Lady of the Lord From the East

There were only one hundred people who changed from slave status to serf status this time, but for all slaves, it gave them a goal to strive for. Since then, these slaves have worked harder than before, in order to win a certain One day he will no longer be a slave.

And the slaves who became serfs are naturally very happy, but many of them are family members, and they are happy to be separated from the slave status, but it is not that they cannot live together after the slaves, which is not very happy. .

There are also some older slaves who are alone. They are worried that after their identity change, they will not be able to do their previous jobs. It is difficult for them to find a job or farm again at their age. How can they feed themselves?

Thinking about it this way, it seems that being a serf is not as good as they think.

Fortunately, their masters are really good masters. Wei Wei naturally thought of these issues when cancelling their slave status.

Her solution was to arrange the new serfs to a serf village closest to the slave settlements—the two places were basically separated by a river, and a bridge had been built over the river, making it easy to travel between them.

And their jobs can also be retained. Those old people still do the work together, and the castle still supports them, but all the parts other than the three meals are turned into wages and handed over to them, and the wages are more work. It depends, but the amount is the same as for other serfs.

Of course, if they don't want to continue their previous jobs, they can farm the land like other serfs or find work in factories, but it depends on their own abilities. Since they are no longer slaves, the castle will treat them as ordinary serfs. .

And among them, there is also a new regulation that if the original husband and wife - slaves also need a license to be married - if one party becomes a serf and the other party is still a slave, the serf party can pay for the other party every month. Fees, after paying the money, the slaves can not work for two days, or even leave the place where the slaves live to reunite their husband and wife. Of course, there are only two days a month, and more rest is prohibited.

If one of the husband and wife becomes a serf and they have children, the serf is allowed to take their children away and change their status together, but the age of the children is stipulated, only children under the age of seven are allowed to leave, and children over the age of seven are allowed to leave. If they want to take it away, their parents have to pay a ransom for them, the price is double the price they bought it, and this rule is satisfied with all other slaves, but only relatives can redeem them for them, and no one else can Right to do so, the castle will not let them redeem.

Of course, the redeemed can only be turned into serfs, and the freedmen should not think about it. Many of their jobs involve the secrets of the castle. For the sake of confidentiality, it is impossible for these people to become freedmen and leave the manor.

As soon as the news came out, it made them even more happy. What if the redemption money was higher? If they could be redeemed as serfs, it was already a kindness of the Duchess. Although they have no money now, as long as they work hard, they can get it together sooner or later. Yes, and even if you have no money and work hard, you will also have the opportunity to win awards, because the Duchess said that the castle will release a group of slaves every year, and everyone has a chance!

This time, the number of people who actually broke away from slave status is much higher. After all, people in this period are very keen to have children and have no effective contraceptive measures, so it is normal for many families to have a child every year, and these slaves are no exception. If it weren't for the large gap between males and females, very few of them could remain single, so in the past few years, the number of newborns has been quite large, and many slaves have worked so hard to support their families. So that the children who can't work at home can have a meal, so most of the 100 people who stand out in the end are slaves with several children, and it is precisely because the female slaves need to devote some energy to taking care of the children, right? It is inevitable that my work will have some impact, so the slaves released this time are basically male, that is, many are husbands and wives, one side is a serf and the other is a slave. In this way, even if the family is over seven years old, there is no money to redeem them. Children can also live with the slaves without worrying about no one to take care of them.

Of course, there will be difficulties and troubles more or less, but they have to overcome them slowly.

Soon these new serfs packed up and separated from their families and moved to the village on the other side of the bridge.

After arriving in this village, they discovered that the serfs here have all moved to other places, and only one steward still lives here, and this steward will also be the village head here in the future, while the other serfs will stay when they leave. The house that came down was distributed to them by the new village chief.

Looking at an empty village with nothing but houses, a group of new serfs with children felt a little uneasy, and couldn't help but ask the new village chief where all the former serfs went.

"Didn't the duke divide the homestead for everyone before? Their new house has been built, so naturally they moved there."

The new village chief pointed to the distance: "Well, it's over there, it's about half an hour's walk from here, you can go and see for yourself if you are curious."

