As long as residents who are actually engaged in labor must devote a lot of time to their necessary labor, and therefore have no extra time to engage in public affairs of society - labor management, state affairs, legal affairs, art, science, etc., there must always be a
These affairs are carried out by a special class divorced from actual labor; and this class, for its own benefit, never misses an opportunity to place an ever-increasing burden of labor on the shoulders of the working masses.
The lord of the castle came to the village to inspect. What was he going to do?
According to farmers’ simple experience and intuition, there is a good chance that nothing good will happen.
By the way! The master has been doing a lot of construction outside the castle recently...
When the village chief thought about this, his face became more frightened, and his heart became more helpless.
Food tax?
Blood tax?
My lord, please do it...
#Check the stock of pitchfork in the village
(Don’t get me wrong, the village chief is just checking the number of farm tools in the village, please don’t associate it with any malicious intent)
Ahem, the camera switched to Chu Yang:
——It’s sunny after the rain. On the muddy roads in the countryside, everyone’s feet are dirty with muddy water.
Those who are particularly poor are, of course, barefoot.
Those who are good at handicrafts will tie their legs with a few pieces of linen cloth, and wear shoe soles sewn with scraps of sheepskin under their feet. The hemp ropes are tied firmly, so they can be used.
Those with a little wealth naturally wore thin-leather wooden shoes handmade by the carpenters in Gusi City, so that they would not be afraid of small stones on the ground accidentally stepping on their feet.
Chuyang was the only one wearing cowhide boots and walking on the muddy road. Anyway, there would be servants to wash his boots, so the dirty mud didn't matter.
Another loyal soldier, with a short sword on his waist and leather sandals on his feet, followed closely beside the lord, ready to cut down the peasants who tried to commit crimes - his father was the man in Gusi City.
He is an old rickshaw driver responsible for recycling wet garbage and excrement. Therefore, he is considered a city dweller and is not familiar with people in rural areas outside the city. He is considered a loyal and reliable candidate.
"Village Chief, at this time, some villagers are preparing lunch, right?"
Chu Yang looked at the white smoke coming out of the chimneys of several nearby earthen houses and asked the village chief.
However, looking towards the pastures, chicken coops and fields, there are still some farmers and women who are still busy.
The village chief quickly said yes and asked the lord what his orders were.
Chu Yang's voice was tepid: "Oh, my castle's repair work has been a little tight recently..."
As soon as the village chief heard this "starting hand pose", his blood pressure skyrocketed.
He just waited for the master to finish speaking, and then he would kneel down with a seamless "pop", lying on the muddy old road, kissing the lord's cowhide boots, and begging the lord to show mercy and stop twitching.
A little bit stronger.
"...The number of laborers is sufficient, but the tight link is the kitchen. I am short of cooks."
When the village chief heard this, he thought about it and his blood pressure dropped slightly.
I have only heard of people dying of exhaustion as civil engineering workers, but never of people dying of exhaustion as cooks.
Alas, as long as no one dies.
The village chief has a good relationship with the merchant leaders in Gusi City (industry talkers in grain stores, tailor shops, butcher shops, etc.), because if the villagers want to sell agricultural products in large quantities to the merchants in the city, they can only go through the 'middleman'
Only through communication and coordination with the village chief can both parties finalize a price that both parties are satisfied with.
Having been in contact with the merchants in the city for many years, the village chief's vision is naturally broader than that of other people in the same village.
"Ah? Master, do you need a lot of help in the kitchen?"
The village chief's old face put on a smile, "Hey, you know! The dozen or so idle men in our village (who have little land and don't raise cattle and sheep) responded to your paid recruitment last week, and the city
Together with the idle men here, they are all working on your castle grounds!"
"The remaining people in the village are all good villagers who raise a lot of cattle, sheep, chickens and ducks, have a lot of fields, and are busy farming every day. If we stay in your castle for a long time to help cook, we will have less time to farm!"
"I dare to ask, when is your cooking time usually arranged? I am familiar with the rest of the people in the village and can help you choose the right person - different people have different schedules
——We try to reduce the farming losses in the village."
"In this way, when our village pays taxes to you in the next quarter, the corresponding losses on the cattle, sheep, chickens, ducks, grain and cloth that belong to you will be minimized!"
After many years of contact with the merchants in the city, the village chief has naturally become flexible and knows how to beat around the bush.
Of course Chuyang could understand the hidden meaning of the village chief's words.
The young lord just nodded and said coldly: "It doesn't matter, I have my own judgment. You can lead the way and explain in detail."
The village chief secretly breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that the lord was not angry.
In fact, he knew very well that the lord of our broken island, the previous old man who had burped, and the young man in front of him, compared with the other noble men in the Kingdom of Spain, could be regarded as a 'good and kind man'.
Of course, in the village chief's view, this may also be because there is really no money to be squeezed out of his rural area: if most of the prime-age labor force in the village are killed and disabled, then there will be no one to farm and raise cattle and sheep. His lord wants to start from
The collection of agricultural taxes in the village has become a joke - can you still collect taxes in vain?
The merchant leaders in the city, maritime merchants from different regions, and the village chief himself, after completing the scissor trade of the "Rural Seaport City Overseas Traveling Merchant", would often chat and drink together in the port tavern. Thanks to this, he
I have long heard all kinds of new and treacherous things from the well-informed, bold and capital-accumulating maritime merchants.
For example, there was once a Saracen maritime merchant (well, of course you know who he is) who had dark skin, a hearty smile, and was very fluent in Spanish and French-Portuguese. He brought a cargo ship to dock in Gus City.
While trading, I drank and chatted with the village chief and others, and told the village chief about a bizarre 'oriental thought'.
That guy with dark skin...Okay, let's simplify the number of words.
[The human incarnation of Nyarlathotep] was drinking and chatting with the village chief, and told about a "bizarre idea" originating from the far east that could theoretically force the lord to pay attention to the yeoman village.
Naiya said: The more people there are, the less important they are; the fewer people, the more important they are. As the number of farmers becomes more abundant, the lord becomes more and more unscrupulous!
The village chief was confused at first, but after some explanations from the incarnation of the evil god Lezi, he understood the operating logic of this idea.
(The unexplainable operational logic explanation is omitted here.txt)
The Saracen merchants left, and the cargo ships took away the island's agricultural products, leaving behind the outrageous theory of the Evil God.
The village chief is just an ordinary person.
He thought for a while and accepted only half of the outrageous theory:
The lord needs these yeoman farmers. If there are no yeoman farmers to farm, where will the lord collect taxes? So as long as the overall loss of our farmers is expanded to the lord’s loss as a [threat], then the lord must restrain himself when exploiting us.