warring states careerist

Chapter 44
Si Xingzi Xu and Huang Yueling used different methods to decide the fate of many people, life or death.

They don't think about people they don't know.

When Mo Zi asked Gong Zaoye to break the arm of the little noble with a sword in the village, he didn't think about the fate of the village farmer Sang Sheng who went to Song City to present treasures.

Not the same, not similar.

Sang Sheng didn't get the three yi of gold he wanted and the nobleman promised, so he was kicked out of the stable like this.

Walking down the streets of Shangqiu in a daze, many people who saw him insanely offering treasures yesterday pointed at him behind his back.

Either tease, or ask.

Sang Sheng didn't want to say a word, he felt dark in front of his eyes.

The sun is still hanging in the sky, but it always feels like a layer of early morning mist by the Song River, and it is hard to see clearly.

There is buzzing in the ears, just like the noise made by the mosquitoes flying above the head during summer work, trying to pat and reach up but there is nothing, those buzzing sounds continue to be hard to stop.

The three yi gold has never been obtained, so it cannot be said to be lost.

But those close-by Sumai and the farm cattle used by the village community and those novel seeds that can be planted in a few years were once in front of us, but now they are really lost.

To be alive is not only material, but also those who are different from beasts and communicate with people.

If he gets the three yi golds, he can flee to a place that does not belong to the public land, no longer fulfill the military and labor obligations of the village community, buy some private land, and start a new life.

The new life is not only the private field he bought, but also those people near the private field who don't know how he got the three yi of gold.

There, he was still the vigorous and strong Sang Sheng; not the betrayed and rejected Sang Sheng after returning to the village.

He wants to be someone his neighbors like, but he also wants to live well.

The best way he can think of is to betray his former neighbors and go to a place where no one knows to be a good person.

Now, the new has not come and the old will be lost.

It's not a long way. He walked for a long time, walked around for a long time, squatted down for a long time, rested for a long time, and hoped for a long time to become eternity.

They were driven away at dawn, and wandered in front of the village before the sun went down.

The same time is enough to carry heavy firewood to go back and forth twice.

There were waves of children's shouts in the distance, and the parents called their children's names to call them back to eat, and it seemed that they could still hear the cow that was bought back and lent to the eight families to share.

Sang Sheng squatted under a tree, and for some reason suddenly thought that it would be his turn to feed the cows next month, and if he couldn't feed the plowed land well, he would have to sit in the back row.

A cow is not his own cow, but a cow that he can use.

He had seen cattle before he came to this village to bet with Gongsun Ze.

But those cattle are not his, nor can he use them.Although feeding is also required, it is only a military tax.

Thinking of Niu and seeing Su Mai beside him, Sang Sheng's eyes suddenly lit up.

"Yes! It's all because of him! If he doesn't come, I'm just a farmer in the village, cultivating and granting land, raising children, and being recruited to fight. It was so good at that time. I never thought that I could live better .I have always believed that wealth and poverty are predestined! Destiny is predestined, how can I have ambition?"

"It's him! It's him who let me know that there is another way to live. Just like those pigs in the pigsty, why would they want to run outside before they have seen wild boars?"

"It's him! Let me become like this, otherwise I wouldn't be like this. Without him, I would still be the Sang Sheng who everyone in the village thinks is very strong, not the Sang Sheng who is hated by people after I go back!"

"Who does he think he is? Why does he make me dare to think about things I didn't dare to think about before? It's all his fault that I became like this!"

"He let me know that farmers can eat corn every day instead of eating wild vegetables in spring and summer! It's what he said about the paradise that made me want to live that kind of life!"

"When I was in the village community, I never thought about this. Poverty and wealth are predestined. If he insists on saying it's not predestined, he's lying to me!"

"Look! Am I still poor? He says there is no destiny? He's lying! Lied to me! Lied to everyone in the village!"

"It's not my fault! It's not my fault! I'm right! I'm right!"

"If it weren't for him, I would only know about the village as big as the sky, and I would never dare to think about things that I never thought about half a year ago."

"I used to believe that poverty, wealth and honor are all predestined. How dare I have such a thought at that time? It was because I believed in his undestined words that I had evil thoughts in my heart. He is a ghost! He is an evil ghost! It is an evil spirit that burrows into people's hearts!"

At first he just thought about it, but in the end he blamed Shiyu for all of this, and then he suddenly understood and yelled out loudly.

The more you shout, the more powerful you are, and the more you shout, the more you believe. In the end, you don't even need a reason to understand and comprehend. There is only a sentence of resentment, which fills your heart, echoes in your ears, and madness on your face.

People are always like this.

Perhaps, he just wanted to make others think he was crazy, even if he laughed at himself.

Compared with the disgust of the villagers who cannot live without him, he would rather be followed by others and say he is crazy, at least that way there is still a trace of feeling called pity.

Disgust and ridicule, when people have no choice but to choose between the two, they will always choose madness and stupidity in exchange for ridicule.

Perhaps, when doing this, the people who do it often don't know what they are doing, or it may just be a kind of self-protection hidden deep in the heart of social animals.Wild dogs will take care of the foolish ones in the pack, but never those who bite back.

Perhaps Sang Sheng felt that when he returned to the village commune shouting like this, the people in the village commune would just tell his wife pitifully that... Sang Sheng was crazy.

