Traveling to another world and becoming a local owner

Zhou Yun and the Huaiyin County Magistrate were from the same school, so the other party would certainly not neglect this matter. After learning that Zhang Ling was cultivated by him as a member of the Jingzhou faction, he immediately called Wu Derong to scold him.

He also made it clear to him that if he dared to provoke Zhang Ling again without reason before the results of the provincial examination were announced, all matters of Derong Trading Company would be thoroughly investigated.

Wu Derong's background was not clean to begin with, so he had no choice but to put the matter aside for the time being. Everything went back on track as Zhang Ling had expected.

On the second day, Zhou Yixing sent someone to deliver an official document. From then on, Zhang Ling had the formal procedures, and the "Xinglong Escort Agency" was born.

Because each county's escort agency could only have a maximum of 300 people at full strength, Zhang Ling called Wei Da and others to hold a brief meeting.

Several people worked together to formulate the rules of the escort agency and the next stage of training programs. As for the escorts, they could only choose slaves from their families, and they said that they would continue to ask the escort agency to help purchase them.

Wei Da and others took the order and left, leaving the young and strong people to him to manage, so Zhang Ling naturally didn't have to worry too much.

More than 20 dormitories have been built, and because it is close to the village, it is also close to home. Zhang Ling decided to go to the Yang clan elders again to see if he could buy all the dry land in the middle.

After making up his mind, Zhang Ling took out ten kilograms of Huangliang Xianjiu from his home, and brought some chicken, duck, fish and meat, and went to Yang's house with Daniu and Li Liulang.

When the elder of the Yang clan learned that Zhang Ling was coming, he welcomed them in with a smile.

"Grandpa Yang, this is just a small gift. I hope you won't mind." Before Zhang Ling sat down, he immediately had someone present the gift.

"You kid, you're here so you come, but why bring any gifts? Aren't you being too polite? Please take a seat!" The elder of the Yang clan smiled and said polite words, but he was very happy in his heart.

"Grandpa Yang, what you said is not true. It is the younger generation's duty to respect you. These are just our family's things and are not worth much." Zhang Ling sat down immediately and made a few polite remarks.

"Don't lie to me, kid. Don't look at my age. Everyone in our village knows about your family's good wine. It's ten taels of silver per pound! I heard that it can be sold for at least fifteen taels in the county, and you may not be able to buy it even if you have money! You, you are thoughtful! You know that I like to drink, hehe! Tell me, what do you want from me today?" The old man from the Yang clan was very experienced and asked directly without any hesitation.

"You really can't hide anything from me! There are some houses built in the northwest wasteland, and there are some fields between there and my house. I want to ask if I can buy them so that I can connect the whole area. This will make it easier for me to do anything in the future." Zhang Ling smiled and stated his purpose directly.

"Hey, I knew you had bad intentions. Are you trying to buy all the land in our village? That piece of land is about 70 or 80 acres! Apart from the ten acres that your family owns, the rest belongs to everyone in the village." The elder of the Yang clan pretended to be angry, pointed at Zhang Ling and scolded with a smile.

"That's why I have to come to you! That piece of land is dry and can't grow crops. We can only grow vegetables, fruits and melons. Our village has more than a thousand acres of arable land, so we don't need that much. I am willing to pay twice the market price to buy it. What do you think?" Zhang Ling didn't mind and spoke his mind directly.

“Hiss… Are you crazy? With twice the price, how can you let other people buy land in the future? I’m afraid with this price, you can buy a lot of land anywhere! Not to mention dry land, there is as much arable land as you want!” The elder of the Yang clan asked with a look of surprise and some disbelief.

"Grandpa Yang, you're joking. We are all from the same village, so I naturally cannot treat us unfairly. When the bandits came the other day, the young and old men in the village carried hoes, pickaxes and rakes to guard my house. I cannot forget this favor, so I won't bargain with you this time. You can help me ask. Whoever wants to sell can sell it, and whoever doesn't want to sell it, I won't force it!" Zhang Ling said with a smile, appearing extremely polite.

"Okay, just because of what you said, I will help you with this matter even if I have to talk my mouth off!" The Yang clan elder slapped his thigh and agreed immediately.

"In that case, thank you very much, Grandpa Yang!" Zhang Ling bowed, appearing very respectful.

“You, please don’t be so polite. Let me make it clear first, I can only try my best to mediate this matter. I can’t guarantee whether I can buy all of them.” The elder of the Yang clan quickly helped him up and said with a smile.

"Okay, Grandpa Yang, you can calculate how much these lands will cost first, and I will give them to you directly. If no one wants to sell them, you can return the extra money to me." After Zhang Ling said this, he was about to take out the money.

"Okay, I'll go get the land book and take a look. You wait a moment." The Yang clan elder motioned him not to worry, and then hurried into the inner room.

"Starting from your family's land boundary, to the border of the wasteland, there are a total of 74 acres of dry land, and the land price is eight taels per acre. If it is doubled, it will be one thousand one hundred and eighty-four taels. You should give one thousand three hundred taels. There are also several ponds next to it, totaling twelve acres. They all belong to the village. I will make the decision and sell them all to you." The Yang clan elder flipped through the booklet, calculated with his fingers for a while, and said.

"That's great. Thank you very much, Grandpa Yang!" Zhang Ling was very happy. He didn't expect there would be an unexpected surprise, so he quickly bowed to express his gratitude.

The two exchanged greetings for a while before Zhang Ling stood up and said goodbye to Daniu and the others.

After returning home, Zhang Ling quickly found paper and pen, wanting to make an overall plan.

Originally his family had 48 acres of land, now with 51 acres of wasteland, 74 acres of dry land, and several ponds of 12 acres, totaling 186 acres. All these lands are now connected together, and if all the ridges are counted in, it will be nearly 200 acres.

Wangshan Village is backed by mountains and has a vast area but is sparsely populated. But even so, all the fields added up to only about 1,300 acres.

In just a short period of time, Zhang Ling transformed himself into the largest landlord in the village.

"Good, great! Haha." Zhang Ling clapped his hands and laughed. From now on, even if he did nothing every day, he could spend a few years fertilizing the land, and when all the fields were cultivated, he would still not have to worry about food and drink for the rest of his life.

Zhang Ling leaned back in his chair and fantasized for a while, then quickly suppressed the thought of being content with the status quo. He then picked up his pen and began to make plans honestly.

"Now that there is a daily supply of bricks, a single brick kiln can produce 25,000 bricks every eight days, and ten houses can be built every day. After the provincial examination, 200 houses will be completed. The next step must be to build a winery, and a textile workshop must also be put on the agenda. The remaining land..."

Zhang Ling kept thinking in his mind and wrote down whatever he thought of. After a while, a piece of white paper was covered with densely packed words.

Seeing that everything was almost worth it, he began to draw again, mapping out the general topography of the entire land and then marking all the locations.

Time passed quickly, and it was lunch time in a blink of an eye. Zhang Ling rubbed his swollen eyes and left the room.