"But one day," Lu Changfeng looked at the three of them and his voice turned cold: "One of them became powerful and greedy, so he stole most of the money and food from others." After Lu Changfeng finished speaking, nine of them Take all the peanuts in the cups, take out half of the melon seeds, and put them all into the middle cup, so that there is only one melon seed left in each of the nine surrounding cups.
Hua Chujian and Hong'er began to get nervous, and Hua Qing's expression suddenly changed, as if he had seen something terrible. Lu Changfeng thought to himself: "Now each of these nine people has a year's rations. There is no problem at all. Save some food and save some money. Life will be a little harder. If you persevere, there is always hope for the future. After all, they Food is sown in the ground, and when it is harvested, life will get better.”
Hua Chujian and Hong'er's expressions softened slightly and they breathed a long sigh of relief. Only Hua Qing's face was livid and he murmured to himself: "My dear nephew, you..."
"It's a pity that God only picks out honest people to bully," Lu Changfeng sighed and said plaintively: "In this year, natural disasters occurred. Their grain harvest was either nil or only a small amount, which was not enough for the third year. Food for two years. There is no way, people have to eat, they can only borrow grain from the person who robbed them of money and grain, and pay it back to him after the harvest in the second year. If it fails, they will pay some interest, and borrow one hundred catties to pay back. One hundred and twenty pounds is fine.”
Hua Chujian nodded. There was nothing he could do about it. He had to do this in order to survive!
Lu Changfeng continued: "But this person who robs people doesn't want to make other people's lives easier at all. Of course he won't borrow. If he wants to borrow, he can only borrow money at usury, borrow one hundred catties and pay back two hundred catties, or ask others to sell the land to him. He then rents it to others, and then takes 50% of other people's harvests at the end of the year. These nine people who have no food can only grit their teeth and admit it, or borrow the food for half a year, tighten their belts and eat less every meal. A bowl of rice, as long as they don’t starve to death, they can just hold on until the grain harvest is over, or they can sell the land and rent it again. No matter which one they choose, they can still survive.”
This was a bad sign. Hua Chujian whispered: "I hope... I hope they can survive..."
"Yes, I hope they can survive." Lu Changfeng nodded: "But again, God only bullies honest people. Just when they are starving and looking forward to a good harvest the next year, there is another natural disaster or war. The food in their fields is gone again. Of course, there are some lucky people who have had a good harvest in their fields and have returned the borrowed food or land rent, so that their livelihoods can still be maintained. As for the other unlucky ones, they I have nothing left, I owe others money and food, and I have nothing to live on, so I can only work for others, or simply sell myself to be used by others to make a living." After Lu Changfeng finished speaking, he took a few of the cups Take away the remaining melon seeds and put them all into the middle cup.
"This..." Hong'er's face was filled with sadness, and she was speechless.
Lu Changfeng smiled and said: "These lucky ones, we call them ordinary people, or tenants. And the other unlucky ones, we call them servants, or slaves. Their status is only higher than beggars."
Tick tock, Hong'er couldn't bear it anymore, big tears fell down her face and dripped into the teacup on the table.
"Hong'er!" Hua Chujian cried out distressedly.
"Wow!" Hong'er threw herself into Hua Chujian's arms and burst into tears. Hua Chujian repeatedly comforted Hong'er that this was just a game of sharing seeds and peanuts, and told Hong'er not to take it seriously, but Hong'er couldn't listen at all and instead cried louder.
Hua Chujian glared at Lu Changfeng and asked, "What on earth are you going to say?"
"Don't worry, it's not over yet." Lu Changfeng gritted his teeth and said: "Even if the unlucky guy wants to sell himself, the only one who can afford them is this person who robbed people, and this person simply can't ask for so much labor, so some people are left behind. And even those who are wanted are not necessarily insured. Needless to say, slaves, life and death depend on the pleasure of their masters. As for servants, first of all, the people who hire them deliberately lower their wages so that they can only eat enough. They cannot save money for food, and in this case, they can only work as cows and horses for the rest of their lives. Secondly, they will be kicked out because of old age, frailty, anger of their owners, etc. These people who are kicked out, plus those who were previously kicked out The remaining people, we collectively call them 'beggars'! And the person who robbed people, we collectively call them masters, landlords, emperors..."
