Pairs of small hands were placed in front of Liang Lidong. If this was on Earth, children of this age would have hands that were usually white and clean. But here, he only saw pairs of brown and yellow hands that were covered in calluses. Even Belin, the girl next to him, had big calluses on her hands. The commoners of this world were always hardworking, but they would never be able to fill their stomachs. As long as there was a small drought, there would be people who would starve to death. They diligently plowed their small piece of land, but 60% of the food they harvested would be given to the Lord, and the remaining 10% would be given to the Village Chief, leaving them with only 30%.
After Liang Lidong became a lord in the game, he only collected twenty percent of the food tax, which was already very high in his eyes. He didn't even want to collect food. However, Hollevin's policies did not allow him to do so. Lords had to collect at least twenty percent of the grain they collected, up to sixty percent … All the NPC lords of Hollevin charged the highest grain tax, and Liang Lidong's territory had the lowest grain tax, as well as the lowest business tax. Therefore, it attracted a lot of NPC civilians to move to his territory to live and develop.
In just a few years, his territory had transformed from a worthless village in the wilderness into a major commercial town. Not counting the migrant population, there were more than four hundred thousand local residents. Although it was not as large as the historical cities with millions of people, it would only take a decade or two for it to become a million if it continued to develop at this speed. However, because too many civilians moved to his territory from nearby areas, the NPC lords bordering his territory were very hostile to him. They joined forces several times and attacked his territory for inexplicable reasons.
Unfortunately, he had a lot of player friends. There were only four people in the entire server who could become a lord as a player, and they were all Divine Nobles. He was one of them.
Generally speaking, players preferred to gather in the territory of the player lords. Because of the intimacy, the four player territories were also called the four main cities by the players. Players spontaneously gathered in the four cities for all kinds of communication or business activities. Every time the neighboring nobles attacked Liang Lidong's territory, the players would spontaneously protect his territory. Ordinary soldiers couldn't fight against professionals, and there was also a large guild stationed in Liang Lidong's territory.
For the players of the large guilds, every time the enemy army attacked, it was an excellent opportunity to "farm experience," and they were eager for the enemy to harass them every day. And Liang Lidong was also very tactful, implementing the policy of making friends far away and attacking those near them. He had a good relationship with the other nobles of Hollevin, but he had always been hostile to the few lords who bordered him. Every day, he would run to other people's cities with a small group of cavalry and use magic to shout and harass them. Since the other side had made the first move, Liang Lidong would do the same, causing the other lords to suffer unspeakably.
Several lords once wanted to block the business routes in Liang Lidong's territory, but because of the existence of players, this became a dream. Merchants went to the Mercenary Guild to issue escort quests, and the players formed small groups to accept quests to protect the merchants' safety, and if they dared to make things difficult for them, they would attack them in one go. Players could be resurrected after they died, but NPCs couldn't. After a period of time, several lords signed a peace agreement with Liang Lidong in private. They were very humble and paid a great price.
Liang Lidong's wars against several lords almost always ended in victory, except for a certain prophecy incident.
In the game, Liang Lidong implemented low grain taxes and low business taxes, and he also used the lord system to issue a lot of maintenance quests for the players to take on, making the security in the territory excellent, and the ordinary civilians lived well, at least eating well and wearing warm clothes.
Now when he saw these children with sallow faces and dirty bodies, he felt a little uncomfortable. "In the future, not only do you have to wash your hands before writing, but you also have to keep your hands clean. Work is an honorable act, but after work, you also have to wash your hands and try to keep your hands clean. Also, you have to bathe every day in the future … If you are dirty, it is disrespectful to words. That's it for today, but from tomorrow onwards, you have to wash yourself clean before coming over. Clothes can be old, can be patched, but can't be dirty. I don't accept students who use profane words here, understand? "
The children nodded vigorously.
Liang Lidong didn't preach any principles to these children. In this era of low productivity, doing things in the name of religion was more effective than simply preaching. In the early origins of many civilizations, the so-called rituals were actually self-cleansing actions before worshiping the gods, a process of religious rituals. Clean people were always less likely to get diseases. Humans vaguely felt this benefit, and later it slowly evolved into the daily lives of ordinary people. It could be said that it was the first religion or ancestor worship that made humans love cleanliness.
Seeing that all the children had listened to his words, Liang Lidong put up the sign on the side, then took out the plant paint that the village chief had sent over, and wrote three large words in light red in Hollevin:
"I"
"You"
"He"
The language of Hollevin was also pictographic, so each word could represent one or more meanings, and the way these three words were written was simple enough, with only two or three strokes, which was very suitable as an introductory text.
