Chapter 291 Welcome to Chateau Jeanne

After the Norse Knights entered Jeanne d'Arc Castle and began to man the checkpoints and gradually eliminate the bandit knights, the Holy Gun Cavalry were finally able to free up their hands.

Starting from the second day of the People's Assembly, 15 Holy Gun Cavalry Brigades, in cooperation with 15 gendarmerie corps, with Jeanne d'Arc as the center, turned into dozens of clouds of dust and broke into various villages.

"Uuuuuu——"

When the horn sounded, the peasant women in the manor immediately picked up their children and rushed into the house like a gust of wind.

The rest of the villagers only dared to walk towards the cavalry, looking back every few steps, after being pushed and pulled by the representatives of public opinion.

An armed farmer representative was so angry that he kicked a villager on the coccyx and said, "I'm not sending you to the execution ground. Hurry up and leave!"

After the villagers gathered with their heads bowed, the low-ranking monks who were escorted by the Holy Gun Cavalry began to open the notice and preach.

The content is nothing more than words like "The Salvation Army is here, there is a blue sky, the Salvation Army is here, Kush is peaceful", warning the villagers to change the flag and be honest.

But in the process, they heard something different.

After the Holy Gun Cavalry left with a cloud of dust, a farmer who was close to the representative ran up to him and asked him about it.

"Cousin, what did he mean by dividing the land just now? Does he mean to divide the lord's land among us?"

"Almost." The representative smiled complacently, "According to the church's tax book, the amount of grain you pay will determine the amount of land you will be given."

"There's such a good thing?" He turned his head to look at the other public book farmers. The armed farmer named Sersi dragged his cousin to a secluded place under the big locust tree and said, "Cousin, how do we divide it?"

The representative frowned, hesitated for a moment, but finally straightened his chest and said, "Divide it as it should be. In two days, the military police will come with the land distribution team."

"Cousin, we are all good people in the village..."

"I advise you to send the grain that was underpaid in the past three years to Chrysanthemum Castle. This is the last thing I'm telling you as your cousin. It won't harm you."

Patting his cousin on the shoulder, the representative who was eager to make progress walked up to the other villagers who had not yet dispersed.

"Listen carefully, from today on, you are no longer the Duke's subjects, but the Pope and the Holy Father's subjects." The representative pointed his index finger to the sky, "Your Majesty, you are kind enough to exempt us from taxes for a year. We should work hard on the spring ploughing. Ah, don't have any evil thoughts..."

"That must be the mercy of the Holy Father."

"Yes, one year's tax can be exempted just like that."

"Is Big Brother really exempt?"

"Maybe it's just talk, and they'll take it back in the tribute later."

This representative was holding a general meeting upstairs while the villagers were holding a small meeting downstairs. The armed peasant representative was so angry that he coughed repeatedly before the villagers quieted down.

"Finally, this time we are in charge of the land distribution. We need to recruit religious soldiers to help distribute the land. We will select them from the public farmers. Who has signed up?"

The villagers present immediately became as quiet as chickens, and only a few young villagers raised their hands.

"Well, it's just the rest of you."

Standing on a high hillside, Martin and Sissi watched coldly the changes taking place in the village below.

They had seen such scenes many times since they entered the territory of Kush.

By the mill, by the waterwheel, by the fence, in the fields and alleys, groups of villagers and townspeople gathered around the representatives, listening with either joy or worry to the new decrees they brought.

Starting from Grand Rapids, they entered a state of war and were interrogated at numerous checkpoints. It was not until March 3 that they arrived near Fort Jeanne d'Arc.

However, this scene only occurs in the periphery, in some manors where the land distribution work has not yet begun.

By the time Martin and Sissi could see the tower of the Jeanne d'Arc church, the countryside presented a completely different scene.

The gate of the monastery on the hill was wide open, with thick smoke billowing out of it, and a row of neatly laid corpses beside the wall.

The low-ranking monk, with ropes and shackles around his hands and neck, had a sad face and was being led forward step by step.

The gold and silver coins in the horse-drawn carriages made crisp sounds as the vehicles bumped along.

Those gorgeous jewels emit dazzling luster under the sun.

After the dazzling light passed, there were fields and fields, where the landmark stones and bushes forcibly divided by the manor owner were being cleared away by the crusaders. "Let's dismount and walk." Monk Martin could feel the strange looks from the people around him, especially since he was being led and protected by three Holy Gun Cavalrymen.

