Gawain stood on the rock, looked at the numb and shrinking faces below, and took a deep breath.
People are not ignorant, but that doesn't mean they aren't ignorant.
Ignorance is a judgment made with prejudice and contempt, but ignorance - it is just stating the facts.
The civilians and serfs of this era are ignorant. The social structure determines that they have almost no channels for acquiring knowledge and increasing their knowledge. The heavy cost of living also makes them have no energy to focus on things other than survival. If they survive, they will appear not to think, and they will have the illusion of "ignorance". But in fact, they can think, but their ignorance makes it difficult for them to understand things that are too far away from life.
So you can't talk to them about those fake things, talk about ideals, talk about the future, talk about the prospect of the territory and the logical relationship between the development of productivity. Go back to the "lord's side" and draw a line with yourself, so the best thing to do is to talk to them about their life.
"People of Cecil Territory," Gao Wen said loudly, "you should all know who I am—so you should also know that I am the person with the most right to speak in this territory today. What I say The laws that can represent Cecil, these laws will provide you with protection and are something you must obey.
"We're breaking new ground and we need some new rules, so I'm announcing three things here:
"First, since the old territory has been destroyed and all past wealth has been cleared, I declare in the name of the ancestor of the Cecil family that all debts involving the lord in the territory are canceled—no matter whether the debtor is a freeman or a serf, From today onwards, they will no longer assume any debts to the lord.
The crowd below was a little agitated, but the agitation was not obvious, because although commoners and serfs in this era would owe their lords more or less debts, but today when the territory is being rebuilt, everyone has lost the ability to repay their debts. According to Lord Rebecca's previous benevolence, they had already guessed that the debt would be forgiven.
Gao Wen went on to say: "Secondly, all serfs in the territory have the opportunity to become freemen - 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 plans. According to the sub-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. And those who are already free citizens can get the corresponding reward after completing these tasks. Specifically I will announce the method of calculating the remuneration in the near future. I can assure you that any industrious and reliable serf can become a freeman as long as he works hard for two or three years, and a freeman can get a freeman as long as he works hard for five or six years. own house!"
This time, the commotion below completely turned into an irrepressible discussion.
Serfs became freedmen—this in itself was quite a challenge to the norm in this era. Although Ansu's kingdom laws did not strictly prohibit serfs from becoming free citizens, and there were no clear regulations in this regard in the territorial laws of nobles in various places, but in fact, almost no noble would let their serfs be freed casually ——For them, serfs mean cheap, and they can squeeze the last drop of blood from them without any burden. Those nobles who only know how to continuously increase taxes and working hours to search for wealth have no idea that serfs are free. what good.
When Rebecca proposed that the serfs be freed by joining the army, it also caused a commotion, but this time Gawain obviously took a big step forward.
As for getting paid for working, or even getting a house... Many civilians who are free themselves hardly believe it.
Work for the lord and get money? Who would believe it!
Gao Wen didn't give them time to continue the discussion, but went on to say the third point:
"Third, the tents and fences to be erected today, as well as the drainage ditches in the camp, are the first tasks the lord has given you in the new law—I have already asked people to record the scope of each of you's responsibilities, Only those who complete the work strictly according to my requirements are considered to have completed the work. In addition, as an incentive to work hard, the first ten people who complete the work can eat meat."
After saying this, Gao Wen jumped off the rock and returned to where Hetty and Rebecca were, regardless of the reaction below.
The gathered civilians and serfs were stunned for a moment, then suddenly shouted and rushed towards the seemingly completed camp—they were going to re-strengthen the loose ropes and nails, and drive the fence deep into the ground go!
For them, the calculation of contributions and scoring standards mentioned by Gao Wen is still too difficult, and they don't really believe that the soldiers and master knights who are in charge of the work will really help them calculate the work seriously. However, there is one sentence they can understand: there is meat to eat at night!
Only those who finish their work ahead of time and have to finish their work seriously can have meat!
Just as Gao Wen thought - only when it is about personal interests, people will be motivated the most.
