Chapter 44 Serfs and Freedmen

Gawain stood on the stone, looked at the numb and shrinking faces below, and took a deep breath.

People are not ignorant, but that doesn't mean they are not ignorant.

Ignorance is an assertion made with prejudice and contempt, but ignorance - it's just stating facts.

The commoners and serfs in this era are ignorant. The social structure determines that they have few channels to gain knowledge and knowledge. The heavy cost of living also makes them have no energy to pay attention to things other than survival. Under such circumstances for a long time To survive, they will appear not to think, and will have the illusion of "ignorance". But in fact, they can think, but ignorance makes it difficult for them to understand things that are too far from life.

So you can't talk to them about those fake things, you can't talk about ideals, the future, and the logical relationship between the prospects of the territory and the development of productive forces. Once you talk about these, they will immediately put these concepts that sound like "superior". Go back to the "lord's side" and make a clear distinction with yourself, so the best way is to talk to them about something related to their lives.

"The people of Cecil's territory," Gawain said loudly, "you should all know who I am - so you should also know that I am the person who has the most say in this territory today, I said The words can represent Cecil's laws that will protect you and that you must obey.

"We're breaking new ground and we need some new rules, so I'm here to announce three things:

"First, because the old territory has been destroyed, all past wealth has been cleared, so I declare in the name of the ancestors of the Cecil family that all debts related to the lord in the territory will be written off - no matter whether the debt is freedmen or serfs , from today onwards, will no longer assume any debt to the lord.

There was a little commotion in the crowd below, but the commotion was not obvious, because although the commoners and serfs in this era all owed debts to the lords, but in today's heavy construction of the territory, everyone has no ability to repay their debts, according to Lord Rebecca's previous kindness, they had already guessed that the debt would be forgiven.

Gawain went on to say: "Second, all serfs in the territory have the opportunity to become free people - the lord will issue a series of tasks, such as building houses, building roads, digging mines, and joining the army. All these tasks will have corresponding tasks. In the scoring method, as long as the corresponding work is completed in strict accordance with the requirements, the contribution can be accumulated. After reaching the standard, the serf can become a free citizen. The serf who is already a free citizen can get the corresponding remuneration after completing these tasks. I will announce the method of calculating the remuneration in the near future. I can assure you that any diligent and reliable serf can become a freeman as long as he works hard for two or three years, and a freeman can become a freeman as long as he works hard for five or six years Get your own home!"

This time, the commotion below turned completely into an irrepressible discussion.

Serfs became freemen - which was quite a challenge in itself in this day and age. Although Ansu's kingdom law does not strictly prohibit serfs from becoming free people, and there is no clear provision in the territorial laws of nobles in various places, in fact, almost no nobles will let their serfs free ——For them, serfs mean cheapness, meaning that they can drain the last drop of blood on their bodies without any burden. Those nobles who only know how to continuously raise taxes and labor hours to scavenge their wealth never imagined that serfs would be freed. What good is it.

When Rebecca proposed to let the serfs get their freedom by joining the army, it also caused a stir, but this time Gawain obviously took a big step forward.

As for getting paid for participating in work, or even getting a house... Many civilians who are free themselves hardly believe it.

Do you still have money to work for the lord? Who believes it!

Gawain did not give them time to continue their discussion,

Instead, it goes on to say the third:

"Thirdly, the tents and fences to be erected today, as well as the drainage ditches in the camp, are the first tasks that the lord gave you in the new law - I have already recorded the scope of responsibility for each of you. , Only those who complete the work strictly according to my requirements are considered to have completed the work. In addition, as an incentive for serious work, the first ten people who complete the work can eat meat.”

After saying this, Gawain, regardless of the reaction below, jumped off the stone and returned to where Heidi and Rebecca were.

And the assembled commoners and serfs, after a moment of stunned, suddenly shouted and rushed to the camp that seemed to be completed - they were going to re-strengthen the loose ropes and nails, and drive the fence deeply into the ground. go inside!

For them, the calculation of contributions and scoring standards that Gawain mentioned are still too difficult, and they do not believe that the soldiers and knights in charge of the overseers will really help them with their calculation work seriously. But there is one sentence they can understand: there is meat to eat at night!

Only those who finish the work ahead of time and have to work hard can have meat to eat!

Just as Gawain thought - only when it is about vital interests can people be motivated the most.

