Volume 8: The Sword Points to the Far East Chapter 251 The Reality of the World
This year, the play performed on the morning of the first day of War Ball Day was a new play staged by the Robbins Theater last month: "Sheriff Holmes' Coffin Mystery."
Well... "The Coffin Mystery" is already the third part of the Holmes series. Since the second part, "A Study in Scarlet" (which borrowed from Sherlock Holmes), became very popular, the third part, which borrowed to a certain extent from Ellery Queen's "The Greek Coffin Mystery", naturally has time to make its debut... ahem!
Of course, due to the separation of world dimensions and the limitations of stage performance, as well as the creators’ ulterior motives, this “Coffin Puzzle” was not copied in its entirety, but was wildly modified. It begins with the death of a widowed noblewoman who was keen on collecting precious jewelry. The great detective sheriff Holmes and his assistant Watson once again jumped into the public eye, refreshing the local people’s worldview in a crazy way…
When the Moon of Revenge entered the theater, the first act of the nine-act play "The Coffin Puzzle" had already been performed. He missed the climax of the opening that was created by Xiao Yun and Isaac, but this did not prevent him from standing in the last row of the audience for only a few minutes before he was immersed in the world of drama and no longer wanted to explore the "secrets" of the Knights' Territory.
The small town sheriff Holmes became famous for solving the serial murders of the vengeful viscount's son who died in a haystack (the first case), and the coachman who hunted down the church believers (the Mormon Church was magically changed to the Church, and political correctness was achieved at the same time), in revenge for his fiancée. He received an invitation to attend a dinner party from a noble lady who is a collector in a big city.
When Sheriff Holmes and Watson struggled to scrape together enough money to rent a car and go, the widowed aristocrat who loved collecting suddenly died of illness, and they only managed to attend the funeral.
The silent funeral triggered a mystery, and the secrets were hidden in the coffin - the disappearance of the precious jewels collected by the noble lady, the unreasonable will, the dispute over the inheritance of property, the succession of sheriffs from two places, the city police chief, the luxurious manor located at the junction of the city and the town, the mysterious blackmail letter, and the noble lady's nephew, adopted son, ex-husband's brother, niece and son-in-law who became suspicious one after another...
The first half of the play is very similar to most of the orthodox detective dramas on the planet. Among the people who are invisibly trapped in the manor by huge fortunes and missing jewels, people keep dying, and people are scheming and suspicious of each other. In the second half, the prosecutor is not pushed out as a criminal, but instead there is a crazy reversal, with the target being the lady's butler.
When Revenge Moon, who was caught up in the exciting plot, thought that the kind-looking butler must be the criminal, Sheriff Holmes made another reversal... and named the lady in the coffin.
For a moment, the stadium that had gathered tens of thousands of people was shaken: "Eh, eh, eh——?"
Actors who were not performing here were naturally not disturbed. Sheriff Holmes on the stage continued to read his lines with a stern face, pointing out the real culprit behind this series of farces:
Knowing that she would soon die, the noble lady was unwilling to let the flatterers around her inherit her property. She and her old housekeeper were unable to deal with a group of strong young men, so the noble lady "took advantage" of her own death and "locked" the group of people she hated in her house to stage a fighting drama.
The most greedy and hated nephew was named as the heir in the will. The housekeeper hid the most valuable jewels and tried every means to imply that the adopted son was a thief. The blackmail letter invited professionals to imitate the handwriting of the nephew's son-in-law, and the second-rate jewels were stuffed into the room of the ex-husband's brother so that he could not defend himself...
The old butler loyally instigated this group of people to fight among themselves like raising poison. The nephew killed the adopted son and was murdered by the niece and her husband. The ex-husband's brother tried every means to poison them, and he was caught red-handed by the chief of the city police.
Even if Holmes solved the mystery, the five young and strong heirs would have been ruined.
At the end of the last scene, the old butler was arrested by the dusty police chief. Sheriff Holmes went to visit the city police chief. Through the cage, Holmes asked the question he was most concerned about: "Since the lady's jewelry was not stolen, where was you hidden?"
The old housekeeper smiled slightly and said meaningfully: "Madam's jewelry, of course, belongs to her. If she doesn't want to give it to others, then no one can take it away."
