Chapter 357 Manor Banquet 2
“Lord Fergus? What are you thinking about?”
Other people’s shouts interrupted Fergus’s thinking, and he looked up , it turned out to be a person sitting opposite him calling him.
The style of northwest people is so rough, even for wealthy families.
"Haha, Master Shank, I just heard you talking about last year's war, and I feel ashamed to think that I, a retainer of Graiman, did not serve under the earl."
"So that's what happened. Mr. Fergus doesn't need to think so."
Mr. Wallen, who was sitting at the main seat, raised his glass to comfort him, "I heard that except for those who are still serving as officers in the army, My lord, Earl Grayman did not summon the other knights at home. Now Arda has a strong army. Even if there is no war, it still maintains thousands of soldiers, and they drill every day. I think even His Majesty the King's army is nothing more than this. ? With these soldiers charging into battle, do we need to trouble a master like you? Isn’t that just killing a chicken with a knife?”
After hearing Mr. Warren’s description, everyone at the banquet burst into laughter. In this era, knights are the decisive ones on the battlefield, but everyone seems not to have considered that the Kent family, as the enemy, will almost certainly send their knights to the battlefield. It can only be said that they are immersed in the huge victory and glory and forget about it.
The man named Shank who was talking to Fergus just now smacked his tongue and said: "There are thousands of soldiers to support. I really don't know how Mr. Grayman can afford to support them. Even if With the tax revenue from Bairdin and Emden, it will be very difficult!"
A person next to him said: "With food, you can raise as many soldiers as you want. Think about it, don't say anything. Baildine and Emden, just talking about us in Arda, how much more farmland has been opened than when Lord Greiman first took the position of lord?"
This sentence caused everyone at the banquet to discuss it.
“I guess it’s twice as much, right? I bought the harvester, soil crusher, thresher and other machinery from Huxin Town Machinery Factory. Who doesn’t want to grow more crops? Praise to Graiman Sir, he invented these great machines."
"There are more farmlands, and the crop rotation system has been promoted. The output of this field has increased a lot compared to two years ago."
“A lot of water conservancy has been repaired in the past two years.”
“Iron farm tools have also become cheaper, such as sickles, hoes, forks, shovels, etc., especially the iron plow. If you don’t stand up, I won’t be afraid of you. It’s a joke. A few years ago, the farm tools I used there were all made of wood. It feels weird to say that, recently, the iron in Arda has become so cheap, and the shops in the town are full of iron tools. It doesn’t cost much.”
Fergus couldn't help but laugh when he heard this. Nowadays, manors are almost self-contained and self-sufficient. These landowners stay at home all day long, drink the wine they brew, and eat the food grown in their own fields. They wear cloth woven by their own servants and rarely interact with the outside world. Only when they need to use things that they cannot produce themselves, they will go to the town or city to purchase. In terms of experience, they are no more knowledgeable than the farmers under them. How many.
Most of the people in this room probably don’t know that Earl Greyman used new technology to build several ironworks, including one in Alda, one in Bailding, and even the recently taken over Emden. We are also intensively exploring mineral veins, inspecting water conservancy, and preparing to build a new iron plant.
Now Alda-Bailding has monopolized the supply of iron in nearly half of the territory of the Northwest Gulf. The traditional iron-making method is vulnerable to the impact of new technologies. Those private mine owners and iron-making plants have After going bankrupt, a large number of their original workers moved to Alda or Bailding to make a living. Many lords who also mined themselves relied on raising tariffs or directly imposing a ban to barely keep the ironware of Alda out of the door. Why do you say it was reluctant? Because there is still smuggling. In today's era, smuggling is a phenomenon that cannot be banned.
The host of the banquet, Mr. Warren, raised his cup and said with great admiration: "In previous winters, a lot of people would freeze and starve to death. Although this winter also happened, fewer people died. This is all Thanks to Lord Grayman for his good governance.”
Someone suggested: “Let’s give another toast to Lord Grayman”
"Here's to Count Grayman!" Everyone agreed, raising their glasses and drinking down the wine in one gulp.
Everyone at the banquet had already drank a lot of wine. Although the alcohol content was not high, it was a lot.
A man with a drunken face shook the cup and said crookedly: "Speaking of our current little lord, it is good here and there, but there is one thing that is not good."< br>
Fergus frowned after hearing this and said to the man: "Eldo, you are drunk."
The man named Eldo shook his head vigorously, hehe He laughed a few times and said, "Lord Fergus, I don't mean to accuse the lord. I support Lord Graiman a hundred times and wish him a long life. But... people will always complain a few times, you Just think I’m drunk and talking nonsense.”
