Chapter 343 Cecil's "Order"
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Hearing Gawain's words, Knight Philip was a little stunned for a while. He didn't quite understand what his lord meant, until Gawain asked him a more specific question: "When the old Cecil Territory was still there, your fief was How big is it?"
"There are two villages and a settlement to the southwest of the old castle," replied Knight Philip, "...and a mill."
In the system of Anzu Kingdom, this is a standard fief for poor knights. After the decline of the Cecil family, the knights loyal to the family are basically only these territories.
Gawain nodded: "You have been following me for a while, and you should know that according to the current land distribution system in Cecil Territory, there is no traditional land aristocratic living soil here, even if the concept of fief still exists, the land aristocracy's Privileges have been greatly compressed."
At present, Cecil Land has passed the initial stage of establishing a foothold. As more and more frontier areas are developed, land allocation has become a problem that the ruler of Cecil Land must consider. For Gawain, the pioneering construction of Cecil's territory is by no means his entire goal. After all, he wants to push the new order to the whole world, but he doesn't want the new order that he promotes in this world to become nothing. Progressive "change of dynasty", so he really spent a lot of brain cells when considering how to deal with the traditional land aristocracy and related systems.
In the beginning, he thought about making the reform in one step and completely erasing the concept of "nobility", completely binding the governance of the territory to the Council, and destroying all the nobles who stood in the way in the process of future territory expansion. However, During his trip to Glenland, he was woken up.
Going too far can lead to big problems.
Although the situation in Cecil’s territory is different from that in Glen’s territory ten years ago, although Gawain has implemented education and publicity to open up people’s wisdom in the territory, and also has his own armed team and supporting productivity, he It is still necessary to face up to the fact that beyond Cecil's territory, the almost indestructible old social order that pervades the entire world is still very strong, and even within Cecil's territory, those officials who strongly support him, Soldiers and civilians also grew up under the influence of the old social system, and the changes he wants to make are far more intense and profound than that of Glenn ten years ago.
The old social order has permeated everyone in this era of the world for a long time, and his "one-step approach" is likely to lead to unforeseen consequences.
No matter how fast the productivity of Cecil Land develops, it will be difficult for him to complete the transformation and reconstruction of the entire society while conquering the world in the process of future expansion. First of all, it is impossible for qualified and capable civilian managers to emerge out of thin air. , Most of the talents used to maintain social order still have to be selected from the old aristocratic system. Secondly, too extreme changes will stimulate the aristocratic system all over the world, unless he can eliminate all the opponents in the world in a short time. removed and replaced with a new system,
Then the situation where the external enemies will attack in a group will come sooner or later, and most likely it will come when Cecil's territory is greatly expanded and the interior is unstable.
Traditional aristocrats may be greedy or slow, but they are by no means stupid, nor lack vigilance.
After realizing these hidden dangers, Gawain thought carefully for a long time, and also referred to some situations of the Typhon Empire in the east, and finally he made his own policy in the future expansion, that is to keep the nobles, but gradually disintegrate their survival. soil.
Gawain will retain the title of "noble" and some honorary privileges, and will even retain their power to collect tribute from the land in the early stage, but he will take back all the super-spec powers of the enfeoffed nobles, including legislation, keeping the army, coining , self-determined tax rates and other privileges, in this way, the land aristocracy's control over the land will be greatly weakened. At the same time, Gawain also plans to abolish the concept of "fiefdom" and replace it with "territory" to cut The relationship between the old "lord" and the land, in the end, he hopes to create such a situation:
A new noble, he owns a de jure "land", he can receive a certain percentage of tribute from the economic development of this land as his "annuity", but apart from this "dividend", he will no longer Retaining any control over the land and its population, he could retain the family castle, treasury, and honorary titles, but that was all he could retain.
If he wants to gain more income or gain more power, then he can choose to compete for a position in the government office, or invest in opening a factory or business.
This is an incomplete change, but Gawain knows that even this level of change will still greatly stimulate the traditional nobles, even more serious than the Typhon Empire next door, attracting more intense After all, the rebound is in Typhon, and the nobles at least still retain the concept of "fiefdom".
But that's okay, as long as their backlash is within Cecil's "truth"'s control, then nothing is a problem.
