There were originally seventy or eighty households in this village, but now, only twelve or three households have living people at home. There was no food in the village, so the villagers survived by digging wild vegetables, peeling tree bark, and finding everything they could to fill their stomachs.
Walking on the road, I occasionally saw one or two villagers. They are all skinny and have hollow eyes. When they saw Wang Xiaolie and others, they just stood on the roadside and stared blankly, without sadness or joy. They didn't even say a word, they were like wood. They didn't ask what they were asked to do, they just moved around like wooden stakes. Even if they are still alive, they have lost their vitality.
Entering the courtyard, Wang Xiaolie sat down on the high chair. After being silent for a while, he said to Chen Yuyi: "In the past, when I saw the mountains and rivers broken and the people suffering, it was just to express my condolences for the hardships of the people's livelihood. To say that the people were suffering so badly was nothing more than to say that there were no roosters crowing for thousands of miles and the bones were exposed in the wild. These are in the It is difficult for others to feel how miserable the people in the war zone really were. To be honest, this dynasty went from the prosperous days of Yuda to the Jin people who broke through the capital in a few years and entered China as a no-man's land. This is rare in all dynasties. . How many human tragedies happened during this period, when the people were suddenly expelled like chickens and dogs from the days of prosperity? How many families were destroyed? These things cannot be forgotten."
Chen Yuyi said: "That's what observation says."
Wang Xiaolie said: "The purpose of bringing you here this time is to let you record the war. How many Jin people participated in the war? Who are the groups among them? How were the Jin people organized? How did they fight? If we win , how did you win? If you lost, how did you lose? These must be recorded clearly one by one. Only when the records are clear can we learn after we go back. Judging from the results of fighting the Jin people in the past few years, our army is indeed It’s too bad. It’s not enough to lead troops according to the original method. So I have always said that we must learn war from war. To learn war, we must record the war process clearly. If you don’t understand how the war is fought, how can you learn? "
Having said this, Wang Xiaolie sighed: "But judging from the past few days, your role is not only that. There are also crimes committed by the Jin soldiers going south and the suffering they brought to the people, which should also be recorded. . Just like this village, how many people were there before the war, how many rich households, how many poor households. How were the households divided? Can the lower-class households have enough to eat, and can they take care of the old and the young. When the Jinlu came, they How many people were captured, how many were killed, and how many died as a result. What are the remaining people alive like? You must also record them in detail one by one. Write them down so that our soldiers know why we are fighting. . If we don’t fight, what will the future be like? People die under Jin Lu’s sword, and Jin Lu will point his knife at our bones and say, these are slaves——”
Wang Xiaolie forgot where he learned this sentence, but he just kept it in his heart. This was written by a person during the Anti-Japanese War to encourage the Anti-Japanese War. It's a pity that Wang Xiaolie only remembered this sentence but forgot the name of the creator.
People often forget the suffering of the people during the war. Not to mention the Wuhu chaos in China, the turn of the Song Dynasty and the War of Resistance Against Japan, which was very close to later generations, have been forgotten by many people. In the minds of many people, the suffering suffered by the people is not worth mentioning, it is just bad luck. When talking about war, we talk about the various legends, true or false, with relish, and forget about the people.
Historical romance basically belongs to the same genre as the anti-Japanese dramas of later generations. The cruel war is romanticized, and the talents and beauties in peacetime are replaced by heroes and beauties. These works can relax the mind, but after all they are not real history.
What's more, they deliberately glorify the invaders for one or other purpose. The most typical example is the Qing Dynasty. The Manchu Qing's entry into the Pass caused huge harm to the Han people in the Central Plains. This hurt should not be forgotten. However, some people deliberately beautify this process for political purposes, or to show that they are knowledgeable, or for other messy reasons.
The fact that the Manchus have become part of the Chinese nation cannot change the cruelty of the Manchus' entry into the customs in history. The territory of the Qing Dynasty was very large, and the territory passed on to later generations was very large, and history could not be changed. No matter what the reason is, history cannot be changed.
The literary prison of the Qing Dynasty brought very bad habits to later generations. There are always some people who believe that history can be written casually and the characters in history can be dressed up as desired. But they don’t know that history is history, and the truth of the past is always hidden in it.
Chen Yuyi said: "We scholars read the books of sages and seek the road to governing the country. Although these people are pitiful, what is the use of writing them down? Who in the world does not know the evil of the Jin people? Why bother to bother about this matter? .”
