Chapter 58 Norris' Story

Gawain's sudden question made Norris a little sluggish 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 peasant decided to honestly admit, because more than one person knew that he could read and write. Once the lord lord went to someone else to ask the truth, then he would really break the law.

"Yes . . . sir," Norris said nervously, clutching the button on his chest, "I learned . . . to read and write."

Gawain raised his eyebrows, thinking that his judgment was correct.

Although Norris didn't write a word just now, just sketching, but just from the posture of the other party when he picked up the pen holder, he can tell a lot of problems: people who can read and write feel completely different when they hold the pen. In this almost illiterate world, he had seen how those illiterate people grasped the barrel of the pen and drew lines on the paper in a clumsy way, and the farmer in front of him was clearly holding the pen in a standard manner.

Even Heidi looked at Norris with some surprise, and it seemed that she had just discovered this fact.

"Don't worry, being able to write is not against the law, nor is it against the law to teach others to read and write," Gao Wen realized that his sudden question might have frightened the honest farmer, so his tone softened, "Who taught you to read and write? ?"

After receiving the lord's promise, Norris felt a little more at ease. He rubbed his hands and showed a slightly embarrassed smile: "Lord Lord, I'm not afraid of your jokes... I almost entered the church back then and became a The priest who serves the Goddess of Harvest, the ability to read and write was learned from a teacher at that time..."

The son of a peasant almost entered the church and became a priest?

Such a wonderful experience immediately interested Gawain, so under his questioning, the story of Farmer Norris was finally known.

The other party was indeed born in a peasant family and was a free citizen who lived in Cecil Land for generations. Although he had so many acres of thin fields, he was like most commoners in this era, and he lived on the line of food and clothing. Originally, his life would be the same as that of most commoners. He would be tied to the land all his life, busy with seedlings and ditches, and the only way for him to deal with those high priests and churches was to go to the church in town every once in a while. Say a prayer, or get a mission when the priests come to the country fields—but at the age of eight, an opportunity presented itself to Norris and his parents.

A priest of the Goddess of Harvest who came from the Plain of the Holy Spirit and traveled to preach came to Cecil Territory and temporarily stayed in the village where Norris lived. For farmers, it is very rare and lucky for the priest of the Three Gods of Harvest to cross the road. So everyone in the village immediately gathered money, and according to the rules of the three gods of abundance, the elders of the village brought a few children to the priest to "gift" the priest, so that the priest could bless the farmland of the village.

Then the priest looked at Norris, who was eight years old, and said, "Blessed is this child who is with the earth, and he bears the grace of the goddess of the harvest."

Just because of this sentence, after the priest left, Norris' parents sold almost all the valuable belongings in the family, and the old people in the village also tried to get some money out, and they went to the manor together to ask the knight in the manor to ask for it. After obtaining a pass, Norris was finally sent to the Church of the Earth Goddess in Tanzania, making him a "slave apprentice"-although the three gods of abundance are three sects with independent inheritance, but at the same time they have an extraordinarily close relationship. The goddess of the earth, as the main god of the three gods of abundance, usually enshrines the goddess of harvest and the goddess of spring at the same time in her shrine, and the priest candidates of the three goddesses will generally accept the same before receiving official blessings. Education, after completing the education, you can choose which god to convert to according to your "spiritual talent".

Therefore, when the Church of the Goddess of Harvest could not be found around, sending Norris to the shrine of the Earth Goddess was the only choice his parents had at that time.

Norris studied in the temple for five years, and then got the result from the higher church:

"This apprentice doesn't have the spiritual talent of the gods of abundance."

To this day, Norris still remembers how happy the villagers were at first when the letter with these words was delivered to the village - because they couldn't read at all, and the messenger was very drunk. The villagers and Norris' parents were not told what the letter was written at all.

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

Norris told his story quietly. His wrinkled face showed no sadness or joy, and there was only peace in his sunken eye sockets, as if those things had really gone away, and he would never be with him again. It doesn't matter anymore: "In the next few years, life was very difficult, the debts we owe have not been paid, and the family has long been empty - Father didn't get through the winter of that year, but he still got by, and we owe it. Everyone's money has to be paid back.

