The emperor also wondered why Hong Tao had such a naïve idea, that when a girl from a European peasant family was fourteen or fifteen years old, she would go to work as a maid in a neighbor's house, with few exceptions. We will see in the movies that some peasants have a maid who is not wealthy, and that is not hired, but exchanged. The girls of their own family go out to work as maids in other people's houses, and the girls of other people's families come to their own houses as maids. This habit Hong Tao thinks is very good, so that children know that the hardships of life are a good thing since they were young, and if they are well educated in their own homes, they can't afford to go out and be called by others.

What was the life of an ordinary European tenant farmer like? At this time, the harvest rate of land in Europe is almost 600 kilograms of flour per hectare, and the way they calculate the harvest is sowing and harvesting ratio, what is the equivalent of 600 kilograms of flour? That's about seven times the weight of the seeded seeds. Of course, this is an approximate average, depending on the quality of the land and the weather conditions.

Half of the 600 kilograms of flour had to be used to pay the lord's rent, the church's tithes, and the market for some change to buy the necessities of life. The remaining half is the family's ration, 300 kilograms of flour is enough for a family of four to eat for a year, because not only bread, but also to go to the lord's woods to collect beech, chestnuts, acorns and the like, and to plant some legumes in the field when growing wheat, which is the by-food of European farmers.

About 600 grams of flour, plus some peas, soybeans, and beans is the staple food of an average tenant farmer for a day, as well as about a liter of wine or cider. Viticulture was very common in rural Europe in the Middle Ages, and it was planted wherever it could be planted in front of the house and behind the house. After harvesting, it is given to the winemaker in the caiyi to make wine. These grape and fruit tree lords were not taxed.

Here's one thing to keep an eye out for. It is okay to go to the lord's woods to gather fruit, but you can't cut down trees and hunt animals. The woods are all privately owned, and some of the larger ones are guarded by forest rangers, a profession that dates back to the early Middle Ages. Hong Tao seems to understand why there are so many people in Europe, but in later generations, the environment is better than China's, and there are ancient forests in many places, even on the edge of cities. The reason is in this privatization, and it has become its own, which must be watching with all its might. Who cuts and who plays with life. In addition, there is a law to support it, so it can be preserved, otherwise it will still be cut down and killed.

The relationship between the lord and the tenant farmer is similar to that between the landlord and the tenant farmer in ancient China, but the European lord has one more function than the Chinese landlord, and he also represents a government and has the right to enforce the law. In each of the estates there were courts, which were jurors by the priests, bookkeepers, and residents of the more reputable towns. Generally, small matters are resolved through negotiation among the elders of the family, and major matters will be litigated, because there is also a fee for lawsuits.

One more point. The relationship between the lord and the tenant farmer was not that of a slave owner and a slave, and the tenant farmer only had to pay the rent on time. The lord has no right to interfere in his daily life. There is a description of the right to the first night in "Braveheart", saying that the lord ordered every girl in his realm to get married, and he had to sleep the first night. This surprised Friedrich II, who, despite his erudition, had never heard of a lord giving such a decree, nor could any lord issue such a decree, which would have caused the nearby lords to wake up laughing from their sleep. Why? Because in this way, the tenant farmers will run to other lords' territory to become tenant farmers, and no one can limit this thing. In the Middle Ages, there was a shortage of labor, large areas of wasteland were uncultivated, and you drove your own tenant farmers to other people's homes, isn't it foolish!

In addition to administering their own domains, collecting taxes from tenant farmers and then paying taxes to kings, emperors, and churches, lords also had obligations. What obligation? It is to ensure the safety of the people in their own realm. It was a kind of contractual contract in which the tenant farmer paid taxes to the lord, and the lord used force to protect the life and property of the tenant farmer, assuming obligations and enjoying rights to each other. The freedmen did not enjoy this treatment, they did not pay taxes to the lord, so in the event of war, the tenant farmers could take refuge in the lord's castle, but the freedmen and outcasts could not, because they did not have a contract with the lord. This is also the reason why many freemen voluntarily became tenant farmers in the war-torn Middle Ages.

There is another misunderstanding, that is, about the issue of conscription for war. Hong Tao always thought that when Europe was fighting, it was the lord and a few knights who led a group of peasants to fight with straw forks, but this was not the case. Just look at the soldiers of Emperor Friedrich II, medieval Europe did not say that whoever wanted to be a soldier could become a soldier, being a soldier was an honor, and only knights and their vassals were qualified to go to war and get booty and fiefs. In other words, the wars in medieval Europe were fought between professional soldiers and professional soldiers, and there was basically no such thing as Christians killing their own people, which would be severely punished by the church, and it would not be honorable to spread it. This is a matter of customs, they think that only the professional soldiers who kill the opponent will be counted, and killing ordinary people is equivalent to killing trumpets in the game, which is very dishonorable.