After the pain, they will cooperate.
Of course, most of these are plans in Gawain's heart. Although many people in the territory have guessed the fact that the ancestors are planning to pick up the rolling pin and beat the children, after all, Gawain hasn't said the words, just for those smart people such as As for Knight Philip, he can at least see the position of the landed nobles in the "Cecil Order" from the various systems in place in the territory.
"To be honest, when you first announced the land distribution system, formed the Council of Ministers, and transformed various lord powers into the daily work of the Council, I had a sense of... resistance for a while," Philip was a sincere person, Even in the face of his idols and even spiritual role models for the past 20 years, he did not hide his thoughts, "I also discussed with Knight Byron at that time about when you would think of talking to us. The matter of the fief..."
Gawain looked at the gentleman knight in front of him who would definitely tell the truth with a smile: "Then what about now?"
"Your wisdom has made this land so prosperous," said Philip sincerely, "I never imagined that a piece of land could become so rich in such a short time in this way, not by farming and tenancy, but by Relying on factories and commerce, if you hadn’t abolished the old system that tied the people to the land, and if you hadn’t set up an efficient government office, then the factories and commerce would never have been able to operate.”
"Then do you still miss your fief?" Gawain continued to ask.
"A true nobleman, he gets the title not for who to rule or for what benefit, but to protect the people, keep the people safe, and make the land prosperous. All his privileges are for better fulfilling this obligation. Existing is what you said in Ansu 4 years, I engraved it on my shield," Philip said with a serious face, "So, if your new order can make the territorial people safe and the land thriving and doing better than the old system of privilege, then there is no need to keep those privileges.”
"Very good," Gawain nodded with satisfaction, "It would be great if everyone could have the same awareness as you..."
Then he paused and commanded, "I want you to gather all the knights in Kant's territory to swear their allegiance."
For a long time, Philip Knight was in charge of liaising with Kant and Cecil, so he was the perfect choice to do this.
The young Mr. Knight bowed his head: "I will definitely complete the mission."
After Philip left, only Amber and Gawain were left in the study.
The half-elf lady circled Gawain twice. Strictly speaking, she circled the entire desk in two large circles. Her actions made Gawain unable to resist: "What are you going to circle around?"
"I think you're going to do something big," Amber looked at Gawain with a serious face, "but I don't understand what exactly you're going to do."
"That's right, it's quite surprising that you can see that I'm going to do something," Gawain looked at this half-elf who usually doesn't know anything about territory, laws, traditional nobles and the like, "what are you doing? See it?"
As soon as Amber opened his mouth, Gawain wanted to pat her on the wall: "What I'm best at in my life is doing things, I still can't see the temperament of the same kind?"
"You... Forget it, I didn't expect you to understand."
"Don't say that, I can still see a little bit," Amber said immediately, staring at him, "I know how many privileges you took back after you changed your fief to a dependency, and how you brought those privileges under the control of the Council of State Administration. In the past, besides you, there were only Rebecca, a baroness, and two knights, Byron Philip. At that time, I was curious. Who are you targeting by doing this in advance? Now I see it, you will be in the future It's hard to say who it is, but now the old knights in Kant's leadership will definitely be shot first...Aren't you afraid of those knights fighting back together?"
"The ordained knights are half of the land nobility. They have far less privileges than real lords. They have no powers such as legislation and coinage. After obeying Cecil's new law, they just put The land rent income has become annuity income, and they have lost their legal right to rule the fiefs, but they can get more benefits from the new social order... People with a little wisdom and foresight will know what to choose."
"God, you actually asked them to have wisdom and foresight, the two things that nobles lacked the most!" Amber said in a very exaggerated tone, "What should they do if they don't?"
"That's great. The savings will be enough for me to open several steel foundries in the Kant area."
Looking at the sincere smile on Gawain's face, Amber suddenly remembered the "negotiation method" mentioned by the other party earlier.
She suddenly felt a little cold...
"However, I think they are more likely to see the situation clearly," Gawain said with a smile, "Then again, they have not lost many privileges, so their resistance will not be so strong, at least not to the extent The extent to which they put their lives to resist and as long as they see the power of the Cecil Order after this, they will know how right their choice is."