Too high to reach

Chapter 56 Major and Minor Matters
After the meal, Zhuang made sure everyone was settled in.

The little girl from the Song family fell asleep after dinner, and Mo Yi asked Xiangzhi to carry her to her room.

The three heads of the family stayed in the living room to discuss matters.

Mo Rusong was very tired, but he had something on his mind and wanted to finish talking before sleeping: "...I married her, we bowed to heaven and earth!"

"Isn't this ridiculous?" Mo Rushan said, exasperated. "What's the point?"

“She is from a good family, and I promised her that I wouldn’t want to wrong her.”

"You're willing to wrong her, but you're wronging Liu Shi? She's the one your parents properly arranged for you to marry into the family! This is called abandoning your wife and remarrying, and you'll be punished!"

"Hmph, my parents were also deceived by the Liu family!" Mo Rusong retorted, sticking out his neck.

"Alright! You're getting on in years, and you've already had a daughter. What's the point of still worrying about this? Don't you know this will harm Mo Yuan? What else can you do? Do you really want to drive them to their deaths?"

“I won’t pressure her, but she shouldn’t pressure me either. Let’s just leave it at that. If things get out of hand, I’ll move out with the three of them.”

Mo Rushan sneered: "Ha, you've gotten bold! Move out... What a big mouth you have! All these years, if it weren't for me protecting you, who knows what kind of life you would be living! Trying to threaten me? Move out, move out right now!"

Mo Rusong's face turned red from the teasing. "Alright! Brother, let's not talk about that. I have something important to tell you."

Seeing that Mo Rushan was about to speak, he threw out the bombshell first: "Something's going to happen to our land!"

"What did you say!?"

Both Mo Rushan and Mo Ruhai were startled. "What happened?"

"At this moment... I don't know where to begin," Mo Rusong said sullenly.

"What trouble have you gotten yourself into? Tell me the truth, don't try to fool me!" Mo Rushan said.

"How was this year's harvest?" Mo Ruhai reached out his hand directly to him.

Mo Rusong glared at his two older brothers, one of them thinking the worst of him, and the other reaching out for money.

After being angry for a long time, he finally picked up the wooden box next to him.

Inside are accounts, including banknotes from Yuanlong Silver Shop, which facilitates nationwide remittances.

Mo Rushan took the silver notes and started counting them, while Mo Ruhai also leaned over to look.

“There’s some gold and other items in that box over there! It’s worth about five hundred taels,” Mo Rusong said.

The Mohists have land, lakes, and forests over there. The land is quite good, very close to Wenzhou. Wenzhou has a superior geographical location, a large population, and is considered prosperous, so they can benefit from it.

Even so, if it's just about farming, it's barely enough to make ends meet locally. But if brought to the capital, it certainly wouldn't be enough to support the entire Mo family.

That's why they sent Mo Rusong away, while he took the Song family with him.

The Song family has a young servant who follows Mo Ruhai. He is literate, knowledgeable, quick-witted, and resourceful. He has far more foresight than the local farmers.

Not long after arriving, he established a foothold in the business. He raised chickens, ducks, and fish, and also grew some uncommon grains and vegetables. He also grew something called lucky bamboo, small bamboo stalks with coiled roots, which he sold in purple clay pots. He made quite a bit of money from that!
Moreover, he changes his methods every two years, which others can't replicate. In particular, the white fungus he grows is of high quality and makes an excellent gift.

Even with all this effort, in good years one might earn two or three thousand taels, but during droughts and floods, it would be less than a thousand taels, or even less. After buying a shop in the prefecture, one could at least have some income.

All of these together make up quite a lot.

But for a large family like the Mohists, life wasn't exactly prosperous. Boys went to school, girls dressed up, got married, and most importantly, they had to find work...

Therefore, Mo Rusong could not return to the capital every year, because the travel expenses would be considerable. Sometimes he would entrust local security escort agencies or silver shops to deliver his earnings.

The family's homestead was their livelihood. If they relied solely on their salaries, they would have to pay off the servants. The women in the household would have to do housework and even other odd jobs to earn money.

“This…isn’t this better than in previous years?” Mo Rushan said after counting.

Mo Rusong muttered, "It's because the Song family has sold off everything they don't need right now. I'm coming back this time, not going back!"

"Not going back?"

