Daming Town Haiwang

Chapter 1759, Liberating the Serfs

Here in a village around Moscow, Tarasov got up early as usual, preparing firewood for the winter. The winter here is long and cold.

As a serf, it is natural to prepare firewood for the winter early, otherwise you will be frozen to death in the cold winter.

I heard that the sky has changed recently, and my master went to war. It is said that the same oriental people went to war more than two hundred years ago, and they have not returned yet.

I also heard that the Orientals won a great victory, and all the nobles were defeated, and many, many were killed. I don't know if my master was also killed.

If so, it is naturally the best.

He hated his master Gryshev, he was an out-and-out devil, and he had no aristocratic spirit for them serfs.

Not only did they have to hand over most of the grain, but all the serfs were required to build castles for their master on a regular basis. The only beautiful castle within a radius of several tens of miles was the castle of their master, Grishev.

But this is still the place where Tarasov hates him the most. Tarasov's two daughters have been occupied by this Grishev one after another. Even if they are occupied, they will be sold to the nobles in his Moscow city. , so far no news.

Although he was full of resentment towards the serf owners, he was helpless, because in this piece of land, the serf system was a system stipulated by law.

The nobles are the sky and the land here, and these serfs are just the private property of the nobles.

There are three days a week to work for the serf owners. In addition, the land cultivated by these serfs must bear high taxes, and more than half of the grain needs to be handed over.

The serf owners often occupied their wives and daughters, forcibly taking their family members away from them as property transactions.

Therefore, a large number of serfs escape every year. As long as they escape to unowned land, they can become free men. However, the Grand Duke of Moscow, especially the former Ivan III, often used the A large number of free people were given to the nobility and became serfs.

Everything about the serfs was gloomy. They had no land of their own, no production materials of their own, and even no personal freedom of their own.

They are not allowed to leave their own land, they are not allowed to wander around, and they are not allowed to own their own wealth. They are like the cattle and horses in the noble family, they are the private property of the nobles, they are just talking cattle and horses.

Even everything in this land has nothing to do with them.

Whether it was the Tatars who came to plunder, or the aristocrats who changed crops, these had nothing to do with them serfs.

Because even if there is a war, these serfs are often not qualified to participate. War is the business of the nobles, and the outcome has nothing to do with them. What they need to do is to silently farm and serve the nobles like cattle and horses.

Sometimes, many people even petitioned to be captured by the Tatars, so that they could become slaves and sell them to the Ming people. I heard that being a slave to the Ming people would at least have enough food to eat, and would not make you hungry.

Working as a serf here, he worked hard for a whole year, but in the end he couldn't get enough to eat. In winter, a large number of serfs were frozen to death.

The status of serfs was even lower than that of nobles' cattle and horses, because cattle and horses were extremely valuable property, and they often had their own horses to live in.

In addition, serfs often need to be branded with a serf label. With this label, if you leave your serf owner's territory at will, you will be killed directly.

Relying on such a cruel serfdom system, the nobles of the Principality of Moscow firmly controlled all the serfs, enjoying the fruits of the serfs' labor, but they themselves did not need to do anything.

"Tata~Tata~"

Just as Tarasov was chopping firewood hard, preparing firewood for the winter.

A group of Ming army cavalry came here with a few nobles on tall horses. Their arrival immediately broke the tranquility here and attracted the attention of countless people.

The clothing and appearance of these Ming people are very different from those of the Slavs. They have black eyes and black hair. Look at their clothes.

Uniform military uniforms, uniform helmets and armor, as well as unified muskets, sabers, bows and arrows, this is simply armed to the teeth.

All of them were tall and strong, and the most important thing was that even the horses they rode were very tall. When they came over, Tarasov and the serfs could only look up to these Daming people.

Then look at the nobles around them, all of them are cautious and flattering to please these Ming people, without the slightest air of the nobles in the past.

But soon, when they saw Tarasov and the serfs, they immediately changed their faces and shouted at Tarasov and the serfs.

"All the serfs come here, immediately go and notify all the serfs and call everyone over here."

Krolev looked at the serf village in front of him, looking at the dirty ground, dilapidated houses, and extremely filthy serfs, with disgust and contempt in his eyes.

