather open a medical clinic here? We are quite far from here, and it is not convenient to come and go."
Wen Jingyan sighed, "Grandfather knows it's inconvenient, but you also know the situation at home. If that person is not good, our family will definitely be implicated.
I think it would be better to send one or two of my children here so that they can settle down here and leave a backup for the family. There will always be unrest in the capital."
Wen Hengchuan was silent.
My grandfather was right. If the patient could not be cured, my family would be in trouble.
"I will follow Grandfather's arrangements." Wen Hengchuan said calmly, "But we need to make careful plans to set up a school here."
Not only does one have to settle down here, but one also has to establish good relations with the local big families.
My grandfather and I definitely won't teach here, so we can only choose one or two reliable people from the family to come here.
Wen Jingyan nodded and said, "Since we are running a school, we must discuss the rules with the Chen clan leader, because the Chen clan also has a clan school, and what we run must not conflict with theirs.
Why not open a women's clinic to teach the girls here medical skills, and maybe pass on the Wen family's female medicine."
Although the people of the Daqian Dynasty were open-minded, very few women studied medicine.
Because women learn different medical theories from men, most of them specialize in treating women, and most of them treat gynecological diseases, including pregnancy and childbirth.
Girls from wealthy families would not learn medical skills related to pregnancy and childbirth, because doctors would inevitably touch the bodies of patients, which would be regarded as unclean and improper, making it difficult for them to get married in the future.
Those who are willing to learn are all women who have given birth, but such half-time doctors will not achieve much.
Wen Hengchuan smiled and said, "Indeed, regardless of others, the child named Yingbao is a talent."
On the second day, Wen Jingyan and his grandson said goodbye and left.
Old man Jiang sent the people to the carriage, waved his hand, and sincerely asked them to come again next time so that he could give some golden ears to the old brother to taste.
At the same time, Jiang Sanlang breathed a sigh of relief.
Finally left.
When the grandparents and grandchildren talked to him, they kept talking about Erlang's recovery. They also asked about some folk remedies and secret family medicines. He was so scared that he avoided them for the past few days.
Oh, now that you're gone, don't come back next time.
"Chun Niang, I plan to build a brick house in Nanshan."
While eating, Jiang Sanlang said, "I went to the brick kiln these days and ordered bricks and tiles for three rooms. I think they will be ready in the fall, and then I can hire someone to build the house."
"Really?" Chunniang was very happy.
My family already has nearly a hundred taels of silver, and it would cost less than a hundred taels to build three brick and tile houses.
When I make more money in the future, I can buy some good wood, hire someone to make a few sets of furniture, build a big yard, and construct a few bamboo sheds.
"My eldest and second brothers are also going to build with us. The three of us will build houses of the same size and yards of the same size." Jiang Sanlang said happily, "I also bought ten acres of land from some villagers, and the bamboo shed will be built there in the future."
"You also bought some land?" Chunniang was surprised: "Then won't our family have to wait for the household registration to be upgraded in the future?"
With the promotion of household status, the taxes her family has to pay will increase accordingly.
For example, her family is now a fourth-class lower household, and the tax they pay is much less than that of Chen Cunzheng's first-class upper household.
Jiang Sanlang: "We can get promoted even without buying land. As long as we build a house, the head of the village will come to check and register it next year."
The imperial court imposed many types of taxes. Even the number of chickens, ducks, cattle, sheep, mules, horses, houses, furniture and farm tools owned by the people had to be registered one by one, and then the tax levels were divided into first, second and third grades.
The first to third grades are upper-class households, and they pay 10% more tax than the fourth and fifth grades, lower-class households.
Therefore, many farmers will not build houses unless necessary, and they will not even build a yard. At most, they will surround it with a bamboo fence.
In order to be rated as a fourth or fifth class lower household, many wealthy people even spent money to bribe officials just to pay less taxes every year.
In this way, the unlucky ones are ordinary people like Jiang Sanlang.
Chunniang began to worry again. "If we get promoted, our taxes will go up. What if they don't accept Jin Er anymore?"
"If they don't buy us, we can go sell them somewhere else." Jiang Sanlang was not afraid at all. "It doesn't cost much to grow golden ears anyway. As long as we can sell them, we'll make money."
He had never done business before and was always worried about this and afraid of that. Now that he has money in his hands, he is confident and walks outside with his back straight.
Chunniang thought about it carefully and felt that what her husband said made sense, so she felt relieved.
"Then build the wall higher. The South Mountain is secluded and unsafe after all."
"That's natural."
Jiang Sanlang smiled and said, "Don't worry, even if the house is built, we won't live there for the time being. We will move there with my elder brother and second brother in the spring of next year."
The clouds and sky are losing their summer colors, and the leaves are rustling with the sounds of autumn.
Autumn is already here.
After the autumn harvest and the winter wheat was planted, the three brothers of the Jiang family began to build a house in Nanshan, and all the villagers went to help.
If nothing else, it was to provide the Jiang family with a meal of rice and fragrant pork stew for lunch.
For a time, Nanshan was extremely lively.
Some were building the courtyard wall, some were cutting and transporting bamboo, some were helping to make fire and cook, some were picking up stones for the foundation, and some were going to farther places to mine stone slabs. There was an endless stream of people coming and going.
Yingbao stayed at home with her two younger brothers and did not go to Nanshan, but she listened to her mother coming back every day to tell her about the progress of her family's house building.
Because it was built by three brothers together and in a row, the scale of the house looks particularly spectacular.
More than a month later, Nanshan's house was finally completed. A few days later, the courtyard wall was built and the doors and windows were installed.
But people cannot live there yet, because the new house cannot be occupied until the moisture has dissipated.
It happened that the last batch of golden ears had matured at this time, so Jiang Sanlang and his wife hurriedly harvested them and started a furnace to dry them.
I was so busy that I forgot my two sons’ first birthdays.
"Just give me a bowl of longevity noodles. What's the point of celebrating your birthday, little brat?"
Jiang Sanlang didn't take it seriously and said, "Their father never celebrated his birthday either."
Chunniang glared at him in reproach but said nothing else. She really went to cook a few bowls of noodles and put two poached eggs on the noodles. The whole family ate their fill.