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Chapter CIV – You shall see how land-reform was made a reality.
🕑 Added 2024-09-15 17:56:26 +0000 UTC
73rd of Summer 5859
Yellowclover, Outskirts of Casamonu
It was yet another late Summer day in Gemeinplatz. As summer came to a close so did the foot-cooking head-scorching sweat-making heat start to retreat away. Some trees, anxious to welcome the Fall, had already began browning their leaves and littering them ever so carelessly. Wherever one walked there was a crunch to their step, except when the occasional rain came and replaced the crunch with the slosh of mud.
For the villagers of Yellowclover, today was to be a slosh day. Shinasi Sr. woke up at his hut to see his daughter Shirin getting her boots on. “Morning, Shirin.”
Shirin jumped, startled by the sudden voice. The jump made the oversized boots come off. “Oh- oh, it’s you, papa. Morning!”
“Where are you going at such an early hour?” asked Shinasi. He could see from the open door that the outdoors was still painted an orange hue from the newly risen sun.
“The fields. Uncle next door told me that they’ll start sowing the winter wheat today.” Shirin got back into her boots, tying them with a piece of rope to her ankles so that they wouldn’t come off while working.
The old Shinasi scratched his balding head. “Wait, which field? Did they get permission from the lord?” Thinking about it, he hadn’t seen any tax collectors in a while… “Normally, we’d have to get our plots for the year assigned by the lord.”
Shirin simply shrugged “Uncle says the lord man has been gone for a while so the plots are free to use. He says that he’d rather break the law than starve.”
“I guess… Those fugitives did end up killing a lot of the metalplates.” He had even heard rumors from a few passersby that Casamonu had fallen, but Shinasi was a bit skeptical of such outlandish claims.
“Papa, if the lord dies, who does the land belong to?” asked Shirin.
Shinasi Sr. wasn’t expecting to be hit by a child’s curiosity this early in the morning. “Uhm… I guess it’d go to the Emperor until he assigns another lord?”
Shirin tilted her head. “Who assigns the Emperor then?”
“…”
“…?”
“A… A bigger Emperor?”
“I guess?”
“Shirin, dear, can we stop it with the weird questions for a second and get me outside at least?” Shinasi did his best to right himself up for pickup. It was a bit hard to do when he could only use his arms and not his legs. At best he could push himself up with his arms. Shirin ran to him and did her best to drag him up. It was a bit hard to do considering her small stature. Eventually her father was brought to a chair outside with a nice view. “Thank you, Shirin.”
“I’ll be heading to the field now. See you!” said Shirin, leaving the man alone to bask in the sun. She only took a few steps forward before she was interrupted by noise coming from afar. “Drums?”
“What are they?” Shinasi instinctively tried to stand up to take a look “Are they bandit metalplates again?”
“They don’t have armor.” replied Shirin looking at the small mass of man in the distance “They’re the same men that brother came with last time.”
“It should be fine then. Could you welcome them?”
Shirin nodded and ran to greet the crowd approaching the middle of the village. The group contained a few spear-armed soldiers with familiar uniforms, a few unarmed people carrying goods on their back and a man at the front with a knapsack. The priest hailed Shirin “Good morning.”
“Good morning!” Shirin felt a bit overwhelmed by the group “Are you traders?”
“No, we’re representatives of the… umm…” The man took out a piece of paper out from his knapsack, along with a handbell that he began ringing “The… ‘The Federal Republic of Gemeinplatz’.” He had trouble pronouncing the words ‘federal’ and ‘republic’.
The two strange words caused much confusion in young Shirin as well “Fed… Fede-what-lic?”
The town crier stayed silent, for he too knew not. The new people over at Casamonu had just employed him to tour the countryside and read what had been given to him. While the two had briefly conversed, the whole village had been drawn by the sound of drums and bell. They were crowding around the strangers. “We’re from the people over at Casamonu, who have declared themselves… ourselves, they- we have declared that we are not to have any lords above us.”