There are also welfare serfs who can get homesteads when freedmen migrate. The land in the manor was re-planned a long time ago, and many villages that have lived in dilapidated and old villages for many years have moved from their original places like the people here. When it came to the new house, the land allocated to this village was built recently, so they had just moved away. The original old house had not been demolished yet, and it was just left for them to live in temporarily.

The uninformed slaves did not know about this, and when they saw the empty village, they thought that the people in it were sick or other reasons were gone, so they were disturbed.

Now that I know it's not, I naturally feel relieved and go to see their new home happily.

Although the houses here are very dilapidated, many leaks of air and rain, and there is nothing inside, but for these people, this is their future home.

Everyone is very adaptable to the new life. They find that what they need to do is no different from before. They get up early every day and walk across the bridge to go to work with the slaves, eat the food prepared by the castle, and get advance payment for them to buy. The wages of daily necessities, go back to their new home to rest at night, and wait for the next day.

It seems that nothing has changed, but no one restricts them anywhere they want to go after work. There are also regulated holidays every month, and they can also ask for leave occasionally if they have something to do. There is no other punishment except the salary deduction. If they need to leave the manor, they can You can ask the steward to apply for approval. This freedom is completely different from being a slave.

These people have been accustomed to the new life for a long time. Everyone seems to be more energetic than before, and they are working harder. Now their hope is to save money through their own efforts to redeem their relatives and reunite the family.

Wei Wei is also very satisfied. Although she has only released a small number of slaves, she has calculated the wages of these people. If she saves money well, it will not be difficult for each of them to redeem two or three slaves by the end of next year. Buying people is very cheap. Even if it is twice the price, it is actually not high, and many children and old people are almost given away by slave traders as free gifts. What she means here is to give two silver coins. The price, the remuneration the serfs get after deducting their own labor tax, and then deducting their daily expenses, a little three months of wages can be redeemed for one.

In this way, the castle can also raise a lot of slaves. Although they lack manpower, the use of slaves and serfs is similar. The former requires special management, but Wei Wei feels that it is not as convenient as the latter, although some jobs are indeed It is more suitable for slaves whose private property is impossible to rebel, but serfs also have status restrictions, and they are also impossible to rebel.

After all, for the nobles, whether it is a slave or a serf is just a different name, and they are essentially the same, and they feel different.

Of course, the difference between slaves and serfs in Sardinson is still very big, and it is not the same as elsewhere.

"Madam, the person you were looking for has been found."

"Really? How's the craft?"

"They are all first-class masters in the industry, and they are guaranteed to meet your requirements."

"Then bring everyone over, you can arrange this by yourself, be careful not to have any accidents."

"Okay lady, I'll go right now."

On this day, a group of people came to the village of the newly promoted serfs. The people in the village were informed by the village chief that they did not have to go to work today, and they all gathered together.

After calling the people, the village introduced them: "These people are here to remove the marks of slavery for you. Everyone line up and report in front of them."

Slave mark, when it comes to this, everyone can't help but shrink their heads, and then touch their stamina.

All slaves will be branded by slave traders before they are sold, and the brand is usually slapped on the back of the neck, which is eye-catching and does not affect the appearance - especially for some good-looking slaves - and the marks are made with burning red This process is very painful. After the wound grows, it will leave an ugly scar. Almost no slave can be freed from this identity. This natural mark will stay on the slave for a lifetime.

Those slave owners are not afraid of the slaves removing the mark and running away, because to remove the slave mark, you need to dig out the meat in that place, otherwise even if only some traces are left, you can see it, and the digging place will also leave wounds, All those who have the stamina to dig meat, if there is no evidence to prove their identity, they will be taken away as fugitive slaves after seeing the wound.

And now let them remove the slave mark, many people don't want to. Because after the brand was dug out, the wound was too large, and many slaves who tried to be free died from the wound infection in the later stage, and they were afraid that they would do the same.

Some people swallowed their saliva and walked away from those who carried the boxes with fear on their faces: "No, noble village chief, I don't need to remove the brand, in fact, it doesn't matter if there is such a mark, doesn't it? The Duchess has already admitted it. Our identity, in the manor, even if we have this mark, we are still serfs."

