Chapter 318 Small Goal
There is never any such thing as a peaceful transition when times change.
Not to mention the changes of dynasties in the history of China, even in modern times, when the progress of the times moves forward even a small step, it is bound to be accompanied by extremely fierce struggles; and the progress of this era is bound to be accompanied by the decline of a loose or tight interest group.
But the times will always progress, just as the world is always changing; the progress of the times may be deliberately slowed down by vested interests, but it can never be stopped.
"I once lent Brother Lowell a book, a book from another world... the world where I was born." Yang Qiu smiled and raised his finger. "The name of this book is "Dream of Red Mansions", which tells the history of the rise and fall of a big family."
Kingsley didn't understand why he suddenly changed the subject, but Yang Qiu didn't wait for him to say anything and continued to talk: "The big families in this book have tremendous power and prominent status, and live a life of luxury... well, extremely luxurious and respectable life."
"Because the family business was too big and there were too many servants, the family gave the task of managing the servants and the business to the butler. This butler had served the family for generations, and the head of the family believed that the butler was trustworthy. In order to make the servants and young people in the family obey him, the head of the family gave the butler a lot of respect, so that everyone in the family would think that disrespecting the butler was disrespecting the head of the family."
After a pause, Yang Qiu smiled and said, "It wasn't too long, just a few decades... In the end, this housekeeper accumulated a huge fortune, richer than many of the side branches of the big family. The children of the side branches of the big family had to rely on the change that leaked through the fingers of the housekeeper to survive, and even had to respectfully call the housekeeper 'Grandpa Lai'."
Kingsley's face twitched and he was speechless.
"Do you think the big families in the book are stupid?" Yang Qiu asked himself and answered himself. "It seems so, but there are too many people who are stupider than this big family in reality. For example, in the Rhine Kingdom, if a royal family member has a low inheritance order and does not have much ability, when the title is passed down from the royal family to the third or fourth generation, it is almost the same as ordinary small and medium-sized nobles. Not to mention being on par with the big nobles, I am afraid they don't even have the qualifications to get close to and curry favor with the big nobles."
"What nonsense are you talking about? Can a family be compared with a country?" Kingsley said unhappily.
Yang Qiu spread his hands and said sarcastically, "Indeed, there is a difference between the big families described in the books and the countries in reality. A decent family that keeps servants should at least provide them with food and pay them for their work, right? The people of the Rhine Kingdom are not so lucky. It is common for them to not get paid for their work and to be hungry and have nothing to eat. At this time, no one knows where the royal family is."
Kingsley: “…”
Yang Qiu smiled and said, "Since the royal family has no intention of managing so many people in the country, then the people naturally don't need to respect the royal family as the head of the family, and there is no need to pay attention to the nobles who are awarded honors by the head of the family. Don't you think this is the truth?"
Kingsley rubbed his forehead vigorously. "That's enough. Your twisted logic does leave me speechless, but what's the point of leaving me speechless? People outside don't agree with your logic."
"I don't intend to reason with everyone." Yang Qiu smiled confidently, "I have been through a lot over the years, and I have personally experienced the fact that not everyone is willing to reason with me. I am not someone who doesn't know how to learn. Since others have their own reasons, I will talk to them. You see, isn't that what I do in Innadeli?"
Kingsley: “…”
"Many nobles like to talk about the history of their ancestors' rise to power, and are proud of their wise and brave ancestors. I have no objection to this." Yang Qiu leaned lazily on the high-backed chair and said relaxedly, "For example, the former lord of Innadri, the Bartles family. It must be said that Adela I was indeed a great warrior. He conquered this territory with a private army composed of a group of bandits and mountain bandits. After gaining power, he quickly cleaned up his power and used his energy to build cities and encourage farming. It took him three generations to raise a regular army with a clean background. In just a few decades, he developed this borderland."
"Unfortunately, by the time of Adela III's father, the Bartles family was no longer respectable, and by the time of Adela III, it was even worse. It is true that the Bartles family had wise and brave ancestors, but what does that have to do with the contemporary Adela III?"
"He is indeed not a qualified lord. Even though he has adopted his ancestor's name, he does not put as much energy into governing the territory as his ancestors did. In this case, isn't it in line with their 'reason' for me to support a young hero with noble blood who is more suitable to rule Innadri than the third king?"
"Of course, these are just excuses to fool outsiders." After talking nonsense for a while, Yang Qiu calmly brought the topic back to the topic, "It is not my intention to put on a show to make my behavior appear to be in line with the nobles' whitewashed and high-sounding bandit logic. My real idea is still: I think these noble lords do not have the ability to match their status, so I can replace them."
The Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period was the adolescence of Chinese civilization. At that time, people still believed in the theory of bloodline and believed that kings, princes, and generals were of different species. The Mohist school of thought at that time proposed the idea of "promoting people based on their talents, regardless of their status". This was one of the earliest ideas to question the theory of bloodline and talent, and further proposed the famous theory of non-fate: people can control their own destiny through hard work.
After Mohism, Mencius put forward the idea that "the influence of a gentleman's achievements will be cut off after five generations, and the influence of a villain's achievements will also be cut off after five generations" - the influence of a person's fame and career on future generations will be cut off after five generations and cannot be inherited.
Although the era of a hundred schools of thought had passed, the ideas of the ancient sages were not abandoned by the Chinese people, but have been passed down and used. When Yang Qiu was born, he was able to come into contact with these ideas of the sages, which were as brilliant as stars, in textbooks in elementary school.
Kingsley is a spellcaster and has lived long enough to witness the rise and fall of countless families, big and small. Therefore, he cannot deceive ordinary people by saying that if the ancestors were excellent, the descendants will be equally excellent - blood can only inherit the surname, not talent.
This spellcaster from another world is actually quite progressive in his thinking, even more progressive than some people on Earth. In the 21st century, there are still some countries on Earth that are superstitious about kings, princes, and generals. This is indeed a kind of idiotic logic... For example, China's neighboring island country. Even those whimsical comic book creators cannot escape the shackles of arranging an extraordinary origin for the protagonists of their works.
Yang Qiu praised and recognized the achievements of the ancestors of the Bartles family, but believed that the current lord, Adela III, was unworthy of the position. This statement could convince Kingsley.
But Yang Qiu's final words from the King of Chu pulled Kingsley back from his wits' end...
"What universally recognized standards do you have to measure whether a noble lord is qualified? What basis do you have to believe that you can do a better job than others?" Kingsley said angrily. "You just found an excuse to start a war and rob the territory's population. How can such crazy behavior and logic be praised? Is this something a normal person can say?!"
Facing Kingsley's question, Yang Qiu's reaction was... He stood up excitedly and waved his hand: "This question is so simple that it doesn't need to be answered with your mouth - just walk!"
An hour later, Kingsley, looking confused, was dragged by Yang Qiu to a small village in the countryside of Westham.
This small village with a population of more than a hundred households was one of the "agricultural pilot units" selected by the undead agricultural experts during the spring plowing period. The land that originally yielded little yield was repeatedly plowed deep to form clear ridges, and the wheat seedlings that had just emerged in the fields grew in neat rows, as if they had been carefully arranged by the gardeners of a wealthy family.
Not far from the wheat field, the land that had entered a fallow period in accordance with local custom was planted with soybeans in rows and columns.
During the spring ploughing period, many farmers wanted to use wheat fields to plant beans, but were strictly prohibited by the city hall. However, the city hall did not forbid people from planting beans. It was just that soybeans could be planted on fallow land or mountains, and there was no need to occupy wheat fields. The issue that the Chinese people care about most is always the food self-sufficiency rate. When they see that the output of other people's staple food is insufficient or reduced, the Chinese will be more anxious than others themselves.
In previous years, during this period of time, the busy spring ploughing season has ended in the villages and the farming off-season has begun. Some young and middle-aged people will move to surrounding towns in search of job opportunities, while some of the idle young and middle-aged people will wander around the villages idly and cause trouble.
But this year, these rural young men obviously have no slack season... When Kingsley got off the undead horse, what he saw was - countless young and old, under the organization of uniformed operators, digging ditches in the fields under the scorching sun and sweating profusely.
Yang Qiu pointed to the busy crowd in the distance and said calmly, "You have heard the term 'village-to-village water conservancy project' at the city hall, right? This project is currently only being carried out in Westham and Yongwang Town, because for the time being, only these two towns have the legal governance rights in our hands. The city hall is responsible for repairing the main river channel project to divert water from the Barcelo River to the two towns, and the work of diverting water from the artificial river to the villages has to be done by the locals themselves. The water diversion canal they are digging is one of them."
Because there is no water shortage in Nadeli, the town government organized people to go to the countryside to dig wells last autumn and winter, and the living water supply of each village has been guaranteed. However, relying solely on well water for irrigating the fields is obviously not enough.
"It's not that there are no natural and artificial rivers in Westham, but most of them belong to nobles who own large estates and farms in Westham. Commoners must pay extra if they want to get water, and they also have to work for the farmers and estate owners to pay back the 'water fee'."
"My undeads and I have never believed that farmers who have lived in the countryside all their lives are stupid and unreasonable. In fact, farmers and urban civilians are more reasonable than nobles. Look, in this 'village-to-village water conservancy' project, there is only one town official in charge of the work in each village. There are no more people to help, and the villagers will not be paid. But they know that it is beneficial to the village to have a canal that can be used regardless of drought or flood. Even the elderly, women, and children will come to help."
