Azadze Waters bent over, holding a hoe in his hand, raised it high and slammed it to the ground. The feedback from the shaking of the hoe in the early spring is still tough, indicating that now is not the best time to cultivate. But even so, Azadze did not stop his work. On the one hand, this was due to the panic of a small landowner about the food shortage, and on the other hand, it was also arranged by the Elena factory.

Ever since Theo Matthias, the largest landowner of the Elena Plains, was humiliated by the Lord in front of the town hall and his serfs, the Elena Plains had no voice against the Lord. The big landlords left, and those who sold the land chose to leave. But a small landlord like him didn't have so much freedom. For so many years, there were only two or three serfs in his family, and the land was not very fertile, and every year he tossed to the end, he only left a surplus of thirty or fifty crowns, which could not change anything, and was far from being rich. If he were to sell all his land to the lord like other big landowners, the money he would get would obviously not be enough to support his life as a citizen in a small city.

"Master, rest for a while."

Deborah Warren, Azadze's only serf, kept up with him. Azadze looked back, and the ground that the two had turned over was like two straight rivers, flowing on the black-brown earth.

"Hmm."

Azadze nodded, tired and didn't have much strength to speak. He stood up and thumped his waist, letting his long-bent waist relax, and let out a satisfied moan. Deborah did as he did, and with him, sat down on the field and watched the new farmers around him plow.

Previously, Azadze's land was next to another large landowner, Aaron Wenger. The big landlord was one of the most famous landowners in the Elena Plains, and there were many lands and serfs under his name, and after the lord of Elena's factory came, Wenger's serfs ran away a lot, and then Theo Matthias was driven away, and Aaron Wenger left the land with him. The land he once owned was bought by the Elena factory and rented to the serfs he used to farm.

"They've worked so hard, they've been working so hard for so long, and they haven't rested once."

Azadze sighed softly, those people are obviously the same people, but when he worked for Wenger, he would never see them working so hard as they do now.

"The lord gave the brothers citizenship and gave them access to the surplus of production on the land in addition to the rent. At the same time, the land rent collected was far lower than the original level of tenant farmers, and everyone was naturally willing to work because they had an identity and could exchange their labor for food. ”

Deborah, the serf of Azadze, sat on the field with his master, looking at the former serfs and now the new peasants not far away.

"What about you? If you want to go, I won't stop you. ”

Unlike those large landowners who had dozens or even more than a hundred serfs under their names, Azadze only owned three serfs at his peak, and two of them were conscripted away. Because of the shortage of labor, Azadze worked with his own serfs, and there was not much difference in food, so they were quite familiar with each other, and the relationship was good, and the conversation was more casual.

"I went, what should I do?" Deborah is not shy about this topic, "If you go, you still farm, and here you still farm, what's the difference?" ”

Azadze listened to Deborah and smiled softly. He knew that his serf, who also longed for freedom and equality, but he had always treated him well, and Deborah was a grateful character, so it was naturally difficult for him to abandon his master and go to someone else. Moreover, Deborah is right, these seven acres of land, let yourself plant, really can't be planted.

"Forget it, you can help this year, and when the price is right, I will sell the land to the adult, and you will also become a new farmer", Azadze took out the tobacco leaves from his pocket, rolled a roll, took out an old pyroxene cigarette holder, stuffed it, lit it, took a puff gently, and then intoxicated and spit out a large smoke ring.

"I've asked the people in the factory, if you go, I can still leave three or four acres of land for myself, and it doesn't matter if I count myself as a homesteaders. The production of three or four acres of land is enough for our family to eat. ”

"Well, aren't you going to send little Fran to school in the city? The land is really sold, what will little Fran do? ”

Fran Jr. is Azadze's daughter and half of Deborah's daughter, and Azadze has always wanted to send Fran Jr. to school in the city to make her more cultured. Deborah has always known this little wish.

"There's always a way."

Azadze pulled the cigarette holder out of his mouth, knocked it on the ground, and put it in his pocket. The sun was still high in the eastern sky, and it was only half past the morning, and there was still a lot to do.

