Chapter 387: The Communiqué System and National Identity

The sound of horse hooves raised clouds of dust, and the villagers wearing sleeveless robes and carrying hoes looked up one after another.

Several afterimages rushed past quickly, and the small bucket of paste hit the saddle, spilling a lot of it onto the ground.

They were two gendarmes wearing blue folding hats and short cloaks. They were riding on two fast horses and galloping past on the dirt road.

"The bulletin has been posted. Hurry up, hurry up, go faster."

Upon seeing this scene, the villagers who were originally walking slowly immediately quickened their pace and chased after the dust raised by the horses.

Since the Salvation Army arrived in Kush Territory, the Gazette has become a necessity for the villagers.

In order to prevent the bulletin from getting wet by rain, most of the hundred-household districts would build a small pavilion or wooden shed on the bulletin board to keep out the rain.

Generally speaking, this kind of communiqué contains three contents.

The first type is news from Kush territory, such as victories, policies or laws promulgated, and people rewarded.

The second type is Horn's articles as allegories or church jokes. The former is intended to construct the rationality and legitimacy of the Salvation Army regime, while the latter is intended to deconstruct the rationality and legitimacy of the Imperial Church.

The third type is current prices and recruitment information, such as the prices of honeycomb coal, mortar and furniture, for example, a certain workshop is recruiting workers, etc.

Many times, these villagers dare not travel far, especially since the travel expenses are not cheap and there is a risk of getting lost.

So most of them would tell the centurion what they wanted every month, then find the centurion based on the price list in the communiqué and pay the goods in advance.

Then the centurion would take the Crusaders to the city every month to make collective purchases, and bring the goods back in horse-drawn carriages, which could save a lot of transportation and traffic costs.

Of course, due to the large quantity, many centurions in the same area joined together to lower prices with wholesale merchants and raise prices with villagers, thus getting kickbacks from both ends.

However, the amount was not large, and most of it was used to subsidize fodder and the religious army.

Therefore, Madeleine and others who stayed in Chateau Joan of Arc turned a blind eye and basically did not investigate.

When the situation improves in the future, the roads are built, and there are sufficient manpower, this part of the function will be separated from the centurions.

When the villagers came to the public notice one after another, the captain of the crusade ordered the crusaders to maintain order.

The Skitarii formed a semicircle with spears and javelins in hand to prevent the villagers from getting too close.

From time to time, they would take out sticks to beat those petty thieves in the countryside.

You know, these crusaders have some law enforcement power and are potentially given the right to enforce the law violently.

This means that the Crusaders lynched hooligans, and the military police and night watchmen condoned it.

During the past six months, those gangs of scoundrels in the countryside were either stabbed to death with spears or transported to Daze Township to dig peat or dredge rivers.

The centurion who arrived late smiled and stood in front of the public list. He cleared his throat and read aloud: "...Our army won a great victory and defeated the tens of thousands of troops in Jinhe Township. The devil leader Nidsal was killed. Mosan Keredyis (Archbishop of Jinhe Township) and Zelaken will arrive at Zhendark Castle soon and be tried by the people..."

Before the captain could finish his words, the villagers cheered. They untied the ropes at their collars and asked loudly whether their children were on the list of those to be rewarded.

At the edge of the village, Halkin, who was passing by on a pony, smiled. He had seen such a scene countless times since he set out from Jeanne d'Arc.

However, Halkin was not as excited as they were, because he had learned the news two days ago. The news of the great victory reached Jeanne d'Arc by water a day and a half later, and then spread to the eight surrounding towns with Jeanne d'Arc as the center.

By the time the lower-level monks finally copied the communiqué and had it sent out by the gendarmes, it was already three or four days later.

As the number of centurions in Kush Territory increases, it is naturally impossible to send military police to every centurion.

Therefore, many times, the military police would only post the bulletins on the public bulletin boards in the hundred-household districts near the main roads.

As for the remaining more remote hundred-household districts, the bulletins were relayed by the nearby crusading troops.

This frequency and efficiency of communicating once every ten days or half a month seemed ridiculously slow to Horn in later generations.

But compared to other kingdoms where nothing is known, most villagers know who Horn is and what happened in the Papal Kingdom of Savior today.

It was precisely because of these communiqués that the villagers' gossip after dinner and drinking gradually turned into political bragging about the Papal State of Savior.

It is through these keyboard-political comparisons that the villagers will gradually develop a sense of identity with the imagined community of the "Savior Papal State".

After all, if you don’t even know what it is, how can you identify with it?

Just like the Battle of Black Mountain this time, if it was still under the rule of Duke Dane of Kush, it would probably take a month or even half a year before there would be any news.

For the original villagers, it was more like "What does this have to do with my income of 3,000 pounds?"

But for the villagers today, they have children, relatives and friends serving in the Salvation Army, have purchased jihad bonds, and some have even donated food to the Salvation Army.

The victory of this battle is closely related to their lives, so they are proud of this battle, and it can even be said that they have made contributions to this battle.

Armand's article "Victory belongs to all the monks of the Papal States of Savior!" further confirms this point.

From this perspective, the nobles of Jinhe Township deserved their defeat.

They were just using their own and their family's meager power to fight against the entire Papal State of Savior.

However, the Salvation Army paid a heavy price to publish these communiqués.

This communiqué would not exceed 500 words, but a large amount of manpower had to be wasted on temporary copying and printing.

So under Horn's suggestion, the Salvation Army government tried to develop the technology of movable type printing to free up more manpower and further expand the market.

According to the milestones in the "Memorandum on Transportation Construction and Postal Service of 1446 (Third Edition)" written by Shengsun a month ago, they will complete the hardening of mortar concrete on the main road within two years.

By that time, mail coaches and stagecoaches would begin running.

If conditions permit, a horse-drawn tram line could even be built between the Mayo Mine and the town of Grayfurnace.

Once the road is hardened, it won't take Halkin so long to visit his father in Gray Furnace Town.

Continuing forward along the dusty dirt road, Halkin and the others soon saw the black and red flag fluttering on the wall of Huilu Town.

(End of this chapter)