I feel so good after dressing up as a peasant girl

Another village close to Xiaoyangzhuang has a total of 78 acres of land, of which 70 acres are top-quality farmland and 8 acres are sandy loam near the river beach.

Sandy loam has poor water retention and nutrients are easily lost. According to current standards, it is considered inferior land, but in Gu Wenxuan's opinion, it is very suitable for growing watermelons, potatoes and sweet potatoes.

Thinking of the sweet and juicy big watermelon, the delicious small potatoes no matter how they are cooked, and the fragrant roasted sweet potatoes, baked sweet potatoes, sweet potato noodles, and dried sweet potatoes... Gu Wenxuan's mouth suddenly watered (ˉ﹃ˉ)

In addition to the 78 acres of land, the manor also has a network of canals built by the previous owner that can directly bring in river water from outside the manor for irrigation of farmland.

Of course there is a house, and it is also a two-courtyard house with blue bricks, large tiled houses and two wells. However, this house has obviously been renovated by the previous owner of the manor many years ago, and the courtyard wall and the house look quite old.

Of course, this did not prevent Gu Wenxuan and Bai Jingzhou from taking a liking to this manor, which was very suitable for them in terms of location, land and price.

When the two men passed through Liulin Town, they took with them the survivors from the bandit's den who were temporarily settled in the town.

It is worth mentioning that these survivors are not just women.

Except for the first bandit camp that was cleared out, no men chose to seek shelter with Gu Wenxuan and Bai Jingzhou. In the remaining bandit camps, basically all the homeless men chose to follow Gu Wenxuan and Bai Jingzhou, who saved them and helped them avenge the murder of their relatives.

These men were not the lazy, cunning street urchins. Besides, compared with women, it was indeed easier for men to gain a foothold in this world. During the time when Gu Wenxuan and Bai Jingzhou could not take care of them, they had been doing odd jobs everywhere in the town. They did not ask for much money, but only wanted to have three meals a day through their hard work.

Gu Wenxuan and Bai Jingzhou therefore had a good impression of them, and their attitude towards these people changed from initially planning to just keep them in Liulin Town and take care of them a little, to now wanting to recruit them under their command and let them work for them.

Anyway, the farm they bought was big enough to accommodate all the survivors from the bandit camp.

Those men didn't expect that things would develop in the direction they most expected. When they heard Bai Jingzhou asking them if they were willing to work on the newly purchased farm he and Gu Wenxuan had bought, they nodded and said "yes" without even thinking.

Not to mention that Bai Jingzhou and Gu Wenxuan are their great benefactors, even if they are not, they are very happy to follow masters like Bai Jingzhou and Gu Wenxuan who are both capable and kind.

Everyone locked the gate, got on the ox cart, and followed Gu Wenxuan and Bai Jingzhou to their newly purchased farm.

Liulin Town is closer to Baijia Village, so Bai Jingzhou first took everyone to the small village close to Baijia Village.

There are only three households in this small village, with a total of more than 30 people, of which the able-bodied laborers account for about one-third of the total population.

More than a dozen strong laborers cultivate 60 acres of land, while the other elderly, weak, women and children are responsible for taking care of the fruit trees and ponds, planting some fresh vegetables, and raising some chickens, ducks, geese and pigs.

This is a manor that is almost saturated with people. The people brought by Gu Wenxuan and Bai Jingzhou will either take up new jobs assigned to them by the two or replace some of the original people in the manor.

The farmers on the farm were obviously well aware of this, so when they saw that the new master had brought dozens of people at once, they all became panicked.

Strictly speaking, these farmers should be called tenants, but unlike those tenants who have greater freedom and can rent land from anyone they want, these tenants called "farmers" are also good citizens, but they have signed long-term contracts of thirty to fifty years with their owners.

People of this era generally have a short lifespan, and tenants who have signed contracts with their landlords for thirty to fifty years basically cannot think of moving away in their lifetime.

During this period, if they encountered some unavoidable natural disasters or man-made calamities, they would borrow some money or food from the master, and their descendants would basically be bound by the master.

As a result, these people basically had to stay on the master's farm for generations. In addition, the long-term contracts all had harsh conditions without exception. Apart from being good citizens, the situation of these farmers was actually similar to that of slaves who had signed death contracts.

That is to say, although they themselves had no choice but to leave, their employers could not sell them, but they could drive them away without paying a penny, leaving them displaced and starving.

These farmers, who were in an absolutely disadvantageous position, were carefully showing their honesty and obedience when Gu Wenxuan and Bai Jingzhou came to see the farm, in order to let the new owner of the farm keep them and not drive them away when the autumn harvest was approaching and they had no way to find a new owner.

But now it seems...

The farmers were filled with bitterness, but they still carefully saluted Gu Wenxuan and Bai Jingzhou.

Bai Jingzhou said in a gentle voice, "No need to be polite."

He looked at the heads of the three families and said, "The three old men, please stay for a while. The others can go."

The farmers looked at each other and felt that since the new master did not drive them away immediately, they most likely still had a chance to stay.

Most people retreated quietly. An old woman from one family took her daughter to prepare tea for Gu Wenxuan and Bai Jingzhou.

Her husband was the former head of this small farm. Regardless of whether the new owner will let her husband be the head in the future, the old woman has to do her best for now.

She wouldn't say fancy words like "do your best and leave the rest to fate", but she knows very well that she can't just give up when the situation is unclear.

After all, what if, right? What if the new owner sees that they perform well and continues to use them?

With this thought in mind, the old woman took her daughter and began to boil water and make tea quickly.

Bai Jingzhou and Gu Wenxuan noticed the two of them busy in the kitchen, but didn't say anything.

After asking the three old men to sit down, Bai Jingzhou said straight to the point: "I plan to arrange some people to the manor. They will live in this house temporarily. They will not interfere with the work in the manor. I have other things for them to do."

What this means is that your job still belongs to you, they are just living here temporarily.

When the three old men heard this, a look of joy appeared on their faces.

The former village head was about to take the lead and say something, but Bai Jingzhou spoke again, saying, "Uncle Jiang, you will be the village head for the time being. We'll talk about it next year."