Chapter 350: Surplus Labor and the Devil

Outside the castle of Joan of Arc, on the third floor of the Lubyanka Monastery.

Under the sign that read "Holy Fathers Baptism Class," Horn's loud voice echoed in the small classroom.

"The simplest principle is that labor should be rewarded, just like a craftsman makes tools and a farmer grows grain. This is the simplest axiom that most workers can agree with."

"Why is the bishop called a devil? Because he received a reward far exceeding his labor..."

Standing behind the podium, Horn lectured incessantly to these newly ordained friars of the Order of the Holy Fathers.

Below the pulpit, the two rooms originally used to educate new monks were connected, and the windows were rebuilt with mortar to allow light from the outside to come in.

The half-caped friars of the Order of the Holy Fathers lay on the shore, writing notes quickly on paper.

Among these Holy Fathers monks, there were young crusaders from various villages, war monks in the army, low-level monks in the monasteries, and even some centurions.

In three months, the Holy Father Church expanded at a rate of nearly a hundred people per month.

The rapid training course of the Society of the Worship of the Holy Fathers is conducted at the headquarters of the Children's Army, the Lubyanka Monastery.

The main subjects include grammar, law, mathematics, natural theology and the most important "The Word of God for Salvation".

With the attitude of doing political work personally, Horn would come to give lectures whenever he was free, whether it was in the Salvation Army's internal classroom or the training class of the Holy Fathers.

As the foundation of political education work, Horn finally decided to promote labor ideas that were easier for ordinary people in the empire to understand.

It’s not that Horn doesn’t want to adopt more advanced ideas, but that the level of productivity does not allow for more advanced ideas.

The theory Horn is talking about now apparently draws on the agrarian school that was popular in the early years of the Franco-French Kingdom, but his theory should be called the labor school.

The agronomic school mainly introduced the concept of "net output", that is, the part of agricultural production that exceeds the necessary production is the source of wealth.

They therefore concluded that all agricultural activities were the foundation of the economy.

Horn's labor-only theory expanded this concept, replacing the relatively narrow agricultural production with all labor, thus introducing the concept of surplus labor results.

In the theological system of the Society of the Holy Fathers, the "devil" is a being that unreasonably seizes the surplus fruits of labor from workers through coercion or deception.

The so-called "exorcism jihad" or "great judgment" is the act of workers expelling the devil through violence and taking back the fruits of their labor from the devil.

As for what other theories future generations may infer based on the concepts of "surplus labor" and "exorcism holy war", that has nothing to do with Horn.

Anyway, he believes in the wisdom of future generations.

At present, the content of "The Holy Way to Save the World" has finally added new content after advocating freedom and equality, that is, advocating labor.

"But if all the fruits of labor belong to oneself, for example, if 100 pounds of wheat belong to oneself, then one will not be able to support the soldiers. How can one protect oneself when foreign enemies invade?" A monk with a Pauline Mediterranean hairstyle raised a pen to ask the question.

Horn remembered the monk, whose name was Matthias and who had been a junior monk at the Old Lubyanka Monastery.

At the beginning, the Salvation Army generally regarded the low-level monks as accomplices of the monasteries, but later they were surprised to find that the low-level monks were also the oppressed.

These low-level monks were sent to monasteries by their parents, and unless they were of noble birth, they had to undertake extremely heavy labor and complicated clerical work.

Many low-ranking monks lived in poverty, and some even fled or went to the mountains to become bandits. The truly wealthy were the clergy at the level of bishops, abbots, and cathedral priests.

Your church is so cruel that when it comes to exploiting the land, it even exploits its own people!
After thinking for a few seconds, Horn figured out the angle of his answer.

"I want to build a perfect heaven in ten years, a heaven where there is no tax, a heaven where all the fruits of labor belong to you. Do you think it's possible?" Horn asked.

Matthias replied hesitantly: "It seems unlikely."

"Yes, that's why we have to pay taxes." Horn turned around and used a lime marker to write "Exorcism Jihad" on the black paint board. "We ask them to pay taxes because there are still demons in the world and the Exorcism Jihad cannot be stopped."

Matthias was still puzzled: "But this contradicts what you said about the surplus labor results."

"No contradiction." Horn walked slowly to him, "The taxes we ask for are not used for our own enjoyment, but to serve the civilians, protect the civilians, provide a better life for the civilians, and build the kingdom of heaven.

In other words, it means taking from the people and using it for the people. I know there will be losses during this period, but if we don't pay taxes and use other methods, the efficiency will only be lower.

At present, civilians do not have the ability to make good use of the fruits of their own labor. In order to drive out the devil, we can only adopt this method temporarily.

We are facing tremendous external pressure. All the demons, bishops and knights are trying to destroy us. If we don't pay taxes, the war monks will have no money to buy weapons and training. Not only will they be unable to go to heaven, but they will also return to their past life of hellfire.

The taxes paid by the common people are not only for the maintenance of their current lives, but also for the repayment of their past debts of non-resistance, and even more so for their investment in the future. "

Matthias lowered his head thoughtfully and began to write down things in his notebook.

…………

After class, Horn left the Lubyanka Monastery under the escort of several gendarmes.

As he walked down the steps of the monastery, he saw René and Boussac waiting at the door with a thick stack of papers in their hands.

"Have the statistics of the Black Hat Army's military recruitment been released?" Horn asked as he stepped forward with a smile.

Pushing his shirt up to his elbows, Busak, dressed coolly, was sweating profusely in the hot weather. "At present, all the statistics have been completed, and I am waiting to report to you."

Horn picked up the thick booklet, flipped through two pages at random, and then looked at René beside him.

René was wearing a wrist-length jacket on a hot day, but he didn't sweat a drop, which was in stark contrast to Boussac next to him.

"So what are you here to report, René?" Horn asked, putting his arm around René's shoulders as he walked forward.

René's usually stern face showed a trace of helplessness: "Papa, Cheka has captured four wizards from Black Snake Bay in Sour Melon Town."

"Oh, that's strange. What's going on?" Horn asked in surprise as he led out the docile mare Grape to the stable.

"When they got off the carriage, they used acid to break the axle and wheel hub of the carriage. They were discovered by the coachman, who reported them as North spies. There happened to be two military police nearby.

Unexpectedly, they ran away as soon as they saw the gendarmes. In the end, they were caught by the stationed Guards and Cheka using holy guns and dragon bone flutes.

We found two letters on them, but the specific contents will have to wait until the confidential environment is established.”

"Okay." Horn got on Grape's back, "Let's go back to the Holy Hall."

(End of this chapter)