That would be the best.

So he screamed louder, walked faster, fell harder, and shouted louder.

Sweat all over his body was stained with mud on the ground, and he didn't hesitate to fall on a piece of cow dung missed by the children who picked up dung. Then he stood up and ran back to the village with a wild smile.

He thought that the people in the village would scold him, that there would be children chasing him and beating him with stones, or that it would be better if someone called Sang Sheng crazy and ran back and told everyone in the village.

But he didn't see a pair of eyes staring at him from his eyes that were a little dark because of shouting.

Those people in the village community just glanced at him, then lowered their heads and went about their own business—the children were busy reciting the three characters they learned today, the men were busy carrying the stones pulled from Binshan, The women are busy weaving reed mat noodles, which are said to be a new bean food.

They are all working hard for the paradise they have heard and dreamed about, and who cares about a person who doesn't want such a paradise?

…………

In the village community, Shi Zheng was busy there with an ink stonemason named Shi Zhui.

The pulled back stone is covered with spiral charcoal lines that look like rifling, and the hard chisel is carving traces along those charcoal lines that allow wheat flour and soybean milk to flow out.

Shi stopped what he was doing, raised his head, looked at Sang Sheng who was still shouting in the distance but his voice became softer, smiled and shook his head.

He knew that he would arrange an unforgettable fate for Sang Sheng, a fate that would be worse than death.

Sang Sheng is a farmer in Shitian Village, and he cannot escape without money.And he, in this place where he can't escape and can't leave, will make Sang Sheng unforgettable for the rest of his life.

Yesterday, after Mozi had a long talk with him, he suddenly mentioned something.

Mozi said that he would stay in this village with a few Mohists for three to five days, so that he could do and speak as usual.

Mozi wanted to see it with his own eyes and hear it with his own ears.

Everything must be in harmony with each other. If what I said these days is different from what I usually say, then these people in the village community will definitely have doubts and ask why what I said is different from what I usually say.

Mozi wanted to use this method to finally observe Shi, and also wanted to hear with his own ears whether what Shi said was in line with the morality of Mozi.

He believes that with his seventy years of experience, he can always tell the truth from the false and distinguish the contradiction.

Or maybe, Mozi also wants to see if Shi's ability can handle some things, and the way of handling is in line with Mohist's morality.

Although the village is small, there are always many things to do.

After Congshi came here, the grassroots organization of the original autonomous village was divided into two layers.

The first level is the semi-autonomous system of peasants and soldiers under the original system of the Song Dynasty with almost no control, only the right to tax, conscript labor and military obligations.

The other layer is a collection of people who are integrated with the original village self-government and mutual aid neighborhood life, those who believe in the realization of the paradise, who often meet and listen to appropriate storytelling.

This village is a village under the public land grant system, not a village under private land. The Song State did not have the grassroots control ability of the Qin State after decades of reform, and there was no written law, so the village community had a high degree of autonomy.

Even if it is a matter of murder, it is resolved through internal negotiation within the village community, or revenge on its own.

Anyway, there are no land disputes in the village community when the land grant system is replaced, and collective labor is also paid labor rent, which has nothing to do with the rest of the village members, and there are no irreconcilable conflicts among the members of the village community.

Military tax and labor service, that is not the proper scope of power.

But life, production, neighborhood relations, culture and education, etc., are basically in the hands of the suit.

A perfect self-governing village community must be a combination of the two.

But Shi cleverly used the people gathered in the paradise to quietly take away the power of the other half of the village.

Military tax and labor service are not decided by the village community.Excluding these undecidable matters, the real political center of this village is the simple hut covered with reed mats.

Especially after most people in the village community have believed that the Promised Land can be realized, and even the original villagers have joined in, the collection of people who believe in the Promise can be realized is basically equivalent to the village community, which means that all the things that the village community can decide It is also in the hands of those who are suitable and close to them.

This is a hidden power grab. If one day the military tax and labor are not in the hands of Song Guo, the regulars in this earthen house can completely take over the power of the village community overnight, and the people in the village community will not Any discomfort.

This is a suitable attempt, an attempt different from Qin's top-down reform. It is much more difficult than Qin's, but the effect is much better. way of strength.

The reform of the Qin State only needs a large number of small officials, and this kind of attempt requires a group of grassroots personnel who have dreams at least in the early stage. The difference between the two words is incomparable in difficulty and effect.

Shi knew that what Mozi wanted to see was what he was doing on a daily basis, whether his words and deeds were consistent and consistent.

However, what Shi wants Mozi to see is what he can do, what the effect of words and deeds is, and to what extent he can do it.

Therefore, he had to come forward to solve the matter of Sang Sheng, and he had to solve it perfectly:
Sang Sheng is not a Mohist, so it cannot be judged by the rewards and punishments of Mohists; Shi is not a nobleman, so he cannot deal with Sang Sheng arbitrarily, nor can he use fines, corvee and other methods.

However, he had to subject Sang Sheng to some unconventional punishment in order to determine the authority of the village community's future power.

At the same time, people inside and outside the village must be convinced that they did not exceed their authority, and within the scope of not exceeding their authority, Sang Sheng will never forget it.

Also let others dare not forget, can not forget.

(End of this chapter)