Medieval: Kingdom Come: Deliverance

Construction takes years, destruction only a day. Taking over the Troski territory is not a happy ending, but merely the beginning of an even more arduous journey.

The first thing that needs to be addressed is the livelihood of the people.

Before Peter came, everyone lived in poverty. After Peter came, everyone still lived in poverty. Then Peter's trip was for nothing, wasn't it?

Therefore, improving the living standards of the people and enhancing their sense of happiness is of utmost urgency.

If time travelers want to overtake others, they must come up with something that transcends their time.

It could be technology, weapons, or ideas. In short, change is necessary.

The first thing to change is the multi-tiered feudal system where "my vassal's vassal is not my vassal." Under this feudal system, because monarchs devote their main energy to resolving domestic disputes and suppressing local separatist forces, they lack sufficient resources to develop the country, have no spare capacity to resist foreign enemies, and have no intention of improving the happiness of their subjects.

This is similar to how France, with its multi-level feudal system, was brutally defeated by centralized England; and how Hungary, plagued by internal strife among its nobility, was brutally beaten by centralized Ottoman rule.

However, considering the current level of productivity, things that are too advanced may not be suitable for local conditions. So Peter decided to copy someone else's work:

Peter was prepared to learn from the centralized power of England, where the monarch directly appointed nobles; to learn from the collective bargaining mechanism of the Swiss Confederation at the time; and to learn from Venice, Italy's philosophy of developing industry and commerce to enrich the nation...

Having made up his mind, Peter began his reform plan.

The first reform: centralization of power.

Previously, the administration of the Trossky territory was very loose: in short, the castle steward Ulrich was responsible for all affairs within the castle, while the villages outside were each handled by their respective sheriffs and two knights. Aside from collecting taxes and performing corvée labor, the lord's castle and the villages had almost no interaction. The castle guards were only responsible for protecting the castle; they barely bothered with security, allowing bandits to roam freely, let alone resolve legal disputes. For example, the villages of Takhov and Zheleyov had been fighting over a border issue for many years, but Ulrich completely ignored it, letting the villages fight amongst themselves.

The biggest advantage of this loose system of governance was its extremely low cost. The annual income of 5000 groschens within the territory was mostly used for the castle's daily expenses, paying guards' salaries, and maintaining the lord's luxurious lifestyle. Even so, there was still a surplus of over 2000 groschens each year.

The drawbacks of this model are equally obvious: the people only feel fear towards their lord, not reverence. Since they don't feel any favor from their lord, they naturally won't fight bravely on the battlefield. This is also why the conscripted soldiers of the nobles in the past were so undisciplined and easily defeated. The loose self-governance of individual villages is also incapable of coping with major natural disasters or man-made calamities. In years of famine or large-scale bandit attacks, villages often suffer heavy losses; simply surviving is a blessing, let alone achieving any happiness.

Now, Peter is preparing to establish a centralized model of town government with modern functions.

The mayor was appointed by the most capable elder monk, Martin, who had previously served as steward of the Red Star Cross Knights. He possessed exceptional administrative skills, and his advanced age and high prestige made him ideal for overseeing the entire operation. The local strongman, Theros, assisted him.

The town government administers seven villages: Troski, Takhov, Zheleyov, Semi, Griffin, Apolonia, and Shidir.

Each village is headed by a village chief personally appointed by Peter. Under him are a militia captain, a tax accountant, a herbalist, and a tavern owner. This five-person village management body handles all village affairs and reports directly to the town government.

Previously, all the land, forests, mudflats, valleys, and lakes of the entire territory belonged to the lord. The villagers living in the various villages of the territory only had the right to use the land, but not the right to own it. The lord would build large farms on the best farmland and distribute ordinary farmland as allotted land to the villagers for cultivation. The villagers were required to work three days a week at the lord's farms, manors, courtyards, and horse ranches, working tirelessly year-round. Those who lost their allotted land would be reduced to landless laborers or even sold into slavery.

Now, with the entire territory under Peter's name, Peter announced that the "right to use" land, forests, mudflats, river valleys, and lakes would be collectively granted to seven villages, and fishing, hunting, and land reclamation rights would be liberalized. The "ownership and right to use" of the land previously bestowed at the bonfire feast were all transferred. This created a situation where collective villages and private individuals coexisted.

