Chapter 115: Collecting Debts (IV)
Taoist Priest Changxin came again. Riding on the transportation system provided by Huo Chong for the Zhongfu Platform, it didn't take long for Taoist Priest to get from Laoshan to Zibo County.
When the two met, before Huo Chong could ask, Master Changxin sighed and said, "The harvest is poor this year, and landlords everywhere have begun to collect debts."
The intelligence department of the platform has already provided similar intelligence. With the intelligence prepared, Huo Chong was not surprised and asked Taoist Changxin to tell him about his side. After listening to Taoist Changxin's story about the landlords and officials' pressure on ordinary people, Huo Chong sighed: "The way of heaven is to reduce the surplus and make up for the deficiency. The way of man is not the same, it reduces the deficiency and gives to the surplus."
This is a quote from the Tao Te Ching. Huo Chong knew that Master Changxin was a true practitioner of Taoism, so he used it.
Sure enough, Master Changxin sighed sincerely, "Mr. Huo, all the people who are blessed can barely make ends meet. You must be in trouble. But the way of heaven is unpredictable. At this time, I can only ask you for help. As long as I can do it, I will never refuse."
Huo Chong felt that Master Changxin was quite sensible, not the kind of Taoist who only knew how to play tricks. So he said frankly: "Master, a few days ago, my disciples did some calculations. If we count the people who have applied to join the platform, there are 30,000 households. They said that each household needs one or two taels of silver as tax, which is high. However, for 30,000 households, several thousand taels of silver must be paid this year. I am just a mortal, and I am far from being able to understand the way of heaven. If this continues, I can't hold on."
After hearing what Huo Chong said, the faces of the disciples of Master Changxin became serious. The faces of the management of the Zhongfu Association who were present at the meeting also became serious.
Master Changxin just thought about it and asked, "I wonder what Mr. Huo is going to do?"
Huo Chong pointed to the Tai Chi diagram on the lapel of Taoist priest Chang Dao, "Master, the yin and yang are mutually reinforcing, the extreme yang gives birth to yin, and the extreme yin gives birth to yang. If the villagers want to rely on me to get through the difficulties, I also have to rely on the villagers to accumulate the ability to overcome the difficulties. Only in this way can we continue to thrive. Otherwise, solitary yin cannot be born, and solitary yang cannot grow. It will definitely not work if we rely on one side alone."
"I wonder what Mr. Huo wants from the people? They are so poor that they only have strength left."
"If the Taoist priest can help us find some business opportunities, so that we can make some money from our products , then we will have money to pay for it."
"I wonder where Mr. Huo wants to do business?"
"It's not just about selling goods, but also about whether the people can give up some land and let me make arrangements. I can't create land, so everyone has to give up their land and I'll decide how to use it. Only then can we produce things to sell. If everything depends on me alone..."
"Mr. Huo, you don't need to say more. I understand this principle. If I go and explain it to the believers, I think they will be able to listen to it. However, if I don't know how Mr. Huo is going to arrange the land this time, I really don't want to involve the believers."
Huo Chong actually had some plans already. Although he still had the same few things, he had come up with a lot of ideas after running the business for a few years.
Master Changdao not only has sufficient understanding ability, but also has a spirit of verification. After spending two days listening carefully to the introduction, he requested to visit the production base that has been built on the Zhongfu platform. Huo Chong immediately sent someone to escort the Taoist priest to visit, and he stayed at the headquarters to continue handling matters.
Unexpectedly, during the meeting, the second disciple Yang Wangfu opened fire, "Sir, is this Taoist priest trying to gain benefits by using the things in his hands?"
Without waiting for such doubts to ferment, Huo Chong replied: "More with friends and less with enemies. This is the right way for us to continue."
Yang Wangfu couldn't help but mutter, "Sir, Master Changxin is a smart man. If he learns our stuff and starts doing it, what can we do to him?"
"Wang Fu, you are also a smart person." Huo Chong said with a smile.
Hearing this, many young managers laughed. Huo Chong looked at everyone and said to these cadres who had climbed up from the grassroots: "You are all smart people. I will assign some people to you, point out a piece of land, and arrange production. You can all do it. And the many masters on our Zhongfu platform, are they really given away for free? Didn't they learn anything? Let me ask you a question, why don't they leave us and go home to do it themselves."