Holmes said nothing more, and after leaving the city police department he went to the cemetery to place flowers for his wife.
The tombs of nobles often have rich burial objects. To prevent tomb robbers, the tombs of nobles are often equipped with powerful protective magic circles. If they are forcibly destroyed, they will explode and turn the tomb robbers and the wealth in the tomb into ashes.
Holmes, standing in front of the lady's grave, stared at her grave for a few seconds, then turned and left without saying a word.
The drama is over.
"——Is this what the mystery of the coffin means?!"
Revenge Moon, who stood and watched the play for two hours in one breath, almost couldn't control her anger and roared out loud...
Although he missed the first act, just by watching the remaining eight acts, especially the last act, Revenge Moon could not help but think that the most crucial and priceless set of jewelry in the whole play was in the noble lady's coffin!
"I am unwilling to pass on my treasure to someone I don't like, so I would rather take it to the grave... This is really a play full of malice."
In the VIP room, Prince Maurice snorted coldly with a displeased look on his face.
The Duke's son, who came to participate in the Battle Ball Day, didn't say a word. His face turned pale and he trembled.
Most people would just watch this show for fun, but for nth-generation heirs like them, this excitement was really chilling...
——It’s too real! !
The Duke's son is not the first in line of succession, otherwise he wouldn't have the time to come to Valentine to watch the show, have fun with Prince Maurice, and organize a football team to participate in the War Ball Day.
In aristocratic families, the property that non-first-line heirs can get is not much. The eldest son inherits 90% of the family wealth, and the remaining direct heirs share 10% equally. Note that this only includes wealth, not political resources.
This is to ensure that the family's property, status, and influence will not be divided up by the next generation, causing the family to lose competitiveness in the same class. Although the "Enfeoffment Order" has not been staged in this world, the natives who have been playing power games for thousands of years are not stupid enough to fail to see the dangers of the splitting of large families.
As for why the protagonist who traveled through time is keen on splitting up the family, it is because the protagonist who traveled through time can often obtain the golden finger, and after splitting up the family, he can make a fortune and obtain a wealth status that exceeds the entire family before...
Just like Isaac, the second son of the Duke even received a lower level of education than his eldest brother, and he had no access to the core of family power. Of course, his life was much better than Isaac's, his parents still loved him, and at least he had enough money to spend.
The Duke's son, who was over thirty years old, had gotten rid of the childish jealousy he had towards his highly regarded older brother when he was young. In fact, as he grew older, he could gradually see the love-hate relationship that his old Grand Duke father was developing towards his younger and stronger brother... This was not an emotional change that could be controlled by humans, but the inevitable vigilance that the Lion King would develop towards the younger lion who was getting stronger and staring at his position for longer and longer periods of time.
In the drama, the noble lady who owns priceless jewels is unwilling to pass them on to her heirs and plots a conspiracy. This is just an extreme manifestation and cannot be applied to reality.
But... the question still remains: is an old man with wealth, power, and status really willing to pass on everything he has to others?
Even if——that other person is his blood relative!
The Duke's son's forehead was sweating, and he couldn't help but think of his increasingly irritable and moody father, the Grand Duke...
Even the Duke's son, who could only share 10% of the family wealth equally with his brothers, couldn't help but have such thoughts, let alone Prince Maurice.
Prince Maurice had a gloomy face and seemed ferocious and disgusted, but in fact his eyes were wandering and his heart was silently filled with turbulent waves.
Prince Maurice's succession order was not high, and without a strong maternal family, he was very clear that he was not qualified to get involved in the crown. Therefore, his pursuit has always been very clear, trying his best to accumulate wealth and strive to obtain at least an earldom after his father abdicated.
Prince Maurice had always been thinking about what would happen after his father abdicated, but... he had never thought about whether his father was willing to abdicate.
What if my father is unwilling to hand over the crown?
It is difficult for ordinary people to live beyond the age of 40. The hard and busy life makes ordinary people look tired and wrinkles appear on their cheeks after the age of 30.
It is not uncommon for nobles and royal family members to live to their seventies or eighties.
My father is only in his sixties this year. If he refuses to abdicate even when he is eighty, then...
Morris, who had never thought about this problem before, felt his palms full of sweat and his breathing became rapid after just a few thoughts.
