The slavery system was a serious hindrance to productivity.
If the slaves were not released, there was no way to liberate enough labor. The future development of the city of Mordor needed a large number of civilians, not the worthless slave class that could only be sold as coolies.
Søren's "Abolition of Slavery Decree" was like a heavy bomb thrown into the material plane, and even the Glorious City was shaken. Because even the Lord of Light, who was in the lawful good camp, rejected the slavery system, but the church had never proposed such an idea.
Even!
Some paladins would take the initiative to defend the slavery system.
Søren didn't care about the reaction of the outside world at all. After he issued the "Abolition of Slavery Decree", he started the third census of the city of Mordor.
All the slaves were liberated to the lower class. They would be registered in the population statistics of the city of Mordor. From now on, they would have personal freedom and property freedom. However, because they had almost no wealth as slaves, the next arrangement of the City Hall of Mordor was to allocate land to them.
Every inch of land in the city of Mordor was very precious!
Therefore, these lands naturally could not be given to these slaves for free. It was unfair to all the meritorious classes.
The city of Mordor had reclaimed a large amount of land near the twelve large towns. These lands belonged to the city of Mordor, and now they were rented to all the slaves. The City Hall of Mordor uniformly allocated housing, farming utensils, and daily necessities to the slaves.
But that was all there was to it.
Too much kindness was easy to have the opposite effect. Søren would only give them a chance to rely on their own efforts to fight for a future.
All the housing belonged to the wealth of the city of Mordor. The freed slaves only had the most basic living area. All the farming utensils also belonged to the city of Mordor. They only had the basic right to use them.
The slaves were still penniless.
However, they could rely on themselves to earn and accumulate wealth. The land allocated by the city of Mordor only charged about 30% of the rent. That was to say, 70% of the income in a year's farming could be used as the property of these tenants.
Of course, Søren would not let the slaves be free.
Freedom was only relative!
Søren had already arranged their fate, and they had no choice but to act according to Søren's orders.
This was because Søren was a god of the Lawful Evil Faction.
The slaves became tenants. They had the right to farm the land alone and gained the foundation to accumulate wealth. At the same time, they began to pay taxes for the city of Mordor and solved the problem of the lack of a large number of civilian workers in Mordor.
Under the slavery system, they had almost no freedom of life and property rights. They relied more on whips for labor.
Now that they had property rights, the income from farming would be their private property, which greatly stimulated their enthusiasm. At the same time, the city of Mordor also opened up a more preferential policy for them compared to outsiders. The freed slaves could use about one-third of the wealth of the outside world to buy the ownership of residence and convert the land into private property. All of these properties had the title deeds of Mordor City. Being recognized by the City hall was equivalent to having a firm foothold in Mordor City. Søren's promises had been tested by time, so there was no need to doubt his words.
The third census was done very quickly.
The City hall of Mordor City had long been accustomed to efficient operations. After the third census, the number of people counted had reached about 270,000.
It seemed that the hidden population of Mordor City was really large.
The blacksmith was stepping up the forging of farming tools. This time, the cultivated land of Mordor City had nearly doubled. Because of the "Abolition of Slavery Law", there were about 50,000 more farmers in Mordor City. At the same time, all 12 towns were operating.
The deep plowing system was being popularized. Relying on the promotion of fertilizers, the grain output of Mordor City was estimated to be enough to support about 500,000 people.
However.
For Søren, agriculture was only the most basic part. He needed to do more than that.
Everything he planned so far was just to pave the way for a large-scale farm economy. When farming grew to a certain extent, what he needed to do was to liberate these workers and move them to other places.
Slaves could only be squeezed a little bit of strength, but Søren needed more.
…
The morning sun shone.
Kovano woke up at daybreak. He looked at the clean bed he was lying on. It was so clean that everything felt like a dream.
He was a slave.
