123. Payback

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“Poor organization, crude management, and low labor efficiency.” Dr. Zhang’s overall assessment of summer corvee labor in the medieval world was entirely justified.

In fact, applying the three judgments “organization,” “management,” and “efficiency” to the administrators of Aikeli Village was already something of a compliment.

Apart from the bailiff who oversaw the whole operation and the priest who supervised it from beginning to end, the chief constable, the reeve, and the clerk were the three people primarily responsible for the village throughout the summer corvee.

What did these three grassroots administrators display in the way of “organizational ability” and “management methods”?

At the beginning of the corvee each morning, the chief constable maintained order, the clerk counted the villagers, and the reeve distributed the farm tools. When night was about to fall, they repeated the same three tasks. That accounted for nearly all of their organizational activity.

How could three administrators, assisted by a modest number of laborers and constables, possibly monitor the villagers and serfs working on such a vast tract of the lord’s demesne? How could they discover whether anyone was taking the opportunity to shirk? How could they determine whether the pace of work needed adjustment? How could they resolve more complicated forms of cooperation in the fields?

The answer was remarkably simple: each household participating in the corvee was assigned a specific plot, with the work contracted out by household and inspected collectively.

By abandoning almost every method capable of improving labor efficiency—division of labor, cooperation, coordination, mutual assistance, and the like—this model of summer corvee reduced the problems facing the three organizers to just three stages: “assigning the demesne,” “monitoring the villagers,” and “inspecting the work.”

Even in such a crude system, the number of people participating from all across Aikeli Village reached well into the thousands. Those three unavoidable stages remained quite a challenge.

If an ordinary person from Earth had been put in charge of the corvee, merely contemplating those three tasks would probably have made him scratch his head.

“Assigning the demesne” alone was troublesome. How exactly should the land be divided? By the total number of people in each household, or according to the balance of able-bodied workers? Should oxen be counted? How should the varying difficulty of the plots be weighted?

“Monitoring the villagers” was no easier. How were they to be watched? What markers should define the boundaries of each household’s plot? How should disputes between villagers be judged? If a villager disagreed with an overseer, what standard should determine who was right?

“Inspecting the work” was harder still. The standards and items of inspection alone were enough to give anyone a headache.

Yet all these matters, which seemed so complicated to people from Earth, became astonishingly simple in the hands of the chief constable, the clerk, and the reeve. Calculations, weighting, boundaries, judgments, standards, and inspection criteria all returned to their most primitive form. Every problem could be solved in one way:

By luck.

The assignment of plots depended on luck. As for the boundaries, a few stones might be moved, a couple of branches broken, or a line scratched into the earth. Sometimes there was no marker at all. Wherever a man was pointed, that was where he went, obediently, to work.

Monitoring and patrols depended on luck as well. The constables would inspect the boundaries, and the three administrators would wander through the area from time to time. If someone moved a boundary or slacked off and was caught, he would certainly receive a beating. But if no one noticed, then he had naturally come out ahead.

The final inspection could not rely on luck alone. During the last two days of the corvee, no matter how well a household had worked its assigned plot, its labor would never meet the standard unless the family paid a discreet visit to the administrators and added one or two head of livestock to their huts.

In the medieval world of Aikeli Village, organization and management were this crude and backward even for ordinary villagers. As for another group—the craftsmen—their specialized skills and irreplaceability made it impossible for outsiders to establish standards or procedures for them. The administrators could only grant them broad autonomy and let them do as they pleased.

That was the origin of the craftsmen’s special status in the medieval world.

With Los—Wu Qingchen, the most sought-after member of Aikeli Village’s craftsmen—personally stepping in, the four families of Richard, Freeman, Holt, and Tord were naturally bound to enjoy remarkable luck at every stage.

“Los, is this what you want?” The clerk responsible for dividing the plots stroked the sparse hairs on his chin and pointed toward the people gathered around Wu Qingchen. “You want those four families to work on the same piece of land?”

“Yes.” Wu Qingchen nodded. “Is that all right, Uncle Tord?”

“Of course. No problem!”

Tord agreed without hesitation. He glanced at the parchment in his hand, then rose and surveyed the surrounding demesne. At last he pointed toward the right front. “How about over there? From that tree all the way to the water—would that suit Richard and the others?”

Would it suit them?

The delighted expressions that instantly bloomed across Richard and the others’ faces were enough to reveal the value of that particular stretch of land.

“Yes. Thank you so much, Uncle Tord!” Wu Qingchen’s face immediately overflowed with the gratitude he had been trained to display.

“Ah, it’s nothing.” Tord waved a hand, then patted the reeve beside him. “O’Connor, your turn. Have you prepared farm tools for Los’s old neighbors?”

“They’re right here!”

[Page 2 of 3]

O’Connor waved, and two laborers immediately carried over several baskets. The neighbors around Wu Qingchen widened their eyes, the smiles on their faces growing even broader.

The cold gleam of the tools made it obvious that these were among the finest and sharpest implements in the lord’s stores, with the highest iron content as well.

“Thank you, Uncle O’Connor.”

A minute or two later, Wu Qingchen—Los—led nearly twenty people in a grand procession toward the demesne assigned by the clerk.

Countless envious and resentful gazes followed them.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk.” One villager clicked his tongue repeatedly. “The land by the water—the softest demesne there is!”

“Just look at how bright those picks are!”

“And it’s easy to fetch water!”

“It’s right beside the road. Think how much trouble that saves!”

“Who wouldn’t want it?” another villager said, rising onto his toes to peer ahead. “Four whole families, and they only have to work such a tiny patch of land.”

“Ah! What good does any of that do?” one villager sighed deeply. “We simply aren’t old William’s neighbors.”