Kingsley looked at the group of people working hard and was speechless for a moment.
"The local lord will take away 30% of the grain produced by the farmers' fields - although this is stipulated in the Rhine Constitution, in reality, most farmers must hand in 50% of the grain in the autumn harvest to pay taxes." Yang Qiu calmly described the facts, "Everyone knows that the more grain the farmers can produce, the more taxes the local territory can receive. Logically, the local lord should try his best to increase agricultural output and invest the resources at hand in this. This is a good thing for the farmers and the ruling nobles themselves... But how many nobles have you seen do this?"
The feudal rulers in Chinese history had to save face and often would not set agricultural taxes too high.
But the feudal rulers of China are essentially no different from the feudal nobles of this alien world. They are all exploiters and will find ways to cut flesh from the common people. So although the nominal agricultural tax is not high, they will "invent" countless exorbitant taxes and levies under various pretexts to exploit the common people.
This world is different... Because of the existence of extraordinary powers, the majority of the lower classes have never had their tables overturned or their bowls smashed, so they are too lazy to even implement a "benevolent policy" that is a face-saving project. The 40% agricultural tax (for the royal family, the church, the great lords, and the small lords appointed by the great lords) is only the basis, and the effort of "inventing" tax items is not even needed.
Kingsley was speechless after being asked by Yang Qiu.
If it was just one or two villages doing water conservancy work, Kingsley had seen it before... Some knight lords who were awarded medals as commoners knew the hardships of commoners and were willing to take out part of their own property to build water conservancy projects on their own fiefdoms.
But building water conservancy projects for two towns and dozens of villages is not something that a naive knight lord can do - even when these knight lords climb to a position where they possess such resources, they may not be willing to continue doing so.
While Kingsley was struggling, he heard Yang continue to speak in a calm tone about something shocking: "There are 26 towns in Innadri. Among the most populous towns, only Newin Town does not lack water. The artificial rivers and artificial reservoirs managed by the City Hall must be planned to cover 25 towns."
"This project is no less ambitious than the one the Bartles family undertook to rebuild Innadri City. However, the City Hall has great confidence in this project. According to the current development plan, we only need to spend a portion of the fiscal revenue every year within the next ten years to continue this project."
"In addition to boosting agricultural development, water conservancy projects can also solve some employment problems... You may have heard this from the clerk at the Civil Affairs Department. The artificial river project that started this year alone has solved the employment problems of more than 1,600 contract workers, and 1,600 families can obtain stable income in the early stages of the river project."
"As the water conservancy projects in the country are launched, many undeveloped lands that were difficult to irrigate can be developed. In Westerm alone, there are several places close to the planned artificial water conservancy projects, about 200,000 acres of land that can be considered for reclamation next year..."
The population of Innadri is far from reaching saturation.
Dozens of nobles and churches monopolized nearly 50% of the arable land, which refers to arable land with sufficient water resources and flat terrain; there was much more undeveloped wasteland than developed land.
And the act of reclaiming wasteland is also deeply rooted in the traditional enthusiasm of the Chinese people... The proverb "If Suzhou and Changshu are prosperous, the world will be prosperous" that people used to say in the Song Dynasty became "If Huguang is prosperous, the world will be prosperous" in the Qing Dynasty; even in the feudal dynasty era, the Chinese people's enthusiasm for reclaiming land was already very strong.
The national team used their service time to exchange for helmets and invested in a number of retired agricultural experts.
Some of these elderly people who have worked in agriculture all their lives now spend their days in wheelchairs, while others have even developed senile dementia.
The micro-EEG of elderly people whose brains cannot function normally due to pathological reasons is much more active than that of vegetative patients, so they can naturally be successfully projected here by the matrix imprint. After arriving here, they can not only restore normal thinking and movement abilities, but also communicate with their family, relatives and friends by recording videos, just like Old Liu who was paralyzed by a stroke.
The elderly who can regain their vitality in the "game" are as obsessed with the "game" as heavy players. If the "login time" was not limited to 12 hours every Earth Day, these old experts would stay in the "game" all day long without logging off.
Innadri, which is considered a poor and barren place by the locals, is actually a land of plenty for agricultural experts who have been fighting against nature all their lives. Less than two Earth months after entering the "game", these old experts have already traveled all over Innadri and worked out development plans for the next ten years. If the ruling Zhao Zhenzhen does not do what they want, they will be unhappy.
Yang Qiu had no objection to the development plan of the agricultural experts. He was not so complacent as to think that he knew more about farming than the experts who had dedicated their entire lives to the development of China's agriculture. He followed the plan contributed by the old experts very devoutly, and would not allow any changes or anyone to block the progress.
