Serfs and Freemen

Gawain stood on the stone, taking a deep breath as he looked down at the numb and cowering faces below.

The populace was not foolish, but that did not mean they were not ignorant.

Foolishness was to make judgments with prejudice and disdain, while ignorance—it was merely stating facts.

The commoners and serfs of this era were ignorant. The social structure dictated that they had almost no channels to acquire knowledge and broaden their horizons. The heavy cost of living also left them with no energy to focus on anything other than survival. Living like this for a long time made them appear unthinking, creating the illusion of "foolishness." But in reality, they could think; it was just that ignorance made it difficult for them to understand things too far removed from their lives.

Therefore, one could not speak to them of grand, empty concepts. One could not talk to them about ideals, about the future, about the outlook of the territory and the logical relationship of production development. Once these things were said, they would immediately categorize these concepts, which sounded "high and mighty," as belonging to "the lord" and draw a clear line between themselves and it. Thus, the best approach was to speak to them about things related to their lives.

"People of Cecil Territory," Gawain said loudly, "you all should know who I am—therefore, you should also know that I am the one with the most authority in this territory. My words can represent the laws of Cecil, and these laws will provide you with protection, and they are also what you must obey.

"We are opening up new territories, which requires some new rules. Therefore, I am here to announce three things:

"First, since the old territory has been destroyed and all past wealth has been reset to zero, I, in the name of the ancestors of the Cecil Family, announce that all debts related to the lord within the territory are null and void—regardless of whether the debtor is a freeman or a serf, from today onwards, they will no longer bear any debt to the lord.

The crowd below stirred slightly, but the commotion was not obvious. Although commoners and serfs in this era all owed debts to their lords to varying degrees, with the territory being rebuilt from scratch, everyone had lost the ability to repay them. Due to the past benevolence of Lord Rebecca, they had already guessed that the debts would be forgiven.

Gawain continued, "Second, all serfs in the territory have the opportunity to become freemen. The lord will issue a series of tasks, such as building houses, constructing roads, excavating mines, and joining the army. All these tasks will have corresponding scoring methods. As long as the work is completed strictly according to the requirements, contributions can be accumulated, and upon reaching the standard, serfs can become freemen. As for those who are already freemen, they will receive corresponding remuneration after completing these tasks. I will announce the specific method for calculating remuneration soon. I can assure you that any diligent and reliable serf can become a freeman by working hard for two to three years, and a freeman can obtain their own house by working diligently for five to six years!"

This time, the commotion below turned into unrestrained discussion.

Serfs becoming freemen—this in itself was a rather unconventional thing in this era. Although the kingdom's laws in Ansu did not strictly prohibit serfs from becoming freemen, and the territorial laws of nobles in various regions did not have explicit regulations on this matter, in reality, almost no noble would casually grant freedom to their serfs. To them, serfs meant cheap labor, meaning they could squeeze the last drop of blood from them without any burden. Those nobles who only knew to constantly increase taxes and working hours to amass wealth could not fathom any benefit from granting their serfs freedom.

Rebecca's proposal to allow serfs to gain freedom through military service had also caused a stir at the time, but Gawain had clearly taken a huge step further this time.

As for participating in work for remuneration, and even obtaining a house... many commoners who were already free found it almost unbelievable.

Working for the lord and getting paid? Who would believe that!

Gawain did not give them time to discuss further but continued with the third point:

"Third, the tents and fences to be erected today, as well as the drainage ditches in the camp, are the first tasks the lord has given you under the new laws. I have already had someone record the scope of responsibility for each of you. Only those who complete the work strictly according to my requirements will be considered to have finished the job. Additionally, as an incentive for diligent work, the first ten people to complete the work can eat meat."

After saying this, Gawain jumped off the stone without regard for the reaction below and returned to where Heti and Rebecca were.

The assembled commoners and serfs, after a moment of stunned silence, suddenly rushed towards the seemingly completed camp, shouting—they were going to re-secure the loose ropes and nails, and drive the fences deeper into the ground!

To them, the things Gawain mentioned about calculating contributions and scoring standards were still too profound. Moreover, they didn't quite believe that the soldiers and knights overseeing the work would diligently help them calculate their workload. But there was one thing they understood: there would be meat to eat tonight!

Only those who finished the work early, and finished it diligently, would get to eat meat!

Just as Gawain had thought—it was only when it concerned their immediate interests that people would be motivated to their greatest extent.