He came from Shipwreck Bay and was bought by a merchant. He used to be a guard, but he became a slave because of a noble. Life as a slave was not easy. The merchant used a whip to urge him to work every day. The other five slaves like him were beaten and scolded. As a slave, he had nothing. Even if his master killed him, he had no responsibility. This situation lasted until the "Abolition of Slavery Law" was issued. At that time, the merchant wanted to urgently transfer him to the south coast and then sell him for money. Unfortunately, he was still caught by the guards of Mordor City.
He was free.
Everything was like a dream.
However, freedom was relative. Kovano soon found that the guards did not let him go. Instead, they placed him and another group of slaves in a place called Autumn Water Town.
A row of neat brick houses.
Each of them had a house and were placed here. The next day, a man dressed as an official came over to count them, followed by the distribution of tools. Kovano thought that everything was the same as what he had experienced in the past, but soon he found that it was really different.
No one beat, scolded, or urged him. Even if he was blatantly lazy, he would not be punished.
Many of the slaves like him were at a loss. Some worked hard as if they were full of hope for the future, while some did nothing as if they did not know what to do.
These days lasted for three days.
Kovano did not know how to face the future, so he just did ordinary things every day. As a commoner, he started learning how to farm from a young age. Three days later, the officials of the town hall appeared again. They secretly conducted a test for everyone. The slave named Nord, who performed the best, was given a cow. This cow was officially taken as his personal property after passing through the town's council hall.
This made many slaves envious.
Because their own value was not even comparable to a cow. The man named Nord was even more surprised.
However.
Soon, everything that happened next made the others feel uneasy.
Another slave was expelled. He did not even do the most basic reclamation because he was lazy every day. The officials of the City Hall deprived him of everything that Mordor City gave him, including housing, utensils, food, and clothes. Therefore, everything bestowed by the city of Modor was taken away. This poor man was banished to the outside of the town wearing only a thin piece of clothing. This man didn't even have food for his next meal. No matter how much he cried and regretted, he was still thrown out by the guards. It seemed that he was completely left to his own devices.
At this moment, everyone felt uneasy.
Fortunately, the guards only chased away three people. No one knew their fates. They only knew that their living quarters, food, and clothes had been taken away.
At this time.
Only then did the others realize how precious everything they had now was. They did not have to worry about hunger or cold. They could live in clean and tidy houses. As long as they worked hard every day, they could fill their stomachs. Kovano began to adapt to this change in fate. He gradually found that he seemed to have become a tenant because everything he did now was no different from a tenant.
However.
In any case, the status of a tenant was higher than that of a serf, and it was much higher than that of a slave.
About a week later.
The officials of the City Hall appeared again, which made many slaves feel uneasy.
They were used to the current days. They had a clean place to live, a strong house, and no longer had to be beaten, scolded, and whipped. Such days made them cherish it very much. Fortunately, this time, the officials of the City Hall did not expel others. They only took away all the children between the ages of seven and twelve, whether they were slaves or civilians. Then Kovano heard that there seemed to be a school in the town.
And these children were gathered there to … learn? …
Yes.
Soon, they learned that Mordor City was educating these children.
This kind of thing sounded a bit unbelievable because in other places, only the nobles and merchants would receive formal education.
Kovano felt that the owner of Mordor City seemed to be doing something great, but he knew too little and did not know what Mordor City was going to do.
He just felt that the future was full of hope!
…
In addition to counting the number of people, the third census also counted the age of all the residents.
Then, under the operation of the City Hall, all the territories of Mordor City, including Port Mordor, began to establish schools one after another. They taught the most basic knowledge, such as arithmetic, literacy, reading, and writing. These basic knowledge were all taught to all the children of the right age for free and compulsory.
At the same time, some huge and dense buildings began to appear in Mordor City. These three or four-story buildings were placed in the south, and a large number of workers were transferred to work in them.
No one knew what Søren was going to do.
But now Mordor City seemed to be a machine that was gradually running at high speed!
…
(PS: Go to Beijing tomorrow to discuss something.)
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