Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 608 Wandering Wu Fan
After this game was over, King Wu and others took a short break, sorted out the written records, and soon started the next game.

This time, both sides of the dispute were from outside villages, and their complaints were also about religious issues. One village believed in the Roman Catholic Church, and the other village believed in the Hussite sect. Both sides accused the other side of believing in distorted scriptures and using the power of the sect to organize people to attack them.

The fight between the two sides was quite intense. However, even though they had already started fighting, everyone was still worried that if the situation continued to escalate and the lords of both sides intervened, it would probably turn into a war. If the lords came with their troops, no matter which side it was, they would definitely be robbed by the army. At that time, it would not be as simple as just the unlucky guy getting injured. Therefore, they also came here in the hope that the King of Wu could exert his authority and mediate.

The King of Wu and his men did not refuse. Instead of dwelling on doctrines and rituals, they inquired about the village's water sources, land, and other public and private properties. As expected, after a while, they discovered that the two villages had been arguing over the newly reclaimed area nearby.

In the Alemanni region, there are vast tracts of undeveloped forests. As no one has developed them for many years, the forests are very dense, and there are all kinds of wild beasts, even escaped serfs and prisoners. Therefore, ordinary people around are somewhat afraid of the forests, and many folk stories here revolve around monsters in the forest.

However, no matter how dangerous it is, it cannot stop everyone's desire to open up the land. Compared with France and Italy, the Alemanni are generally poorer. Even if the lords in some places are relatively kind, due to natural conditions and technical levels, everyone's situation will not be much better. Therefore, as long as they have free time, people will still work hard to cut down forests, hoping to open up more fields and get more harvests.

The reclamation work was very hard. The Alemanni had much better technology and tools than the Slavs to the east, but they were still very incapable of dealing with the forests that had accumulated over thousands of years. It took a lot of effort to cut down the big trees, and after they were cut down, they had to clear the low plants and the deep, tangled roots. All of this had to be done slowly by manpower. It sometimes took years to develop this completely wild land into cultivated land that could be effectively used.

Therefore, every piece of land reclaimed was watered with sweat and even blood. In order to protect this precious property, the pioneers would often risk their lives to not give up. However, here, the ownership of newly reclaimed land is more likely to cause disputes.

In many places, according to custom, forests, hills and other places are all owned by the nobles. For ordinary people, even hunting in them is a capital crime, let alone cultivating them. But in Alemanni, this rule is not rigid - because here, everyone is too poor, and the lives of grassroots nobles are often not easy, and sometimes they themselves have to take the lead in reclaiming wasteland.

There were often disputes over land between local villagers, disputes between small nobles, and confusion over the ownership of territories among the great nobles. Sometimes, nobles would indulge villagers in fighting with other villages for land, hoping to increase their own income. Some people could not hold back and would even fight with others themselves. Add to that various church lands and the direct fiefs of the superior lords, and the situation became even more chaotic.

The situation this time was similar. On paper, it was a conflict of doctrines, but after careful questioning, it was discovered that it was because one of the villages belonged to the fiefdom of the local bishop. So, after the conflict broke out, the villagers turned to the local monastery for help and asked them to support them.

Of course, the other party was not without a solution. After all, who didn't worship Heavenly Father and Heavenly Brother? Could it be that Heavenly Brother was from your village? So, they quickly found a monk to help.

The monk pointed out that there are three popes these days, so who knows which one you listen to? Why should others follow you and listen to that one? So the village across the street decided to change its allegiance and announced that it would not recognize the nominal superior of the other monastery, the Pope in Rome, but would recognize the Pope in Avignon as the orthodox one. Therefore, the opinion of the monastery lost its legitimacy.

However, this place is far from the Pope and neither Rome nor Avignon can reach it. In order to prevent the monastery from playing tricks, the villagers called in the Hussites to help. And so, the quarrel has continued until now.

They are quite far from here, and it takes more than ten days to get there. The reason why I came here specifically is because I heard about the publicity here.

Long ago, Zhu Yunwen sent his trusted minister Huang Zicheng to lead a group of followers to Alemanni to preach in various places and call on everyone to support the King of Wu.

Huang Zicheng was arrogant and pedantic. Although he suffered a lot and became smarter during his wandering with Zhu Yunwen, his temper could not be changed. He traveled all the way, and wherever he went, he acted like "I know a lot, just listen to me", and he couldn't help but be a teacher. He gave advice to the locals every day and asked them to do it. He also liked to talk about ancient scriptures, and he couldn't help but want to admonish everyone, asking them to follow the teachings of the sages and improve their self-cultivation. In short, no matter whether these fellow villagers could understand or not, he had to talk to them about the truth, and then he would be satisfied.

His actions soon attracted more people's attention.

After all, although the locals have a low level of education, they still have social experience. This arrogant person is obviously from the upper class. Originally, although he has an oriental face, everyone was still not sure whether what he said was true or not. But now, it is definitely credible.

This person also likes to tell all kinds of ancient stories. Although the people here have never heard of these books and stories, from the way he speaks, you can tell that he is indeed a person who has read a lot of books; plus he likes to say some aphorisms and put forward various moral requirements for everyone. This shows that he is a well-educated senior priest.