If there is still so much time and he can still be a prince for so long, then it seems... it is too petty to only plan for an earldom.
Prince Maurice closed his eyes slightly and then opened them again, his eyes gleaming with brilliance and hint of ferocity.
In the few tens of seconds before the drama ended, His Royal Highness made a decision that was very likely to affect the entire Kingdom of Kronin in the next ten years.
Of course, at least for now, everything is still calm.
Xiao Yun did not sit in the VIP room. He stayed in the contestant lounge with the warriors of his tribe and enjoyed the drama with a better view than that in the VIP room.
The Snow Wolf warriors watched the show for fun, and after the curtain fell, they talked about how it was a pity to lose the rare jewels in the coffin. Mr. Sean, who was sitting side by side on a sofa, looked deeply at Xiao Yun.
"This play is pretty good, Mr. Sean. The actor who plays Holmes is now more popular than Cinderella. His color portrait can even be sold for three silver coins each." Xiao Yun smiled.
Mr. Sean's mouth twitched, and he narrowed his eyes and said, "Once the new play of the Robbins Theater has been performed for more than three months, imitators will appear in other countries and regions... If this "Mystery of the Coffin" is also very popular, it seems that it will not only cause the problem of whether the actors' paintings can be sold for money?"
"Drama is just drama." Xiao Yun said seriously, "Drama is a carrier of stories. We are seriously telling the story of Holmes solving a case. It does not imply anything at all. Some people want to chop people with a kitchen knife when they see it. Is that the knife's fault? Kitchen knives were obviously made for cooking!"
Mr. Sean: “…” He squinted at the guy and said nothing.
After putting on enough superficial effort, Xiao Yun moved closer to Mr. Sean and chuckled, "In my original world, the actor who played the emperor in TV and movies would directly tell the prince... the heir to the throne, 'You can't have it if I don't give it to you.' For a major event like the transfer of power, instead of setting up proper rules and regulations to constrain and maintain the inheritance, they rely on unreliable blood relationships and play the game of father-to-son succession. Does the father want to die? Is the son willing to wait for the father to die ? This is no different from throwing a gold coin on the street, and whoever picks it up and puts it in his pocket is not a good person. If human nature can't stand the test, can family affection stand the test!"
Mr. Sean, who was sweating all over, said: "..."
"You really don't come from the demon world?" Mr. Sean also lowered his voice, very serious and upright.
"..." Now it was Xiao Yun's turn to twitch his lips.
Mr. Sean was just teasing Xiao Yun, but he held back his laughter and turned to a serious topic: "Others are trying their best to show the beauty of family love, but you let Isaac blacken family love to death. If this play gets out, those who have made achievements in the field of art will not speak highly of Isaac. Isn't this not suitable for Isaac's development?"
"Oh, this is just as spicy as The Little Mermaid. There are so many people praising love, and if we also sing praises for love, how can this play become famous?" Xiao Yun said nonchalantly, "Isaac is only from a minor noble family, and was kicked out of the house by his parents and became an adventurer for several years. If he honestly conforms to the aesthetic tastes of those who have a say in literature and art and takes the normal route, Isaac will at most be a local celebrity in another 20 years. So, if you want to achieve quick success and become famous as soon as possible, you must break the rules and take a path that others would not think of or dare to take. The more people scold Isaac, the more people will know him, and the sooner he will become famous. When necessary, it is not a bad thing to take an unconventional approach."
Mr. Sean glared at her: "...You yourself have mentioned that you are eager for quick success and instant benefits, what else do you want me to say?"
"Just praise me." Xiao Yun said shamelessly.
Mr. Sean: “…”
Xiao Yun stopped teasing him and said seriously: "Whether it is for the consideration of the changes in the situation of the entire Bloomfield continent, or for the development space for the descendants of 'J', or for the interests of the grassland (Isaac as a spy), or the interests of my eldest disciple Carlisle, we don't need a too peaceful federation."
"When provoking national wars or territorial wars, the people who suffer the most are civilians. Whether they are forced to become laborers or go to the battlefield as cannon fodder, the most vulnerable civilians will surely die. We cannot do such things."
"So..." Xiao Yun chuckled, in an extremely evil... uh, wise way, "Let these great nobles and royal families fight among themselves. The current rulers and the heirs, the first heir and the other heirs, they fight with each other, more deaths, for everyone... it will benefit the country and the people."
