The French town of Giverny, although it has been in the hands of the Spanish for almost half a year, the riots against the Spanish in Giverny town are still very frequent, so much so that the Spanish tax officials dare not enter the town.
Town, because you never know when you will be killed.
"The Spaniards captured Paris and the king went into exile in Hong Kong!"
In the morning in the small town, someone was riding a horse and shouting loudly, with infinite sorrow and indignation in his voice.
They have always been proud of being great French people, and their allegiance is always to the King of France. Even if the Spanish come over, it is still not easy to rule here.
As long as the king of France gives the order, everyone will immediately rise up to resist and drive the Spaniards out.
But France failed to live up to expectations and retreated steadily in the face of Spanish attacks. Now even Paris has fallen, and the king has gone into exile in Hong Kong, leaving behind his people.
"France is dead!"
"Perished?"
After hearing the news, every Frenchman in the small town of Giverny felt as if they had lost their souls and were devastated.
If you want to say where in Europe the people are the most unified, it must be France.
France has basically determined its current territory and established the French nation from a very early time. The rule of the French king has always been very stable and has been effectively passed on.
Unlike other places that rely on marriage and other means to expand or consolidate territory, France is a breath of fresh air in Europe, which is why France has always been unified.
Although there are many nobles and fiefdoms, it is not as scattered as Italy and the Holy Roman Empire, and the kings also hold great power.
The inheritance of kings is also passed down from father to son. If there are no sons, it is passed down from brother to brother. This is different from the Holy Roman Empire. The emperors of the Holy Roman Empire are still elected by electors and do not have any substantive power.
For France, French people have a very high degree of recognition.
Now that they heard that France had perished, they naturally felt very uncomfortable and sad. It would not be an exaggeration to describe them as devastated.
"As long as the King is still there, France is still here, and we are always ready to pick up His Majesty the King and lead us to drive away the Spaniards!"
"Yes, as long as the king is still there, we France will still be there!"
"We will drive out the Spaniards one day."
The residents of the town continued to comfort themselves.
But in fact, everyone knows that if the king wants to fight back, it will be even more difficult than ascending to heaven.
The Spanish were too powerful, with more than 200,000 troops stationed in France. Their advanced rifles shredded the armor of knights, their powerful artillery destroyed the castles of nobles, and their sharp sabers broke the bones of the French.
The Spaniards could not be defeated by concentrating all the strength of the country, and it would be even harder to organize them after they went into exile.
"Tap~"
Just as the residents of the town were grieving, the sound of horse hooves galloped from a distance. When the residents of the town heard this, they all became very nervous, fearing that the Spaniards were coming to kill them.
Soon, it was really a group of Spanish cavalry escorting several Spanish officials to the small town of Giverny.
Seeing these Spaniards, the residents of the town were full of hostility, but they did not dare to get angry, because these cavalry not only had sabers, but also rifles. Even though there were only more than 100 people, they were enough to conquer the town.
They were slaughtered cleanly.
One of the leading officials was named John, who was originally a small nobleman nearby. When the Spaniards came over, he chose to surrender to the Spanish early. Now he is also appointed as the tax collector of a nearby city.
"Residents of Giverny, everyone, listen!"
"France has been destroyed. The King of France has abandoned all the French people and exiled them to Ming Dynasty Hong Kong."
"From now on, everyone needs to be loyal to the great Emperor Charles V and are the subjects of the great Spanish Empire!"
John looked at the residents of Giverny Town with anger and murderous intent in their eyes, took out a notice and read it loudly.
After hearing John's words, many residents of the town began to cry.
But there are more people who are even more angry and hate the Spaniards in front of them.
"In order to express his concern for you, the great Emperor of the Spanish Empire, Charles V, decided to allocate the land that originally belonged to the nobles to you for free. After allocating the land, you only need to pay 30% of the food to Emperor Charles V every year.
All that is left is your legitimate income and will be protected by the great Spanish Empire."
"In addition, Emperor Charles V encouraged reclamation. New fields reclaimed on ownerless or noble land will belong to the reclaimer, and they will also only need to pay 30% of the tax."
