Hakai No Miko Chapter 212 (1/2)

What Sou es' shape and social system experienced a remarkable transfores located in the Solbiant Plains were mostly settlements that only consisted of several families, ere blood-related

In the Norfolk four-course systeinally consolidated into coe, and the farmland was used by several farmers Cole, huge fare about the Norfolk four-course systeht novels and researched in the Internet after having his curiosity piqued Those sources only stressed the crops and the ards to enclosures was lacking Further a vast uncultivated wilderness, one could secure plenty of spacious far it Thus, Souma wasn't aware of the need to enclose farricultural e far farm laborers, who had lost their own farmland, with money didn't take place in this world as it did with the combination of enclosures and the Norfolk four-course system in history on Earth

Still, Souriculture forward frole was the difference between the agriculture in the West and japan, which he had seen in the news of riculture are the farement of fae-scale agricultural reat ae farm fields Because of that japan is absolutely no match for the West when it co that, Souoal, naturally airiculture

What was used in that process wasn't the enclosure of farmland as done in the Norfolk four-course systees

It's the idea of taking a village, integrated into a settlele far the harvest obtained froether collected froe, this led to a stabilization of tax revenue as all the villagers – just like in Five-Fa the Edo Period – had a joint responsibility for paying the taxes Moreover, because it becaes, the effort to go around the individual settle a decrease in workload for the finance officials

However, there were concerns that the individuals' will to ould deteriorate since the harvest was equally distributed within the whole village

Souma, who had learned in social study lessons about the past in a former socialist state, where the will to laborto equally distribute the resources to everybody without including a person's contributed work, caainst that issue

It was the introduction of the Joumen Law1

As one of the annual tax collection laws adopted during the Edo Period, the annual tax was detere amount of crop harvest from five to ten years prior to the current year in the Jouardless of how es were able to harvest in a year, the farmers' share went up theforce

But, although the far as it's an abundant harvest, it also had the flaw that it would instead turn into heavy taxation during years with bad harvests

Sourow over the years due to the introduction of the Norfolk four-course syste the Joumen Law in order to boost the farmers' will to work

Of course Souma was also well-aware of the fact that it would turn into heavy taxation during a year of bad harvest thanks to taking lessons in history Accordingly Sou tiin with, this hadn't been taught during lessons at Souma's school either, but even the Jou the Edo Period addressed the case of a bad harvest in a different law (Hainal idea of Souht about results which even Souma hadn't anticipated

It served as a further stabilization and increase of tax revenues

On the Seldeas Continent of those times it was common practice for the tax collection officials and the feudal lords to tour the villages after a harvest and have them pay from 10 to 50 of that year's harvest as tax Because the levied amount of taxes was decided sporadically by the tax collectors and the feudal lords, it was in fashi+on to occasionally force bribes and welcoe burden for the far the to tour the villages for a long tis and feudal lords Therefore they sold the rights to collect taxes instead of doing it thehts and went around the villages instead of the kings and feudal lords were tax collection contractors

To make a profit they had to collect the taxes on top of the hts For that reason the contractors charged the farher taxes than what had been decided Moreover, many of the contractors were also moneylenders They forcibly lent h interest rates It went even as far as thehters as loan security, once the far It was probably only natural for the contractors to be hated like Genobanda by the farmers due to this

But, thanks to the strict lih the introduction of the Joumen Law by Souma, such cruel tax collection was not only pushed into the shadows, but the taxes became precise as well Owed to this, it reached the point that the far to an increase in tax revenue on top of a stable tax inco of the Joumen Laasn't li decided in advance, it also had the advantage that the adet

Thanks to the refor methods, the farmers' lives quickly improved as the years passed

However, in future years this chain of systericultural reforms by Souma has been severely criticized by history researchers with, “While singing praises about equality, the Divine Son of Destruction gave actually birth to serfs by creating a disparity in wealth between farriculture promoted by Souma later on created a relation between landlords and tenant farers were ees' influential people, ned the land, and ave birth to serfs Also, due to the fixed amount of taxes by the Joumen Law, the farmers became richer the more they increased their harvest, but it's an une disparity of wealth between the landlords, who possessed huge farmland due to that extra money, with their profitable incomes and the tenant farh there were tenant far the time when Souma was still alive, they hadn't been serfs at all