“Uhm…” The peasantry proved that they understood things as much as the priest.
“Ahem, ahem… Ahem! Hear ye, this is an official announcement!” Giving up on paraphrasing, the crier locked his eye on to the printed sheet in his hands “We, as the people of Gemeinplatz, hereby declare that Gemeinplatz belongs to all those living in it, and that the people of Gemeinplatz have been robbed of their birthright of liberty and equality. Therefore, we have united together under one Union and adopted this Constitution to protect our inalienable rights. The free people of Gemeinplatz, declare that we do not accept any human authority, up to and including the Emperor of Gemeinplatz, to be above us…” He then continued on to read each and every article of the constitution, a constitution which was very similar to the one adopted by the League of Gileadites, which took a long while. “…With a majority of the vote, John Brown has been declared Commander-in-Chief of the Republic and granted emergency powers for a year. The President and representatives for the Congress of Gemeinplatz are to be elected in three days at polling stations in Casamonu, Azdavay and Libertycave. Upon adoption of this constitution, printed copies are to be distributed to every settlement in control of the Republic. Town criers shall read copies of the constitution in cities and travel to the countryside to let everyone be informed. One copy of the constitution should be handed to every settlement free-of-charge for public edification.”
“A rebellion then?” blurted out one of the peasants watching.
Shirin was about to ask “what’s a ‘rebellion’?” before she was rudely interrupted by the town crier ringing his bell again. The town crier handed a copy of the Constitution to one of the soldiers, who nailed the copy to the nearest door that he could find. Then the crier took out another paper and began reading that after another ring of the bell. “Homesteading Act of 5859: The Commander-in-Chief has authorized the first act of the newly established Republic to ensure that the long-oppressed peasants of Gemeinplatz have the right to work the land that they live on…” Before the crier could continue, his speech was blocked by the stir that his last sentence caused.
“Huh? First no lords, and now we work the land?”
“What does that even mean?!”
“Do we all get to be lords?”
The town crier shut them up by ringing his bell again. “Ahem! Hear ye: From now on, all titles of nobility are null and void. Their lands are to be confiscated. Records kept by former lords are to be inspected. Every household found within these records are to be compensated with enough land to feed their family with a surplus. Similarly, freed slaves who apply are to be given enough land to feed themselves and any family they have. Deeds for the land are to be distributed after this announcement has been read by the crier.” The crier stuffed the announcement back into his knapsack, while the other people around him took books out and began reading names.
“Ege the Yellowbelly of Yellowclover, son of Efe the Yellowbellied!”
“Here?” The man in question stepped forwards. He was handed a small piece of paper. It had a printed deed on it. The details for the deed had been filled by hand on top of the template, declaring the man in question to own a certain amount of land near Yellowclover.
“Shinasi the Lame of Yellowclover, son of Shinasi the Porter!”
Shirin stepped forward. “That’s my father. His legs are lame, so I’ll take the deed for him.” The man giving the deed looked at the crowd’s reaction to see if the girl was joking. They didn’t seem to have a problem, so Shirin received the piece of paper that seemed to have some sort of significance. She waited around while others waited for their names to be declared and for them to receive a deed. The confusion of the sudden land grant turned into excitement as the peasants began showing off their fancy pieces of paper to each other. If not for the abolishment of lord titles, they’d have all just become lords just from the virtue of owning land. Some peasants had even begun favorably talking about this odd John Brown guy that had visited their village a few days ago.
With the land distribution done, the crier took out a small piece of paper “A message from John Brown, to be read publicly: ‘Fellow citizens of our new Union! In three days, we’ll have elections. Unlike the days of yore, you’ll be free to choose who to lead you to the future. You are free to choose another man do declare himself emperor and rule over you as before. You are also free to choose men in favor of the Republic. The Republic: she who now has granted you land to cultivate. You are all free men. The choice between the two is yours. I’ll await you all at the polling station on the 76th.”
