Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 670: Does England increase its population by respecting women?
After assigning the tasks, the two did not leave immediately, but looked at each other and started asking their own questions.

"These past few days, everyone has been talking about convening a religious conference. I wonder if the general direction of the conference has been decided?" Grand Master Roberto asked tentatively, "If there is anything we need to do, we can send a letter to the Cardinal in advance. Once everyone has a tacit understanding, it will be easier to negotiate at the meeting."

"There's no need to rush." ​​Tuohuan told him, "The world is now divided, not only in the secular sense, but also in the religious sense. It's not just us and the Islamic religion that are divided, we and your Catholic Church, their Sunnis and Shiites, have been divided for hundreds of years. Add to that various other sects, too numerous to count. This is not what the doctrine should be like. It's just that everyone thinks they are right, and they can't convince each other."

"The secular world and the religious world are actually one and the same, and the various influences complement each other. If the world is unified, then religion will naturally be unified; conversely, if religion is difficult to unify, the foundation of the world's unity will also be unstable."

"Your place is nominally the territory of the Catholic Church, but because of the long-term division among the nations, the church eventually found it difficult to maintain itself. The current great schism in the church is just the result of this situation. It is already rare that the church was able to maintain nominal unity for several centuries after the collapse of Rome..."

"That's true," Sir John agreed. "I've always felt that many of the so-called doctrinal disputes in the church are just superficial. Most of them are probably caused by differences in secular interests, and then different interpretations of the doctrine are used to gather people and attack each other. This kind of thing is very familiar to our Knights."

"Now the Alemanni are also trying to bridge the church divide, but I don't think highly of them. It's not that I don't like certain people, because even if it's them, as long as they can promote the unity of the church and provide a good example, it will definitely be beneficial to us." Tuohuan told them the truth:

"However, just as it is difficult to restore the unity of the world, it will also be difficult to restore the unity of faith. The barbarian countries cannot unify the world in a secular sense, and I don't have much confidence in their faith. This is not even just a matter of military force, but their overall level of civilization is not enough to support such a country."

"Of course, even for us, this goal is still far away. Such a large number of issues left over from history cannot be solved in one meeting, or even in one generation. A forced melon is not sweet, and many differences still need to be slowly smoothed out. Everyone knows this."

"So, we won't have too high expectations. This time, we just want to get to know each other. There is no need to prepare specifically or debate with others."

"Oh, I see." The two of them were relieved: "Then let's go and tell the bishop, so that they won't be too nervous."

"What's there to be nervous about?" Tuohuan said with a smile.

"Well, you know, in the past, when our church organized people to debate with the Greeks, it was always very troublesome. The people we sent out often lost more than they won. Now the church itself is divided, and it can't even figure out its internal affairs, let alone spare people." Grand Master Roberto shook his head and said, "If it's just a meeting, then it's fine. They can also rest assured."

"Such a meeting should have been held long ago. But Rome declined too early, and the previous leaders did not have enough ability." Guo Kang also shook his head and said, "The duties that should have been performed by the court have not been completed. A lot of meetings have been held, and the division of the church has become more serious."

"Our great ancestor Liu Gong, seeing the order collapse to such an extent, said, 'The world should have reason, it should not be so evil', so he raised troops from the remote areas, gathered farmers and shepherds from all over the country, drove out the barbarian kings, and rebuilt the Roman state from the land of a village; my religious master Zhang Zi, seeing the orthodoxy was in such a mess, said, 'Faith should have a correct path, it should not be so chaotic', so he started to preach in the countryside, educate the illiterate poor people, kill the evil spirits, drive out the heretics, and rebuilt the Roman Church from a country school."

"Now, Rome has been established for four generations, and the church has been passed down for three generations. We now have the ability to initially implement the ideals of the past. Therefore, we plan to start further attempts within our capabilities."

"This kind of conference has never been held before. Therefore, it may seem a little strange to everyone. But everything has to have a first time, and for such a big event, someone has to take the lead. Since we in Rome have this ambition and strength, we will naturally take on this responsibility."

"We understand." Grand Master Roberto and Sir John looked at each other and immediately said, "Our two knight orders should actually be religious orders. But now, they are no longer worthy of the name. How to develop in the future depends not only on our own efforts, but also on following the general trend. If there is anything we need to do during this process, please let us know. We will definitely serve as pioneers and help you achieve this grand goal."

"Oh, you're welcome, you're welcome." Tuo Huan said with a smile, "We are all church members, there's no need to be so polite. When there's something going on, I won't be polite with you."

"Wandering on the sea is not a long-term solution. Especially now, the French in the group and people from other countries are often quarreling. If this goes on, something bad will happen sooner or later. While the situation is relatively good these days and everyone is unprecedentedly united, I want to quickly decide on the direction. This will also find a good way out for all of us." Captain Roberto no longer hesitated and spoke frankly.

"When I was carrying out the mission these days, I saw you arranging people to clean up the streets, saying that you were preparing to fight the plague. Many people have joined in. Just now at the door, I heard Miss Jeanna and the others mention this matter. Of course, we don't want to be an exception. If possible, I hope we can participate this time. After all, we have the word "hospital" in our name..."

"The plague is different from ordinary ones." Guo Kang said seriously: "The key to dealing with the plague is not the hospital, but discipline, faith and courage. Only those who have these three are qualified to face the plague."

