Upon hearing Gwen's words, Knight Philip was a little stunned for a moment. He did not quite understand what his lord meant until Gwen asked him a more specific question. "When the old Cecil Hill was still around, how big was your fief?"
"It was two villages and a station southwest of the old castle," Knight Philip replied. "… and a mill."
In the system of the Ansu Kingdom, this was the standard fief of a relatively poor Knight. After the decline of the Cecil family, the Knight who was loyal to the family basically only had these fiefs.
Gwen nodded. "You have been with me for some time. You should know that according to the current land distribution system of Cecil Hill, there is no land for the traditional land nobles to live in. Even if the concept of 'fief' still exists, the privileges of the land nobles have been greatly reduced."
At present, Cecil Hill had passed the initial stage of establishing itself. As more and more areas were explored, the land distribution had become a problem that the ruler of Cecil Hill had to consider. For Gwen, the development of Cecil Hill was not his only goal. After all, he wanted to promote the new order to the whole world. However, he did not want the new order to become a "dynastic change" without any progress. So, when he thought about how to deal with the traditional land nobles and related systems, he really spent a lot of time thinking about how to deal with the traditional land nobles and related systems.
In the beginning, he thought about implementing the reform in one step — directly and completely erasing the concept of "nobles" and completely binding the governance of the territory to the Government Office. In the future, he would destroy all the nobles in the way of the expansion of the territory. However, during the trip to Gelan Hill, he was reminded of something.
Doing too much rash would lead to big trouble.
Although the situation in Cecil Hill was different from that of Gelan Hill ten years ago, and although Gwen had implemented education and propaganda in the territory to open the wisdom of the people and had his own armed forces and supporting productivity, he still had to face the fact that outside of Cecil Hill, the almost indestructible old social order was still very strong. Even within Cecil Hill, the officials, soldiers, and civilians who supported him grew up under the influence of the old social system. The reform he wanted to make was far more intense and profound than that of Gelan Hill ten years ago.
The old social order had long infiltrated everyone in this world and era. His "one step to achieve the goal" was likely to lead to unpredictable consequences.
No matter how fast the productivity of Cecil Hill developed, it would be difficult for him to complete the transformation and reconstruction of the entire society in the process of expansion in the future. First of all, it was impossible for qualified and capable civilian managers to appear out of nowhere. Most of the talents to maintain the social order had to be selected from the old noble system. Secondly, too extreme a reform would stimulate the noble system all over the world. Unless he could eliminate all the opponents in the world in a short time and replace them with a new system, then the situation of external enemies attacking him would come sooner or later. Most likely, it would come when Cecil Hill expanded greatly and became unstable internally.
The traditional nobles might be greedy and slow, but they were not stupid and did not lack vigilance.
After realizing these hidden dangers, Gwen thought carefully for a long time and referred to some of the situations in the Typhon Empire in the east. Finally, he came up with his own strategy for future expansion. That was to retain the nobles, but gradually disintegrate the soil they relied on for survival.
Gwen would retain the title of "noble" and some honorary privileges. He would even retain the right to collect tribute from the land in the early stage. However, he would take back all the super-standard powers of the nobles, including the privilege of legislating, maintaining the army, minting money, setting tax rates, and so on. In this way, the control of the land nobles over the land would be greatly weakened. At the same time, Gwen also planned to abolish the concept of "fief" and replace it with "territory" to sever the relationship between the old "lord" and the land. In the end, he hoped to create a situation like this.
A new noble would have a legal "territory". He could collect a certain percentage of tribute from the economic development of this territory as his "annuity". However, other than this "dividend", he would no longer retain any control over the land and the population. He could keep the family castle, treasury, and various honorary titles, but that was all he could keep.
If he wanted to gain more benefits or more power, he could choose to compete for a position in the government office, or invest in a factory or business.
This was not a complete change, but Gwen knew that even this level of change would greatly stimulate the traditional nobles, even more so than the Typhon Empire next door. It would lead to a stronger backlash. After all, in the Typhon Empire, the nobles at least retained the concept of "fief".
