Gawain's sudden question made Norris a little stunned for a moment, he was ready to be reprimanded, but he didn't expect that he was facing such a question - should he answer yes or no at this time? Which one is against the law?

After thinking about it for a long time, the old farmer still decided to admit it honestly, because he knew that there was more than one person who could read and write, and once the lord went to someone else to ask the truth, then he was really going to break the law.

"Yes...... "Sir," Norris said, grasping the button on his chest with his hand, nervously, "I have learned...... Read and write. ”

Gawain raised his eyebrows, and said that his judgment was indeed correct.

Although Norris didn't write a word just now, just sketching, he could tell a lot of questions just from the posture of the other party when he picked up the pen holder: people who could read and write felt completely different when holding a pen, and in this world of nearly universal illiteracy, he had already seen how those who could not read and how they grabbed the pen and drew lines on the paper in an awkward way, and the farmer's pen holding posture in front of him was obviously very standard.

Even Hetty looked at Norris with some surprise, as if she had just discovered this fact.

"Don't worry, it's not against the law to be able to write, and it's not against the law to teach others to read and write," Gao Wen realized that his sudden question might have frightened the honest peasant, so he calmed down, "Who taught you to read and write?" ”

After receiving the lord's promise, Norris was a little more relieved, he rubbed his hands, and showed a slightly embarrassed smile: "Lord Lord, I'm not afraid of your jokes when I say it...... I was almost on the verge of entering the church and becoming a priest serving the goddess of the harvest, and I learned all the skills of reading and writing from a teacher at that time......"

A farmer's son almost entered the church and became a priest?

Gawain was intrigued by such a wonderful experience, and under his questioning, the story of Norris the farmer was finally known.

The other party was indeed born in a peasant family, a freeman who had lived in Cecil for generations, and although his family had a few acres of thin fields, like most commoners in this era, he lived on the subsistence line. He would have been tied to the land for the rest of his life, like most commoners, busy between seedlings and ditches, and the only way he could deal with the high priests and churches was to pray at the town church every once in a while, or to receive a mission when the pastors came to the countryside fields—but at the age of eight, an opportunity came to Norris and his parents.

A priest of the goddess of the harvest from the plains of the Holy Spirit, who had traveled and preached, came to Cecil and stayed in the village where Norris lived, and it was very rare and fortunate for the peasants to pass by the priest of the three gods of abundance, so everyone in the village immediately pooled the money, and according to the rules of the three gods of abundance, the village elders and several children went to the priest to "give gifts" to the priest, so that the priest could bless the village farmland.

Then the priest looked at the eight-year-old Norris and said, "Blessed is this boy with the land, and he bears the blessings of the goddess of the harvest." ”

Because of this sentence, after the priest left, Norris's parents sold almost all the valuable belongings in the family, and the old people in the village also managed to scrape together some money, and they went together to ask the knight lord in the manor, and asked for a pass, so that Norris was finally sent to the Mother Earth God Church in Tanzania Town, and made him a "slave apprentice" - although the three gods of fertility are three sects with independent inheritances, they also have a very close connection, and the mother earth god is the main god of the three gods of abundance, Her shrine is also usually dedicated to both the Goddess of Harvest and the Goddess of Spring, and the priest candidates of the three goddesses usually receive the same education before receiving the official blessing, and after completing their education, they choose which deity to convert to according to their "spiritual talents", so in the absence of a nearby Harvest Goddess church, sending Norris to the temple of Mother Earth Goddess was the only option for his parents at that time.

Norris studied in the temple for five years, after which he received the results of the recognition from the higher church:

"This apprentice doesn't have the spiritual gifts of the Rich Divine System."

To this day, Norris remembers how the village was jubilant at first when the letter was delivered to the village, because they were illiterate, and the messenger was so drunk that he didn't tell the villagers or Norris's parents what was written in the letter.

It wasn't until Norris returned to the village with his bedding that everyone knew that the letter was not good news from the church.

Norris told his story quietly, his wrinkled face showing no joy or sorrow, and only a calm in his sunken eye sockets, as if those things were indeed gone and had nothing to do with him: "In the years that followed, life was very difficult, we had not paid the debts we owed, and the house had long been empty—my father had not survived the winter of that year, but he still had to live, and the money owed to everyone had to be repaid.

