The sound of horse hooves clattered along, kicking up clouds of dust, and the villagers dressed in sleeveless cloaks carrying hoes looked up one after another.
Several blurred figures quickly rushed past in front of them, with small buckets full of paste knocking against the saddle, spilling a lot onto the ground.
Those were two gendars wearing blue folded hats and short cloaks, riding swiftly on fast horses along the dirt road.
"Posting proclamations, quick, quick, go faster."
Upon seeing this scene, the villagers, who were originally moving leisurely, imdiately quickened their pace, chasing after the dust raised by the horses.
Since the Salvation Army stationed in the Kush Territory, proclamations have beco a necessity in the villagers’ lives.
To prevent the proclamations from getting wet in the rain, the majority of the Hundred Households Districts would build a small pavilion or wooden shelter on the proclamation board to shield from the rain.
Generally speaking, these proclamations contain three types of content.
The first type is news from the Kush Territory, such as victories in battles, policies or laws issued, and acknowledgnts given to people.
The second is Horn’s fables or church jokes, the forr to construct the Salvation Army’s regi’s legitimacy, and the latter to deconstruct the Imperial Church’s legitimacy.
The third type includes current prices and job information, such as the prices of beehive coal, mortar, and furniture, and announcents of labor recruitnt by certain workshops, etc.
Most of the ti, these villagers are reluctant to travel far, especially since travel costs along this route are not cheap, along with the risk of getting lost.
So mostly, they arrange for the desired goods with the Hundred Households Captain each month and then find him according to the price list on the proclamation to prepay for the goods.
Then the Hundred Households Captain would go to the city monthly with the Defensive Army for collective purchasing and bring everything back uniformly by carriage, saving a significant amount of transport and travel costs.
Of course, due to the large volu, many Hundred Households Captains in the sa area would ally to bargain wholesale prices down with goods rchants and mark up prices for villagers, taking commissions from both sides.
But since the amount is small, and most of it is used to subsidize feed money and the Defensive Army.
So, Madlan and others who stayed behind in Joan of Arc Castle turned a blind eye, basically practicing non-interference.
As the situation improves and roads are built, and manpower becos sufficient, these functions will be stripped from the hands of the Hundred Households Captains.
When the villagers gradually gathered in front of the proclamation, the Captain of the Church Protection Army had the Defensive Army maintain order.
The Defensive Army ford a semicircle with spears and pikes, preventing villagers from getting too close.
From ti to ti, they would have to pull out clubs to beat those petty rural rogues.
It must be understood, these Defensive Army mbers have so enforcent rights and are implicitly granted the authority for violent enforcent.
aning the Defense Army performing extrajudicial executions on hooligans is tacitly approved by the gendars and Night Watchers.
Over the past half year, these rural rogue groups were either speared to death or transported to Daze Village to dig peat or clear river channels.
The late-arriving Hundred Households Captain stood smiling in front of the proclamation, cleared his throat, and began reading aloud: "...Our army has scored a great victory, defeating over ten thousand troops from Jinhe Town, with the devil leader Nidesar dead. Mosang Kailideisi (Jinhe Town Archbishop) and Zelaken will arrive shortly at Joan of Arc Castle for a public trial..."
Before the Hundred Households Captain finished, the villagers erupted into cheers, pulling at the strings of their collars and loudly asking whether their children were on the list of comndations.
On the edge of the village, Harbin, passing by on his small pony, smiled. This scene he has witnessed countless tis since setting out from Joan of Arc Castle.
However, Harbin wasn’t as excited as them because he had already learned the news two days prior.
The news of the great victory traveled by water to Joan of Arc Castle a day and a half later and then spread to eight surrounding towns with Joan of Arc Castle as the center.
By the ti the junior monks finished copying the proclamations and the gendars issued them, it had already been three or four days.
As the number of Hundred Households Districts in the Kush Territory increased, it’s naturally impossible for the gendars to deliver to each district.
So oftentis, the gendars would only post the proclamations on the proclamation boards near the main roads of the Hundred Households Districts.
The remaining relatively remote Hundred Households Districts would receive the proclamations relayed by the nearby Defensive Army.
To Horn, looking back later, this exchange frequency and efficiency of ten days to half a month is incredibly slow.
Yet compared to other kingdoms, where information doesn’t flow, most villagers know who Horn is and what has happened today in the Savior Pope Country.
It is these proclamations that transford the villagers’ casual chatter after als into discussions about the Savior Pope Country.
Through these discussions, villagers gradually developed a sense of identity with the imagined community of the ’Savior Pope Country.’
After all, if you don’t even know what it is, how can you possibly identify with it?
Take the Black Mountain battle as an example, if still under the rule of Duke Kush Danai, the news might take a month or even half a year to arrive.
To the original villagers, it felt like, "What does this have to do with my inco of three thousand pounds?"
But to the villagers now, they have children and friends serving in the Salvation Army, purchased Holy War Bonds, and so even donated grain to the Salvation Army.
The victory of this battle is closely related to their lives, so they take pride in it and can even say they contributed to this victory.
Armand’s article, "Victory Belongs to All Monks of the Savior Pope Country!" affird this point even more.
From this perspective, the nobles of Jinhe Town didn’t lose unreasonably.
They simply used their own and their family’s thin power to fight against an entire Savior Pope Country.
However, publishing these proclamations incurred considerable costs for the Salvation Army.
This proclamation has no more than five hundred words at most, yet they still had to waste a lot of manpower temporarily copying and printing it.
Thus, under Horn’s suggestion, the Salvation Army Governnt attempted to produce the modern printing technology to free up more manpower, and additionally expand the market.
According to the milestones in the "1446 Transportation Construction and Postal morandum (Third Edition)" written by the Saint’s Grandson a month ago, they would complete the hardening of the main roads with concrete in two years.
By then, postal and public coaches would begin operation.
If circumstances permit, they might even build a rail cart line between Mayo Mine and Gray Furnace Town.
Once the roads are hardened, Harbin’s visits to his father in Gray Furnace Town won’t take so long anymore.
Continuing forward along the dusty dirt road, Harbin and others soon saw the black and red bicolor flag fluttering on the walls of Gray Furnace Town.
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