Seeing the commoners and serfs running away in a swarm, Hetty felt a little confused, and she didn't react until Gawain stood in front of her, and asked in disbelief, "Ancestor... what you said just now is true. ?"

Gawain looked at the other party with a half-smile but not a smile: "Which one is it specifically?"

"...It's the part where serfs become freemen through work," Hetty said with a frown, "Of course, I don't object to this, because Rebecca issued a decree for serfs to join the army before, but you said that even building a house Anything like building roads can be considered a contribution, and it only takes two or three years to become a free citizen... is this true?"

"Of course it's true," Gawain looked at the other party, "What do you think is wrong?"

"If it's so easy to become a free citizen, then I'm afraid it won't be long before all the serfs in the territory are civilians," Hetty said with a confused expression, "The children of civilians are also civilians. Could it be that in the future, General Cecil will become a civilian. A place without serfs?"

Gawain continued to look at her, the smile on his face unchanged: "Is it wrong to not have serfs?"

Starting from her class-derived thinking habits and worldview, Hetty instinctively felt that something was wrong, but starting from her knowledge and thinking that far surpassed that of the nobility of the same period, she felt that even if there were no serfs, there seemed to be nothing wrong, so Suddenly fell into conflict.

On the other hand, Rebecca frowned and said after thinking for a while, "Actually, I think... the serf system is no longer necessary today, and there is nothing wrong with it."

Gawain looked at this stubborn descendant with a little surprise, and nodded: "Go on."

"Serfs are labor, and the purpose of labor is to provide labor, but if they become free people, they can get more labor, so why keep the concept of 'serf'?" Rebecca scratched her hair, "My father told me back then that the main reason why serfs were not allowed to be free was that once they were free, they would immediately become lazy and stop working, but I don't think the whip is necessarily the best... …”

Gawain looked at her approvingly, and Rebecca, who was encouraged by her ancestors for the first time, became bold and said fluently: "And I also noticed that if a serf was asked to work, they would always find a way to be lazy, But if you put two serfs on the same job and tell them to get an extra loaf of bread when they finish first, they'll be able to do the work of three or four people in one fell swoop - worth far more than that loaf of bread...so I was I was thinking that it is not necessary to use a whip to keep them from being lazy, and it might be better to use other methods."

"This is already a very good enlightenment." Gawain couldn't help laughing. This is quite an easy-to-understand thing, but in this era, almost no one pays attention to this aspect - in fact, the nobles do not pay attention at all. How the serfs and even the commoners under their control work, and there is no concept of statistical work efficiency. Beating with whips and sending soldiers to supervise is the ultimate embodiment of their ruling skills, Rebecca...

It can only be said that this poor country viscountess is usually really idle.

Thanks to being very free, she could think of these things.

It's just that she can only think of these superficial things based on her own observations. In fact, Gawain is very clear that the emergence and abolition of slavery is not only a matter of "whip and bread", but the deeper reason is whether the productivity Enough, has society really gotten to the point where it needs to change.

Through this period of observation, he believes that at least as far as he can see, the serf system no longer matches the productivity of the world - a large number of people are piled up in repetitive and inefficient low-end jobs, relying on the number of people Use the lowest efficiency to produce various materials to support the upper class, and these people will never have a way to rise. Obviously, the upper-class people who mastered magic have entered the stage of watching fireworks and listening to music in the castle, and using fluorescent lamps (magic spar) for lighting, but the commoners below are not much better than the primitive people, and the whole society is almost deformed.

On Earth, the earth-shaking changes had already taken place at this time, but here, the existence of supernatural forces has prevented this process.

Because a hundred civilians with pitchforks can't beat a low-level mage or knight, even if they are not afraid of death, it is impossible to double the number.

Maybe the world will continue to develop sooner or later to break this deadlock, but Gawain is not going to wait any longer. He must change all this in advance and start his own big development plan.

Because he has a feeling - the magic tide, I am afraid it is really coming.

The Gondor Empire in its heyday could not bear the tide of magic, and now all aspects of the continent have regressed to the ignorant state of the Middle Ages, can they bear it with their faces?

And even if he didn't consider the issue of the magic tide, Gawain had other things he cared about.

Those ignorant "eyes" in the sky.

In a backward world in the Middle Ages, it is difficult to break free of gravity. If it is strangled by gravity, it is not even qualified to look up at the sky, let alone study the secrets in the stars.