Seeing that everyone in the room was turning their attention to him, he continued to speak on his own: "The bad thing about Master Graiman is that he is too indulgent to those businessmen who fall into the pile of money and can't climb out. "
Someone asked: "Master Eldor, what does this mean?"
Eldor shook his head and replied: "It's not right to say that Mr. Grayman is conniving. It's strange. It's not our lord, but the group of businessmen who relied on the lord's attention to do illegal things. This happened a month ago. Several peasants who escaped from my manor came to Fulan Port. I took them with them. We went to find them and found them working in the salt field."
"Then what?" Erdo sneered, "Of course they were taken back and the leader was beaten to death, and the others were also brutally beaten. Punishment, show others the consequences of running around.”
Most of the farmers in the Northwest Bay and even the Kingdom of Aldo have no personal freedom and cannot leave their villages without authorization. They are ruled by the owners of their land, that is, the landlords or manor owners. Although there is no regulation promulgated in the past. They are officially called "serfs", but their situation is indeed no different from that of serfs.
This serfdom system is a remnant of the ancient slavery system. With the development of the times, especially the intervention of the church, the living conditions of the serfs have improved. They can have their own houses to live in without being crowded like animals. In the shack, they can find a spouse of their choice and get married and be blessed by the church. They can even have their own meager savings and pass them on to the next generation.
Of course, all the above is subject to the premise that it does not violate the interests of local landowners. Landowners can trade serfs on their own land with other landowners. If a serf escaped without authorization, the landlord also had the right to capture him and punish him.
But there is an [advantage] for serfs now. Each village or manor will have a [public field], and the harvest from the public field will be divided equally among the serfs.
"But what I want to say is - the owner of the salt farm - what's his name - hiccup - what's his name Godwin? He actually stopped me from taking anyone, saying that those mud legs have been signed by him After signing the contract, I’ll screw you!”
"Eldo, what did you do next? How did the person come back?"
Eldo's face was flushed and he looked very excited, "I was too lazy to argue with him at the time and asked people to come back to the manor. He called a large number of people, smashed up his salt farm, and robbed the people out. Unexpectedly, this idiot still didn't know what to do and actually reported it to the mayor Theodore."
Ferguson had a look on his face. Rin asked: "How did Mayor Theodore deal with it?"
Eldor chuckled, "How else can I deal with it? No matter what, I am justified, but Godwin doesn't even look at it. Anyone can be recruited into the factory casually. It’s ridiculous that the guy is still talking about personal freedom in front of the mayor, hahaha!”
Everyone also burst into laughter.
Shank clapped or laughed and said: "I think Godwin was fooled by Dean Morrison's propaganda team!"
Morrison is Paul who is destroying the pirates entrenched in Port Fulan. The priest he met when he was in the Shark Gang promised to help him hide his shameful experience of being forced to join the pirate gang, and stayed with Paul as a military priest, doing some "ideological" work. Father Anderson succeeded his teacher as the director of the North Shore Monastery. After becoming the dean, Paul arranged for Morrison to "help" him. Father Anderson, who was obsessed with research all day long, pushed all the affairs of the monastery on Morrison. Gradually, Morrison was called the dean instead. .
Under Paul's instruction, Morrison organized several preaching teams to go to the countryside to attack the serfdom system in the name of the church, but the effect was...
"What kind of preaching? Not long after the team arrived at my land, they left in despair! Not to mention the good scriptures, what about JB equality? The mud-legged people still have farm work to do, who has the time to listen to their nonsense! I don’t understand!”
“It’s the same here. These people are really ignorant and engage in heresy.”
Listening to the discussion at the banquet, Warren, who was at the head of the table, snorted, "We work with our brains, farmers work with their bodies, and those who work with their brains rule those who work with their bodies. This has been the case since ancient times. The truth has not changed even in the thousands of years since the church that shouted the slogan of equality was founded."
Someone next to him immediately echoed him: "That is, the lumpy heads of the mud-legged people can't even work hard. , It’s impossible without control. The nobles are so noble, how can they personally take care of these messy things in the fields? Naturally, we have to take care of the farmers on behalf of them.”
A group of people shouted.
“These businessmen in Fulan Port, relying on how much money they have made in the past two years, dare to put on airs in front of us.”
“I think they I was led astray by my colleagues over at Jiaowan!”
"A bunch of vampires!"
......
The topic of discussion at the banquet gradually turned to scolding businessmen. Fergus shook his head. He just wanted to drink quietly, so why not? It has become like this.
(End of this chapter)