This method of fighting a war has an advantage, that is, it can control the war within a certain range, and fighting a war does not affect production and life too much. The knights are fighting in the wild, and the common people should farm and farm, and they can watch a lively scene when they take time, and no one will delay anyone. Moreover, such a war is only to solve the contradictions between the lords, and does not involve the people below, and if this lord is defeated, the victor will definitely not kill those tenant farmers, because there must be people to cultivate the land in the places he occupies. Those tenant farmers will not hate the winners, and who will plant the land is not planting, but only to change a contract, maybe the conditions will be better. It is similar to the competition between companies in later generations, and it has nothing to do with the company's employees, they should change jobs, they should be retained, and many cultures and habits in Europe and the United States can be seen in the Middle Ages.

Of course, the Europeans were not so tolerant when it came to foreigners, and the Crusades did not slaughter cities once or twice, and even the Byzantine capital Constantinople was bloodied by them. It can also be seen from this that the core of their culture is that they can be tolerant of Christians, but they must be more ruthless with outsiders.

"I think we've arrived at the place, Your Majesty will come up with me to have a look, see how I won this war, and we can continue to talk about the rest of the issues when we go back." Seven days later, when the alarm bell of the Golden River finally sounded, Karl impatiently walked in to ask if he should attack directly, and he was very dissatisfied with the performance of Hong Tao and his cousin the emperor. This place is here to fight, the whole is for tourism, huddled in the cabin for several days without seeing anyone.

"The Lombards are basically here, there are at least six city flags on the city walls, and three mercenaries, I'm afraid there are more people than we expected......" When Friedrich II walked out of the captain's room, he immediately became the emperor with a serious expression and a smiling face, and he also fastened a large crown with a cross on his head. This is probably his fifth character, the face of a king.

"It makes no difference to me whether there is more than 1,000 or 1,000 less, in fact, I was worried that they would use ships to block them outside the port, but I didn't expect them to give up the right to control the sea. Your Majesty, soon you will see what a foolish thing it is to lose sea supremacy. Carl, it's better for me to come, this is related to your cousin's life, I don't feel at ease on the Yellow Cliff side, you used to be the captain of the ship, let him be the first mate for you. Hong Tao held the binoculars and looked at it for a long time, and he didn't know a single flag, let alone who was who. None of this matters, in front of the big iron ball, the Pope and the tenant farmer are a treat, and you will not be treated at all because of your noble status.

"Send a signal to the Malacca, let it enter the port, and don't open the cannon without my order!" After Karl's skiff approached the Malacca, Hong Tao regained his position at the helmsman and began to give instructions to the navigator and second officer.

The Malacca led the way, and the Jinhe followed five hundred meters apart, and the two ships slowly sailed into the port of Rena, one after the other. Gena and Venice are known as the pearls of the Mediterranean, and their ports are less than half the size of Guangzhou, and the cities are smaller, and you can see the other side from the city wall at a glance. According to Hong Tao's estimates, the population is only one or two thousand, which cannot be said to be a big city in Europe, but it is not small.

Because the church and the emperor were very strict about the construction of cities, and if you want to build a city, you must have a building charter, so in medieval Europe, there were not many cities. It is difficult to build a city because once a city becomes a city, it no longer pays land taxes to the king. This is the fundamental reason why the Lombards were not happy to have the emperor rule them, and they were afraid that the integration of the empire would affect their commercial development, so they went back to farming. This should be regarded as the category of class contradictions, which is the irreconcilable contradiction between the emerging merchant class and the traditional feudal lords.

Sometimes Hong Tao remembered that he was also a little contradictory about what he had done, and he himself advocated the active development of commerce, and it was supposed that he should firmly stand on the side of the Lombards and Venetians, against Friedrich II, who represented backwardness. But now he has done the opposite of his original intention, and has become an accomplice of the feudal monarch and has begun to suppress the merchant group.

If there is really a reason, it is not because of Carl's relationship, he has not had the same face to let himself go back on his word and go against his wishes. The main culprit was the Pope, and if the Lombards and Venetians did not mingle with the Pope, Hong Tao promised not to side with Friedrich II. Compared with the emperor, a feudal lord, Hong Tao felt that the pope was even more difficult to cooperate with, because he was not a Christian. This contradiction is worse than the class contradiction, and in the words of the ancient Chinese, the lesser of two evils should be compared!

(To be continued.) )

PS: JohnnyWang Alliance Leader Floating Red Plus Two! Thank you to him for your well-being! Next door Lao Wang onboard!