————————

It was busy until the afternoon, when the sun went down, that Azadze and Deborah returned home. Neither of them ate at noon, but they used the bread they brought with them to top it, and they could only eat a hot meal when they went home in the evening. But today, just as the two of them were unwinding from the day's fatigue and sitting at the low dining table, ready to eat, an uninvited guest interrupted their dinner.

"Two, my name is Charlie Harry Warren, I used to be a serf of a big landowner in Theo, and then went to the Elena factory, and now I am mainly in charge of agriculture."

Azadze recognised Charlie Harry as soon as he entered. This man is a well-known thorn in Theo's men, who is disobedient, always beaten, and has run away several times, and once was almost broken by Theo's men. At that time, no one could have imagined that such a small serf, who could be killed at any time, had now become a figure who was on an equal footing with the landlords, and could even decide the life and death of the landlords to a certain extent.

"I know you, what, does that lord have any instructions?"

Like the other landowners of the plains, Azadze was accustomed to referring to Gastens as the Lord, rather than directly mentioning Gastens by name. On the one hand, this is for respect, and on the other hand, it is also a subtle expression of dissatisfaction with Gastens.

"It's not a big deal," Charlie Harry patted the dirt on his leg gently. In the past two days, he and two other working groups have to find out the situation of all the remaining landlords on this plain, and the time is short and the task is heavy, which really exhausts him.

"Harry, come, sit down, have a drink."

Debo stretched out his hand and pulled Charlie Harry and asked him to sit down at his small dining table, and Azadze saw this, so he simply brought his own bowl to the small dining table, and beckoned his wife to bring another bowl out.

"I'm hungry, let's get some food."

Charlie Harry was not polite, he took the bowl and looked at it, and found that it was a bowl full of rye porridge, which was very generous, but the ingredients were cheap, and it was not the food that the big landowners could see. Charlie Harry glanced at Azadze and saw that he was looking at him with a smile, and he looked at Deborah again and saw that the serf's eyes were also kind, and his heart was a little lighter. He snorted and drank two large sips, took another piece of pickle, threw it into his mouth and chewed it twice, before he said what he meant.

"I have come here because my lordship wants to recover all the land in the plains of Elena and to put an end to serfdom. Mr. Azadze, are you only one serf, this Mr. Deborah? ”

"Well, yes."

When Azadze heard Charlie Harry's words, he felt lighter for some reason. After waiting for so long, the stone finally fell to the ground.

"That's good," Charlie Harry put down the porridge bowl and sat up straight, "My lord means that a small landowner like you, who also participates in labor himself, owns few serfs, and has not done anything bad, can choose to sell his land to the factory, or leave four acres of land for himself and cultivate it himself. At the same time, you can no longer own serfs, and Deborah's big brother's slave contract must also be dissolved. What do you think? ”

Become a homesteader or leave Elena? Faced with this choice, Azadze hardly hesitated.

"I'm going to stay, four acres of land, that's enough."

"But, master—"

Deborah tried to stop him, but was interrupted by Charlie Harry, "We know that Mr. Azazadze is nice to you and doesn't have any notoriety, so there won't be any other problems or things." Since Mr. Azadze is willing to be one of our new farmers, we welcome it. ”

"What about Deborah?" , Azadze was still thinking about his only serf subordinate, "Can he also have land?" ”

"Yes, the reason why we want to take back all the land this time is to re-measure and divide the land, and ensure that all the new farmers in the Elena Plains have land to plant. Big Deborah will also have his own land. ”

"That's fine, I'm sure you'll give me a good price, right?"

"Well", Charlie Harry investigated Azadze before he came, and knew that this landlord was actually just a small landowner with a serf, and he was not harsh on serfs. He didn't have much hostility towards Azazadze, "You have seven acres of land now, according to the standards of adults, everyone can get four acres of land, when I came, I saw that you were already turning over the land, we can not make adjustments to your seven acres of land, four acres for you to keep, three acres for Deborah brother, and at the same time coordinate another acre of land from other places." In this way, there will be no impact on this year's production. ”

"However, Azadze needs the income from these seven acres of land to send little Fran to school!"