"So my mother took me and my younger brother and sister to the castle of the Viscount. Oh, at that time Viscount Cecil was still Miss Rebecca's father. We went to kowtow to the Viscount, saying that life is really hard, the Viscount. With kindness, we were exempted from the land tax we had to pay, and lent us seeds and half a bag of grain. With those seeds and grains, plus wild vegetables that were growing exceptionally well back then, we were considered to have survived.

"After that, I'll farm the land in a down-to-earth way, and help people with chores. I do the work for two or three people by myself, and I can read and write. When there are merchants in the village, I will help everyone calculate the jinliang. Change some bread. In a few years, we will pay our debts, and also pay the viscount's grain and grain..."

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

The story of Farmer Norris is over, Gawain just frowned, but Hetty couldn't help but press his chest: "I... I never knew that such a thing happened on the territory... We have always tried our best to give alms... …”

"Giving alms can't save anyone, because it can't solve the root cause, and this kind of thing happens every day, you can't see it in the castle," Gawain shook his head, then looked at Norris curiously, "I noticed your gesture just now... ...you still believe in the Goddess of Harvest?"

"I believe, why don't you believe it?" The wrinkles on Norris' face piled up. "The goddess of the 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?"

Gawain looked at each other quietly: "Even because of this belief, you have suffered so much?"

Norris was silent for a moment, then lowered his head: "Master, that's my bad life, how can I blame the gods? And compared to others, I have at least learned something and recognized the words - although I know each other. Words are useless for the rest of us."

"It's not useless to read," Gawain looked at the farmer seriously, "Noris, you must be good at farming, right?"

Speaking of this, Norriston became even more proud: "Master, I can't say anything else, but when it comes to farming, my skills are excellent - otherwise, how could I have survived such a difficult time? "

Gawain asked again: "You can read and count, and you have been educated by the church, so the new rules I asked Hetty to read to you, as well as the form I designed to record the workload, you should be able to easily Do you understand? If you were asked to fill out forms and calculate land and production, would you be able to do it?"

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

During this period of time, due to Gawain's implementation of a labor system that requires counting and evaluation, the usual overseers who can only wield whips but don't know a single word have no place. The overseers on the territory are all selected by family warriors. Hetty even served it himself (some of the family warriors belonged to knight attendants, at least know a few numbers, and can write some simple words), so when Norris heard Gawain's question, he couldn't help but think of it. this aspect.

"No, it's not just a supervisor, in fact, if you can do it, I intend to let you manage the entire land reclamation, and even the grain production in the later stage," Gao Wen said, "Of course, it is impossible to have such a large power all at once. I will let Heidi 'assess' you, and I will tell you what to do at any time."

The expression on Norris' face suddenly changed: "Old... lord! I don't quite understand... Are you asking me to be your housekeeper? But the housekeeper is not just in charge of food..."

"This is a kind of position, but it's not a housekeeper," Gawain laughed. "If you have to say it, call it... the agricultural supervisor first. And I want to tell you first, this position is different from any position in the noble territory in the past. It's not the same, you can't pass it on as a title, unless your kids are talented enough - it's not lifelong either, if you don't do it well, or if you're offended by the convenience of your job With regard to the Law of Cyr, then you will be removed, punished, and punished. And so will many of the positions I have established in this land from now on—do you understand?”

If Gawain hadn't warned about so many restrictions, perhaps Norris would have been afraid to accept this "good luck from the sky"-because the good luck from the sky was very similar to the priest when he was eight years old. When the village said that he could "receive the grace of God", but after Gawain's warning, he actually thought about it seriously, and thought that this should be true.

An ordinary poor man wouldn't think like him, but Norris would, because he was educated, and even though it nearly killed him, he learned "logic" from that education.

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

(I’m going to go out today, I’m afraid I won’t have a chance to touch the computer all day and at night. I can only code out a chapter and set up automatic updates. There is only one chapter today.)