In short, all her troubles are caused by poverty. If she had money, everything would be solved.
Shen Tang couldn't help but daydream and talk in his sleep: "Wang Chao, do you think I can get rich if I use the word 'spend money like water'? Hehe, turning stone into gold..."
Gu Chi poured cold water on him mercilessly.
"Spend money like water? Maybe you'll turn your money into dust?"
What a sinful prodigal son he is.
Shen Tang: “…”
I can’t stand it any longer: “You might be the reincarnation of ETC!”
Are all these literary scholars proficient in how to choke her to death? They are all self-taught and have no "love for children" at all!
Gu Chi intuitively felt that "ETC" was not a good word. He had heard this term from Shen Tang more than once. If he didn't understand it, he would ask about the quality. He asked "sincerely": "What does... C mean?"
Shen Tang: "One bar, it will automatically take off and land."
Will hurting her bring Gu Chi happiness
Gu Chi: “…”
Having such a lord, he is actually under a lot of pressure.
After a lot of hurting each other, the sadness brought by poverty faded a lot, and Gu Chi turned his mind to the business. It must be said that his master was very reliable at times. He also knew about Yan Zi's work to revitalize the people, but he had learned a lot in his daily life and it was difficult to remember it for a while.
If you have money, this is indeed a good solution.
It can solve people’s livelihood and economic problems in the shortest time.
The purpose of building the Fugu in the government office was achieved, the people were well fed, and even had surplus food and money to trade. As a result, the economy gradually recovered and revitalized the stagnant water. However, the solution was a good one, but the poor were poor.
A penny can make a hero fail.
What they lack is more than just a penny.
Lin Feng saw Shen Tang and Mr. Gu worried about money and food.
I asked, "Why don't you allow wealthy people to donate?"
Shen Tang: "Donation?"
Lin Feng whispered, "In my early years, I followed Jiaci to learn housekeeping. Every winter, Jiaci would ask the housekeeper to allocate a batch of last year's grain from the public account. Each family would take turns to hold banquets for donations, set up tents to give out porridge, and build bridges and roads."
It's similar to a charity dinner.
Each family pooled their money to provide relief to the common people affected by the snowstorm.
Shen Tang did not comment upon hearing this.
Gu Chi also laughed bitterly.
He knew that this was not Lin Feng's problem.
As a woman in the inner house, the housekeeping duties she learned from her mother were just about interpersonal relationships and household expenses, and she only managed the people in the house. With Lin Feng's family background, if there had not been those changes, she would have been a clan lady in the future, considering the prosperity of the clan and the inheritance of the family, but this was far from enough.
Perhaps from the perspective of the women in the inner house who lived in a relatively simple environment, allocating old grain, setting up tents to provide porridge, and allocating money to build bridges and roads could solve the problem.
But can it really solve the problem
Not to mention the larger areas, just the Heyin area, how many people were struggling on the brink of starvation? Could such a little porridge and water save them? Even if they survived this winter by chance, they still had no land to plant and no food to eat the next year.
The difference between the two is that one will starve to death or freeze to death sooner, or suffer countless hardships and then freeze to death or starve to death.
Although Lin Feng didn't understand yet, she could see that Lang Jun and Mr. Gu did not agree with her immature proposal.
So, he apologized in a low voice.
"… Feng made a mistake, please don't be angry, sir."
Shen Tang said: "I'm not angry, I don't blame you."
She only asked Lin Feng: "Why are the common people hungry?"
Lin Feng said: "The family has no money and no food, the weather is bad, the harvest is small, the land tax is heavy, the officials are corrupt... and..."
She tried to think of all the possible reasons.
But Shen Tang said: "No, no, no, what you said are all reasons, but they are not the most fundamental reasons."
Lin Feng blinked: "Please solve this mystery, my dear."
Shen Tang said: "There is no land to farm."
Lin Feng was stunned for a moment: "No, no land to plant?"
She hadn't expected this reason.
Shen Tang didn't treat Lin Feng as a nine-year-old child. Some lessons should be taught right away. There was no need to wait for Lin Feng to fall.
“Yes, there is no land to farm.”
Shen Tang softened his tone: "I don't deny that people like your mother, who set up sheds to give out porridge, build bridges and roads, must have the original intention of doing their best to help the suffering people. Maybe it's for fame, maybe it's for compassion, this spirit is worthy of recognition and encouragement. But your mother is your mother, and the powerful family is the powerful family, the two are completely different!"
Mobilize wealthy and powerful families to donate to disaster relief? Haha, it's good enough that they don't jump out to hinder it.
Shen Tang's words overturned Lin Feng's previous understanding: "For the powerful families, disaster relief is something that has no substantial benefits for them, and even harms their interests. In addition to reputation, can there be other benefits?"
Lin Feng choked.
She recalled that when A Niang did those good deeds, she was indeed ridiculed by the various families, either openly or secretly. She felt that it was a thankless job. In this world where food is precious, why should she give it to the common people for free? But A Niang always did it in the name of "praying for XX", so they could not oppose it openly, but they were unhappy in their hearts.
If it is really profitable, why so few people do it
Shen Tang continued.
“Disaster relief is only a temporary solution, not a permanent one.”
Lin Feng asked: "How can we cure the root cause?"