"So my mother took me and my brothers and sisters to the castle of the Viscount, oh, at that time the Viscount Cecil was still Miss Rebecca's father, and we went to kowtow to the Viscount, saying that life could not go on, and the Viscount was merciful, so he exempted us from the field tax we had to pay, and lent us seeds and half a bag of grain, and we survived by those seeds and grains, and the wild vegetables that grew exceptionally well that year.

"Then, I planted the land in a down-to-earth manner, and helped people do chores, I did the work of two or three people by myself, and I could read and write, and when a merchant came from the village, I would help everyone calculate the catties and taels, so that I could exchange a few loaves of bread. In a few years, we will still be in debt, and we will also be in arrears with the Viscount's grain and grain ......"

Norris slowly raised his head, with pride on his face: "The year my mother died, our whole family ate a meal of meat. ”

The story of Farmer Norris is over, Gawain just frowned, and Hetty couldn't help but press his chest: "I...... I never knew anything like this was happening in my territory...... We have always tried our best to give alms......"

"Charity can't save anyone, because it doesn't solve the problem, and it happens every day, and you can't see it in the castle," Gawain shook his head, then looked at Norris curiously, "I just noticed your gesture...... Do you still believe in the goddess of harvest? ”

"Believe, why don't you believe it?" The wrinkles on Norris's face stacked, "The goddess of harvest protects all the fields in the world, whether the harvest is good or not is the life and death of the family, who does not believe in the goddess of harvest?" ”

Gao Wen looked at the other party quietly: "Even if you have suffered so much because of this faith?" ”

Norris was silent for a moment and lowered his head: "Master, it's my bad life, how can I blame the gods?" And at least I learned something more than anyone else, and I knew how to read, even though it wasn't of much use to those of us. ”

"It's not useless to read and write," Gawain looked at the farmer solemnly, "Norris, you should be good at farming, right?" ”

Speaking of this, Norriston became even more proud: "Master, I dare not say anything else if you ask, but when it comes to farming, my craftsmanship is excellent—otherwise how could I survive such a difficult day?" ”

Gawain asked, "You can read and count, and you've been educated by the church, so I asked Hetty to read out the new rules to you, and the form I designed to keep track of your workload, you should be easy to understand, right?" If you were asked to fill out forms and calculate land and yield, would you be able to do it? ”

This time, Norris nodded first, and then asked hesitantly, "Master, do you want me to be a ...... Overseer? ”

During this period of time, due to Gawain's implementation of a labor system that required counting and evaluation, the usual kind of overseers who could only wield whips but could not read a single word were useless, and the overseers in the territory were all served by selected family warriors and even Hetty himself (some of the family warriors belonged to knight squires, knew at least a few numbers, and could write some simple words), so Norris couldn't help but think of this aspect when he heard Gawain's question.

"No, not just overseer, in fact if you can do it, I intend for you to manage the entire reclamation, and even the later grain production," Gawain said, "Of course, it is impossible to give you such a great power at once, nor can you do it at will, I will let Hetty 'assess' you, and will tell you what you should do at any time." ”

The expression on Norris's face changed suddenly: "Old ...... Master! I don't really understand...... Are you asking me to be your butler? But stewards are not just in charge of food......"

"It's a job, but it's not a housekeeper," Gawain laughed, "if you have to say it, call it first...... Agricultural supervisor. And I will tell you first that this office is different from any other office in the nobility of the past, and you cannot pass it on as a title from generation to generation, unless your children are of sufficient talent—it is not valid for life, and if you do not do it well, or if you take advantage of your position to do something contrary to the law of Cecil, then you will be removed and punished. From now on, many of the positions I have created in this land will be the same – do you understand? ”

If Gawain hadn't warned of so many restrictions, perhaps Norris would have been afraid to accept this "good fortune from heaven" in his trepidation, because it was very similar to the priest when he was eight years old when he came to the village to say that he could "receive divine grace", but with Gawain's warning, he thought about it seriously and thought it should be true.

An ordinary pauper wouldn't think like he did, but Norris would, because he was educated, and even if it almost killed him, he learned "logic" from it.

So after some thought, the old farmer nodded vigorously: "Master, if you trust me...... Norris will take care of every field you give me, and every grain that grows on it! ”

(I'm going to go out today.,I'm afraid I won't have a chance to touch the computer all day until night.,You can only code out a chapter to set up automatic updates.,There's only one chapter today.。 ）