Chapter 45 — The First Step of the Plan

Gao Yang spoke a great deal in one breath. Not only Rebecca—even Hedy grew dizzy. The latter stared blankly as Gao Yang went on talking while continuing to write and sketch on the paper; beneath those items that had previously been only terms, hasty shorthand notes soon accumulated. She could not help feeling confused: "Ancestor, making simple work so complicated—won't that instead lower... efficiency?"

"These systems only look complicated. But at the far end of the system—on those commoners and serfs—they need only work quickly and well to gain benefits. Once they have tasted the sweetness, they will naturally follow them earnestly. And once they begin to follow them, you will see an efficiency even more astonishing than today's tent-raising. Of course, things may be a little difficult when first put into practice—that is why you must keep proclaiming them, keep explaining them. Beyond that, they must be enforced, promoted by force. No need for reasons—just tell them: this is the new law of the Cecil Territory."

At this moment Gao Yang could not help feeling somewhat grateful for this backward age. The people's minds were not yet awakened; whether free men or the slave class, all took obedience to orders as a matter of course. The lord's word was absolute, and the so-called "lowly folk" had no room to resist. Under such circumstances, many of his ideas could be put into practice without much explanation...

Yet this was not the situation Gao Yang wanted. His aim was to break that environment, so that every "lowly one" in the Cecil Territory would no longer be lowly, but a living, breathing human being.

He needed people—great masses of people.

Because what he meant to do could not possibly be accomplished by his own strength alone.

That was why he had Hedy, while forcibly promoting these systems, also keep proclaiming them to the people. It did not matter that the commoners could not understand them now—one day they would.

Hedy was no fool. She had ample wisdom, and in her views she was already far ahead of the noble class of this age. So after Gao Yang explained, and after she herself thought for a while, she had vaguely grasped the meaning of doing all this, and nodded in agreement.

"And me?" Seeing that Aunt Hedy already had an assignment, Rebecca could not resist edging closer, brimming with eagerness. "What do I do?"

This viscount's daughter, who until so recently had been the lady of Cecil territory, had by now placed herself entirely in the role of Gao Yang's assistant.

"Tomorrow take some men and survey the soil. Confirm how hard the land will be to break and how much of it we can open up in the early stage. Don't go too far."

As he spoke, Gao Cen swiftly sketched a rough map on a sheet of white paper beside him, a broad expanse centered on the river flats, and on it he casually jotted distance figures for each place; though the lines were not even a proper draft, just outlines, Rebecca stared at them dumbfounded.

"Just follow this area. Leave everything beyond it for now."

Rebecca took the "map" in a daze. "Oh... oh..."

Amber, standing nearby, looked at Gao Song as though gazing upon some monster. "This... were all you fellows who ran the Second Opening back then monsters too?"

Gao Yang thought it over, decided the other old-timers from seven hundred years ago were unlikely to leap out of their graves and hit him, and so spun a tale on the spot: "That's right. Sketching half a kingdom's terrain from memory, eyes closed, was standard issue for our generation."

Amber: "..."