After the Manchus entered the country, their Eight Banners system was actually a reversal of history. It was a variant of primitive slavery, just changing the soup without changing the medicine.
However, this system followed the Qing Dynasty for more than two hundred years without triggering slave rebellion. Moreover, these slaves became more and more loyal to their masters, and they remained loyal until the fall of the Qing Dynasty.
Why is this happening? In fact, the root cause lies in what Guang Liang said. Not only was being a slave in the Qing Dynasty not punished, but it was a very honorable profession.
The slaves in the Qing Dynasty were given a lot of meat and bones. Once you join the slave trade, you can really change your life!
From ancient times to the present, it has been a difficult task for the Capital City Bureau. How many people’s dreams have been blocked by just the price of a house? Not to mention that future generations of college students and graduate students cannot afford to buy a house. This has been the case since ancient times.
During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, which official in the imperial court could afford a house? In the early Qing Dynasty, houses in the capital were cheap, and one could buy one for a few hundred taels, but people's incomes were still low at that time!
The society is in dire straits, and there is a severe money shortage in the market, which is deflation. Many officials' salaries are calculated in kind such as grain, cloth, and even meat and spices.
At that time, let alone hundreds of taels, it was considered a lot of money to be able to take out dozens of taels of silver! Therefore, no matter whether the house price in Beijing is cheap or expensive, people cannot afford it!
Even an official can't afford it, but a slave can afford it. How many years of salary can a person like Guang Liang secretly earn compared to the salary of a third or fourth grade Beijing official?
Guangliang of the Guangjingshi Iron Works can get a small salary of 100,000 yuan a month. You can imagine how big the profit is. Can those civil servants get a salary of 10,000 yuan a year?
People are afraid of comparison. As long as your life is really good, it doesn't matter even if you have the name of a slave on your back!
This kind of master-slave mentality has done great damage to the main civilization of China. It has severely damaged the pride of the Han people for thousands of years.
Even people like Xie Ting, who grew up in Hakka, were a little swayed when they heard Guang Liang's words!
Is Guangliang a Manchu? In fact, he couldn't tell clearly. Maybe his ancestors were Han people who raised their nationality, or the Han military flag outside the pass, but these were not important. What was important was that he had recognized his status as a slave.
Guang Liang and the others are a very representative group of people. While they accept the prince's oppression, he can also bully others. In this transitional zone of power, their dark sides can be seen up and down, left and right.
Over the past two hundred years, they have formed a culture of slaves and rationality. This is a great principle that can be justified to some extent!
Of course, this self-justification is based on the premise of absolute selfishness. As long as you abandon the interests of your family, country and nation, there will be no flaw in his theory!
This is a group of absolutely exquisite egoists! And he spreads the stench of this thought to others to prove that he is right!
Once this kind of slave mentality spreads, many puppet soldiers and traitors will appear during the Anti-Japanese War!
Those who worked as slaves for the Japanese actually held high the ideological weapon that Guang Liang and others said, which was formed in the Qing Dynasty!
In this ideological system, the master can be changed! As long as the master gives you meat and bones to eat, the master can change it!
It doesn’t matter if I switch from Manchu to Japanese!
It doesn’t matter if you switch from Japanese to American!
What kind of alien invasion is not an invasion? If you give me meat and bones, I will work for you!
This highly poisonous thought directly softened the backbone of Han civilization. The poison was too far gone!
Xie Ting is just a soldier. He doesn't have more advanced ideological weapons like Xiao Letian to protect himself. He was a little tempted by what he said over the drink. Are there so many benefits to being a slave?
But he was only slightly moved, and the traditional Confucian education in his bones raised questions again, "Huh? What you said seems to make sense, so let me ask you... It doesn't matter to you that Liu Heita died, and you even said that the slave died for his master." As it should be!”
"Then for the same reason, why did the prince let you die? Aren't you also sacrificed?"
"Everyone wants to be a master, and everyone wants to sacrifice their slaves to protect themselves... So sooner or later, don't they have to sacrifice themselves on their own head?"
Guang Liang put down his wine glass and let out a full burp, "Hey... you don't understand! This slave has a way to avoid being sacrificed!"
"A slave has to be useful! You have to make the master reluctant to kill you! Why did the prince kill me? How much dirty work did I do for the prince? How much money did I make for the prince?"
"You remember, I am a first-class slave under the prince. I am in charge of people and affairs! The network of contacts I carry is something that the prince also needs to use!"
"Brother! After all, the prince is alone and cannot remember so many people and things in his mind! If he wants to form a network, he has to rely on minions like us to manage it!"
"Killing me would mean cutting off one's arm! That's why Your Majesty and others mobilized the Eight Banners to kowtow to put pressure on His Majesty!"
"Thank you, brother! I know you are loyal to Lord Long Live, and I am also loyal to Lord Long Live! You can't deny my loyalty!"
"But Long Live Master, you have to respect the rules left by our ancestors. Family rules are more important than anything else!"
"Listen to my advice. If you want to get along well in front of Long Live Lord, you have to learn from me!"
The night was getting darker. Xie Ting sat on a chair and watched Guang Liang drink. He moved his mouth and wanted to say something but didn't know how to say it.
"This Liu Heita is your slave Guang Liang, Guang Liang is the slave of the prince, and the prince is the slave of the emperor... Then whose slave is the emperor?"
"The emperor is a slave of the Qing Dynasty? But what if one day the Qing Dynasty is gone?"
Oops, Xie Ting didn't dare to think about it anymore. He shook his head desperately and wanted to throw these dangerous thoughts into the sea. He shook his head and smiled at Guang Liang.
"Ouch...you haven't even had a few drinks, and you're already drunk? Remember, you need to be able to mix well in the officialdom, and you have to drink a lot!"
In the dead of night, there was suddenly a burst of noise outside the warehouse. Guang Liang tilted his head and listened, "What is this? Why is it so noisy?"
Xie Ting raised his head and looked in the direction, "Well... that's selling tickets! We're selling tickets for Lingchi tomorrow!"
"The execution ground is too small, and only four to five thousand people can squeeze in at one time... Anyway, there are many people to be killed, one per day. These workers buy tickets at night and can watch tomorrow!"
"I heard that the fares vary depending on the distance..."
Guang Liang was silent for a moment, "Bah... Whoever you love will die. I'll stay here for another twenty days, and then I'll go to Xi'an to eat steamed buns!"
Xie Ting stood up and left. When he was about to leave the prison gate, he suddenly turned his head and smiled coldly, "I'm almost done drinking! Let's do it at three in the morning!"
