Chapter 337 — Whose Neck the Noose Fits
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 3
"If hanging the ignorant could set every wrong to rights, this world would be far too kind," Gaoyang said with a laugh and a shake of his head at Ropenny's words. "They were nothing but accomplices—egged on by others, or bought off with a few coins."
"But they are more hateful than the ringleaders," Ropenny Glan said coldly. "My husband defied tradition and the rules for their sake, gave men who would otherwise have spent their whole lives rolling in the mud a chance at a decent life—and what did they do? Deceived by a few lies, or bought with a few coins, they turned into a mob, came to plunder the castle, came to attack their own lord!"
Amber had been listening all this while, and at last she could hold back no longer. She stared at Gaoyang and Ropenny, dumbfounded. "Wait—you mean most of the mob that stormed the castle back then were actually people Viscount Roman had helped?!"
"Of course. That is the inference I drew from your findings," Gaoyang nodded, "and it matches what I expected from the start. Once I knew the details of Viscount Roman's measures and the later attack on the castle, I knew it had to turn out this way."
Ropenny regarded Gaoyang with uncertainty. She had calmed a little by now from the agitation of reopening old wounds, and could not help wondering what Gaoyang's true purpose was in coming today. "Why do you say that?"
Gaoyang did not answer the viscountess directly. Instead he posed a new question. "Would you like to know why your husband failed?"
Ropenny was taken aback. Slowly she drew a deep breath, meaning to seize back control of the conversation. "Why should I discuss these bygone matters with you?"
"If you knew something of the laws Cecil is currently enforcing, you probably would not ask that," Amber put in. "The Cecil territory... is also gradually emancipating its serfs and slaves, and land redistribution is proceeding alongside it..."
"My husband already failed at this once. I never imagined anyone would attempt the same thing," Ropenny Glan said, fixing her eyes on Gaoyang. "Now that you have learned what happened here years ago, you would do well to stop in time. This kind of heretical—"
"This kind of heretical undertaking is not wrong in itself. Your husband's failure lay in three other things he did wrong," Gaoyang shook his head, cutting her off. "First, his strides were too long. Second, his fist was not hard enough. Third, he kept the people ignorant."
As he spoke, he turned toward the wall behind the desk, to the Viscount Roman Glan smiling faintly in the oil painting.
"He was a pioneer, a pioneer of bold reform, but like many pioneers he made grave mistakes. He tried to correct the faults in Ansu's present system, to unleash the power of the people, yet he made no sound plan. He simply lumped every reform together and pushed them all at once, never considering how these decrees would interact and compound upon one another, never considering that social transformation must come step by step. So his reforms threw the order into chaos. If I am not mistaken, those suddenly freed serfs and slaves caused turmoil in the very first stage, because they had neither land nor property—and that is why your husband was forced to carry out land distribution before he was ready, which only bred greater chaos.
"Second, he lacked the strength to withstand the forces that pushed back. He did not first secure an armed force of his own, nor did he think carefully about how fiercely the traditional nobles he affected would resist once their interests were harmed.
"And last, the most fatal point of all—he did not tell those who gained freedom and land. He did not tell them *why*."