The two brothers became even more worried upon hearing this.

"What about the Song family?" Mo Ruhai asked hurriedly.

"He stayed behind and didn't come back; he only brought his wife and children back!"

Mo Rushan felt a surge of anxiety: "What exactly happened?"

"I can't say for sure what exactly happened. Anyway, there were signs of this a few years ago. For example, Yunniang's family lived more than 500 li away from us. They used to own several hundred acres of fertile land. Later, not only was it seized by others, but it also led to the destruction of their family."

She ran away. At the time, I was out running errands with the Song family when we encountered her being chased by thugs, and we saved her life. Upon further inquiry, we learned that her family was gone. We had no choice but to take her back…

We hadn't paid much attention to some of the things we'd heard before. It was only after her family's situation that we took it seriously and started investigating. The Song family had been searching for this for a long time before discovering that someone, we didn't know who, was seizing land. They were quite powerful; some were buying, some were occupying, and some were even robbing.

Brother, as you know, there are vast tracts of fertile land hundreds of miles west of our home, along the Xianghe River, that haven't changed hands for years. But now, from what I've heard, many of them have changed hands. And it seems like they're moving towards our area. Moreover…”

He looked around, then leaned closer before saying, "I heard at the tavern in Li County that quite a few people have gone missing there. They were said to have gone out to work repairing a granary, but they never came back. Their fate is unknown."

"Huh? A grain depot?" Mo Rushan was somewhat surprised.

"Yes. One year, there were a few thieves who were always causing trouble in our area. The farmers couldn't catch them no matter what they tried. Fearing that someone might die if they were caught, they went to the county government and asked a constable to come. A few of them worked around in our area for more than a month before they finally caught them. I got along well with that guy. Every time I went to the county, I would sit and drink with him."

The last time, I took Song Jiayou to sell oil. I treated him to drinks again, and he told me he was going to investigate the granary. He said… even the county magistrate hadn't heard of it. But if the imperial court was building a granary, why would they be so secretive about it?”

The Mo brothers, Mo Rushan and Mo Shi, knew a little about grain. Grain depots were divided into national granaries, military granaries, provincial granaries, county granaries, and private granaries.

The first few were all under the imperial court, primarily used for regulating grain, grain prices, famine relief, and supporting the army. The management and guarding of these were the responsibility of officials at various levels.

Private treasuries were built by large landowners, but were smaller in scale than those built by the central government. Regardless of the type of treasury, all treasuries had to be registered with the imperial court; it was all open and aboveboard, not something to be hidden. Anyone wanting to build a treasury would certainly be informed.

"Could it be some wealthy landowner who built this small granary?"

"But the problem is we can't get any information, and with so much land changing hands, where are all these spendthrift sons coming from!"

Just like the Mohists, the land was also passed down from their ancestors.

"Later, when I went to the county again to see the magistrate, I heard he was dead. I was shocked. When I returned, Song Jiayou went out to investigate secretly and discovered many strange things. Some villages had become private estates. The farmers had become serfs. Especially the families that had changed hands in large numbers, some were sold at low prices, and some had experienced family misfortunes..."

The Song family returned saying something was amiss, and under the guise of buying medicinal herbs, they went for a drive further afield. Just as they reached the vicinity of the grain depot they had mentioned, someone came to question them. He became frightened and returned.

Then, a few days ago, Lin'er fell ill, and Yunniang and I took them to the prefecture to see a doctor. We were gone for a while. When we returned, Song Jiayou said that someone was inquiring about our land. We were terrified; this time, we even sold our surplus grain. Song Jiayou told me to hide back first, that the landlord wasn't there, and that he was just a laborer, so we should deal with him for now and see how things went.”

Mo Ruhai was concerned about his man: "Is he in danger? I hope nothing happens to him!"

"He said he'd play it by ear. He also told me to come back and gather information. Brother, you really need to ask about this. It concerns our family's livelihood! We're a family with a lot of land, our ancestors have been farmers and scholars for generations, and we're not exactly sitting idly by. Many of our members hold official positions in the court. For this to be so serious... it's no small matter!"

Mo Rushan nodded, but his heart was filled with doubt...

The three brothers looked at each other, unsure of what to say.

At this moment, concubines and illegitimate children no longer matter.

(End of this chapter)