Watching the commoners and serfs rush away in a swarm, Heti felt a bit dazed. It wasn't until Gawain stood before her that she reacted, asking with a hint of disbelief, "Ancestor... are what you just said all true?"

Gawain looked at her with a half-smile, "Which part specifically?"

"...The part about serfs becoming freemen through work," Heti said, frowning. "Of course, I don't object to this, because Rebecca previously issued a decree allowing serfs to be promoted through military service. But you're saying that even things like building houses and repairing roads can be considered contributions, and that one can become a freeman in just two or three years... is that true?"

"Of course, it's true," Gawain said, looking at her. "Do you find anything wrong with it?"

"If it's that easy to become a freeman, then I'm afraid it won't be long before all the serfs in the territory are commoners," Heti said, completely bewildered. "The children of commoners are also commoners. Will Cecil Territory become a place without serfs in the future?"

Gawain continued to look at her, his smile unchanged. "Is there anything wrong with having no serfs?"

From her ingrained class-based thinking habits and worldview, Heti instinctively felt something was wrong. But from her knowledge and thoughts, which far surpassed those of nobles of her era, she also felt that even without serfs, it didn't seem wrong. Thus, she fell into a contradiction.

Rebecca, however, after thinking for a moment with a frown, said, "Actually, I think... the serf system is no longer that necessary today. It wouldn't be bad if they were gone."

Gawain looked at his descendant, who was usually so stubborn, with some surprise and nodded. "Continue."

"Serfs are labor. The purpose of labor is to provide work. But if allowing them to become freemen can yield more labor, then why must the concept of 'serf' be retained?" Rebecca scratched her head. "My father told me back then that the main reason for not allowing serfs to gain freedom was that once they were free and had no whip to drive them, they would immediately become lazy and stop working. But I don't think the whip is necessarily the best..."

Gawain looked at her approvingly. Encouraged by her ancestor for the first time, Rebecca's courage grew, and she spoke fluently, "And I've also noticed that if you ask one serf to do a job, they'll always find a way to slack off. But if you ask two serfs to do the same job and tell them that whoever finishes first gets an extra loaf of bread, they can instantly complete the work of three or four people—the value far exceeds that loaf of bread... So at that time, I was thinking, it's not necessarily the whip that prevents them from being lazy; perhaps other methods would be better."

"This is already a very good enlightenment," Gawain couldn't help but laugh. This was a very simple and understandable matter, but almost no one in this era paid attention to it. In fact, nobles would never observe how the serfs or even commoners under their rule worked, nor did they have the concept of statistical work efficiency. Whipping and supervising with soldiers were the ultimate manifestations of their ruling techniques. Rebecca's...

It could only be said that this impoverished, country viscountess was usually very idle.

It was thanks to her idleness that she could think of these things.

However, she could only think of these superficial matters based on her own observations. In reality, Gawain knew very well that the emergence and abolition of slavery were not just a matter of "whips and bread." The deeper reasons were whether productivity was sufficient and whether society had truly reached the point where change was needed.

Through his observations during this period, he believed that at least within his sight, the serf system no longer matched the productivity of this world. A large population was piled into repetitive and inefficient low-end jobs, relying on sheer numbers to produce various materials with the lowest efficiency to support the upper society, and these people had no channels for upward mobility. While the upper class who mastered magic had entered a stage of watching fireworks and listening to music in castles, and using daylight (magic crystals) for lighting, the commoners below lived no better than primitive people. The entire society was almost distorted.

On Earth, earth-shattering changes had long occurred by this time, but here, the existence of supernatural power had prevented this process.

Because a hundred commoners with pitchforks could not defeat even a low-level mage or knight, even if they were fearless and their numbers doubled, it would still be impossible.

Perhaps this world would eventually break this deadlock as it continued to develop, but Gawain was not willing to wait. He had to change all of this in advance and begin his grand development plan.

Because he had a feeling—the Magic Tide was likely coming.

Even the Gondor Empire in its prime could not withstand the Magic Tide. Now, the continental countries, which had regressed to a medieval state of ignorance in all aspects, would they face it head-on?

And even setting aside the issue of the Magic Tide, Gawain had other concerns.

The "eyes" in the sky whose origins were unknown.

A backward medieval world could not escape gravity. With its neck choked by gravity, it didn't even have the right to look up at the sky, let alone study the secrets among the stars.