"..." Mr. Sean had a strange look on his face. He was neither angry nor amused at Xiao Yun's direct and painful attitude.
The feudal ministers in ancient China, especially those in the Ming Dynasty who had learned the most from historical experience and suffered the most from it, could not tolerate the replacement of the crown prince, calling it "shaking the foundation of the country."
Under the feudal centralized system, the ministers who maintained the feudal system could not tolerate problems with the heirs. This shows how much damage would be done to the feudal power system itself if the transfer of feudal power could not be peaceful - those who died in it were not the insignificant common people whose lives were worthless. The common people were not qualified to die in this mess!
What kind of character do the class that holds the power to speak have? In their eyes, the death of a group of big bureaucrats is much more serious than natural disasters and man-made disasters that cause great suffering to the people and no roosters crow for thousands of miles~!
Anyway, Xiao Yun, who had unceremoniously used the play "Sheriff Holmes' Coffin Puzzle" to expose the bloody and naked truth of the confrontation between the current power holders and the heirs during the transfer of power and wealth, was very happy to put his hands in his pockets and wait for the excitement...
If Sean, who was born in Cronin, had heard Xiao Yun's "gloating" remarks a few years ago about "other people's (Cronin's own) children dying all the time", he would probably have been so angry that he would have hit someone on the spot.
But after accepting Xiao Yun's "world view" and separating the rentier class from the exploited civilians, Mr. Sean remained calm when he heard Xiao Yun say such things in person.
King Kroning was an acquaintance of Sean. Before being influenced by Xiao Yun, Sean might have still remembered the friendship and regarded him as his "old friend". However, now... Mr. Sean no longer cared about the biggest exploiter of the Kroning Kingdom...
Whether it was the education of the clansmen or the courses taught to "J", the most important core knowledge of Xiao Yun was to settle accounts, to settle accounts for everyone, which naturally included the nobles and royal family; according to the most simple basic value of "those who work get food, and those who don't work don't get food", the so-called nobles and royal family were those who gathered the people together under various names to exploit them, and took advantage of the managers' righteousness but didn't do the real work of the managers. No matter how many such people died, Mr. Sean would not even frown...
Revenge Moon, who had not yet contacted Mr. Sean, finally remembered his original purpose after watching the drama for free. He immediately turned around and left to see the plantation in the Knight's territory with his own eyes.
The land Knight Robbins occupied was not good, with only a few hundred acres of land suitable for cultivation. But as the saying goes, a living person cannot be suffocated to death by urine, and Isaac, who had money and skills, came up with a clever idea - renting land from surrounding villages and stuffing the villagers into the plantations as workers.
The plantation provides three meals a day, pays wages, does not require them to pay taxes, and guarantees a harvest regardless of drought or flood. Any villager who does not work is a fool…The villages here are not like those “simple villagers” on Earth who rely on the power of local clans to eat up foreign investors until nothing is left. No regime in this world has the patience to “spoil” the common people to have such bad habits.
The three plantations were established by integrating the land and labor of three villages and copying the experience of the Snow Wolf Tribe. In addition to the staple food wheat and soybeans, the most commonly grown crops are various vegetables.
The reasons were, firstly, that large-scale planting of cash crops such as beets in Valentine would lead to resentment, exclusion and even suppression from local nobles; secondly, Isaac devoted his energy to plantations, with the main purpose of allowing the knights to be self-sufficient in food, and he had no intention of getting rich by farming.
When the Moon of Revenge walked into an area called Plantation No. 1, which was actually still pristine rural land, he was a little confused... There were no walls, not even the simplest wooden fences surrounded by thorn bushes. There were no supervisors wielding whips or deacons watching over farm tools in the fields, and there was even no one keeping a close eye on the serfs or peasants working in the fields.
This was so different from the common sense of the Lord's plantation in Revenge Moon that he began to doubt his memory. He went back to the entrance of the village and looked at the wooden sign that read "The First Plantation of Knight Robins' Territory" to make sure he had not found the wrong place.
"Is this really the plantation?" Confused, Revenge Moon walked into the village fields again, staring in a daze at the villagers who were working consciously and actively.
