I'm not a lord

Chapter 24 The Blessings of Serfs

Lin En did not stop, he started to patrol the territory again without stopping.

The entourage this time included the second brother and several bandit brothers, plus Lao Ai's son, Little Albert.

Old Albert did not go along this time; supervising the construction of heavy plows in White Bear Town was enough to keep him busy.

Although Lao Ai vowed that both the composting and heavy plowing tasks were progressing in an orderly manner, the production of compost was even nearing completion and could definitely cover the public land belonging to the lord.

But Lin En still needed to go to the territory to take a look in person.

Who knows if the managers and village heads below are slacking off?

All of Lynn's plans are based on sufficient food supply.

Due to the lack of food, he could not gather people to build roads and open mines, nor could he accommodate more influx of people.

Without sufficient funds and population, there is naturally no way to expand the army.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, and he must ensure the success of this spring plowing.

After leaving the castle, Lynn patrolled south along the paved road.

Manor No. 1, directly governed by the lord, occupies more than half of the arable land and population in the territory.

There are more than a dozen small villages scattered within the huge Manor No. 1.

Lynn's first stop was a serf village south of the castle, home to about two hundred people.

Before entering the village, he did not send anyone to notify in advance, but instead made a surprise inspection, which scared the village head.

Fortunately, the examination results made Lynn quite satisfied.

After ten days, all the feces in the entire village had been turned into compost, and even the mysterious village dirt road had been scraped off a layer.

The price was that the serfs in the village were forced to work overtime for ten days, from dawn to dusk.

Looking at the dense piles of compost that looked like graves beside the fields, Lin En couldn't help but sigh: Serfdom is not completely without its merits.

Although production efficiency was low, this strong grassroots mobilization capability was indeed a major advantage of serfdom.

The biggest feature of serfdom is the personal dependence between serfs and lords.

In principle, serfs were the private property of the lord.

Without the lord's permission, they could not leave their village at will.

During the busy farming season, they had to work for the lord at least three days a week in exchange for the right to use the land.

During the slack season, they had to obey the arrangements of the lord and undertake various heavy corvee labor.

Not only that, the birth, aging, sickness, death, marriage and funerals of the serfs were also closely related to the lords.

Taxes had to be paid to the lord to register a child, to allow a child to inherit land, to obtain the lord's consent before the child could marry, and even the lord's approval was required for burial after death.

The so-called "right of first night" is actually a distorted marriage tax. If this tax is not paid, the lord has the right to terminate the marriage.

In fact, any lord with a little taste would be unlikely to be interested in a peasant girl who worked in the fields all day long.

It is precisely because of this personal dependence that Lin En only needs to give an order and the farmers in the entire territory will collect the smelly feces.

The defect of serfdom is also very obvious, that is, low production efficiency.

Even in the White Bear Territory where the serfs were relatively well-behaved, the baron still needed to set up a complete set of management agencies to supervise the serfs' work.

Human laziness is engraved in our bones.

Especially asking a person to do something that has almost nothing to do with his personal interests.

Serfs worked the public fields for their lords, receiving no benefits other than a simple lunch. They also had to devote at least three days a week to the work, even having to bring their own farm tools and draft horses. Under such circumstances, one can imagine how inefficient their work was.

The reason why the village that Lin En is currently inspecting was able to collect all the feces within ten days is mainly due to the strict supervision of the manager and the village heads.

"Master, during the week you were away from the territory, I went to this village every day. These serfs are stupid, lazy, and greedy. If I don't whip them, they will never obey orders."

Little Albert was eager to show off his work in front of Lynn, and even asked a male serf to take off his shirt on the spot, revealing the dark red whip marks on his back.

It was an almost impossible task to explain to all the serfs the necessity of making compost.

The whip is the best teacher than words.

After one whip, he will have to understand even if he doesn't understand.

Besides, ordinary flogging would not cause serfs to abandon their property and run away.

A few beatings won’t kill you, but heavy taxes are the invisible killing weapon.

In Little Albert's opinion, the taxes in White Bear Territory were already light enough, at least lighter than those in the neighboring Shoal Territory.

Apart from cultivating the public land, the serfs hardly had to pay any additional taxes, and they could even save some extra money every year.

Being able to exchange such superior living conditions for a few beatings is an absolute blessing.

Lynn did not comment on little Albert's work results, but continued to patrol south.

The conditions in the next two villages we inspected were similar. All the feces found in the villages were collected and made into compost.

Lin En also specially checked the quality of the compost. The compost piles were very well sealed and generated obvious heat.

In addition, heavy plows have gradually been promoted in the White Bear Territory, and he has seen heavy plows in the homes of several serfs.

At noon, Lin En's patrol team took a short rest at a house in a village.

He specifically called little Albert to his side and praised him: "Well done, you are as good as your father."

"Master, these are all my responsibilities. It is my honor to serve you."

Little Albert was ecstatic in his heart, but he managed to keep a straight face, perfectly inheriting the style of his father, Old Albert.

As the son of the current territory chief, Xiao Ai's biggest dream is to inherit his father's position and continue the family's influence in the White Bear Territory.

Lin En admires this father and son who are cut from the same cloth very much and will continue to employ them in the future.

We cannot evaluate people beyond their time.

In the feudal manor, Albert and his son are already considered very outstanding grassroots management talents. The "Lord" panel also gave them a rating of two stars and one star respectively.

With their help, Lynn could save himself a lot of trouble.

Seeing that little Albert had received praise from the lord, the village head present was very envious and jealous. He hurriedly served the carefully prepared lunch:
"Master, please try the roast leg of lamb and pea porridge made by my wife. She is the best cook in the village."

In order to please the master, the head of the village slaughtered the fattest sheep in his family, took out the dried peas stored last autumn, and even added two spoonfuls of expensive wheat flour to the porridge.

Just as Lin En picked up the spoon to warm his stomach with porridge, Lao Ai's hurried voice suddenly came from outside the door.

"Master, master! Are you in there?"

"I'm here, what's wrong?"

"Master, it's bad! A monster has appeared in the west of the territory!"

Thanks to Earl Amethyst for the 1000 points of reward support!

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(End of this chapter)