"Everyone, as long as they are willing to learn Spanish, regardless of whether they are nobles or commoners, are qualified to become officials and serve Emperor Charles V. As long as they have made meritorious services, they can also be canonized as new nobles.
"
"Many French people have made contributions to the attack on Paris this time. Now they have been named nobles and become new nobles!"
As John finished speaking, everyone around him exploded.
The King of Spain wants to give away the land that originally belonged to the nobles to everyone for free?
And from now on, you only need to pay three cents to pay taxes?
Do all the cultivated fields belong to the cultivators?
Is there such a good thing in the world?
"Sir, is this true?"
Someone couldn't help but ask at first.
The hatred in his eyes seemed to disappear all of a sudden, and what was left was only heat. In his mind, he was thinking about owning his own land. After paying the taxes, there would be a lot of food left, and the family would have more food than they could eat.
You can eat delicious bread every meal.
"Of course it's true. Please see, this is the new decree issued by Emperor Charles V!"
"Emperor Charles V also regarded the French as his own subjects, and he treated the French the same as he treated the Spanish. As long as everyone is willing to be loyal to Emperor Charles V, everyone can live a prosperous and dignified life in the future."
John said solemnly.
"Very good!"
"Very good!"
"We can have our own land, we can have our own land!"
After receiving an affirmative answer, the residents of the small town of Giverny couldn't help but cheered.
Like the people of the Ming Dynasty in the past, ordinary civilians here in Europe do not have their own land. All land belongs to the nobles.
They were just tenants who farmed the land for the nobles, which was almost equivalent to renting the nobles' fields for farming.
Therefore, the people here are similar to the farmers in the Ming Dynasty. They all live a very hard life. About half of the food they work hard to grow in a year must be paid to the nobles in the territory.
In addition, one-tenth must be paid to the church and indulgences must be purchased. In addition, the king of France will also impose taxes on various places.
Especially during times of war, the king taxes more and the nobles also increase taxes.
Generally speaking, the farmers in Europe are actually more miserable than the farmers in the Ming Dynasty before. After a year of hard work, they may only get less than 30% of their income.
Such heavy taxes and burdens also led to peasant uprisings and urban riots that often broke out across Europe. In essence, ancient times, both in the East and the West, were basically based on the exploitation of land.
Whether they are the landowners and gentry in the East or the aristocratic lords in the West, their essence is the same. Controlling the land is equivalent to controlling the common people and peasants.
They rely on the leasing of land to live a life of getting something for nothing, and they also try to pass this method on from generation to generation, and peasants who cannot survive often break out in uprisings.
The Middle Ages in Europe was actually a very chaotic period. The number and scale of peasant uprisings were no less than those in the East. It was just that Europe was too scattered and the greed of various nobles was different, so there was no big war like the East.
Large scale war.
But no matter what, land is the most important means of production during this period.
When I heard that Charles V was going to distribute the land of the nobles to everyone, and encouraged everyone to cultivate the land, the cultivated land would also belong to them.
The residents of the small town of Giverny can no longer be calm.
No matter whether he is Charles V or the Big-Nosed King, no matter whether it belongs to Spain or France, for civilians like them, these are not important.
The most important thing now is whether Charles V means what he said.
If you can really get your own land and only pay 30% of the tax, everyone can't help but think of the happy life in the future. From now on, it seems that you can take more bites of bread.
At this moment, the residents of the entire town of Giverny were going crazy. They were all running to tell each other, and the whole town was boiling for a while.
The Spaniards, who were originally enemies, seemed so amiable at this moment. They were simply their relatives and parents.
There was no longer any hatred towards the Spaniards in people's eyes, instead they were filled with enthusiasm and expectation.
The Spaniards did not let them wait long. They quickly took out a map and marked out the surrounding land that originally belonged to the nobles. At the same time, they also quickly counted the population of the town.
This time, the residents of the town were very cooperative. Everyone lined up to count the population, and then everyone looked eagerly at the fertile land, looking forward to being allocated a piece of their own land.
Diligent farmers have begun to reclaim land very early. In the past, many wastelands were deliberately abandoned by nobles to raise horses, cattle, etc. Now these lands are full of farmers working hard to reclaim them.