"If I remember correctly, villagers would be lazy even when cultivating their own fields?" Vengeance Moon couldn't help but scratch his head. To be honest, if he wasn't a black magician, he couldn't help but wonder if Isaac Robbins had cast some kind of confusing black magic on these villagers...
Just when the Moon of Revenge was doubting his life, a group of farmers who looked like a family had just cleared the weeds in a field. Seven or eight people, young and old, walked to the edge of the field, panting, to pack up their things. They used weeds to wipe off the dirt on the hoe, and then carefully wrapped the iron hoe with dry straw.
The grasslands' own herbicides and pesticides were not enough, so they could not "bless" the Knights' Territory. The farmers here still had to catch insects and weed with their hands. Of course, weeding was easier than catching insects. You just had to hoe off the grass roots and stomp them into the mud to use as fertilizer. It was not like catching insects, which required you to be busy all day and unable to straighten your back.
"Dad Connie, have you weeded your family's contracted land?" On the other side of the field, a farmer with only four people looked at him envious.
"Yeah, I got up early in the morning to get it done, and finally finished it before the afternoon, so that the kids at home can catch up to watch the open war football match this afternoon." The farmer, who has a large family, replied proudly.
The two families chatted casually for a while, and the family with fewer people watched their neighbor's large family return to the village with envy.
"They have three more laborers than us, and they are diligent. They go out to weed before dawn, so of course they can catch up with the game today." The hostess of the family complained, "I said at the time that we have a small family and don't need to contract as many responsibility fields as Connie's father. You see, they can finish the work in two days, but it takes us at least four or five days."
The male owner said with a guilty conscience: "What are you talking about? If I lease one less piece of land, I will have one less income. You agreed to it at the time..."
"I agreed to this because you asked me to call your brother back from town, who was a tailor's apprentice!" the hostess shouted. "But your brother couldn't stand the hardship and ran away as soon as the wheat was planted!"
"That's not the case. My brother was able to find a job in the third district of the Knight Territory, and the income is not worse than contracting the land..."
"Stop talking nonsense, he's not a contract worker!"
The Moon of Revenge listened to the quarrel between the husband and wife of the farmer's family for a while, and when the couple took their children home for lunch, they followed to take a look. Only then did she find out how Knight Isaac Robbins managed the plantation under his name.
Then, he felt that his entire worldview was being refreshed...
The plantation has no walls, no supervisors, no fierce thugs, and no deacons. Knight Robbins rents all the fields from the villagers, and then allows the villagers to contract the land for cultivation in a family model on a voluntary basis. The manager of the plantation only appears when distributing seeds and fertilizers (the products of pig farms), organizing farmland water conservancy work, and checking the progress of cultivation.
Adhering to the concept of "more work, more pay, no work, no pay", the income of villagers is linked to the cultivation of contracted fields, and the crops are graded according to their growth level. The better the crops are grown, the higher the salary. (The salary of managers is also linked to this, and a group rotation and tour management model is adopted. The management team does not stay in the village to avoid collusion with villagers to conceal or lie, or blackmail farmers by threatening to grade the crops.)
Farmers who become plantation workers in a family model not only have a guaranteed income regardless of drought or flood, and can get a minimum income even if natural disasters reduce production, but also enjoy the same level of welfare benefits as Knights' contract workers (different from temporary workers). Farm tools are provided by Knights, work clothes and work shoes (rubber shoes) are provided according to the season, and employee subsidies such as oil, flour, and noodles are received every month...
Although the Moon of Revenge lives in a secluded mansion, he is not unaware of the sufferings of the people. After understanding the Knights' management of the plantations, even if he has never been a farmer, he knows that under such employment conditions, it would be strange for farmers not to work hard - even if they were farming in the king's estate, there would be no better treatment than this!
"Isaac Robbins...!" The Moon of Vengeance murmured the name softly, and the heart that had been as calm as a dead water for many years began to surge again for someone else - although the other party was just a young-looking little knight with no legendary identity and not particularly glorious, but just looking at the generosity and kindness he showed, it was worthy of the Moon of Vengeance to make friends with him.
With such anxious and excited emotions, Moon of Revenge hurried back to the Knights' Territory.
Then... After passing through Area 2 and hearing the even louder noise coming from the battle field than in the morning, Vengeance Moon turned and went in again...
