Chapter 3346 Chapter 3348 [Abolition of serfdom]

After Xiang Nan captured Sweden, he quickly destroyed Norway.

 Norway was a territory of the Kingdom of Denmark at that time, and the Kingdom of Denmark, like the Kingdom of Sweden, was actually once larger.

 In the fourteenth century, it once formed the Kalmar Union, and its territory included what is now Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Greenland, the Faroe Islands and part of Finland.

 But unfortunately, Kalma announced its disintegration less than a hundred years later. From then on, Denmark began to decline. Sweden, the former younger brother, began to develop and continued to suppress Denmark. In 1657, they even occupied the entire territory of Denmark.

Although Denmark fought hard later, it was still no match for Sweden. Therefore, when England, France, Prussia, and the Rakshasa Kingdom formed a team to fight, Denmark tried its best to remain neutral for fear of being involved.

Faced with the fall of Norway, Denmark was helpless. Even after their king learned of the fall, he did not dare to protest. Instead, he directly sent an envoy to sign an agreement with Xiang Nan, expressing his willingness to cede Norway to Xiang Nan. He only asked him Don't continue going south to attack Denmark.

After careful consideration, Xiang Nan finally agreed to Denmark’s request.

 First of all, after losing Norway, the Kingdom of Denmark has only a few territories left, so it is not a big deal if you want it; secondly, once it captures the Kingdom of Denmark, it will border Prussia.

 At that time, after losing the buffer zone, their relationship will become very tense. Although Xiang Nan was not afraid of Prussia, he was not willing to provoke him at this time.

 After all, he has not yet fully digested the Rakshasa Kingdom, and he does not want to provoke a strong enemy yet.

At the same time that Xiang Nan captured Norway, Agui also led troops to attack Kiev. However, he did not continue to attack westward. Because if we continue to attack, we will reach Poland.

Xiang Nan just signed a peace agreement with it last year, and it’s not time to tear it up yet.

Hence Agui stopped advancing and led his army to carry out repairs in Kiev.

 …

 Subsequently, Xiang Nan announced the abolition of serfdom in the Rakshasa Kingdom and confiscated the land of the manor owners for reform.

 The so-called serfdom refers to the economic system established by feudal lords in their territories in feudal society to exploit and enslave serfs.

Under this system, feudal lords or serf owners owned most of the productive resources such as land, mountains, forests, grasslands, and rivers, and partially owned the serfs; the serfs were allocated a piece of land from the serf owner, and in exchange they had to cultivate the lord's land for free and serve all kinds of labor and turn over most of the products of labor.

 Europe had been a system of serfdom for a long time, but by the fourteenth century, serfdom began to gradually disintegrate.

 First of all, it is because of the development of productive forces that cities have become more prosperous and there are more and more craftsmen and merchants. They gradually got rid of their dependence on the land and became free people.

 Secondly, the progress of industry and the development of commerce have gradually reduced the status of agriculture. The value created by serfs on the land was far lower than the value brought by the commercialization of land.

 Coupled with the fact that serfs would rebel and be lazy, the method of obtaining land rent through serf production could no longer satisfy the life of feudal owners. Therefore, many manor owners even voluntarily gave up serfdom.

Thirdly, the Black Death that swept across Europe in the Middle Ages caused the death of 25 million people, causing the loss of one-third of Europe's population. The population in many areas even died out, and this also dealt a heavy blow. Estate economy.

 In short, in the fourteenth century, serfdom in Europe began to gradually disintegrate, and by the fifteenth century serfdom had basically been abolished. But in the Rakshasa state, serfdom continued until the nineteenth century. The reason why it lasted for such a long time is mainly because the Rakshasa country was economically backward, culturally backward, and industrially developed. The serfs were separated from the land and could not find other jobs, so they could only work as coolies in the countryside.

 In addition, in order to consolidate their rule, the Rakshasa royal family also curried favor with the nobles and slave owners and brutally suppressed the serfs. Even in the eighteenth century, it was still stipulated that landlords had the right to buy, sell, give away, punish peasants at will, sell peasants and land separately, and even sell peasants from the same family separately.

Such a law was even darker than the Qing Dynasty at that time. You must know that during the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty, a decree was issued to abolish slavery. Even the master cannot hit or scold his slaves, let alone kill them at will.

 The reason why Xiang Nan abolished serfdom and distributed land to serfs was to imitate our party's land reform in order to win the support of ordinary people in the Rakshasa Kingdom.

  The reason why the people at that time supported our party so much, land reform was definitely one of the most important reasons. Because of the land reform, the poor people were given land and received tangible benefits, so they would support the revolution from the bottom of their hearts.

In order to ensure that the fruits of the revolution are not taken away, they will actively support our party and give our party extremely high prestige among the masses.

No matter how Xiang Nan immigrate to Europe, the Chinese will always be a minority and they will inevitably be squeezed out. If repressive policies are adopted to suppress local people, it will arouse even greater resistance.

 So it is better to mobilize the local people and win their support to deal with the local nobles and landowners. When the time comes, they will be released from their slave status and assigned their own fields. It would be strange for them not to be grateful to them.

Even if the nobles and landowners want to restore their country and rebel against themselves, it still depends on whether the people agree.

 …

Xiang Nan's approach indeed won the unanimous support of the serfs.

They have been bullied miserably over the years. They are bought, sold, insulted, beaten, and killed at will by the manor owners. They are simply much worse than cattle and sheep.

Now that they have not only regained their freedom, but also been allocated land, they naturally support Xiang Nan and consider him to be their savior.

 At that time, nationalism was just in its infancy. According to the standard view, before the 19th century, people had local, regional, or religious allegiances but no national concept.

Therefore, the Rakshasa people, especially the serfs, do not think that Xiang Nan, the leader of a foreign race, is bad, and there is no saying that "people who are not from our race must have different hearts." In their view, it is just a different ruler. That’s it, no big deal.

 After all, Peter III, who is now supported by Xiang Nan, is not a Rakshasa, but a Prussian. He is also the grandnephew of King Carl XII of Sweden, and was originally prepared to take over as the King of Sweden.

Moreover, Peter III could not speak a word of Rakshasa. When the Rakshasa Kingdom was fighting Prussia, he expressed support for Prussia many times... Catherine II, who later usurped his position, was also a Prussian, but in the end she did The queen of Rakshasa Kingdom.

This kind of thing is unimaginable in China, but it is common in Europe.

And in the eyes of Europeans at that time, the East was a good place. The Age of Discovery began because people in Europe had an endless yearning for the mysterious East after reading "The Travels of Marco Polo" and were eager to open trade routes.

Now that the Eastern Emperor has descended from the sky with his divine soldiers to save all the people, they naturally welcome him.

 (End of this chapter)