The whole family traveled through the hidden mountains, and the general always came to get the wool

After entrusting the task of finding a teacher to Shen Jingzhou and Xiao Yi, Su's father no longer had to worry about this matter.

After all, it's the Su family who doesn't have these connections and resources, so they must be stronger in this regard.

Su Weixi thought of the farm that Xiao Yi had given to her family, which she had not yet visited.

So, one morning, the Su family took a horse-drawn carriage to the farm outside the city.

Soon, we arrived at Zhuangzi.

The head of the village brought people to the door to welcome the Su family. The day before, housekeeper Sun had sent someone to inform the Su family that they would be staying for a few days.

When Xiao Yi gave the farm's land deed, he also left the people on the farm to the Su family, and the indenture contract was also placed in the box at that time.

"Master, Madam, my surname is Shi, and I'm the head of the village here." After Shi Zhuangtou and the other members of the Su family got off the carriage, he hurried forward to salute and said.

"Shizhuangtou, is the place for us to live ready?" Su's father asked.

"It's ready. I received news yesterday that the master, his wife, the young masters and the young ladies were coming, so I asked people to get ready." Shi Zhuangtou said respectfully.

He was very nervous inside, as his master had changed, and he was worried that the new master would no longer employ him, so he tried his best to perform.

"Okay, lead the way. Madam and the others are tired from riding in the carriage." Mr. Su took into consideration that Madam and the others were not very comfortable every time they rode in the carriage, and wanted to let everyone rest first.

"Master and Madam will follow me."

The village is very big, but Su Weixi and others don’t have the energy to go around.

Following the guidance of the housekeeper, they went back to the rooms prepared for each of them to rest.

After lunch, we prepared to go for a walk around the village.

The lunch was simple, but the menu included fish and meat. The wife of the village head said that these were all produced on the village.

There is a lake in the village, and there are fish in the lake. Usually, when people catch fish in the river, they will throw the small fish into the lake.

After lunch, everyone in the Su family followed Shi Zhuangtou to visit the farm to see the current planting situation.

Except for a part of the land that is cultivated by the people of the village themselves, the rest is rented out to tenants for cultivation.

When Su Weixi and his companions were halfway through their stroll, they met a few tenants.

He was staring at Su Weixi and the others from a distance, and when he saw the Su family members looking over there, he immediately shifted his gaze.

"Tou Shizhuang, call them over." Su's father ordered.

"Master, this is a tenant of our village. He is just curious about who the new owner is. He doesn't mean any harm." Shi Zhuangtou was afraid that the tenant would offend the owner, so he explained immediately.

"It's okay, I'm just asking about the situation." Father Su knew what Shi Zhuangtou was worried about, so he explained.

After the village head found out, he immediately went over and called a few tenants over.

"Greetings, Master, Madam, Miss, and Young Master." Several people came over and bowed, then stood aside timidly, at a loss as to what to do.

They were wearing patched clothes and were working in the fields without shoes.

"Hehe, don't be nervous. I called you here just to understand the situation in the village." Father Su spoke when he saw that several people were too nervous.

"We dare not, we dare not." Several people replied hesitantly.

"How much rent do you pay for the land you rent?"

"My lord, the young general sympathized with our difficulties and collected 60% of the rent." One of the older men replied.

After hearing this, Su's father secretly sighed, this rent is indeed lower than that of other people's farms. You know, most tenants nowadays have a hard time, and basically they pay 70% rent.

"So how have your harvests been in the past two years?"

"My Lord, our harvests were relatively low in the past few years. Since the Duke of Zhenguo said the year before last that the prince had found a concentrated supply of high-yield crops for the border town, now after paying the rent every year, we can barely feed our family."

This time it was another man who answered.

The Su family had already discovered when they were visiting the farm just now that many fields in the farm were planted with crops such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, and corn.

After that, Mr. Su asked a few more random questions and asked the person to leave.

But they did not leave. They looked at Su's father hesitantly, as if they had something to say.

"Do you have anything else to do?" Su's father asked.

A few people looked at each other, pushing each other back and forth, and no one said a word.

Shi Zhuangtou couldn't stand it anymore and urged: "If the master asks you, tell him now. The master has to go back."

Finally, the man who answered first stood up and asked, "Master, will you let us rent your land in the future?"

When Father Su heard this, he glanced at Shi Zhuangtou and then said to the tenants, "Follow the old rules. Just go find Shi Zhuangtou."

"Thank you, sir, thank you, sir."

After getting Su's father's approval, several people kept expressing their gratitude.

Dad Su said no more and left with Mom Su and her son.

"Sister, why do the clothes they wear have patches of different colors on them?"

After they walked away, Ningning started to ask. The little girl thought her elder sister knew everything and would ask her sister whenever she encountered something she didn't understand.

"That's called a patch. They work all the time and their clothes get torn easily, so they use cloth to patch the holes. The colors are different." Su Weixi explained patiently.

"Then why don't they wear shoes?" This question was asked by An An.

"Because if you work with shoes on, they will easily get torn."

"If it's torn, just wear a new one." It was still An An who asked.

“Because they have no money.”

Although the Su family has always lived in the valley, they have never lacked any supplies.

Therefore, the two little guys have always lived a rich life and have never been exposed to the lives of the lower-class people of this dynasty.

They are still young and don't understand many things.

But in order to prevent them from having thoughts like "why not eat meat" in the future, Su Weixi patiently explained to them why these tenants lived such a hard life.

They work hard and live frugally to support their families, so they are reluctant to wear shoes or buy new clothes.

After Su Weixi's explanation and examples, the two little guys finally nodded, not quite understanding.

Su's father and mother listened quietly at the side. The couple had always been willing to let Su Weixi teach the two little ones.

In fact, when Su's father first heard about the 60% rent, he considered whether to lower the rent further, but considering that Xiao Yi had already reduced the rent by 10%, it was already lower than other villas.

If their rent was any lower, it would attract too much attention, so they continued to collect rent according to the previous rules, which was already much better than many other hosts.

After this incident, no one wanted to go shopping anymore.

Since they had to stay in the village for some time anyway, Dad Su took everyone back.

After returning, Shi Zhuangtou came to apologize to Su's father.

He knew that Father Su had already seen through what happened today and that he was behind it.

Looking at Shi Zhuangtou who had been bowing his head in front of him, he looked at him quietly for a while before speaking: "Okay, get up. Don't act on your own in the future. If you have any questions, just report directly and ask, there is no need to go through all these twists and turns."

"Yes, sir, I know I was wrong."

"Since you and the servants in the manor were all left by General Xiao, it means you are all reliable. I will continue to use you. Just listen to my orders in the future and don't think about anything else."

After saying that, Father Su got up and went back to the backyard.

Shi Zhuangtou sent Su's father away, saying words of thanks behind him.

After Su's father left, the other worried people in the village came forward to ask how Shi Zhuangtou was doing.

They were very happy when they learned that the master wanted to keep them all. In the following days, they served the Su family even more attentively.