Deborah finally couldn't hold back, but still said, "If it's four acres of land, he won't have the money for little Fran to go to school." ”

"That's a problem," Charlie Harry pulled out his notebook and began to write crookedly. His move completely shocked Azazze and Deborah. Seeing Charlie Harry able to write, the two were even more surprised than they were to hear him announce that he was going to reclaim the land.

"Do you know how to write?" Almost in unison, the two asked questions at the same time.

"Well, the adults gave us a night school, saying that we can't be uneducated. If a serf wants to really turn over and become a master, he must be educated. ”

Charlie Harry didn't hide that he has a limited number of words now, but it's enough to make a record of today's events. He slowly finished writing down what he was going to record, and got up to take his leave.

"I know about the two of you, and I will talk to the adults about the children's schooling to see if there is any way. If you don't have any doubts about the resumption and redistribution of land, I'll come over after a while and settle the matter, okay? ”

“…… Yes", Azadze originally wanted to ask about the night school again, but he saw that Charlie Harry was in a hurry, so he didn't say much. The two sent Charlie Harry out of the door, and when they returned to the house, they found that the bowl of rye porridge that had just been filled had been drunk by Charlie Harry.

"He's really hungry," Deborah said, picking up his bowl and taking a big sip. After a day's work, he was hungry.

"Well, it's not easy," Azadze nodded and sat back in his place. His wife and daughter had finished eating and were cleaning up the dishes, leaving him rye porridge and boiled beans, the only thing he could do as a landlord with a better meal than Deborah.

But today, it seems that Migami deliberately did not intend to let Azazze eat in peace, and he had just eaten two bites before he was interrupted from eating. The man knocked lightly on the door, then pushed it open and walked in.

"Azazadze, are you there?"

The voice of the person who came was very loud, and his speech seemed to be a little leaky. As soon as Azadze heard it, he knew that it was Theo Matthias's son, who had been nearly disemboweled. Although he was a little puzzled as to why this lost dog came to the door, Azadze did not dare to slack off. He quickly got up and went out.

"Pip-sama, what's the matter?"

Pip Matthias didn't pay attention to Azazadze for the first time, he went into the room and looked left and right, and saw the bowl of rye porridge on Azadze's table, and subconsciously frowned. He saw Deborah eating in the same room as Azadze again, and the wrinkles on his face deepened. He looked at Deborah and felt that it was difficult for him to speak in the presence of this man, so he knocked on the side.

"I'm really going to have something to do this time, I wonder if I can let this serf go out?"

Before Azadze could speak, Deborah went out without looking back. In normal times, Deborah would never have dared to have such an attitude towards Pip Matthias. But now that the plain of Elena is no longer the plain of the landlord's house, Deborah has more ways to express his hostility.

"Okay, what's the matter?"

Seeing that Deborah was driven away, Azadze calmed down and asked about this once big man who had lost all four front teeth.

"I've heard that Gastens has been reclaiming the land lately, isn't that killing us?! My family wants to talk to all the adults who have been forcibly repossessed of the land and driven out of Elena, I wonder if it is convenient for you? ”

"Your lord?"

Azadze repeated the sentence repeatedly, "He doesn't know where he is now, how can we meet?" How to talk about it? ”

"Naturally, in Van Ensten, the adults are going to have a cocktail party, and I would like to invite you to attend. When the time comes, you can always raise any grievances against Elena and Gastens. In particular, I think I can say more about the fact that he is forcibly expropriating your land now. ”

"What's the use of saying that?"

Azadze didn't like Pip, "Didn't you agree last time, didn't you also rob the serfs?" ”

"It's different," Pip lowered his voice, "this time, we invited the big guy over, you just have to say, tell the truth, the big guy will naturally judge." ”

Hearing this, Azadze hesitated. He thought about it for a moment and gave an affirmative answer.

"When it will be held, I want to go and see."