"Fighting the plague is similar to participating in a war. First of all, we must have a strict organization and strict discipline. If someone disobeys management and even runs around on the battlefield, it will definitely affect the entire army. The same is true when fighting the plague."

"Secondly, we must have firm faith. During the plague, the enemy we face is invisible, and this kind of enemy is more frightening than a real army. Therefore, only the most determined people can persist, no matter how dangerous the environment or how desperate the situation is, and never give up the faith that God will always protect mankind and that we will eventually win. Only in this way can we avoid panic and fear."

"Finally, you need great courage. This courage is not the courage of a man who is impulsive at the moment, because fighting the plague is bound to be a long process, and the courage brought by impulse cannot last for such a long time. In the process of fighting the plague, people will definitely die continuously for a long time. People without courage will be easily frightened."

"These are rare and excellent qualities that not everyone is born with. They often have to be tempered before they can be developed. We also have to carefully select to find the right people." "This time, we don't need too many people to maintain order, so we still insist on the principle of voluntary participation. The enemy we face this time is extraordinary. If we force it, it will not be good for anyone. Therefore, we will first explain the dangers to everyone, and only those who are willing to participate will be recruited. Before the plague really breaks out, we will allow you to withdraw at any time. After you go back, you should explain it clearly to your subordinates."

The two of them responded yes.

"It doesn't matter if you don't participate this time. There are still a lot of things to do in the future." Guo Kang specially comforted him: "After the plague, we still have to continue to repair water conservancy projects and rectify industries. We can also continue to promote cotton and textiles that we didn't expand before. Not only men, but also women, we have to find ways to arrange jobs for them."

"Even if we only look at the medical and sanitation aspects, there is still a lot of work to do. Apart from anything else, we are also going to bring the maternal hygiene standards that we tried to promote in our hometown. In Egypt, the population is now so small that it is almost like the Pharaoh era. This will definitely not work. We have to find ways to improve women's living and medical conditions and find ways to restore the population."

Roberto nodded repeatedly, but John thought about it and expressed a different opinion.

"Sir, I agree with your goal, but you don't seem to have mentioned the more important aspects?" he asked.

"Ah? You mean increasing the population?" Guo Kang was a little surprised.

"Yes," John replied, "you only talked about improving the conditions of women."

"Oh, that's what I thought." Guo Kang thought that he might not understand this aspect very well, so he explained: "I heard that you all like war. Please let me use war as an analogy: women giving birth to children is risky - just like us fighting a war. If people are allowed to take risks to do things, they must be compensated to reduce the degree of danger they face and increase their willingness to take positive actions and overcome difficulties."

"In this matter, we need to find ways to reduce mortality and improve welfare. In the Mediterranean world today, all countries hope to have a large population, but few can do so. I think if we can do our best, we can open up a big gap with them."

"So that's how it is." John thought about it, shook his head and said, "But if I may be frank, I'm afraid your idea may not be completely correct. At least, in this environment, it is not completely accurate."

"Go on, go on." Guo Kang urged hurriedly.

"In war, rewards for soldiers are important, but discipline and punishment are also essential," John emphasized. "Based on my experience, the latter is even more important."

"For nobles, salary, rewards, and promotions are indeed very important. But for the vast majority of civilian soldiers, the most important thing is timely and effective punishment. If you give them too much benefit, they will become greedy and think you are weak and can be bullied. They will not respect your status and will not obey your orders. Not only will the combat efficiency not be improved, but discipline will be impossible to maintain, and the entire army will even collapse."

"Women are even more difficult to deal with than uneducated civilian soldiers. Even if you give them benefits, they won't be grateful to you. Instead, they will only ask for more from you instead of fulfilling their corresponding obligations. Giving favors to these people is very inefficient. The right approach is to enforce strict discipline."

"I have consulted the monks in my hometown before. They told me that human instincts are the same as animals. They hate pain and hope to gain something without working. People with noble souls can exercise self-discipline and get rid of this animal nature. People without noble souls must be supervised and educated so that they can gradually understand through learning. People with incomplete souls can only control their behavior like animals through punishment and whipping."

"So, the restrictions of the rules and the husband's teachings are the most important part here. Let women's desire to avoid whipping be greater than their desire to avoid childbirth, and their fear of their husband's orders be greater than their fear of the danger of difficult childbirth, then they will naturally give birth to children. This principle should be relatively simple, right?"

"Uh... well, this is true in theory, but can it really be implemented?" Guo Kang and Tuo Huan were stunned for a moment, not knowing how to answer, so they had to ask.

"It's not difficult. It's quite common in England. It's just that no one has organized this theory. I just remembered it when you mentioned it." Sir John said frankly:

"Our place is considered the poorest in Europe. But despite this, the population has increased several times since William's conquest, and the speed is no slower than that of the continent. It was only during the Black Death that the population decreased a lot, but now it has increased again."

"The material conditions on the island are terrible, and His Majesty the King doesn't want to stay there. In addition to the Black Death, various famines and disasters are also emerging one after another. In my father's territory, the people often die in large numbers. But he always told me not to worry about these problems, because every time, they can reproduce as quickly as rats and quickly replenish the population - I think this is definitely not because the people are rich and can give women a lot of compensation, or respect them especially?"

After hearing this actual case, Guo Kang was speechless. Tuo Huan quickly changed the subject, invited them to attend the meeting later, and then quickly sent these people out.

(End of this chapter)