"No, this is the order of the Duchess." The village chief frowned at the disobedient people, and said impatiently: "The Duchess specially invited a tattoo artist with outstanding craftsmanship for you humble people. Lady's kindness and kindness, are you going to disobey the Duchess' orders?"

Tattoo master?

This term is very foreign to them. The church has always banned tattoos. They regard those who have tattoos as savages and heretics. Many of these slaves are foreigners. They hardly know what tattoos are. Raddy itself and the church do not deal with it. The more they ban it, the more people like to do it. Therefore, some people in Prady also regard tattoos as a sign of bravery. Many people who consider themselves powerful like to tattoo some beasts on their bodies. pattern, so there are some tattooists everywhere.

Wei Wei is looking for someone to invite several top-notch tattoo artists to come back this time, and ask them to help these people change the slave brand into a tattoo. After all, digging the brand is life-threatening, and covering it with a tattoo can hide the brand and be beautiful. Safer and more effective.

People who know about tattoos are not afraid now. They stood up from the crowd, walked to the group of tattoo artists first, and lined up obediently.

There are only a few tattoo masters invited, and tattooing is a time-consuming job. This time is naturally not short. They can only tattoo a few people a day. , I just wanted to let the other serfs go back to work and wait for them to come back.

But these serfs wanted to see the process of their tattooing, and asked the village chief to let them stay for a while to see how these tattoo masters work.

The first person in line has already been arranged to lie down. The brand on his stamina is very large, and the unevenness is very ugly.

The tattoo master looked at his brand, but took out a few drawings from the box and handed them to him: "Which one do you want to tattoo?"

The man looked up and found that the drawings had different patterns, but there was a familiar mark in one of them.

Someone took a closer look and exclaimed, "This is the master's family crest!"

Born as slaves, they are used to calling Felix Master. Although they are no longer slaves, they have not changed their words and seem to not plan to change.

"Yes, these tattoos all have the family crest of the Duke." The village chief raised his chin and said proudly: "You can praise the kindness of the lady, the tattoos can't completely cover the marks on your body, wear The family crest of the Duke, you don't have to worry about being taken away as a fugitive slave."

The family crest of aristocrats can not be used by everyone. It is illegal to use them without permission, so few people will tattoo the family crest on their bodies. Now the Duchess agrees with them to use such tattoos. , other people know that they are the Duke's people when they see their stamina tattoos, and naturally they dare not shoot at them.

This is a security guarantee.

The person lying on his stomach immediately chose a pattern he liked. The pattern he chose not only had the family crest of the duke, but also the personal badge belonging to the duchess. I have seen it on the clothes the lady is wearing, and I heard it is her family crest.

With two family crests on the body, there is nothing better than this.

These people have been asked to wash the back of the neck before, so now the tattoo masters can do it directly.

The few people who grabbed the first place are now starting to be afraid again. They keep worrying about whether it will hurt a lot, and they are embarrassed to retreat because there are a group of people around them. hand over.

But the expected pain did not seem to come. They found that there was indeed some pain in the back of the neck, but it was completely within the acceptable range.

So soon they calmed down slowly.

However, the onlookers did not know it, and they whispered one by one.

"It looks so painful."

"Yeah, how can it not hurt when you stab it one needle at a time?"

"Fortunately my kids are not branded and don't need to suffer like this."

The children born by the purchased slaves in Sardinson were not branded. This is something Wei Wei and Felix did not plan to do early in the morning, but the slaves always thought that the children were not beaten because they were young. After all, such a small child It is not easy to feed, and if it is branded, it is basically impossible to survive.

"They are so brave that none of them cried out in pain."

When the tattoo artist heard this, he raised the corners of his mouth proudly, ready to brag, when he heard the tattoo master speak.

"The Duchess gave us some potions, which can be used to reduce pain when tattooing." That is, anesthesia.

"Oh, it really doesn't hurt."

When the others heard that the potion was given by the Duchess, they immediately felt relieved. If they didn't believe anything else, could they still believe in the Duchess's medical skills?

That is a medical technique that even the king and the crown prince can cure!

These tattoo masters are all skilled, and a tattoo can be done in about half an hour. The freshly baked tattoos are all black, because the patterns are specially designed according to their slave marks, so the finished products cover up those scars well, not deliberately If you look closely, you can't tell that there is a scar underneath.