Once off his horse, Martin could see more clearly the movements of the people in the fields.

A simple thatched hut was built next to the big rock that served as the landmark of the manor. Several monks under the hut were reading out names according to the account book.

"Delis, from the village of Geriya, aged 33, with a family of four, 65 mu of land, came forward to put his seal and sign."

"Delis from the village of Geriya... Why is it called Delis again? You are the short Delis, so it's better to call yourself Delis Xiao. There are eight people in my family, and we have 92 mu of land. Come forward and sign your seals."

After the villagers whose names were called pressed their fingerprints, they were led by the crusaders to the edge of the fields.

The Crusaders and the Children's Army were measuring the fields slowly with long rulers, and then using dozens of wooden sticks to hammer into the ground to mark out the approximate boundaries.

Horn has always been puzzled by the Empire's mathematical level, that is, their geometry level is ridiculously strong, even touching the edge of modern times.

However, the level of arithmetic is still stuck in the early Middle Ages. Even multiplication and division of two-digit numbers requires a slide rule, which is really annoying.

Their thinking is very strange. They always use geometric methods to solve arithmetic problems, not to mention algebraic operations.

But Horn's good level of geometry made his land-dividing movement run quite well.

Even Rafael, the captain of the Children's Army Gendarmerie, summed up a mathematical law, which is that the accuracy of the monks' land division is proportional to the number of bruises on their faces.

On the fields, the villagers knelt on the ground, holding the wet and smelly earth in their hands, and burst into tears one by one.

They kissed the ground, prostrated themselves repeatedly in the direction of Fort Joan of Arc, shouted "Pope!", and danced across the fields.

Squatting down, grabbing a handful of sticky soil, and looking at the dancing farmer, Martin couldn't help but smile.

But such a peaceful and joyful scene was not everywhere. Before they had taken two steps, they saw an armed peasant being sandwiched between two crusaders and being dragged towards the village entrance.

He kicked wildly with his feet, leaving a long shallow groove on the ground.

"What's going on?" Martin stopped while leading the horse.

"Let's go and take a look." Xixi suggested.

Passing through the crowd of onlookers, I saw the armed farmer being pressed against a large rock, his woolen tights being pulled down, revealing his dark buttocks.

A gendarme wearing a pointed hat picked up a long whip and swung it casually, making a loud explosion in the air.

"Snapped!"

The muscles on the faces of the villagers watching nearby twitched at the same time, and some even turned their heads away in spite of the situation.

The first lash of the whip made the armed peasant cry out:
"You guys wanted to take my own land. I didn't do anything. My only mistake was not being the representative... It's so painful!"

The representative of the manor crossed his arms over his chest and sneered at the villagers, saying:
"Look, this is the end. They took the land that should have been distributed and sold it to the public farmers who were given the land, and asked the public farmers to buy it back in installments. Illegal land trading will result in caning!"

Looking at the bloody butt, the other villagers present felt a dull pain in their buttocks.

"I advise everyone not to have any crooked ideas. Just divide the taxes as they should be. If you have evaded taxes before, make up for it as soon as possible. Otherwise, even I can't save you."

"You are a representative of the people and your land has not been divided, so of course you can stand and talk without back pain..."

"Who, who is talking?" Pointing at the crowd, the representative was furious. "My land was not divided because I paid the tax. What about you?"

"You representatives can use money to make up for it, of course that's fine, everyone else is using food to make up for it, it's a huge loss..."

"Who? Who is it? Stand up if you have the guts!" After being exposed one after another, the representative of the people was completely embarrassed and shouted at the crowd with a red face.

"Does this represent the grassroots officials of the Papal States?" Martin whispered to Sissi with interest.

Before Sissi could answer, a voice beside her laughed and said, "It's barely ok, but if we really talk about the grassroots of the Papal States, I'm afraid they are not up to the standard."

"Jeanne!" Sissi smiled and stretched out her hand to greet her, while Jeanne walked slowly towards them, leading the horse.

"You must be Brother Martin." Jeanne and Martin bowed at the same time. "My brother is injured and can't travel, so he sent me to meet you. Welcome to Jeanne d'Arc."

(End of this chapter)