Zhangjiazhuang is less than a hundred miles away from the border between Song and Liao, and the entire village is in a square layout. The center of the village is a courtyard with three entrances and three exits. It is just a simpler comparison with the three entrance courtyards with overlapping pavilions and flying eaves in the mainland. There are no attics and pavilions in the entire courtyard, but there are many houses. Many evergreen trees are planted in the idle place in the courtyard, which adds a bit of a heavy momentum. This courtyard is the mansion of the owner of Zhangjiazhuang.

There are more than a hundred small courtyards around the Zhang Mansion, and the residents are all servants with relatively high status in the Zhang Mansion and small landlords with some land. On the periphery of these courtyards, there are densely packed with ordinary tenants, with thousands of households. If this were in the mainland of the Song Dynasty, it would be a very large town, but on the border of the Liao and Song dynasties, such farms were not common.

Because of the frequent small conflicts between the Liao and Song dynasties, and every autumn harvest, whether it is the Liao soldiers or the Song army, there are always scattered soldiers entering the other side to rob and plunder, and the people on the border gradually became deserted. The brave Song people (Liao people) bought land on the border and recruited tenant farmers from the border to farm. Most of these tenant farmers who were willing to come to the border were due to difficulties in life, and because the grain money given by the farm here was almost a lot higher than that in the country. Such a large farm was formed over the years.

In order to defend against the enemy's scattered cavalry, these villages all built weapons. Each household pulled out the men in high-end costumes to form a village army, went to the fields during busy farming and practiced during slack farming. The government naturally enjoyed the success, which was equivalent to indirectly increasing the border military strength.

Zhangjiazhuang is located on the plain. In order to defend against the cavalry of the Liao people who came and went like the wind, a blue brick wall of more than two people was built around the Zhuangzi. A ladder was built behind the wall for the archers to shoot on the wall. Of course, these can only defend against scattered enemies. If they encounter more than a thousand enemy troops, these simple fortifications can only delay time and wait for reinforcements.

There are three gates in the wall of Zhangjiazhuang, and three major roads extend out. The east and west are Hujiazhuang and Zhujiazhuang dozens of miles away. This road to the south connects the official road to Zhending Mansion.

Outside the walls of Zhangjiazhuang are large pieces of farmland. Most of the farmland naturally belongs to the Zhang family, and there are also a very small number of senior servants or small landlords who live in the courtyards around the Zhang family. The land of these people is rewarded by the owners of the Zhang family in the past dynasties. Although there are not many, they usually look like a few acres, but compared to the tenant farmers who can only sell their labor to make a stutter. The tenant farmers call these people "land households".

For these tenants whose eyes can only see the Zhang family at the farthest, becoming "local households" is their lifelong goal. Because in Zhangjiazhuang, "local households" means becoming the best, having a status, and being able to speak loudly to other tenants.

Daniu is one of the tenant farmers. When he was thirteen years old, his parents passed away one after another. From then on, he took on the burden of raising his sister who was only five years old. Now ten years have passed, he has also changed from a thin little boy to a big black man like an iron tower, from a child who is still breathless and strong man who can walk vigorously even with two big sacks of food.

The big giant is the most powerful man in Zhangjiazhuang and the tenant who rents the most farming land in Zhangjiazhuang. He planted more than ten acres of land alone, not for anything else, just to save money to buy a mu of thin land here and become the "land household" for the superiors.

The big bull leaned under a dead tree next to the road outside the village. Looking at the heavy snow falling from the sky, he sighed. He thought that he could buy a mu of land if he saved a few years. Who knew that the owner of Zhang suddenly increased the rent this year, as if he was to go to the south to become a high-ranking official. He exhausted his money, so he increased the rent by a few more%, which seemed to be no less than the rent in the south. Now the owner of Zhang has got what he wants, and he doesn't know whether the rent for the land will be reduced next year. If the rent is reduced, at the speed of saving money now, he can save more than 100 people a year. Now he has saved more than 300 people, then he can buy a mu of land in six years.

But if the owner of the house does not reduce the rent, he can only save dozens of yuan a year, and he doesn’t know when he can buy a mu of land.

"Brother, I'm going home for dinner, why are you here to go to daze again?" A slightly childish voice interrupted his thoughts. Daniu looked at the small figure running towards him not far away, and felt warm in his heart. He quickly stood up and met him and said, "Tell you how many times I'll go back to eat when I'm going to eat. What are you doing with this boss's snow?"

Zhu'er reached out to help her brother beat the snow on her body and blamed him, "I've been waiting for you for a long time. If I don't come, I'm afraid my brother will become a snowman." Zhu'er knew that his brother would come here to daze every day, and also knew why his brother was in a daze. Although she was not old, she was very sensible. Without the big bull's knowledge, she secretly took the needlework and threading guys to do it since she was ten years old, and she has saved more than 100 cents in recent years. She also envied those families with fields, and thought that one day she would save enough money for her brother and buy a mu of thin fields soon, so that her brother would no longer have to work hard alone to manage more than ten mu of land.

The big bull twisted his sister's little nose that was so cold that it was red and smiled and said, "I'll be stubborn. I'll see if I'll be scolded by my mother-in-law in the future."

Zhu'er's face turned red and said, "Zhu'er is not married. Zhu'er wants to find a sister-in-law for her brother before getting married." Her eyes rolled and said, "Brother, Sister Chunhua is very good. Why don't you agree to kiss you when you come to the door?"

The big bull shook his head and felt depressed. The arrogant face of Zhang Quan, the subordinate of the Zhang family, appeared in front of him. His arrogant words were remembered in his ears, "Chunhua is attracted by me. You, a little tenant farmer, want to compete for a woman with me? In the next life! If you are obsessed with it, don't blame me for telling you in advance. The third young master of Butler Zhang has been fond of your sister for a long time. It was all my help to suppress it. You should think about it yourself..."

Daniu looked at his sister with his head tilted, and sighed in his heart. Although his sister was still young, she was an absolute beauty, more beautiful than the Guanyin Empress on her paintings. But when she looked at her clothes with patches, Daniu felt distressed. She was really useless and caused her sister to suffer.

Zhu'er said "ah" and said, "Why is the snow getting heavier and heavier? Brother, let's go quickly."

The big bull let out a "ah" and the snowflakes around him fell more and more anxiously. The heavy snow of goose feathers gradually turned into tiny snow particles, which made the face hurt.

The two of them quickly accelerated their pace, and Zhu'er shouted, "Brother, let's compete with whom we are running faster!" As he said that, he ran out first. Daniu looked at her cheerful figure and chased after her. The two of them chased and laughed, and as they watched the village gate approach, they slowly slowed down, looked at each other, and laughed at each other.

Zhu'er's face suddenly changed, and she shrank behind the big bull with a little fear, and whispered: "Brother, Young Master Zhang San is at the gate of the village..."

The big bull looked up and saw that it was not. The third son of Butler Zhang was joking with a few servants of the Zhang family downstairs, and he laughed from time to time.
Chapter completed!