The tattooed refugee who had just been tattooed was a little red and swollen, and the tattoo master smeared the anti-swelling ointment also provided by the Duchess, and patted the person for the next one.

The tattooed person stood up and couldn't help but want to touch the back of his neck. He was warned not to move as soon as he touched it, so he could only retract his hand embarrassingly, and then looked at the back of other people's necks.

And those who didn't have tattoos came to look behind them, not to mention, the craftsmanship of these tattoo masters is really good, each tattoo is exactly the same as the picture, although it is black, it is very beautiful, and other people who watch it are also looking forward to it. I got my own tattoo, so people who haven't queued up can't wait to choose the pattern they want.

After a few days, everyone's tattoos were done, and no one had any problems. These tattooists went to the castle to get their wages. When they came to Sardinson, someone specially picked them up, and each tattooed person gave a copy. Money, and there are additional rewards for good tattoos, so these people are willing to make a special trip.

Naturally, other people take care of the small matters of billing. Wei Wei was also considering whether to mention it to the serfs after she raised her points for the slaves.

These people manage the manor, and they are all born into serfs. Naturally, they know that serfs are not the same as slaves. Many of them are very proud of being the serfs of the Duke and even take pride in them. Some people look down on those free people and feel that They were no match for themselves, especially in Sardinson, where few wanted to go from serf to freeman.

If Wei Wei did this, I am afraid that the serfs would not be happy, but would be unhappy.

Just kidding, in addition to being restricted in and out of the manor, what else are the serfs in Sardinson Castle inferior to the freedmen? They have houses and (rented) land, they can work and earn money, and their children agree to have the opportunity to have education. Even because they are serfs, they can enter factories that free people can’t enter. They have free education that free people don’t have. The tax paid is higher than that of the freedmen, but they earn more. How can they just run away to be a freedman in such a good life? Only fools are happy.

Now in Sardinson, it's all the free folk who envy serfs and wish they could become serfs too. Unfortunately, because there are too many serfs, they will not continue to increase the population of serfs from this year onwards. Many have this idea. Everyone has to regret that they missed the opportunity.

Therefore, as soon as this decision was made, it was immediately rejected by the serfs themselves.

Wei Wei originally thought that there might be serfs who aspired to become free people. Seeing that the treatment of slaves would be affected, she planned to do so, but since they themselves are not willing, then forget it.

At the end of November, Felix had been out for a long time. He wrote to Wei Wei to tell Wei Wei that he might not be back until Christmas, and asked her to take care of the fleet.

This is no trouble. All the crew members needed for the five ships have been recruited. Kingsley, the leader of the team, has agreed to take this trip before. The members of the caravan and knight soldiers have also been selected. Wei Wei wants All they do is determine what kind of cargo they are bringing with them.

All kinds of specialties in Sardinson are of course indispensable. Are the special delicacies that can be preserved for a long time not short of sales? Perfume and cosmetics are very suitable for pleasing local noble women, and the clocks are exquisitely crafted like works of art It is also a rarity. You can bring all of these. In addition, some of the European continents are more common, and Wei Wei has also picked a lot of things that are not available on the other side.

After thinking about it again and again, she also asked Kingsley to bring some preserved chocolate over there. Cocoa beans are a specialty there, but people there now eat cocoa beans by grinding them into powder and drinking it as a drink, and the taste is only They can accept it themselves. Bringing chocolate in the past will definitely make them discover that cocoa can be even more delicious, and the number of people who are willing to grow cocoa should also increase.

Of course, it is impossible to ask her to give the production method. In the future, you will either pay or exchange the raw materials. If you want to come, the other party is willing, and with such a cooperation, it would be nothing to ask the monarch over there to send someone to help her find rubber trees. It's hard.

After all, it's still a slave-holding country, and foreigners are somewhat dangerous in the local area. With the protection of the upper-class kings and nobles, her people can be safer.

Batches of goods were delivered from the factory to five ships at the dock. The long-prepared fleet finally set sail and headed for the other side of the Mediterranean Sea.

Shortly after the ship left, Baron Stoichkov from Soria next door came again with the team to deliver the goods.