The children listened very carefully, and after Liang Lidong explained the meaning and writing of the three words, he asked them to practice on the sand, which was why he asked them to gather by the river. Of course, if they were rich enough, they could indeed use paper to practice writing, but the problem was that all the children here were from poor families, and the normal price of a piece of parchment was thirty-eight copper coins … Except for a small number of extremely rich nobles, no one was willing to use parchment to practice at the beginning of learning.
By noon, all the children had mastered the meaning and writing of the three words, and after Liang Lidong asked them to practice on their own in the afternoon to familiarize themselves with them, he announced that they were dismissed.
At this time, the young laborers who went up the mountain to quarry stones had all returned, and they poured the stones on the flat ground in the center of the village, forming a small hill. After eating their own dry food and well water, and after a short rest, they began to lay the foundation. Whether a house could be built or not depended on whether the foundation was solid. Some of the older students were not in a hurry to go home, but they followed the adults to help build the temple.
At this time, there were naturally adults who asked them how their studies were going, and these children told them Liang Lidong's request. In the past, if other people asked their children to bathe every day and wash their hands before and after meals, these adults would spit and scold that person to death: Have you ever seen a poor child take a bath once a day?
But Liang Lidong was different, he was a priest, a spellcaster, a special group that was nobler than the nobles, and most importantly, now that their children had begun to read, they could barely be regarded as half a 'scholar' in the future, and no longer the poor untouchables. Scholars had the etiquette that scholars should abide by, and from now on, it was necessary and necessary to start practicing the most basic etiquette, which showed that the priest was not fooling them, but teaching the children very seriously.
There was no such saying in this world as' give a plum and be rewarded with a peach ', but they understood that words could not be learned with money, and it was a gift from Goddess Woking that the priest was willing to teach them. Moreover, if they went to the city to learn, they would have to pay a gold coin for a hundred words, and there was no guarantee that they would be taught how to write, only to recognize. Even if they could not recognize it, it was none of their business.
The priest had to teach the children 540 words, which was equivalent to 5 gold coins and 40 silver coins, an amount that the entire village might not be able to gather even if they worked hard for a year without eating or drinking. If the village head of Seri Village sold his superior beast hide, he could get quite a lot of gold coins, but it was something he had accumulated over decades, and it could be said that he had risked his life for it, so he was reluctant to exchange it for money.
Since the priest was so generous, they could only reluctantly repay the kindness by working hard to build the temple well.
Liang Lidong didn't think that he was being generous. In the eyes of the players, a simple literacy tutorial wasn't worth much money. To them, what was really valuable were the various combat skills, talents, magic, and character experience … Teaching students to gain character experience was actually a win-win situation. To the players, character experience was much more important than that little bit of money.
After lunch, Liang Lidong asked the village head, "Old Reed, can I borrow Kail for an afternoon? I'm going to Winterwind to buy some necessary magic and alchemical items."
In the game, Winterwind had been destroyed by the players, so Liang Lidong had never been there although he had heard of it.
"Mr. Beta, Kail is your student now, and it's only natural for a student to serve his teacher. You can ask him to do anything you want. I have no right to ask."
Chewing the meat with eggs that Liang Lidong made, Kail nodded hard. As a lively boy, he naturally wanted to travel, but he was unhappy that he had to pay a poll tax every time he went to the city. So, he barely went to the city if he had nothing to do. However, if he went with his teacher, he wouldn't have to pay the poll tax. The soldiers who guarded the city gate bullied the weak and feared the strong. They were bold enough to collect money from the civilians, but they didn't dare to say a word when they encountered mercenaries, professionals, or spellcasters.
"Well, ask Belin to come with us," said Liang Lidong after thinking for a moment.
When he was teaching the children how to read and write, he realized that Kail was the smartest of all the children. He could read the words as soon as he recognized them, and it was easy for him to learn how to write. Baylin was a little lacking, but compared to the other children, she stood out and was worth nurturing. If he could train these two children to become believers of Woking, he would be able to get piety points from the system, which could be used to exchange for low-level divine spells. On the other hand, he would be able to get two helpers to take care of the trivial matters in the temple.
"Okay, I'll ask Belin to come right now." Kail stuffed the rest of the bread into his mouth and wiped his mouth, before he ran out of the door.
"Mr. Beta …" The village head hesitated for a moment, but he still said in the end, "If you run into anything inconvenient in Winterwind, you can go to the Black Iron Tavern in the east and find an old man named 'Iron Hook'. He's good at fighting and used to be a professional. He's willing to do anything as long as you pay him enough money."
Liang Lidong raised his head, looked at the old village head, and asked with some puzzlement: "Why did you suddenly tell me these things?"