But Gawain did not hesitate at all, but continued, "The entire imperial capital of the empire has a population of 200,000 to 400,000, and officials, craftsmen, and citizens sing slogans praising the emperor in exchange for food rationing, and where does the food come from, and where does the officials' money come from? They were all torn from these miserable peasants, and when their taxes were gone, they took away their clothes, and when they were naked, they bit off their flesh and bones, and the field tax, the ox yoke tax, the bonded tax, the fire tax, the Liufu tax, the customary tax, the surcharge tax, the inheritance tax, yes, maybe the tax is reasonable, but this is just a group of people living in a closed and backward rural commune, and any small disaster and setback can make them miserable and sinking. In the event of famine, drought, pestilence, and flood, they will not be spared a miserable mass death, and many, many rural communes will become extinct, so that the rest of the tax burden will be transferred to other people, who can only flee the famine, or seek the landlord to sell themselves for shelter, and have children, and can only drown continuously, and talk about improving production and innovating technology! So they can only pin all their hopes on the anesthesia of the gospel of churches and monasteries, and when they are dying, they will encounter the priest who comes to make a dying confession, and they will summon up a humble touch, on the filthy thatched couch, take the priest's delicate white hand, and beg that they can donate the last meager piece of land to the temple property after their death, to atone for their sins, and their sin is to be born in such a class and family. ”

Anna was stunned, she touched her forehead and snuggled up to the armrest. Gawain's words were too devastating to her, and Agnes held her shoulders with concern. Then he protested to Gawain, "Having said so much. Why don't you give them money, but here you complain and blame Her Highness and her father. ”

"I didn't blame anyone, I just told the truth about the land, and I didn't have the idea of saving this group of peasants, but I just hoped that in our kingdom from now on, they would be able to farm in peace, and they would be able to raise the dowry of twelve gold coins for their daughters, and they would be able to eat fine bread during the festivals. Drinking absinthe that will make them happy for a few days is not something that can be solved by condescendingly just expelling a few fake coins. After saying this, Gawain paused, and then suggested to the two, "We can continue up the valley of the Mut River to see the estates of the military nobles of Jinat." ”

Now, along the way, Anna stopped laughing. Instead, she looked at the mountains that stretched through the gauze curtain and was silent, obviously in Gao Wen's words just now, she felt the heavy relationship between "power" and "responsibility".

Soon. The castle of Mutt towering over the hill came into view, and by this time the sun had set in the west, in the village on the slope. Many tenant farmers were sweating profusely, under the supervision of the deacon's stewards. Harvesting patches of barley. There were also a few horses, struggling to tow a cart full of barley. Head to the barn down the hill. The weather cools down as the altitude increases and the sunlight slopes, and the once dazzling verdant woods become calm, and the smell of wheat in the wind makes people feel calm.

Several deacons and housekeepers immediately came to the gorgeous little shoulder, knelt down in front of Anna and Gawain, "It turned out that His Excellency General Stratigus and Her Royal Highness the Princess in Purple have arrived, and the fortress mansion where the master is located is still on the mountains more than ten centuries away. ”

Anna looked up, the butler was right, Wangshan ran a dead horse, although under the blue sky, the Fort of Namut was so close to her, but when she walked up, she was afraid that it would be night.

Gawain shook his head, "We're here to make rounds, and we're going to go back to the rest of the territory on the other side of the river. ”

The butler did not seem to be insistent, he only said that Gawain and Anna, like the rest of the great nobles, had come to "Sogon" with a chariot and a caravan, so he hurriedly asked the tenant farmers to form a procession, and brought out all the beer, ice, dried meat, vegetables, fruits, honey, and other products in the storeroom surrounded by mulberry and poplar trees, and listed them in front of the shoulder, so that Gawain's chariot and chariot team could rest and enjoy, and then presented a box full of coins as a tribute, and Gawain did not shirk it, but generously accepted it.

Anna, who was sitting on Xiaozha, eating neat and exquisite food, facing the wind on the shady hillside, looking at the winding Sallev River below, couldn't help but ask Gawain a question, "Great barbarian, you asked me to come to Fort Mut just to make me have questions, right?" ”

"That's right."

"My only question is, how did a Genat nobleman like Callegos acquire so many wheat fields, farmsteads, and woodlands in this valley and mountains?"

"I asked the locals that this was originally a dense area of rural communes, but the taxes on the fields were too heavy, so many peasants left the commune and went to a distant place to open up new wasteland that could be exempted from taxes, and then abandoned the original land, but the empire still pursued additional taxes on this field, and it was stacked year after year, and finally reached a terrible amount, at least for a certain farmer, that they could not afford to pay for a lifetime." Gawain looked at the barley fields and the tenant farmers who were toiling in them, and spoke slowly.

"I remember that the land laws of the empire used to stipulate that once the land could not pay the additional tax, and there was no neighbor to help it insure, the tax would be in arrears for thirty years."

"That's right, then the empire has the right to confiscate this field to the state. But since the peasants don't want this land, what can the state do if they want this wasteland? The only feasible thing for the emperor and officials was to sell these lands to those who could afford them in exchange for a sum of hot money. ”

"Are these capable people Jinat?"

"That's right, they are like that, they have annexed more and more of the commune's land, and the same is true of the Komnenos in Castamonou, whose power has grown, and the more and more landless peasants who have attached themselves to their estates, have tried every means to avoid their responsibilities to the empire, and have tried to stand on their own feet forever, and this group of people has dismembered the country - in other words, the peasant army, which originally owned the land and served the country, was gradually replaced by the Jinat nobles who possessed the land but only cared about the public welfare." Gawain exhaled, and then shouted to the farmer who stood far away under the poplar tree, ostensibly serving but actually monitoring them, "Your Royal Highness Princess Purple, I want to see the farming tools used by your tenant farmers!" ”

The butler didn't dare to slack off, but Anna hadn't reacted yet, holding the white bread in her mouth, and looked at Gawain with a serious face without speaking.

After a while, plows, harrows, hoes, mowers, and even harnesses for cattle were lined up in front of Anna.

But Gawain didn't answer her directly, but turned to Agnes, "Hey, little sunfish, did your family estate on the island of Lespos use these utensils as well?" ”

"Of course." Agnes was very angry, but she was afraid of Gawain.

"How backward, this is the sin of the Jinat estate." Gawain's next words made Agnes angry, but she was helpless. (To be continued.) )