Traveling through ancient times to escape famine, the prince led me to rebel

But as soon as these words fell, the eyes of the people in the car glanced towards a person in the corner intentionally or unintentionally.

She was a very thin girl, she lowered her head and remained silent, occupying a corner of the ox cart by herself.

It's not that she is domineering and doesn't allow others to sit with her, but that others consciously sit farther away from her, creating a small vacuum zone around her.

Everyone looked, but no one said anything.

After a short silence, another slightly younger woman put her arm around Zhao Cuilan and said affectionately:

"Sister-in-law, look at you, weren't we talking about the carriage behind? Why are you getting off topic?"

Zhao Cuilan slapped her forehead hard and said loudly:

"Yes, yes, Xiuqiao, you are right. I saw it clearly. The carriage behind us has been following us since outside the city. Do you think he wants to go to our village?"

Zhang Xiuqiao glanced to the side and saw a graceful man driving behind her, with a hint of girlish shyness on his face.

When she felt her face getting hot, Zhang Xiuqiao quickly turned her head away to prevent others from noticing her abnormality.

"Sister-in-law, this is hard to say. This road not only leads directly to our Hexi Village, but also to Hedong Village to the city."

Although Uncle Niu is old, his hearing is still good. After hearing this, he couldn't help but interrupt:

“It’s not like anyone in our village can get to know such a wealthy person, let alone Hedong Village.

We in Hexi Village can still have food to eat, but their village is a little worse than ours!"

As soon as the voice fell, a tall and thin man hurriedly answered:

"That's right, what Uncle Niu said makes sense!

Although both villages are inhabited by farmers and military households, there are many more military households in Hedong Village than in our village!

The military households had to perform labor service every other day, and it was difficult to take care of the crops in the fields.

Sometimes, after working hard for a year, all the food we collected was used to pay taxes, and we could barely even afford to eat. How could we possibly have such a wealthy relative?"

Uncle Niu turned around, glared at the man and snorted.

"Boss Sun, what about farmers and military households? We don't have that in Hexi Village.

You are a farmer, but I have never seen you eat much meat all year round!

What's wrong with the military households? If a war breaks out, the military households will go to fight the northern barbarians. Without them, we may not be able to live in peace!"

Uncle Niu seemed to be quite prestigious, and Boss Sun quickly bowed his head to admit his mistake and smooth things over:

"Uncle Niu is right. We are all from poor families. No one is nobler than anyone else. I said the wrong thing. Haha, please don't take it personally."

Luo Xiaoran has always had good hearing and was listening with great interest.

It turns out that in the countryside in the north, farmers and military households live together.

Farmers are the farmers in the “scholars, farmers, merchants and artisans” system. Although farmers live a poor and hard life, in ancient times, their social status was second only to the “scholars” who studied.

Military households are households of people designated by the government to go to the army. The household registration of soldiers and their families in the army is called military households.

After becoming a military household, they have been soldiers for generations and have a low social status.

Once a war breaks out, military households must go to the army. The government will provide them with food and clothing, and they will have to take care of the rest themselves.

I’ve seen in TV dramas before that someone committed a serious crime and was sentenced to “exile to the army”, which means he became a military household.

Farmers had personal freedom and could use grain or money to pay for labor service.

Military households were of low status and had to go to war once war broke out.

When there is no war, they have to farm and pay taxes like farmers. If they encounter an unjust local government, they will be forced to perform labor service and serve as free labor. Even if they have money and food, they cannot be exempted from this labor service.

From this we can see that the life of these military households can really be aptly described with the word “miserable” in capital letters.

It was not wrong for Boss Sun to regard the military households as a burden to the village.

However, Uncle Niu's words were very much in favor of the military households, which showed that he was a forgiving and kind person.

Seeing that the ox cart was about to drive into the village entrance and the horse carriage was still following behind, the people in the carriage became more and more puzzled, could it be that this person was really coming to their village?

Luo Xiaoran rode her horse to catch up with them quickly, stopped the carriage, got off and asked everyone in the carriage: "Excuse me, is this Hexi Village?"

"Yes, yes, this is Hexi Village. We are all villagers of Hexi Village. I wonder what the young master is doing in Hexi Village?"

The enthusiastic Zhao Cuilan quickly spoke up and replied to the "rich young man" who owned a carriage.

Luo Xiaoran did not state her gender, but continued:

"My brother and I fled from the south to escape famine. We heard that the people of Hexi Village have simple folk customs and a beautiful environment, so we wanted to settle down here. I wonder if you could take me to the village chief's house."

"Hahaha, we just met. We are the village chief's family. I am the eldest daughter-in-law of the village chief, and this is the youngest daughter of the village chief. Let's take you there!"

Zhao Cuilan smiled brightly and took Zhang Xiuqiao to introduce her to Luo Xiaoran.

After saying that, he was about to get off the ox cart and lead Luo Xiaoran towards his home.

Zhang Xiuqiao secretly pulled her sister-in-law's sleeve and whispered, "Sister-in-law, you said you can do it alone, why did you bring me along?"

After saying that, he stole a glance at Luo Xiaoran behind him, then quickly turned away, his whole face flushed with embarrassment.

"I just said it casually, but when I saw that this person was looking for our family, I jumped out of excitement."

Zhao Cuilan also lowered her voice and answered her sister-in-law, not noticing her sister-in-law's strange emotions at all.

"We're here. This is our house." Zhao Cuilan said to Luo Xiaoran, pointing to a blue brick and tile house.

Luo Xiaoran tied up the horse, lifted the carriage curtain, looked at Xiao Xingchen who was sitting obediently inside, and reached out her hand to lead him out.

"Chen'er, we will live here from now on. We need to go to the village chief's house to do some things. Can you come with me~"

Xiao Xingchen nodded, put his little hand in Luo Xiaoran's, and followed her out of the carriage obediently.

As soon as Zhao Cuilan saw Xiao Xingchen, she liked him very much and praised him: "Oh, where did this little fairy boy come from? He is so handsome!"

Xiao Xingchen did not reply, so Luo Xiaoran explained: "This is my brother. He was frightened on the way and doesn't like to talk much."

Zhao Cuilan blamed herself for touching upon someone's sorrow as soon as she opened her mouth, and quickly changed the subject:

"My father-in-law is in there. You can talk to him about anything."

"Thank you."

······

"I heard from my eldest daughter-in-law that the young master came from the south and wanted to settle down in our Hexi Village?" asked Zhao Cuilan's father-in-law, Zhang Changzong, the village chief of Hexi Village.

"Yes, I wonder if I can complete the settlement procedures as soon as possible? In addition, I also want to buy some land in the village. If possible, I will complete it all at the same time." Luo Xiaoran replied.

When Village Chief Zhang heard that Luo Xiaoran wanted to buy land, he became excited.

"Of course you can, but the sun is setting now. It will be dark by the time we go back and forth. How about going to the county government office early tomorrow morning to handle it?

Once the settlement procedures are completed, you can go to the village to handle the purchase of land."

"That's great. Thank you, village chief. However, I have one more favor to ask. I hope you can help me with it."

"Please speak, sir, about your duties."

"I would like to ask the village chief to help me find out if there are any vacant houses in the village that can be rented to me so that we can live in them first and have a place to stay."