Chapter 68 The First Believer
Ever since they met on the stairs that day, Ona seemed to have reached some kind of tacit understanding with Li Yu. She never came to trouble Li Yu again, and even nodded when she saw him from a distance.
Her change of attitude was also noticed by others in the castle, especially the maids, servants and guards, most of whom had served the Arias family for a long time.
Although Ilea has become the new owner of Green Field, they all know that it is still the old man hiding behind the scenes who controls the entire family.
Seeing her show her kindness to Li Yu, they naturally became more respectful to this strange foreigner who came with Ilea.
Especially as what happened in Yanxue City gradually spread back to Luye, there were suddenly more rumors about Li Yu.
Many people are extremely curious about his magical methods and the Saturday behind them, but no one wants to know more about them yet.
Li Yu had been in Luye for a while and had a rough idea of the situation here.
I have to say that the Silver Moon Church is indeed doing very well in this land. Its believers are spread throughout the Western Territory, from noble lords to common people, who generally believe in the Silver Moon goddess Pisiya.
When it comes to nobles, the Church of Silver Moon adopts a strategy of starting from babies. It will take the initiative to send teachers like Anton to the castles and mansions of nobles in the Western Region to teach the children of those nobles how to read. Moreover, such teachers are usually It is free of charge and only requires the lord to be responsible for food and lodging, so few nobles will refuse.
In the process of learning Common Language, teachers from the church will instill the worship of Pisiya into their students and train them to become believers of the Silver Moon Goddess.
Once one of them becomes a lord, he will definitely continue to promote the belief in the Silver Moon Goddess in his own territory in the future.
As for those young people who were defeated in the battle for heirs, or who knew early on that they had no hope of competing for the position of lord, the Silver Moon Church also opened its doors to welcome them and allowed them to go to the temple to continue their studies.
The best among them have the opportunity to become priests and enter the upper echelons of the church. The status of priests on the continent of Bratis is also very noble, and they are very loved by the common people. At the same time, they will also become the link between the Silver Moon Church and the major families. , closely linking both parties together.
As for civilians, the Silver Moon Church has not been left behind. It regularly holds various sacrificial activities in various places, organizing villagers and citizens to sacrifice grains, fruits, and livestock to the goddess in exchange for the goddess's protection and blessings.
In addition, some kind-hearted priests will provide free medical treatment and midwifery to the common people. In disaster years, when the harvest is poor, the church will also distribute food relief.
Although there are also scandals of priests desecrating girls or teenagers in the name of blessing, and some businessmen will pay to name their chambers of commerce under the name of the Silver Moon Church to evade high territorial taxes... But in general, Silver The Church of the Moon has a good reputation among both nobles and common people.
Moreover, the worship of the goddess Pisiya has a history of more than two thousand years in the Western Region. On average, two out of every three people are followers of Pisiya.
Considering that there are still some unbelievers and barbarians, this popularity rate can be said to be very amazing.
The people living on this land have been accustomed to living under the protection of Pisiya for generations, and it is difficult for outsiders to break this inertia.
Some time ago, Li Yu tried to perform some magic spells intentionally or unintentionally in front of the four children and the little maid, and received a lot of exclamations. However, the faith count displayed on the watch was still zero.
The children are already convinced of Li Yu's identity as a prophet, but it is obviously still difficult for them to abandon Pisiya and go to Saturday.
Li Yu was mentally prepared for this. His opponent was a local religion with a long history, a huge organizational system, and allies all over the place.
As an outsider, it is not easy for him to replace him alone.
Although Li Yu believes that through long-term relationship and subtle influence, the people around him will eventually become Saturday believers, but this is too inefficient.
Li Yu thought for a moment and quickly understood what the problem was.
Compared with Pissia, Saturday is still a bit too advanced. In modern times, the doctrine he initially compiled may be able to quickly attract a large number of believers, maybe several office buildings at a time.
However, in this era similar to the Middle Ages, productivity is horribly low. The sowing to harvest ratio of farmers is only a pitiful 1:4, which means that if you plant a pound of seeds, you can only harvest four pounds of grain.
In such a harsh environment, the only wish of most civilians is to fill their stomachs and not go hungry. They don't care whether they have a vacation.
Take the four little ones around Li Yu as an example. The reason why they are willing to be Li Yu's assistants is because they come with two meals and an extra bonus of one silver coin per month. As for the two-day holiday, they are completely It's incidental.
Even after returning home, they would not use those two days to rest, but would continue to help their parents with farm work.
As for the nobles, as the ones being supported, they wish that their subjects could work around the clock and grow directly on the farmland, and there is no reason to support the weekend system.
After realizing the problem, Li Yu had no idea of giving up Saturday.
Some things are not engraved in the bones from the beginning, and they will need to be exchanged for blood and life in the future, and they are not strong at all.
Because human greed is endless. In this case, it is better to put a pair of shackles made of faith around your neck early.
Isn't it productivity? What Li Yu does not lack most is methods to improve productivity.
After he gets the land from Ilea, he will start to increase the yield of the fields and use practical actions to prove the benefits of believing in Saturday to the people around him.
He did not believe that those believers of the Silver Moon Goddess would remain indifferent in front of real money and silver.
But to do this, in addition to land, he also needed manpower.
Li Yu also took the time to take a look at Dias' territory these days. Miss Rabbit was not lying. The land there was very fertile and the environment was good.
Standing on the hillside, you can still see the thin strips of fields that have been cultivated at your feet, one next to the other, densely packed, but unfortunately they are all abandoned.
There are only a few families left in the entire territory, not even a village.
The old butler Fausto has promised to help Li Yu recruit some free people to farm. However, in the past two years, the Western Region has been relatively peaceful. There have been no major disasters and the harvests have been good. Therefore, not many farmers have left their homes and rented land.
Even if Li Yu is willing to give a very low tax rate, the more so, the more farmers are worried about the traps.
However, on the third day after the surveillance was installed, the column of Fifty Fathoms, which had been motionless in Li Yu's hands, finally changed from zero to one. (End of chapter)