In terms of taxation, the common practice in Bohemia at that time was that one-third of the harvest from the allotted land had to be given to the lord, one-tenth to the church, and there were also various other taxes such as mill tax, poll tax, and river usage tax. As a result, the people could only keep less than 30% of their harvest each year. Peter directly abolished a large number of exorbitant taxes, especially the mill tax that was hated by the common people, and only collected one-third of the land's produce as tax during the summer and autumn seasons.

Furthermore, the agricultural tax was paid collectively by the village, not directly to individuals. Although the agricultural tax rate did not decrease, because it was paid collectively, individuals felt less of the pain, and complaints from the people against the lord decreased, even shifting to the village head or tax accountant. This is also a common tactic in modern society: "contradiction transfer"—the emperor is good, the ministers are bad, and everyone's misfortune is due to the treacherous ministers' misdeeds that have deceived His Majesty.

As for the church's tithe, since Trotsky only had a small, inconspicuous chapel within the castle, a priest named Nicholas, and his young assistant, Peter directly ordered that the mandatory tithe be changed to a voluntary one. The lords would not send troops to collect taxes for the church, and the priests were not allowed to maintain armed forces. Whether the people paid was entirely voluntary.

Furthermore, although the ownership and use rights of the land granted were transferred under the guise of "reward," the landowners remained under Peter's authoritarian rule and were still subject to taxes. Peter levied only one-tenth of the quarterly harvest on these "private lands," far lower than the taxes levied on collective villages. The combination of private land and low tax rates also incentivized militia members within collective villages to earn land grants through meritorious service.

Not paying taxes is unacceptable; taxes represent the embodiment of ruling authority, and not paying taxes means losing control.

Ownership of the means of production is the core of production relations.

The establishment of collective villages and the change in labor patterns inevitably led to changes in the identities of the village residents. Previously, there were mainly three types of people in the villages: free artisans, landowners, and landless laborers.

Previously, the village was mostly populated by landowners. Although they had no personal freedom, they owned allotted land granted by the lord and made a meager living by cultivating their allotted land and performing labor for the lord.

For landed citizens to rise in social class and become free citizens, they needed to become skilled workers in various trades, such as soldiers, hunters, butchers, carpenters, blacksmiths, stonemasons, tailors, grooms, barbers, herbalists, brewers, beekeepers, gravediggers, and executioners. Because the demand for these skilled workers was limited in the Middle Ages, aside from soldiers, it was generally a master-apprentice system with one or two apprentices, or the profession was passed down through families. Therefore, achieving upward social mobility was extremely difficult.

But it is easy to fall into a lower social class. Soldiers who are defeated or crippled are dismissed from their posts; hunters who accidentally enter important territory and kill important prey are punished by their lords; stonemasons who build city defenses are forced to work for free and go bankrupt because their employers break their contracts... and so on. All of these can lead to a fall into a lower social class and becoming penniless, landless laborers.

Those who most frequently fall into poverty are the landowners. A drought, flood, war, disease, or tax increase can bankrupt an already impoverished landowner, forcing them to sell their land or borrow at exorbitant interest rates to survive, ultimately losing their land and becoming landless laborers. How did Jaksi, who was executed earlier, become a large landowner with hundreds of acres of land? Was it because he was hardworking, good at farming and agriculture, and his land produced more grain than others? Just look at the fates of Vasek, Mihar, and Lucky Lak to understand. Primitive capital accumulation has always been bloody.

After the implementation of collective villages, Peter granted freedom to all the villagers, making them free commoners with individual will, free to migrate at will, and free to choose their own professions—though in reality, they could not go far away even if they lived there their whole lives. However, their enthusiasm for labor increased significantly. They no longer worked collectively in the village to cultivate the land for the lord, but for their own harvest, only needing to pay taxes to the town government.

Peter will expand the Griffin Guard, recruit staff for the administration, and establish workshops for blacksmiths, woodworking, pottery, and clothing factories, allowing free civilians to choose professions other than farming to make a living.

History has presented two choices: can freedom or confinement enhance work motivation?

In the 16th century, attitudes towards their subjects diverged dramatically between Western and Eastern Europe. Western Europe began to loosen its control over its subjects; England encouraged and even forced its subjects to redeem themselves and become free citizens. Eastern Europe, however, fearing the migration of its subjects, enacted laws that turned landed subjects into landless laborers and serfs, making them entirely the private property of their lords. The Russians went to the extreme, treating serfs like livestock.

Peter chose to grant his people freedom, but he was not afraid of their large-scale migration, because this freedom was only valid within his territory. Outside of Troschi, other nobles would not recognize it, and they would still have to treat him like a slave.

So the fundamentals are still very stable.