Chapter 58 — Norris's Story

Gao Yang asked again: "You can read and reckon, and you've had a Church education. So the new rules I had Hedy read out to you, and the forms I designed to record work output—you should be able to grasp those quite easily, shouldn't you? If I set you to filling in the forms and calculating land and yields, could you do it?"

This time Norris nodded first, then asked hesitantly: "My lord, are you... are you making me an overseer?"

In recent days, since Gao Yang had introduced a labor system that required counting and assessment, the old sort of overseer—one who could only swing a whip and could not read a single character—had been rendered useless. The domain's overseers were now chosen from among the family warriors, or even Hedy herself (some of the family warriors were knight's squires, who at least knew a few numbers and could write out a few simple words). So the moment Norris heard Gao Yang's question, he could not help but connect it to that.

"No—not merely an overseer. In fact, if you can manage it, I intend for you to oversee the whole of the land reclamation, and even the grain production that comes later," Gao Yang said. "Of course, I can't hand you that much authority all at once, nor let you do whatever you please. I'll have Hedy 'assess' you, and I'll tell you at all times what needs doing."

The expression on Norris's face changed at once. "My... my lord! I don't quite understand... Are you making me your steward? But a steward doesn't manage only grain..."

"It's a kind of office, but not a steward's," Gao Yang said, rising. "If I must give it a name, let's call it... Chief of Agriculture, for now. And I must tell you first: this office is unlike any post on any noble's domain before it. You cannot pass it down generation after generation as a title—unless your children have sufficient talent. Nor is it held for life. If you fail to do the work well, or if you use the convenience of the office to commit acts that violate Cecil law, you will be removed, and punished as the offense warrants. From now on, many of the positions I establish on this land will be likewise. Do you understand?"

Had Gao Yang not warned him with so many conditions, Norris might well have been too frightened to accept this "windfall of good fortune"—for it greatly resembled that day in his eighth year when the priest came to the village and said he might "receive divine grace." But with Gao Yang's warnings, he instead began to ponder it seriously, and concluded that it must be real.

An ordinary poor man would not reason as he did, but Norris could, because he had been educated—and even though that education had nearly killed him, he had learned "logic" from it.

So after a spell of thought, the old-faced farmer nodded firmly. "My lord, if you trust me... Norris will manage well every field you give him, and every grain of food that grows from that land!"

(I have to go out today and likely won't get near a computer until evening, so I've only drafted one chapter and set it to auto-publish. Just one chapter today.)