LGHTNOVELBOOK Chapter 13 Visitors_2
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If the Legion's strategy is effective, then as Senior Mason said, even Revodan wouldn't be enough.
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Bard sat back down beside Winters, took a stone as a chess piece, and asked, "The landless farmers now have land, the Legion has tenant farmers, and the self-sustaining farmers remain self-sustaining. Whose interests are damaged?"
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"Manor lords." Obvious, Winters responded without hesitation.
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"So, the manor lords in places such as Wugou Town and Blackwater Town choose to support you vigorously, offering money and grain, and also providing you with hiding places."
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With a smile, Bard picked up the black stone that represented the manor lords: "Perhaps they do not understand the deeper game, but it is easy to see how their interests are harmed. Without their serfs, what's left to farm? When the land value plummets, doesn't that mean their wealth is shrinking?"
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Winters nodded.
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It was precisely because of these "local gentry" that his troops could appear and disappear like ghosts in the southwest of Revodan.
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Apart from supplying resources, the manor lords could also provide intelligence. They had widespread local connections and information channels.
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"But they are not enough to rely on." Bard tossed the black stone into the river.
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"There are too few people," Winters said softly.
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After the sovereignty war, the newly established Republics abolished all forms of personal dependency—excluding Hurd slaves, of course—which was the priceless legacy left by the old Marshal's generation.
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Although the manor lords of the Newly Reclaimed Land were influential, it was just influence.
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They were different from the nobles of the old era who could muster a large force of conscripted farmers when it came to war.
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"In my view, the New Reclamation Legion has the right approach, remove the restrictions, recruit disaster victims to cultivate the land. Land prices will fall, but it doesn't matter to the Legion. If they can create a large group of self-sustaining farmers, we will stand no chance against them. Better return to Vineta early, and I'll get into small business with you," Bard said, spreading defeatism with a laugh.
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Winters tried to defend the Venetians: "We Venetians... aren't all merchants."
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"Worse, if we fail, not even a small business could be managed." Bard's smile brightened: "So we must follow the New Reclamation Legion's path, but be even more ruthless than they are. We must take larger, more decisive, and more comprehensive steps."
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"More decisive?"
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Bard pointed across the river and asked Winters in return: "It's the end of August now, and winter wheat should be sown in September. How many acres have you reclaimed?"
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"This... I really don't know." Winters indeed didn't know.
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"With the few oxen, horses, and hundred-odd people we have, how many acres of wasteland could they possibly clear even if they worked themselves to death? Divided among everyone, it's barely enough to scrape by. To expect them to provide you with grain next year is wishful thinking! There might even be a great famine next year! Even if it could be cleared, it would be the worst land in Wolf Town! Because all the good land has already been sold off!" Bard's voice grew louder and his eyes brighter: "Yet right before our eyes, thousands of acres of the best farmland… are lying fallow!"
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Winters was startled: "The lands of the manor lords? That is their private property!"
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"I know! We are not going to take it for free; we can offer some rent, leasing their land! Then allocate it to the disaster victims. Why doesn't the New Reclamation Legion dare to do this? Because they themselves are the manor lords! If we want to defeat them, we must follow their path, but be more decisive than they are!"
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Bard already had a plan in mind, and he explained patiently: "Even the best land, if left fallow for too long, will go to waste. It's being wasted anyway, and the manor lords should be happy for someone to maintain the land for them."
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"What about afterward?" Winters asked in return: "We can't occupy it forever, right? Won't that just turn them into tenants and laborers again?"
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"The most critical thing is to cultivate new land! The Federated Provinces is not a place where all wasteland has been cultivated; it has room for further development!"
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Bard pointed to the wasteland across the river: "It's too late to cultivate new land this year, and even next year might not be sufficient! Wasteland won't magically transform into arable land; it takes time! And where could that time come from? Only by supplementing from existing arable land.
Farming the land in season and cultivating new land during farmer's leisure—that's what farmers have been doing for thousands of years. It's just that in the Newly Reclaimed Land, this natural process was artificially suppressed. And we only need to rebuild it."
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For the first time, Winters discovered how eloquent Bard could be.
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"What about afterward?" Winters asked again: "Will we return the land to the manor lords?"
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"Let's worry about the future when it comes, but I think we can return it," Bard said earnestly: "If we can cultivate enough new land, then we can give the land back to the manor lords. However, by then, it will be difficult for them to recruit enough tenants and laborers, unless there is new migration or we wait for natural population growth."
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"What if they disagree?"
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"Who disagrees?" Bard retorted, laughing as he pressed further: "Who disagrees?"
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"Yes!" Winters suddenly remembered the words of Brother Reed, bursting into laughter, "Who disagrees? What's the army for? In the end, it all comes down to who holds the hilt of the sword. If we can grasp that hilt, no problem is a problem. Let's do it! As for war, I've never been afraid of anyone."
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…
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Bard took over the land cultivation affairs, while Winters focused solely on preparing for the confrontation with Revodan.
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As graduates of the same military academy, everyone was too familiar with each other for things to simply end there.
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On the sixth day after Revodan received the news that Bard's and Senior Mason's team of a hundred "had been wiped out"—which was the twenty-first of September.
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