Hearing Krolev's words, the serfs immediately gathered and began to notify each other. Everyone looked at the Ming people in front of them curiously, and then looked at the nobleman Krolev in fear.

When the surrounding serfs gathered, there were thousands of them. These people were the serfs of the nobleman Grishev. Of course, Grishev didn't know where he died.

His castle has also been cleaned up by the Ming people, women and children were rewarded to the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty as slaves, and all the land was declared to belong to the Ming Empire by the newly established Black Soil Province of the Ming Dynasty, and no longer belonged to the nobles here.

"Is everyone here?"

Ma Ting rode on a tall horse and looked at the dark serfs in front of him. These serfs were really poor, and they were all dirty to death. They had long hair and beards, and their bodies were in tatters. Very dilapidated, basically all wooden houses.

The road is muddy. It can be seen that the land here is very fertile and there is a lot of precipitation, but it also makes the road here really unbearable to look at. There is mud everywhere.

"It's all here, my lord!"

Krolev replied in the Ming dialect that he had just started to learn.

"Hmm~"

Ma Ting nodded in satisfaction, then looked at all the serfs in front of him, took out a tin horn and shouted: "All of you are fine, from now on, this land belongs to the Ming Empire, it is the Black Earth Province of the Ming Empire, And from now on, you are already free, and are no longer serfs or slaves of nobles."

"As long as you are willing to learn the language, characters and customs of our Ming Empire, and change the names and clothing of our Ming people, then you can become citizens of the Son of Ming from now on."

"As the citizens of the Son of Heaven, you will be able to own your own land. To cultivate your own land, you only need to pay one-tenth of the grain to the Son of Heaven every year."

"According to the degree to which you have learned the language, characters and customs of Ming Dynasty, the land you own can gradually range from 10 mu to [-] mu."

"The better your Ming Dynasty speaks, and the more you learn from our Daming people's clothes, etc., the more land you can own."

Ma Ting announced Zhu Houzhao's latest order to all the serfs, and then looked at Krolev, who was aside, and asked him to translate.

The reason why they want to attack the local nobles wantonly while liberating the serfs here is at the same time.

Of course, it is also to stabilize the rule of the Ming Empire over here.

The attack on the nobles is naturally to eliminate the culture and many inheritances of these local people, to eliminate these noble elites, and to add the Ming army to clean up the rebels.

The remaining serfs themselves had no concept of this aspect, as long as they were allowed to own their own land, they would naturally be able to eat enough and support the rule of the Ming Empire.

After all, no one wants to be a serf of the nobles for generations, and cultivate the land for the serfs from generation to generation, but he is just the private property of the nobles like cattle and horses.

The Ming Empire gave them land and freedom, so they should naturally understand that they should support the Ming Empire, otherwise, if these nobles were allowed to rule here again, they would become serfs again.

This is the strategy formulated by the Ming Dynasty, attacking the nobles and wooing these serfs. Anyway, there is plenty of land now, and the people here in the Crimean Khanate are basically gone, and there is fertile black land.

The perennial war itself has caused a large number of deaths here, coupled with the annual looting of the Tatars, it can be said that the land here is sparsely populated, which is very suitable for the development of mechanized agriculture.

Krolev also translated Mating's words with the tin trumpet. Many serfs were dumbfounded when they heard it. They looked at each other in disbelief.

It's hard to believe that I can get freedom and my own land, and after that, I only need to hand over one-tenth of the food to that big son of heaven?
Unbelievable at the same time, they all looked at Krolev eagerly, hoping to get confirmation from him.

Under Ma Ting's order, Krolev had to once again promote the policy of the Ming Dynasty's Black Earth Province. All serfs will be free from now on, but the land still belongs to the Ming court.

If they want to acquire land, they must learn from the Ming people. The first thing to do is to cut off their long hair and shave off their thick and long beards.

Knowing that he could get freedom and land, Tarasov was the first to stand up and express his willingness to shave off his hair and hang up his beard. Expressing my highest respect, other people immediately followed suit when they saw it, and then rushed to tell each other, celebrating wantonly.

They are free and get their own land!

(End of this chapter)