Seeing the civilians and serfs running away in a swarm, Hetty felt a little dazed, and she didn't realize it until Gao Wen stood in front of her, and asked with a little disbelief: "Ancestor... what you just said is true? "
Gao Wen looked at the other party with a half-smile: "Which one are you referring to specifically?"
"...is the part where serfs become freedmen through work," Hetty said with a frown. "Of course, I don't object to this, because Rebecca issued a decree on the promotion of serfs to join the army, but you said that even building a house and repairing Things like roads can be regarded as contributions, and it only takes two or three years to become a free citizen... Is this true?"
"Of course it's true," Gao Wen looked at the other party, "What do you think is wrong?"
"If it's so easy to become a free citizen, I'm afraid it won't be long before all the serfs on the territory are civilians," Hetty said with a dazed expression, "The children of commoners are also commoners. Could it be that General Cecil A place without serfs?"
Gao Wen continued to look at her with the same smile on his face: "Is there anything wrong with not having serfs?"
Starting from her class-derived thinking habits and worldview, Hetty instinctively felt that something was wrong, but starting from her insight and thoughts far surpassing that of nobles at the same time, she felt that there was nothing wrong even without serfs, so Suddenly fell into a contradiction.
On the contrary, Rebecca frowned and said after thinking for a while: "Actually, I think... the serf system is not so necessary today, and there is nothing bad about it if it is gone."
Gawain looked at this descendant who had always been tough-headed in surprise, and nodded: "Continue."
"Serfs are labor, and the purpose of labor is to provide labor, but if turning them into free people can get more labor, then why do you have to keep the concept of 'serf'?" Rebecca scratched her hair, "My father told me back then that the main reason why the serfs were not allowed to be free was that once they were free and there was no whip, they would immediately become lazy and stop working, but I think the whip is not necessarily the best... "
Gawain looked at her approvingly, and Rebecca, who was encouraged by her ancestor for the first time, suddenly became courageous and said fluently: "And I also noticed that if a serf is asked to work, they will always find a way to be lazy, But if you ask two serfs to do the same work, and tell them that they will get an extra piece of bread if they finish first, they can finish the work of three or four people at once—the value is far more than that piece of bread... So I was at the time Thinking about it, it is not necessary to use a whip to keep them from being lazy, it might be better to use other methods.”
"This is already a very good enlightenment." Gao Wen 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, nobles don't even observe themselves. How the serfs and even civilians work under their rule has no concept of statistical work efficiency. Using whips and sending soldiers to monitor them is the ultimate embodiment of their ruling skills. Rebecca...
It can only be said that this poor country viscountess is really idle.
Thanks to being idle, she was able to think of these things.
It's just that she can only think of these superficial things based on her own observations. In fact, Gao Wen is very clear that the emergence and abolition of slavery is not just a matter of "whip and bread", but the deeper reason is whether productivity Enough, whether society has really reached 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 low-efficiency low-end jobs, relying on the number of people to use The lowest efficiency produces all kinds of materials to support the upper class, and these people will never have a way to rise. Obviously those upper-class people who have 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 common people below are not much better than the primitive people, and the whole society is almost deformed.
Earth-shaking changes had already taken place on Earth at this time, but here, the existence of supernatural forces prevented this process.
Because a hundred civilians holding a pitchfork can't beat a low-level mage or knight, even if they are brave enough to die at the same time, it is impossible to double their number.
Maybe the world will continue to develop and this deadlock will be broken sooner or later, but Gao Wen doesn't intend to wait any longer. He has to change all this in advance and start his own big development plan.
Because he had a feeling—the tide of magic might really be coming.
The Gondor Empire in its heyday was unable to withstand the tide of demons. Now the continental countries that have regressed to the ignorant state of the Middle Ages in all aspects, will they carry it with their faces
And even if the issue of the magic tide is not considered, Gao Wen still has other things to care about.
Those "eyes" in the sky who don't know the truth.
It is difficult for a backward world in the Middle Ages to break free from gravity. If it is strangled by gravity, it is not even qualified to look up at the sky, let alone study the secrets among the stars.