Yang Qiu’s attitude is very clear: whether the territory ruled by the lord can develop in the long term and sustainably is the only criterion for measuring whether the lord is qualified.
If not, if the lord is resting on his laurels, then this lord is unqualified and can be replaced.
As for what is considered development, Yang Qiu reserves the right to explain for the time being... Kingsley probably doesn't remember to ask this anyway.
Listening to Yang Qiu's introduction, Kingsley couldn't help but be fascinated...
If a little-known eastern country like the Kingdom of the Rhine or a border place like Innadri near Sorensen could really become the prosperous place described by the disciples, it would indeed be something that people would extremely desire.
"...Can this be done?" Although he was tempted, Kingsley still had doubts in his heart.
"How do you know if you can do it if you don't try? You have to try to know if you have the ability to do something." Yang Qiu smiled calmly, "Anyway, as of now, I think there is no problem for me to replace a noble like Adela III."
Kingsley moved his lips and wanted to say something to deny it, but before he could say anything, he felt it was inappropriate and swallowed the words.
The master and apprentice, who were standing on the edge of the field and looking at the crowd, suddenly became quiet.
After a long moment, Kingsley turned his head and looked at Yang.
After careful calculation, he and his disciple Yang have been separated for almost one hundred and fifty years - after this guy was able to leave the tower, he deliberately left the tower early, intending to let this disciple who always talked nonsense travel around the continent by himself and see what the real world is like.
The master-disciple relationship among spellcasters varies. There are people like Upton who have a group of disciples around him, and there are also people like Kingsley who don't want to care about them anymore after teaching them.
Anyway, Yang couldn't stay outside any longer, and Kingsley wouldn't chase him away when he returned to the tower. At most, he would make a few sarcastic remarks... This is what Kingsley thought before he heard that Yang not only acted recklessly all over the continent, but also went to the holy land of the Fiery Sun Church to cause a big commotion.
Kingsley had never had very high expectations for this disciple… Although Yang did have a strong talent for mental strength, and possessed a resistance to mental pollution that even he, his teacher, had studied for decades but had not been able to figure out the principle, Yang was simply too stubborn. He had shown an outrageous combative spirit since he was a teenager, and Kingsley had spent countless years trying to change his character.
Now, Kingsley knew at a glance that the disciple Yang standing beside him had a steady and indifferent smile on his face, which was just a disguise... He had not changed at all. At heart, he was still the same bellicosity apprentice who only thought about fighting and was ignorant of the immensity of the world.
Kingsley sighed for who knows how many times, and said, "Comparing the royal family to stupid family heads, just replacing the nobles is not your ultimate goal at all."
Yang Qiu thought about it seriously before answering Kingsley: "I still have self-knowledge. I don't think I can do something like unifying Barron."
Kingsley, who was standing firmly on the ridge, almost slipped into the wheat field.
"Take it seriously!" Kingsley roared.
"I think unifying the east is something we can try to achieve." Yang Qiu answered seriously, "The people in the Rhine Kingdom and the Norsk Federation have similar living habits and accents. Farmers in the two regions can communicate without any obstacles. They are also located upstream and downstream of the Barcelo River, and are close neighbors. It is very suitable for them to be one family."
Kingsley gasped.
"The people in the Gold Coin Parish are only interested in profit. They can shut up the priests if they get enough profit. As for the Storm Parish, they have been in rebellion every year anyway, so it doesn't matter if I become a competitor." Yang Qiu was still very serious. "The influence of the Storm Church is not as great as that of the Fiery Sun Church. I will try my best to put on a good show on the surface and make it look like a normal power struggle to comply with the rules of the power game that the locals can accept. As long as there are no major problems on my side, the external resistance will not be that great."
Kingsley wanted to scold him, but the words were stuck in his throat.
"I am relatively familiar with the game rules that are acceptable to the Nabarron Continent." Yang Qiu smiled slightly and said, "Isn't it just the integration of politics and religion? There is absolutely no problem - I am not against the Orthodox Church or against the Orthodox Church. I just think that the more adaptable Gold Coin Church is more suitable than the Storm Church to become the largest Orthodox Church in the East. I still support the Orthodox Church. Is there anything wrong with that?"
Kingsley: “…”
"We have to do things step by step. The first small goal is to take over the Rhine Kingdom and elect a younger and more promising king who can be recognized by the Gold Coin Church." Yang Qiu said maturely, steadily and rationally, "At present, Rex and Phoenix of the Odysseus family are both good candidates. Of course, it is not appropriate to say this now. Let's observe for a few more years before making a decision. What do you think?"
