Once seated in the courtyard, Fang Er asked, "What should I call you, elder sir?"
The old man waved his hands repeatedly. "You mustn't, you mustn't. My surname is Ma. Young Master Fang can call me Old Ma. These two are also elders from this estate." Having spoken, Old Ma pointed to an old man leaning on a cane. "He is Liu Si." Then he pointed to another person. "He is Zhao Neng."
These names felt somehow familiar.
But he truly hadn't heard of Liu Si and Zhao Neng.
If he couldn't figure it out, he wouldn't dwell on it. He looked at Old Ma and asked, "Uncle Ma, how many households and how many people are there on the estate now?"
"Thank you for your kind words, young sir. To answer your question, there are currently twenty-six households and over one hundred and thirty people on the estate, with more than forty being young and strong. The rest are the old and young. wΑp.kanshu伍.net"
Such a large estate, yet only twenty-six households, Fang Er couldn't understand.
So he asked, "I see our estate is quite large, why are there so few people?"
"The young master doesn't know, but after Master Ma committed a crime, many people, fearing implication, fled with their families. Some were also scared by the drought and went elsewhere to escape famine," Old Ma said, tears welling up.
"Indeed, seeing the estate's population dwindle, our hearts ache. Those children, we watched them grow up. To become refugees like this, who knows what fate awaits them if caught by the authorities!" Zhao Neng chimed in from the side.
"In that case, Uncle Ma, you three go back and inform the able-bodied men in the village that I need hands. Then, try to bring back those who fled. For every able-bodied man from the estate who comes to me, I will pay one tael of silver per month and provide meals. As for the old and young, I need some of them too; that will be five qian of silver per month. How does that sound?" Fang Er said after some thought.
*Thump!*
The three old men knelt on the ground simultaneously.
Old Ma wailed, "Thank you, young master, for your great kindness! I, Old Ma, swear here! If anyone in the entire estate dares to disobey Young Master Fang's orders, I will sacrifice this old life of mine to deal with him for you!"
"Yes, yes, and us too!" Liu Si and Zhao Neng echoed, kowtowing.
"Please rise quickly, the three of you. Fang does not like to see people kneel. Do not do this again; your kneeling might shorten my lifespan!" Fang Er quickly signaled to Zhu Zi to help the three up.
"Young master, please wait. We will go back to call for people now."
The three old men were helped up, left these words, and then hurried away.
"Follow them, don't let them fall. At their age, a fall could be serious," Fang Er said helplessly to Zhu Zi.
Xiao Qing came into the courtyard with tea. Seeing only Fang Er left, she asked, "Young master, where did they go?"
"These old fellows, as soon as they heard I needed people, they rushed back to call them," Fang Er said, smiling as he took a cup of water.
Xiao Qing placed the tea tray on the stone table and said to Fang Er, "Young master, you are so kind. If it were anyone else, they wouldn't care about their lives."
"That's not how you should put it. We will be rooting ourselves here in the future. If we can help, we should help. Besides, someone has to cultivate those thousand acres of land, right?" Fang Er said after taking a sip of water and putting down the cup.
"Young master, will we not be returning to the city in the future?" Xiao Qing asked curiously when she heard Fang Er mention rooting themselves here.
"If there's nothing important, we won't. It's so good here, the entire estate is ours! We can do whatever we want, isn't that good?" Fang Er replied.
"Mmm, Xiao Qing can be anywhere, as long as young master is there, Xiao Qing will be there, giggle." Xiao Qing smiled mischievously at Fang Er.
She would be happy to stay here. The mansion was large, and she could go find girls her age on the estate to play with. She was practically wishing to live here. Although the Tang Dynasty had an open atmosphere, women did not visit each other casually, and she was a maid by origin. It was different here; the estate didn't have such strict rules.
Not long after, more than forty young and strong men, led by the three elders, arrived at Fang Er's courtyard. Accompanying them were some half-grown children, all barefoot, curiously looking at the flowers and plants in the courtyard.
"Behave yourselves! If anyone dares to anger the young master, I'll break their legs!" Old Ma warned the crowd, then continued to Fang Er, "Young Master Fang, these are the able-bodied men from the estate. Feel free to give any orders you have!"
"The land owned by the Ma family in this estate has now been purchased by Fang. From now on, there will be no Ma Mansion, only Fang Mansion. The most important task right now is to find water and irrigate the fields, so we cannot just watch the crops die. For anyone who stays to work for Fang Mansion, I will pay one tael of silver per month and provide three full meals a day. Do you have any objections?" Fang Er said, sitting on the stone stool without getting up, looking at the crowd.
"Young Master Fang, are you serious? Three full meals a day and we'll be fed?" someone immediately asked incredulously.
"Rest assured! As long as you follow me, I promise you three meals a day, and you will eat your fill at every meal. Perhaps in the future, you might even eat meat at every meal!" Fang Er said firmly to everyone.
"Brother Liu Meng, did I hear correctly? The young master said we might eat meat every meal in the future?" A seventeen or eighteen-year-old boy looked at a strong man beside him.
"It should be correct, but I don't know what this young master wants us to do," Liu Meng said, scratching the back of his head uncertainly.
"It's been so many years since I last ate my fill, and I've never eaten meat in my life! I really don't know what it tastes like!" another boy said.
"Mmm, who's not? They say growing boys eat their fathers out of house and home. I remember, since I was eight, I don't think I've ever eaten my fill!" a bald man around twenty years old muttered softly.
"Didn't you hear? This young master said there's also one tael of silver a month for wages!" someone next to the bald man reminded him.
"You heard correctly, one tael of silver per month, three meals are provided. Those who are willing can stay; those who are not are welcome to leave." Fang Er saw them gathering and murmuring continuously but was not annoyed. He called out.
"Young master, I'm not leaving! As long as I can eat my fill, you can make me do anything, and I'll do it!" The bald man who had spoken earlier stepped forward and knelt on the ground.
"Get up! The first rule for following me is: do not kneel at the drop of a hat. We don't do that here!" Fang Er said sternly.
The bald man immediately got up, saying, "I won't kneel, I won't kneel! Young master doesn't want me to kneel, so I'll never kneel again!"
Fang Er nodded with satisfaction and looked at the others.
Liu Meng stepped forward and said, "Young master, there's no need. No one will leave. We are all able-bodied men with big appetites. We have no food at home. If you can let us eat our fill, I can save my share for my family. You are our benefactor, no one will leave! Just tell us what to do and how to do it, and if any of us frown, we are not born of parents!"