Therefore, his claim that he was a high official was probably true. And the King of Wu he was talking about could have such a knowledgeable upper-class priest serving him, so his status could not be low. At the very least, he must be an exiled pretender to the throne.

What's more valuable is that although he is a noble, the envoy of the King of Wu is very friendly to the people. If you have any questions, as long as your attitude is sincere, he will try his best to help you find a solution - usually, you have never seen such a kind noble.

According to everyone's experience, if nobles and priests talk about rules and morals all the time, it does not necessarily mean that they are really moral; but if they don't even mention religious morality, then they are generally really immoral. Therefore, people like the King of Wu should be guaranteed to be good at least in terms of character, and they will not be too bad. As for whether these methods are reliable, it is secondary. Of course, taking a step back, just looking at his ideas, although most of them are just rough directions, they are enough to deal with local nobles. After all, many times, what the fellow villagers lack is just such an idea and a name. For the other parts, you can think about it and supplement it yourself. The so-called strategies of the great nobles are generally not as good as his...

Therefore, Huang Zicheng and his party successfully gained a large number of supporters through propaganda. People along the way were generally looking forward to the arrival of King Wu, and many knights and minor nobles also warmly hoped that they could establish a new order. Some even came here on purpose to serve the King Wu's court. The propaganda campaign achieved a huge success that King Wu and his party did not expect.

Even those who have never seen them know of their reputation, and people come here from time to time. These two villages even want to see them more.

The monks on both sides argued about everything from land to theology, and finally came to a conclusion: the focus of the debates among various sects is actually the question of who can represent God the Father and exercise divine authority.

In the past, whether it was the antipope or the opponent like Father Hus, they were all people within the church, fighting for the identity of the successor of St. Peter and the legal principles that came with it. But now, it seems that there is more than one branch that holds the divine power. For example, the Ming Dynasty people who have appeared now are said to be related to the State of Presbyterian John. Although the relationship seems to be very confusing, anyway, they are neither pagans nor the descendants of St. Peter, and they have theological authority, so asking them to make the judgment is the most appropriate and fair to both parties.

In response, the King of Wu said he could understand.

In previous crises, the King of Wu had disguised himself as a priest to escape, so he had experience. In the most difficult times, he was forced to seek refuge in a monastery and rely on charity to fill his stomach. In Europe, taking refuge in a monastery is also a tradition. So when the people in the monastery saw that his demeanor and temperament were not like those of ordinary people, they thought he was a nobleman in distress and took him in. They specially entertained him and let him live there for a while.

In order to calm down and kill time, he also read some introductory books at that time. At least, he understood the basic situation of religion here.

Therefore, in this situation, he quickly found the problem and began to mediate the conflict.

The King of Wu pointed out that religious matters should only be resolved at the religious level. Such matters should not be linked to disputes over land. If the priests on both sides are not convinced about the doctrine, they can debate on their own; if they still cannot convince the other side, he can come forward and invite several prestigious priests to be referees, so that everyone can hold a debate in public, and both sides can accept the defeat.

As for the situation of the fields, the King of Wu believed that the mountains and forests belonged to the state, not to the chieftains and powerful people. Alemanni was located in a remote area, and the court could not control the situation in normal times, but since the dispute had arisen, it had to be resolved properly and there had to be rules.

Previously, all the messy contracts and agreements between the chieftains were not approved by the court, so they were actually invalid. In the past, no one cared because there were no residents who directly interfered with the court's household registration. But if a conflict occurred, of course the court should prevail.

Therefore, as long as the two villages recognize the authority of the court, they should follow the court's rules. The reclaimed land should belong to the reclaimer. If they are willing to abide by this rule, the Wu Wangfu will send people to help clarify the boundaries of the fields, set up boundary markers, and record the maps.

In order to convince them, the King of Wu asked his men to show them a book. The book was a map of a village to the west of here.

King Wu explained that he had been doing a lot of such work in recent years, recruiting righteous men to assist him among the people. He had seen many conflicts within and between villages.

Often, making things clear is the way to eliminate and prevent conflicts. Therefore, when he encountered such a problem, he would create a book for the villagers and the distribution of each family's land. The villagers kept a copy for themselves, and he kept a copy for future reference.

Over the years, he has been traveling around and cannot carry all the information with him, otherwise it would be too heavy. Therefore, before leaving a region, he would mark out an area and leave a few careful and steady people to be responsible for managing the information in this area. When he is away, these people will take his place to receive the villagers and handle these daily chores.

He had never been to this area before, so he brought all the information with him, just to serve as an example for everyone to see. If everyone thinks it is okay, they can also draw up a map and take this opportunity to sort out the land and property, so as to avoid repeating similar problems in the future.

Everyone thought it made sense, and this method seemed reliable. Although the specific boundaries still needed to be discussed and perhaps even argued over, at least everyone had an idea for a solution.

They also followed their previous example, thanked the King of Wu, and then dispersed.

(End of this chapter)