"If we want to truly solve the plight of the common people, there is only one way, and that is to allow the common people to have their own land to farm."
Lin Feng said: "Can't we reclaim the wasteland?"
Shen Tang said, "How much land can be reclaimed? The land is not fertile enough, so crops cannot grow well and the harvest for the common people is naturally poor. If it were a fertile land, it would have been occupied long ago."
Let the people form a good self-sufficient cycle.
Unfortunately, land is a limited resource.
Common people have more land, while wealthy and powerful families have less land.
Besides, if all the common people cultivate their own land, who will cultivate their land? It is not cost-effective to hire people to cultivate it.
Only when the common people have lost their land and are unable to support their families financially will they sell themselves at a low price to them to farm the land, which is cost-effective.
As for the bad consequences of doing so
It’s not them who eat it anyway.
They still live in mansions, with hundreds of servants serving them, no worries about food and drink, and a bright and beautiful life. Will the starvation of common people affect their eating one less bowl of refined rice? There are so many common people in the world. If one group dies, another group will come. There is no worry about people planting their own land.
Lin Feng remained silent for a long time after hearing this.
She thought that she had acquired the literary skills of "Qimin Yaoshu" and had a place in the world, and would be able to compete with the world's great men in the future. But now it seemed that the road she had to take was much longer and more difficult than she had imagined.
Lin Feng thought that the common people were suffering because of bad weather and insufficient fertility of the fields. The Word Spirit might be able to solve the problem, and the common people in the world would no longer suffer from hunger and cold. As for the frequent man-made disasters and the endless corruption of low-level officials, these could also be dealt with vigorously.
But Lin Feng never thought about it.
What should the common people do if they have no land to farm
Why is there no land to plant
Shen Tang: "Everyone would want to grab good things."
For example, when she sees wealthy people who are extremely rich, she also wants to take up her sword and transfer their assets to her own name through some means.
Rob the rich to help me
Lin Feng's face was filled with shame.
Shen Tang didn't think it was a big deal.
No one is born omniscient and omnipotent, and everyone's vision is limited by their own position and environment. She cannot blame Lin Feng, who was brought up in a pampered manner in the inner house and ended up living among the people due to an accident, for suddenly empathizing with the common people at the bottom of society.
Even ordinary people themselves often cannot see clearly why their lives are so hard, and they just think it is "fate".
Shen Tang asked Lin Feng to get something.
Seeing Lin Feng leave, Gu Chi spoke up: "My Lord, why didn't you let Lingde follow Wuhui and the others to settle the common people?"
The more you are exposed to something, the faster you will understand it.
Shen Tang shook his head.
She deliberately transferred Lin Feng from Chu Yao to let Lin Feng busy himself with organizing the government office and temporarily separate him from the common people of Fugu City. Her purpose for doing so was also very simple: "Wang Chao is good at observing people's hearts. Does he think that all common people are kind people?"
Gu Chi: "Of course not."
On the contrary, many evil deeds of common people are even more disgusting, but they are ignorant and do not think that their actions are wrong.
"Lingde is young, barely nine years old, but in the eyes of some ignorant people, nine years old is already old enough to be taken home for fun and sexual intercourse." Shen Tang's tone and expression were calm, "I can't guarantee Lingde's safety while he's away studying. If something unexpected happens... You can study slowly. I'm not short of people to the point of exploiting child labor. Given the current situation in Fugu City, do you think this possibility is small?"
Gu Chi: “…”
He really hadn't thought it through so thoroughly, or rather, he made the same mistake as Lin Feng. Shen Tang didn't dwell on this topic: "Act as quickly as possible, before the Zhang family and the others react. It's New Year's Day, so kill a fat pig to add to the festive atmosphere."
After saying this, he put the office's account books aside.
After a rough look, the deficit is appalling.
I can't see the money anymore.
If Zhang "donates generously", Shen Tang will have surplus food and money to carry out work-for-relief, revive the economy of Fugu, and then spread it throughout the entire Heyin County. Zhao Feng and Gong Shuwu, two super-powerful warriors and human bulldozers, will have a place to use their skills.
Gu Chi: “…”
Fortunately, these two can't hear what their lord is thinking.
If you knew, wouldn't you run away overnight? Oh, in the words of the lord, you should buy a standing ticket and carry the train
The action power of the literati and scholars is overflowing.
Kang Shi and Qi Shan stayed up all night.
Finally, the piled up files were sorted into categories.
Early the next morning, several officials from yesterday showed up for work early, but were tricked by Gu Chi into going out to do some work.
When Qi Shan and the other two came over, Shen Tang rolled up his long sleeves with a black belt to fix his shoulders, revealing his two snow-white arms. He climbed up to a high place with a hammer in his hand, repairing and reinforcing the crumbling beams and re-installing the tiles at the leaking places.
It made their blood pressure soar.
"My Lord!"
"Ah, it's Yuanliang and Jishou."
Shen Tang tucked the wooden handle of the hammer into his waistband, patted the dust off his palms, and jumped down, landing steadily without shaking. Behind Qi Shan and the other man, more than 20 soldiers were carrying a dozen heavy wooden barrels.
"Are you done sorting?"
It's only been one night, and these two are really working hard.
Shen Tang wiped the sweat off his face and moved closer to take a look.
Good job!
The wooden barrel is full of files and documents!
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