“Ah!”

A chorus of sighs answered him.

A dozen paces away, Rupert had watched the entire scene unfold. He patted his daughter on the shoulder. “Elena, did you see that? Did you hear them? Once Grace gives the word, it will be someone else sighing over us.”

“Yes!”

The strong and beautiful Elena nodded firmly.

When they reached the specially favored plot, one of the accompanying constables carried over a large stone and placed it several paces beyond the “tree” mentioned by the clerk, making it the boundary marker.

Wu Qingchen had just smiled and thanked the constable when Dean and Elmo approached from not far away, leading several draft oxen.

“Los, are these the ones?”

“Are these them, Uncle Richard? Uncle Freeman?” Wu Qingchen turned toward the heads of the four families.

“Oh!”

Though they had already received two pleasant surprises, Richard and the others still could not help crying out in unison when they saw the oxen before them.

“What sturdy oxen!”

“And this one too!”

Every ox Dean and Elmo had brought was powerful, healthy, and well-fed. Even before they came close, they already appeared a full size larger than the draft oxen brought by the four families themselves.

They were probably the strongest animals in the lord’s livestock sheds. Looking at them, Richard and the others suddenly felt uneasy.

With these oxen helping, this summer corvee would unquestionably be far easier for both the families and their own animals. But—

“What fine oxen. They’re so strong.”

Richard walked over to Dean and Elmo and gently stroked one animal’s back. He felt the powerful pulse of its blood beneath its thick coat and sensed the immense strength contained in its body. Then, all at once, he sighed softly, turned around, and said to Wu Qingchen, “Los, you’re helping us too much. Uncle Richard is truly grateful, but we really don’t need these oxen.”

“That’s right. They’re too conspicuous. People will talk.” Holt’s expression was complicated as he added, “Besides, the plot is so small. The oxen from our own households will be enough.”

“Yes.”

“That’s how it is.”

Freeman and Tord hurriedly voiced their agreement as well.

“What does it matter whether they’re conspicuous or not?”

Wu Qingchen walked over and patted one of the powerful oxen without the slightest concern. “Use them. Don’t worry about what anyone else says!”

[Page 3 of 3]

“But the others…” Several of the heads of household still hesitated.

“The others? Ha! Do they really matter?” Wu Qingchen said with a smile. “Uncle Richard, Uncle Holt—my father told me everything. The last time the ox from my family was injured, you worked your own animals three times as hard, whipping them through the pouring rain at the busiest time of the season, all so my family could borrow your oxen!”

“And you too, Uncle Tord.” Wu Qingchen turned his head toward the other two old neighbors. “If you hadn’t lent us your plow cart, we wouldn’t even have had the tools to work hard. And if Uncle Freeman hadn’t lent us a cooking pot, my family would not even have been able to eat while boiling medicinal herbs! The others? Ha! Where were they then?”

“Ah!”

Listening to Wu Qingchen, the heads of the families looked at one another. Richard sighed deeply. “Los, don’t blame the others. No one in the village has it easy. Ah, no one has it easy at all.”

“I’m not blaming anyone.” Wu Qingchen slowly shook his head, his expression utterly sincere. Even without the influence of his training on Earth, his face would have held the same sincerity now. “I know that no one in the village has it easy. That is precisely why I’m even more grateful to all of you. Thank you, Uncles, for looking after us.”

“Los, you…”

The group fell silent. Richard remained speechless for a long while, until at last he let out a long, heartfelt sigh.

“What a good boy.”

“Don’t worry, Uncle Richard.”

Seeing that they were still uneasy, Wu Qingchen pointed around them. “None of this is a big deal. This plot, these tools, these oxen—they are all part of the arrangement. Don’t worry. As for the clerk and the reeve, their relatives…”

As he spoke, Wu Qingchen turned toward Dean and Elmo. “Is everything ready?”

“It is.” Dean quickly nodded. “The clerk’s younger brother has been assigned two of the strongest oxen.”

“Espier’s old neighbors got another ox, and the reeve’s nephew received three.” As Wu Qingchen’s gaze shifted, Elmo immediately answered as well. “They’re all very pleased.”

“There, you see?”

Wu Qingchen spread his hands. “The chief constable, the clerk, and the reeve are all happy now. Does anyone else’s opinion really matter?”

“Well…”

Bound by the limitations of their social position, Richard and the other three families were ordinary freeholders of Aikeli Village. They had long been accustomed to thinking with extreme caution, and deep down they feared dealing with village administrators such as the chief constable, the clerk, and the reeve.

Apart from bribery, it was difficult for them even to imagine directly exchanging other forms of benefit with such people.

“All right, stop thinking about it!”

Without giving them time to dwell on the matter, Wu Qingchen beckoned to the two hired ox-handlers and motioned for them to lead the draft oxen over to Richard and the others.

“Come on, take the oxen. We’ll harness our own plow cart first. The plowman is bringing the heavy plow over shortly…”

“Oh, look! It’s already here. Uncle Richard, over there—the cart driver and the plowman are coming!”

Following Wu Qingchen’s gesture, Richard turned his head and saw the smiling plowman and cart driver approaching. They came together, their sons and apprentices following behind. In their hands and upon their shoulders were plainly the finest plow carts and tools from the lord’s stores.

Looking at those tools, then at the plot of land, then at the farm implements, then at the draft oxen, and finally at the gentle smile on Wu Qingchen’s face—

The pounding rain over the fields half a month before, the whip marks on the oxen, his wife’s complaints, his son’s cough, the exhaustion in his body, and the bitterness in his heart all turned sweet in that single instant.

The next moment, Richard drew a deep breath. He hurriedly lifted his head and stared into the distance, only barely managing to hold back his tears when he turned away.

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