That's because Souma's country was the sole country which accepted farmers to freely move around, in contrast to the other countries and feudal lords, that restricted the farmers' movement and tied them to their land in order to prevent the dispersal of farmers Thanks to this the tenant farave the tied to a certain area

Hence, the landowners, who required manpower due to the sudden expansion in arable land, had to pro capable tenant farmers By no means was it an one-sided exploitation of the tenant farmers by the landowners

And not only that, it seems that the landowners racked their brains how to secure tenant farmers instead

This was pretty obvious in the recorded court cases of that tined a petition towards the country to establish a law to fix the upper lies for tenant farmers, and to set up an arbitration in quarrels between fellow landowners, which originated fro of capable tenant farist Martin S Ackerson:

“Influenced researchers have the bad habit to deny everything about the Divine Son of Destruction froo thanks to the lesson from the 『Death God』 Otto Seidenbecher, who believed in the Divine Son of Destruction However, if you take into account his achieve such preconceptions, you will be able to see things that are worthy of admiration The ancient city of Bolnis, which had been y, was very different from our memories of the ancient times It was a society that had advanced far ahead And, there's no doubt that this is soht about by the Divine Son of Destruction, Soma Kisaki”

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However, it's not like everything proceeded according to Souma's wishes

“Sorry, Soma It looks like no one has ever seen the plants you mentioned”

Due to the statement of Shye quite regretful due to being unable to h

“As expected, there's no 『Clover』 in this world after all, huh?”

Because he wanted to h turnip, wheat, clover and barley on the fields, which would be split into four parts, according to the Norfolk four-course system, Souma asked Shye cultivated in this world He was also able to get his hands on a root crop quite sih it had a subtlety different shape

However, only clover couldn't be found at all

Come to think of it, this is a different world Just wheat and barley existing as crops siht already be ait like that, it was still bitter for Sou clover

“If there's no clover…putting aside its use as pasture, even the recovery of a field's fertility…”

Clover's usefulness in recovering the fertility is owed to its syer of the three big nutrients of crops; it's nitrogen, phosphorus and potassiu thee quantities is nitrogen As nitrogen is a cheht as well say that there's an inexhaustible supply of it

But plants can't absorb this inexhaustible supply of nitrogen directly For plants to absorb it, it's necessary to affix the nitrogen — by teen en coers that effect is a thunderbolt

Due to the energy discharged by a thunderbolt, nitrogen is changed into nitrogen oxide That pours down on the ground as rain and becomes a nutrient for plants Since ancient ti, but because the harvest of rice-plants iy that a thunderbolt was called Rice-plant's husband with thedue to thunderbolts

And the other natural occurrence of nitrogen fixation were the root nodule bacteria, which foruess there's no other option but to replace it with another plant of the pea fa that doesn't exist is of no help Souave up on clover and pondered whether to substitute it with another plant of the pea family

Fortunately, various edible peas exist in this world as well A them there were peas, which closely resembled fava beans and chickpea It's difficult to differentiate a plant that doesn't have seeds, which are obviously beans on a glance, like clover, but if there are things that are eaten as beans in the world over here, you can definitely say that they belong to the family of peas

Souma, who racked his brain what plant to cultivate instead of clover, inadvertently looked at the coithin the fences The cows have finally calht now they are care-freely grazing Due to that idyllic view, Sou his worries for the first ti time

For a while Souma stared at the cows in a daze, but suddenly the plant, which was eaten by the cow closest to him, catches his attention

“…Huh?”

For soered an excessive interest in Sou in the vicinity by looking around, he irew up to Souht-broithered and round leaves are hanging down fro at the leaves from nearby, it was the spread of a plant that had opened its rain-sized, yellowish-brown, round beads within that opened spread

“These; somewhere I have…?”

Souma inclined his head to the side at those plants, which somehow stirred his memory

『Oh well, I wonder whether we should far the last day of winter』 2

Suddenly Sourandfather who shouldered a hoe while wearing a straw hat