I fought back after reselling my engagement

For women over 60 years old, no money will be required to redeem them as long as someone comes to pick them up.

The old sect leader's wife was willing to follow her eldest son, only asking him to redeem Su Cang's wife and children.

Su Cang did nothing wrong in protecting his brother, but he killed someone.

Su Shichang and his wife were very sad. The two flower girls might not have died at the hands of Su Bai, but the three classmates were terrified and said it was Su Bai's idea and Su Bai's instructions.

The three classmates' fame and fortune in this life was ruined. Su Bai was the mastermind, and they were accomplices and co-conspirators. They would be exiled to the northern border town for ten years. When they returned after ten years, it would be too late.

Su Shilin gritted his teeth and wanted to redeem his second brother's family, but because they were the eldest son and the clan leader, they could not be redeemed and had to be exiled to the north, three thousand miles away.

The first daughter of the sixth room is not allowed to redeem herself, but the second and third daughters can; the same is true for the ninth room, the first daughter of the ninth room cannot be redeemed, but the second, third and fourth daughters can.

In other families, because someone in their family had committed a serious crime, no one, regardless of gender, was allowed to redeem themselves.

Su Shilin went to the city and borrowed money from an old acquaintance.

The elders of the Sixth House only sought to redeem the family of the second son of the Second House, and the Ninth House similarly only wanted to redeem the family of the second son of the Third House.

The redemption fee is really too expensive. Even for a girl and a child, it costs five thousand taels of silver, and for an adult man, it costs ten thousand taels. This is really a huge debt of gratitude.

But Su Shilin still insisted on redeeming all the children in the sixth and ninth rooms.

Because they were closely related to his family, the old patriarch's two brothers redeemed him together.

This time, it cost 730,000 taels of silver to redeem the tribesmen, a staggering amount.

Of this amount, 630,000 taels were borrowed from old friends in Jinling City.

Su Shilin stayed for a few nights and gave Su Shichang some silver notes and gold and silver, asking him to hide them carefully and use them to bribe officials during his exile. If his children were sick, he could also seek medical treatment.

The redeemed people boarded the big ship and went with him to Yueyang Prefecture.

The ancestral home that had been purchased earlier was re-divided, and those that needed walls were built so that each family could temporarily settle down. Families with more people were given 3,000 taels of silver for settling down, and those with fewer people were given 1,000 taels.

When Yao heard this, she was so angry that she burst into tears at home.

"When I came here, I met the Supervisory Guard and was given 500,000 taels of silver. How can my family have any money now? You went out for a while, saying you were going to pick up the old lady, and it cost 730,000 taels to redeem her. How are we going to survive in the future? Woo woo..."

The old lady heard Yao crying and said, "Let them pay for the redemption money themselves. It doesn't make sense for us to pay it back."

When disaster strikes, being able to lend them money to redeem themselves is already a kind act.

Now our family can barely make ends meet. How are we going to live in the future? We have to survive.

This decision was spread by the servants. The legitimate children of the sixth and ninth houses were fine, but the illegitimate children were frightened. They thought that their small family only had one thousand taels of silver, and if they were to be burdened with foreign debts of tens of thousands of taels of silver, they would have no hope of living a good life. So they took their spare clothes and fled from Yueyang Prefecture with their families at night.

When Su Shilin found out about this, he was really angry.

Yao cursed. "Sixth Old Master said he would only redeem the family of the second son, but you insisted on redeeming them all. Now you have escaped. You can pay the redemption money slowly."

What kind of people are these? They are ungrateful and even run away overnight to escape debt.

The Sixth and Ninth Old Masters saw things clearly, which is why they allowed Su Shilin to redeem only the families of the first and second wives.

Su Cang's widow, Wu, lived in a small courtyard next to the old lady's main courtyard. She was served by maids and servants who had come with her earlier. They were all used to it. The servants didn't get much silver to redeem themselves. Three taels of silver for an older one, ten taels of silver for a young maid, and fifty taels of silver for a beautiful one.

Su Shilin said nothing. If these families fled, the loss would be nearly 400,000 taels of silver.

But Su Zhen soon heard about this.

"For being so ungrateful, send someone to capture them and send them back to the north. Tell the two old masters about their affairs. Of the four hundred thousand taels of silver, return three hundred thousand taels."

"Princess, you even care about this?"

"Su Shilin is kind and righteous, but those families are really bad people. They have foreign debts to redeem them. If they don't want to repay the debt, they can refuse to be redeemed. Since they have received kindness from others, they are not grateful. What's the point of keeping them? Send them to the north to suffer."

He was a member of the Supervisory Guards, and within a few days he had captured all of these families, treated them as fugitives, and sent them back to Nanjing to join the Su family's exile to the north, and he also got back 300,000 taels of silver.

Su Zhen handed the banknote to Su Shao and explained the situation.

Su Shao returned the banknote to Su Shilin.

Su Shilin was deeply moved. They did not like to owe foreign debts to others, so this time the family raised some money, only 400,000 taels of silver notes, which was almost enough to pay off the money owed to their old friends in Nanjing.

Su Shilin went to Nanjing, paid off his foreign debts, and returned feeling relieved.

The Su family's auction house in Jinling was confiscated and returned to the court, and some big businesses of money houses and pawn shops were also transferred to the Ministry of Revenue, thus changing from a family business to a business controlled by the court.

The illegitimate sons of the sixth and ninth rooms and their families tried to escape but were caught and instead were despised by their clansmen. How heartbreaking it was! They could have lived a good life, but they had to act like monsters and make things worse.

The Su family settled down in Yueyang Prefecture. Those who were less well-off bought land outside the city and rented it out to other people. Others simply moved to the newly built Sujiazhuang outside the city and cultivated the land allocated by their clansmen.

Living in the city, everything costs money. Although the clan has been allocated an ancestral home, I still am not used to it and I really cannot afford it.

Those who used to live in the city still live in the city.

Those who originally lived in a country village returned to the large village owned by the clan, now named Sujia Village, where they lived permanently.

The last people living in the city were Su Shilin's family, the family of the first and second wives of the sixth wife, the family of the first and second wives of the ninth wife, and the families of the eldest and second sons of Uncle Su Qi. The rest of the clan returned to Sujiazhuang. Those who did not want the houses in the city gave them to the clan to get a few acres of good land.

There was little money left in Su Shilin's family, including that of Yao and Yao Yun, as it was all used to repay foreign debts. Su Mo got a share of the dividends from Yaxian Manor, which gave the family more working capital.

Su Mo had the pawnshop, restaurant, and bank in Yueyang Prefecture. With the money, he added a few more shops and distributed them to the other four families living in the city. It was fair and just, and every family had one. Each family was allowed to run their own business and make a little money to live on. The food was provided by the farms they had bought earlier. The money each family earned from settling down was used to buy farms and rent them out to the people. The food collected from the rent was enough for the family to eat.

*

Time passes quietly.

Before the Dragon Boat Festival, Baixianzhuang was busy planting yam. Su Zhen used scissors to cut a piece with three leaves, and Teng Lao cut a piece with two leaves. After demonstrating how to plant yam, they took advantage of the wet soil after the rain and finished planting the yam in just half a day.

There is still some land that has not been planted, but the potato seedlings are gone, so we can only wait until they grow out in a few days before we can plant them again.

With the help of manure and water, the second batch of potato vines were planted after 20 days; just after the Dragon Boat Festival, the first batch of vines planted in the ground had already survived.