I'm not a lord

Chapter 37 Spring Plowing Begins

On April 1st, the warm sunshine spread early on every inch of land in White Bear Territory.

The cold wind still blows, but it brings with it a hint of warmth, announcing the arrival of spring.

Lynn stood on the castle's watchtower, overlooking the entire White Bear Territory.

The snow in the fields has completely melted, revealing large areas of wet, dark soil.

The serfs had already gathered beside the public fields outside their respective villages. They took off their heavy cashmere coats and put on light linen clothes, their faces full of tension and anticipation for the new year's harvest.

Old Albert rode a skinny horse to the foot of the watchtower and raised his head and said, "Master, please give the order!"

Although he got up early at three in the morning, Lao Ai still looked energetic.

Farming is the most important thing for White Bear, as it affects the harvest for the whole year, so he has no choice but to pay attention to it.

"Well, let's get started."

Lin En saw the heavy plows placed next to the serfs, and the compost piles beside the fields. The seed selection technology had long been spread throughout the territory.

This year is destined to be a year of harvest.

Following Lin En's order, the entire White Bear Territory became restless.

Without the need for the village heads to whip them, the serfs spontaneously drove the heavy plows and began to plow the fields.

In a village next to the castle, more than a dozen heavy plows, pulled by strong draft horses, were lined up in neat rows, plowing straight, dark furrows in a nearly 500-meter-long field. The scene was spectacular.

The plowshares of the two-wheeled heavy plows are made of pure iron, hard and sharp. Like a hot knife cutting a cake, they cut through the wet and heavy land that has not seen the light of day for thousands of years, bringing out the rich nutrients hidden deep in the soil, and cutting off stubborn grass roots at the same time.

The plow wall follows the plow blade, further breaking up the turned-up soil and causing the soil to turn and accumulate in the same direction.

There is also an iron-clad side plate installed on the side of the heavy plow, which can apply weight to ensure that the heavy plow moves in a straight line and keeps the plowed furrows neat.

According to the old rules of the White Bear Territory, in the next week, the serfs must first cultivate the lord's public fields.

Only after they had cultivated the 18,000 mu of public land allocated to them could they go back to take care of their own land.

Therefore, the serfs' enthusiasm for work was very high.

In pursuit of efficiency, the whole family would work together to cultivate the public land.

Adult male serfs were responsible for driving the horse-drawn heavy plows, while children aged thirteen or fourteen followed behind, wielding hoes to break up the large, thick clumps of soil that had been plowed out. Even younger children were responsible for picking up tree roots and stones from the soil.

As for those pregnant female serfs, most of them stayed at home and were responsible for cleaning the house, planting vegetables, taking care of livestock, preparing dinner, etc.

In Lin En's view, although serfdom still has the word "slave" in its name, it is countless times more advanced than slavery.

After all, serfs had their own private property, namely their allotments of land.

Under the temptation of this piece of fat meat, they willingly worked for the lord and cultivated public fields of the same area as their share of land.

Putting aside other exorbitant taxes, the public land alone was equivalent to the lord levying a 50% income tax on the serfs.

It's just that this tax is paid with labor.

Lin En had considered distributing all the lord's land to the serfs and then collecting taxes based on the area of ​​land they owned.

This will further stimulate the serfs' enthusiasm for production and land reclamation, and increase the grain production of the entire White Bear Territory.

After all, as long as you pay enough taxes, the rest is all yours, so isn’t that very positive?
But it is obviously not realistic at the moment.

First, the White Bear Territory has been using serfdom for more than a hundred years, and the ancestors of these serfs are mostly serfs from the southern border.

Serfs, stewards, village heads, and other middle and lower-level managers were all familiar with the existence of serfdom. To them, serfdom was as natural as breathing.

If this system is abolished rashly, it will cause panic in the territory and reduce the grain production of the entire territory in a short period of time.

The second is how to collect taxes.

The stewards and village heads were actually equivalent to the lord's tax collectors, supervising the serfs to pay taxes through their labor.

This method of collecting taxes is not difficult. All you need to do is know how to farm and wield a whip.

But if the land is distributed and the taxes are converted into rent in kind or money, then the quality of these tax collectors will be far from enough.

Their literacy rate is too low, and those who can do simple addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, writing and accounting are even rarer.

Lin En first had to train a group of capable officials before he could consider abolishing serfdom.

In other words, he has to develop education first.

At this time, the sixth brother, led by the second brother, climbed up the watchtower: "Brother, you are looking for me."

Lin En turned around and patted his slightly thin shoulder: "Sixth Brother, how long have you been in this gang?"

Lao Liu still had a bit of immaturity on his face. He thought for a moment and replied, "It should be almost a year."

Lin En smiled and said, "You joined last May. I still remember that you were the one begging to join us. You were a monastery student with a bright future. Why did you have to become a bandit?"

"I just think the iron masks on your faces are cool, and being a bandit is so free. You can rob whoever you want and kill whoever you want. Besides, my father had already passed away. Even if I didn't become a bandit, I couldn't stay in the monastery."

Lao Liu has always been honest with Lin En.

To put it bluntly, he wanted to join the gang because he had nowhere else to go and could only hope that the bandits would take him in.

At this time, knowledge was monopolized by the nobility and the church.

Noble education is only for nobility. If common people want to acquire knowledge, they can only spend a lot of money to attend church schools.

Lao Liu's father is a businessman and can support his studies.

His annual tuition was as high as two gold coins, which could buy him 1500 kilograms of rye in White Bear Territory, enough to feed two serf families.

Miscellaneous expenses such as textbooks, stationery, accommodation, etc. are also expensive and may even be higher than tuition fees.

In the bookstores of Three Rivers, a handwritten parchment textbook would never cost less than a gold coin.

In the monastery school, the sixth child studied hard and his grades were always among the best.

If nothing unexpected happens, he will graduate with excellent grades and have a great chance of continuing his studies at a church university in a big city.

If he could successfully complete his university studies, he would become a noble clergyman with a bright future, and the fate of his entire family would be rewritten.

But before he could get his diploma, his father and brother died of illness one after another. Having lost his source of income, he was about to be kicked out of the monastery.

It happened that at this time Lynn and others looted the monastery, so he joined them and became a glorious horse bandit.

Lin En asked with a smile: "How do you feel now? Do you regret it?"

"Honestly, it's really awesome. Not only am I a bandit who roams the northern borders, but I can also experience the life of a nobleman with you, big brother. It's much more comfortable than being in school!"

"Really? Then what do you think if I want you to go back to school?"

(End of this chapter)