Wang Xiaolie shook his head: "Look at the remaining people in the village now, they are like zombies. People only know that the Jin people burned, killed and looted, but they don't know that the people were killed like this. To put it harshly, if we can't restore our homeland , expel the Jinlu, a hundred years later, how many people will remember what happened now? Although there are many books by sages, the principles are very simple. What’s the point of reading them over and over again? If you have time, it is better to care more about the people. The world belongs to the people of the world. In this world, I don’t know how people in the world are alive, so how can they understand this sentence?”
Seeing that Chen Yuyi still couldn't accept what he meant, Wang Xiaolie waved his hand and said: "I am not discussing this matter with you, but ordering you to lead people to do it. Today and tomorrow, you must lead people to do things in this village." Write it down five to ten times, don’t miss it. Tomorrow we will go to Shaanzhou to officially start a war with the Jin people. By then, you must record the war clearly. "
Chen Yuyi had no choice but to accept the offer.
It's not that Chen Yuyi doesn't care about the sufferings of the people, but that since ancient times, literati just wanted to know how the people lived. As for how people live, whether they live happily or not, whether they live in pain or not, literati do not need to put themselves in their shoes to feel it. In Chen Yuyi's opinion, Wang Xiaolie's request to record things clearly was a waste of his time.
This is a fundamental difference about how to do knowledge and what kind of knowledge to do. In Chen Yuyi's mind, literati should be familiar with the books of sages and study the ways of governing the people. As long as the people have enough food, clothing and warmth, and even sing with their bellies bulging, they are governing the world and don't need to pay too much attention to it.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, we often talked about considering and studying problems from the people's standpoint. Some people think that this people's stance means taking sides and showing off one's butt. Not really. This is a big question about what kind of scholarship scholars want to do. When everything is done from the standpoint of the people, many learnings take on a different look. The entire academic system will become different.
This sentence sounds simple, but it is actually very difficult to do. For many people, they don’t even know why or how to proceed from the people’s standpoint. I just mention it sometimes to show that I know.
Give a simple example. In previous lives, real estate reforms were carried out, and house prices soared after changes, especially during a period of time. Someone proposed collecting property taxes. But why collect property taxes? Experts came out to explain that house prices are rising too fast now and what disadvantages this has brought. Then introduce foreign, especially American experience. Local governments in the United States mainly rely on taxes such as property taxes and personal income taxes to meet local financial needs. And by extension, if China collects property taxes, what will happen based on the experience of the United States?
This is a typical example of not studying the people's knowledge from the standpoint of the people. The United States or other places in the world certainly have reference significance for China, but it is only a reference significance. Instead of following what the United States does, China must follow suit. Local governance in the United States has a strong legacy of European politics, coupled with American experience, and is fundamentally different from China.
For example, personal income tax. As a socialist country, why does it tax workers’ labor income? What if there is no tax on the assets of asset holders? Regardless of the nature of the country or historical tradition, assets should be taxed. The same goes for house income tax. As an asset, of course it has to be taxed. And if it is just a residence, in principle, no tax should be charged. When housing prices rise rapidly and houses are no longer just residences, or even just assets but also have financial properties, then of course taxes will have to be levied.
This is a common mistake among many scholars. I have learned a lot of knowledge, but I don’t know how to use it. It sounds clear and logical, but when asked about the fundamentals, I'm at a loss as to how to explain it. Since the late Qing Dynasty, China has sent a large number of overseas students. Go to the East, the West, and study in various developed countries in the world. I hope they can learn the principles of governing the country and save the suffering motherland. But what is the final effect? To be honest, they introduced foreign ideas and inspired Chinese people with lofty ideals. They introduced foreign science and technology, allowing China to transform itself. But the idea of governing the country is far from enough. Moreover, a large number of people who went to study abroad turned around and became compradors, eager to take advantage of the information gap between inside and outside to seek benefits for themselves.
This problem also existed among the literati of this era. For example, Chen Yuyi and others still do not understand what Wang Xiaolie means by doing education for the people from a fundamental ideological point of view. In their eyes, learning is to read the books of sages and add their own thinking, without considering the people.
Wang Xiaolie has no need and actually has no ability to change the minds of scholars in this era. As long as he knows it himself, he can use his power to order others to do the people's knowledge. When there are more people doing it, new ideas will naturally come to mind.
It is often said that ideology is a futile thing, even useless. Not really. Ideology plays a vital role in a country and a nation. It's just that in a certain historical period, the ideology was labeled and thus blurred.
