Cai Lichang greeted him with a hint of affection in his tone.

Wei Shi II was a man who had long seen through his hypocrisy.

After Cai Lichang left, Wei Shi went out to Xidengwan, a neighboring village of Yushuwan, and asked the descendants of the Deng family who he had always been with to inquire about the matter.

The Deng family was once a wealthy family in Xinye, and their ancestors produced important figures like Deng Sui, Queen of Hexi. If the descendants of the Deng family were not promising, the Deng family in Xinye would be more prestigious than the Cai family in Xiangyang.

The man Wei Shi was looking for was named Deng Fan. He had studied in Luoyang when he was young. He had also been a student of Zhong Yao, a famous scholar in Yingchuan, and was very familiar with the laws of the Han Dynasty.

Deng Fan was a good knight. He once had his sword polished by a blacksmith from Wei, so he was no stranger to Wei Shi.

After hearing about the purpose of his visit and receiving the gift of two wild boar legs, Deng Fan did not refuse and explained the laws of the Han Dynasty to Wei Shi in detail.

After Deng Fan explained it in detail, Wei Shi finally understood the whole story.

During the Pre-Han Dynasty, in order to encourage childbearing, the court stipulated that registered men must be married when they were over twenty and women were fifteen years old. Otherwise, a special "childbearing age tax" would be levied.

This policy, like the family planning fines of later generations, is exactly the opposite.

In the Later Han Dynasty, due to serious land annexation and the Yellow Turban Rebellion, the registered population decreased sharply. In order to increase the number of people, the age of marriage for men and women stipulated by the court was getting lower year by year. By the Jian'an period, a man was considered an adult when he was 18 years old.

, that is, marriage is necessary.

In fact, Wei Shi's age is actually seventeen, not eighteen.

Wei Shi would be of marriageable age until July next year, but Cai Lizhang lost face because of Cai Guang's incident, so he used the time of household registration to register Wei Shi as a man of suitable age.

The Wei Shi brothers and sisters had just relied on hunting to solve their food and clothing problems. How could they survive if they had another bite to eat.

Besides, if the girls from the neighboring villagers were good, they would have been married to others long ago. Only those with defects and unwanted ones would be allocated by the county.

If Wei Shi refuses, he will have to increase taxes and fees.

If Wei Shi is forced to accept it, he will marry a bad woman and his life will be difficult in the future.

It has to be said that Cai Li was very clever in his scheming.

Much better than Cai Guangke.

After understanding the true situation of the marriage match, Wei Shi had no expectations in his heart. It is conceivable that the quality of the women in the marriage team is probably not much different from that of later generations of "Sincerely Don't Disturb" programs.

He had just traveled through time, and his body was seventeen or eight years old. He was getting married before his body was fully developed, and his partner was still a younger girl. Wei Shi was somewhat uncomfortable with it.

Compared with Wei Shi's indifference, the other men in Yushu Bay were much more eager.

The male chases the female.

Animal instinct dictates that even a woman who is too ugly to marry is still worth a look.

February 20th.

The family visit team finally arrived.

Wei Shi followed Cai Lichang's instructions and came to Changting outside Xinye County, which is close to the dock of Feishui. As soon as the flower boat for visiting relatives appears, he can pick people without getting off the boat.

In the center of the pier, there are already three young men from the same county waiting, a sick young man who is about to collapse, a retired man with a broken hand, and the one he is most familiar with, none other than Cai Guang.

Seeing Wei Shi's arrival, Cai Guang snorted disdainfully and turned to look at the river.

After being shot in the crotch by an arrow from Wei Shi, he had to nurse it for more than a month before he could barely recover from the injury. Cai Guang didn't know whether the treasured weapon would be useful next.

This time, he made up his mind to find a young and beautiful girl and give it a try.

"A certain Xinye Huang Xu, what's your surname, brother?" The sickly man cupped his hands and saluted Wei Shi.

Don’t reach out and hit the smiling person.

When Wei Shi saw Huang Xu's polite behavior, he did not look down upon him, so he came to chat with him.

Huang Xu's family is outside Xinye City, downstream of the Qishui River, about three miles away from Yushu Bay. His father serves in the Jingzhou Army. This time he came to visit his relatives because his mother listened to the sorcerer's words and wanted to find a girl to cheer him up.

, see if you can cure your illness.

Seeing the expectation on Huang Xu's face, Wei Shi was also speechless.

Huang Xu was weak and wanted to find a woman. This was not a cure, but a cure.

Cai Guang's face was dark, and he snorted coldly at Wei and Huang who were talking, then turned around and stood on tiptoe to look at the river.

He originally thought that Wei Shi was an ignorant villager and no one would care about him. Who knew that when he met Huang Xu, a sick and consumptive ghost, he actually fell in love with Wei Shi and talked lively for some unknown reason.

"It's coming, it's coming!" Amid Cai Popi's expectant voice, a merchant ship hung with red silk slowly approached.

In front of the ship's armor was a group of county servants, and a matchmaker whose whole body was red and whose mouth was smeared with rouge, dancing in an exaggerated manner.

In the cabin, thirty to forty young ladies carrying baggage appeared one after another. They were the women who were matched with each other. As long as they were chosen by a man, they would disembark and settle in the man's village.

Year after year.

The most basic marriage pattern among the Han people has always been this pattern.

When these young ladies saw the men on the pier, they were not shy, some were bold, and even waved their hands proactively.

The baggage carried by the young ladies is their entire dowry. Some of them are from better-off families, and some money and silk are stuffed in them. Those from poorer families are packed with either shabby coats or wheat straw.

At this time, experienced people will whisper with the matchmaker for a while, and then choose a matchmaker after they find out the truth.

Wei Shi looked at these poor women with an indifferent attitude. Compared with the arrogant young ladies in later dating shows, the women in front of him were wearing patched linen clothes, and their faces generally showed a sallow complexion, and almost none of them were fair-skinned.

healthy.

Judging from the quality of these women, Wei Shi also understood why Cai Lichang wanted to instigate him to come and pay homage.

More than thirty women.

Wei Shi looked at it carefully from beginning to end.

At first he thought he didn't find anything, but when his eyes glanced at the middle of the team, he was attracted by the back of a tall woman with a slim waist and plump hips.

What is the standard for a great woman?

From the perspective of Wei Shi's later generations, it was definitely not his face.

The waist and hips are the most important.

If you marry this woman and go home, just hugging her waist and hips at night, it will be a different feeling.

As for the face, it doesn't matter whether you look at it or not, it doesn't matter.

"Brother Wei, I have something to say, you should be careful when marrying a wife and don't be impulsive." Huang Xu saw Wei Shi staring at a woman in the team for a long time and hurriedly tried to persuade her.

Wei Shi had no experience, but he could see clearly.

The patches on the slender-waisted woman's clothes were densely packed, one after another, showing that her family was in a poor situation.
Chapter completed!