But it did not matter. As long as their backlash was within the range of Cecil's "truth", then everything would not be a problem.
After the pain, they would cooperate.
Of course, most of these were just Gwen's plans. Although many people in the territory had guessed that the ancestor was planning to pick up the rolling pin and beat the children, Gwen had not said it out loud. Only for the smart ones, such as Knight Philip, he could at least see the position of the nobles in the "Cecil Order" from the various systems in the territory.
"To be honest, when you first announced the land distribution system, established the government office, and transformed the various feudal powers into the daily work of the government office, I had a moment of … resistance." Philip was a sincere person. Even if he was facing his idol or even spiritual role model for the past 20 years, he did not hide his thoughts. "At that time, I had a discussion with Byron, Knight, about when you would think of talking to us about the fief …"
With a smile, Gwen looked at Mr. Knight in front of him, who was absolutely telling the truth. "And now?"
"Your wisdom has made this land prosperous," Philip said from the bottom of his heart. "I never thought that a land could become so rich in such a short time. Not relying on farming and rent, but relying on factories and commerce. If you had not abolished the old system that firmly tied the people to the land, if you had not established an efficient government office, then the factories and commerce would never have been able to operate."
"Then do you still miss your fief?" Gwen continued to ask.
"A real noble does not get the title to rule or gain any benefits, but to protect the people, keep the people safe, and make the land prosperous. All his privileges exist to better fulfill this obligation. This is what you said in the fourth year of Ansu. I engraved it on my shield," Philip said with a serious face. "So, if your new order can make the people safe and the land prosperous, and do it better than the old system of privileges, then there is no need to keep those privileges."
"Very good." Gawain nodded in satisfaction. "It would be great if everyone could have the same awareness as you …"
Then he paused and said, "I want you to gather all the Knight in Kant's territory. It is time for them to pledge their allegiance."
All along, Knight Philip had been in charge of liaising with Kant and Cecil, so he was the best person to do this.
The young Mr. Knight lowered his head. "I will complete the mission."
After Philip left, only Amber and Gwen were left in the study.
The half-elf lady walked around Gwen twice. Strictly speaking, she walked around the entire desk twice. Gwen could not help but ask, "What are you walking around for?"
"I think you are going to do something big." Amber looked at Gwen with a serious face. "But I don't understand what you are going to do."
"Not bad. It's already surprising that you can see that I am going to do something." Gwen looked at the half-elf who usually knew nothing about territories, laws, and traditional nobility. "How did you know?"
As soon as Amber opened her mouth, Gwen wanted to slap her on the wall. "I am best at causing trouble in my life. How can I not see the temperament of my own kind?"
"You … forget it. I don't expect you to understand."
"Don't say that. I can still see something." Amber immediately glared at him. "I know how many privileges you have taken back after changing the 'fief' to 'territory', and how those privileges were brought under the control of the Government Hall. Previously, there were only Rebecca, a Knight, and Byron and Philip, two Knights in the fief. At that time, I was curious. Who are you going to target in advance? Now I can see it. It's hard to say who you will target in the future, but now the old Knights in Kant will definitely be dealt with first. Aren't you afraid that those Knights will band together to resist?"
"Nobles who have been conferred the title of nobles are 'half' of the land. The privileges they hold are far less than a true lord. They don't have the power to legislate or mint coins. After submitting to Cecil's new law, they will only turn their previous income from land rent into annuity income. They will also lose the legal right to rule over their land. However, they will be able to obtain more benefits from the new social order. Anyone with a bit of wisdom and foresight will know what to choose."
"Oh my God, you actually ask them to have wisdom and foresight, two things that nobles lack the most!" Amber said in an exaggerated tone. "What if they don't have it?"
"That's great. The annuity saved is enough for me to open several steel foundries in Kant."
Looking at the sincere smile on Gwen's face, Amber suddenly remembered the "negotiation method" he mentioned before.
She suddenly felt a little cold.
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