Chapter 43 (2/2)

Gawain realized that he had thought too naively and that part of the plan that he had spent so long to come up with would probably not be so easily achievable.

He immediately called Herti and Rebecca.

Looking at the tent in front of them that seemingly met his requirements, yet upon closer examination, was found to be lacking a few braces and was slanted, he pointed to the areas where corners were cut. “What do you think of this?”

Herti did not understand Gawain’s intention, thinking that he was going to blame her, she immediately lowered her head. “Sorry, Ancestor. I was the one who supervised…”

“No, it’s not a problem of supervision. You can’t be watching them put in every nail,” Gawain interrupted her. “It’s a problem of the workers’ attitude.”

“Lord Ancestor, you can’t expect too much from those civilians and serfs.” Rebecca thought for a moment and explained, “Most of them have hardly any education, except for doing the work their ancestors had been doing on farms and mines, they can’t do other, more complicated tasks. The vast majority of these people have never set up tents before. These are all too complicated for them, especially with the standards and functions you specifically detailed for these tents and the plan for the entire camp.”

Gawain shook his head. “Is this really that complicated?”

Herti nodded slightly. “Only military camps will be so strict. These civilians and serfs will not be able to meet these expectations.”

“No, this is not complicated at all. I have already broken down each step that they need to take to their most simplified level. Everyone only needs to do one thing. Hammer the nails, tie the ropes, or saw the wood. They don’t need to know the plan for the entire camp at all. The work that needs to be done is no more complicated than coolie work.” Gawain looked at Rebecca and Herti. “Do you think the civilians and serfs are so dumb that they won’t even be able to manage this? ”

Herti and Rebecca looked at each other. They could tell that Gawain was not very happy, but they did not know what the issue was exactly. As for Gawain’s question, the two, especially Herti, thought that the answer was very straightforward.

They were dumb, of course.

Being born and brought up in this era, neither of them were very knowledgeable or outstandingly enlightened individuals. It was impossible for them to have knowledge and understanding beyond this era.

In fact, Herti and Rebecca were already the odd ones among the nobles, showing extreme improvement over others. Herti had never allowed the clan’s knights or soldiers to rob from civilians and serfs and found ways to ensure that every person in the territory would not starve. What was more, Rebecca broke the cycle of serfs having to stay as serfs their whole lives. She created a path of progression for them to become free people. She also enabled civilians and serfs to have freedom of movement within the territory and for the civilians to have the freedom to run businesses…

Each of these loose policies could be said to have challenged the conventions. However, they were still stuck in their thinking that civilians and serfs were inferior.

Perhaps they might not consciously believe it, but just because they claimed otherwise would not change their subconscious beliefs.

Gawain was certainly aware of this. Thus, he did not summon the two nth times granddaughters to reprimand or enlighten them. He was not naive enough to think that the civilians and serfs in the camp could be transformed into sober, active and ambitious citizens with just a word or two from him.

This would take a long process. For now, he just needed these people to finish the work as required as soon as possible.

“Gather everyone, serfs, soldiers, all of them,” Gawain ordered, “while there is still daylight.”

Those who were working and resting were quickly summoned. Even Amber, who was bragging to Betty about her adventure to the treasure house in the mountain, rushed over curiously. Betty followed beside her with a vacant expression.

Everyone had no idea what this 700-year-old ancestor was planning to do. Even Herti and Rebecca were clueless.

The civilians and serfs gathered together as ordered apathetically. The civilians gathered in a group, the serfs gathered in another group, and the soldiers stood along the sides to maintain order.

Many people thought that their “new Lord” had more orders for them, which might be even more complicated than those “tent system”. Thus they came looking dreadful as they had initially thought they could sleep after finishing the work.

Gawain stood on a large rock and looked down at the people below, numbering more than a hundred. He had already noticed Amber sneakily hiding within the crowd. He was initially going to remove this punk, who was probably going to cause trouble, but on second thought, he just kept quiet about it.

Then he cleared his throat and said in a loud voice that everyone could hear, “People of Cecil territory, I have something to tell you. It is about your future and the new law of the Cecil territory!”