Hua Qing said hurriedly: "My dear nephew, be careful what you say!"
Lu Changfeng smiled bitterly and said, "I'm sorry, I made a mistake and made Uncle Hua laugh!"
The scholar in green shirt smiled slightly: "No problem, my dear nephew, please continue speaking. I am all ears."
Lu Changfeng nodded and said: "Teacher Hua, let's return to the previous question. The so-called natural disasters and man-made disasters did not directly cause those nine people to become beggars. It was just because their money and food were robbed. Without food, there is no risk of confrontation. For example, "Guangming Ji·Biography of King Ankang" records that in the 31st year of Datong in the Red Moon Empire of the previous dynasty, King Ankang Zhou Papi was entrusted with Guangming City, housing 100,000 households, and the tax was raised to 60% . Starting from the 32nd year of Datong, there was a severe drought for three years, and the people had no harvest. Starting from the 34th year, the people exchanged their children for food, and countless people became beggars and died of hunger everywhere. However, Zhou Papi's mansion actually had eighty grains in stock. Tens of thousands of stones. Most of these stored grains eventually became moldy and rotted, and were thrown into the Guangming River."
Hua Qing sighed: "It's true. I didn't expect my nephew to be familiar with the history of the previous dynasty."
This was of course read from the college library. Lu Changfeng continued: "For the orphans, the old and the weak, if there is abundant food, they will most likely get married and start a business, and have descendants to support them until they die. Of course, except for some unfilial descendants. As for laziness, most people in this world don't like laziness. After all, The reason is that after their money and food were taken away, they fell into trouble and suffered oppression. The labor they put in was not proportional to the harvest. Therefore, they lost hope in life and were willing to eat and wait for death. As for the fugitives, this is indeed irrefutable, but Poverty breeds cowardice..."
"That's enough! You devil! Ouch!" Hua Chujian couldn't hold back any longer, and she and Hong'er hugged each other and cried together.
"The root cause of everything is that one person robbed nine people of their money and food. 10% of the people own more than 90% of the world's wealth but are rich and unkind. This is the greed of human nature and cannot be fundamentally changed. I'm afraid it would be you and me. , and also want to rob other people's food and fill it into their own granaries. In other words, as long as there are greedy people, there will always be beggars in the world. It is extremely difficult to eliminate beggars from the source. It cannot be done by one person's power. Because even if the emperor is not greedy, the eunuchs will be."
Hua Qing: "..."
Hua Chujian: "..."
Hong'er: "..."
Lu Changfeng pointed to the ten cups on the table and said: "Since there is no way to solve the problem from the root, all we can do is to do our part. Ask ourselves, should we be the 10% of people, or the 10% of people? Do that 90%?" Lu Changfeng's tone was plaintive, as if he was speaking to Hua Chujian, but also as if he was speaking to himself.
It was completely silent, except for the intermittent cries of the two women, the entire teahouse was lifeless. Hua Qing's eyes were empty, looking at the beggar outside the window in confusion, not knowing what he was thinking. Hua Chujian took a silk scarf and wiped Hong'er's tears, then wiped her own tears, and glared at Lu Changfeng from time to time.
After a long time, Hua Qing stood up and bowed deeply to Lu Changfeng: "Young master, I'm here to teach you a great talent!" After saying that, he called Hua Chujian and Hong'er and walked out of the teahouse. As he passed the door, the scribe in blue said to the clerk in a deep voice: "It's time to keep the account."
The man kept wiping his tears: "I know, let me cry a little longer, wuwu..."
Lu Changfeng looked up and suddenly saw the silk scarf Hua Chujian had left on the table. He suddenly shouted downstairs: "Teacher Hua, your scarf."
"Throw it away!" Hua Chu saw without looking back.
The pure white silk scarf is fragrant, with a cluster of blooming lilacs delicately embroidered on it. Lu Changfeng turned around casually, and suddenly realized that he was very perverted, actually playing with girl's things, so he just put them in his arms. This thing was thrown away and wasted. Let's spend it again tomorrow.