The young cadres stopped laughing. It seemed that this question was indeed difficult for them to answer. Huo Chong actually felt a little sad. When the Qing Dynasty first arrived, Huo Chong was also worried about the situation where the apprentice would starve to death. However, Huo Chong had no resources at the time, and even had a lot of debts from the beginning. He had to cooperate as much as possible.
But in this situation, Huo Chong found that even in this agricultural era, the law of capital operation itself has not changed. If you want to produce, you need capital.
Land, labor, working capital and other easily understood production factors are not easily accumulated by one person. Huo Chong himself found the opportunity to gather these production factors through cooperation.
Even though a certain degree of technology diffusion has been achieved in Huo Chong's production process, the platform built by Huo Chong itself still possesses production organization and management capabilities that cannot be diffused.
One person may be able to gather land, manpower, and working capital. But one person cannot complete the production organization and management system. This is not a one-person job.
Seeing that the young cadres began to think, Huo Chong passed on his own experience to them. The young cadres themselves reacted by "wanting to find faults", and some questions that young people could ask were raised.
Huo Chong thought these silly kids were so cute. But time was precious now, and he couldn't comfort them one by one like an old mother. Huo Chong asked everyone to calm down and asked, "Most of what you said has a premise that you didn't notice. If this premise is not met, everything that follows is illogical."
Qian Qing didn't say anything, just looked at the junior brothers and sisters and prospective junior brothers and sisters who were talking nonsense with a look of disappointment. Seeing the junior brothers and sisters' confused faces, she asked: "Sir, you have explained the logic many times, but I still don't understand it very well. Please tell me more."
"The basics of logic are very simple. Two things. Logical form only matters if it's valid, and propositional content only matters if it's correct. Let me give you a logical form. Rain is water falling from the sky to the ground, right?"
"right."
"I stand at a great height and sprinkle water down, and the water falls from the sky to the ground. Right?"
"right."
"I stand at a high place and sprinkle water down, and it rains. Is that right?"
"No!" the young cadres shouted immediately. "This is totally different!" "Sir, this is... sophistry!"
Huo Chong reinforced the theoretical statement, "So, the logical form must be valid. If it is not valid, every description is correct, and the logical form is invalid."
However, most young cadres obviously did not understand and still insisted on this sophistry.
Huo Chong could only slam the table a few times to force the group to be quiet. Then he continued to ask: "Have you noticed that when you said that someone would learn our things and leave, you didn't say that it had to be someone from our own internal organization. Did you notice the premise you set?"
This finally made the young people understand what was going on, and they all started to think about it.
Huo Chong continued his basic explanation of logic, "Logic only cares about whether it is valid. Only when propositions are substituted into logic can we discuss specific issues. Propositions only care about whether they are correct. You mentioned earlier that those who have mastered our technology are all our insiders, and those who have run away are outsiders. Your proposition creates a situation where a person is both an insider and an outsider at the same time. Come on, come on, tell me how a person can be both an insider and an outsider at the same time."
Although it is a very simple logical relationship, anything involving logic must conform to the basic principles of logic. Although the basic principles of logic are simple, it is precisely because they are simple and clear that it is not easy to fully explain things with such a simple model.
The young cadres soon began to talk nonsense, clearly trying to explain the world with the little knowledge they knew. Huo Chong looked at the guys frowning and thinking, and soon saw that some of them were impatient or exhausted because of pain. He missed the time when he was also struggling on the road of knowledge in such pain.
It is not fair to torture the children like this. Huo Chong asked everyone not to think about it for now. "In the current situation, what everyone wants is for us to completely control the situation. I used the principle of yin and yang today. Let's use the mirror image. I have taught this before."
"Sir, what you mean is that the people on Master Changxin's side are also worried that we will take over their jobs, right?" Li Ziran, who had returned from working for Master Changxin for a few months and had been promoted to a management level, immediately expressed his opinion.
Huo Chong was quite satisfied with Li Ziran's mastery of words. The phrase "a cuckoo takes over the magpie's nest" can only be said so smoothly after carefully reading some literary works with strong combative content.
The other cadres didn't quite understand, so Li Ziran explained proudly, "They are afraid that we will pull away the believers of Master Changxin. In the future, their people will believe in our platform for cultivating blessings, and not those of Master Changxin."
Many of the cadres disdainfully said that the other party was overthinking, but many others really took it seriously. Yang Wangfu suddenly said loudly, "Sir, to put it this way, it seems that we are on the same side as Master Changxin, but not on the same side as those landlords and gentry."
"Right!" Huo Chong thought this discussion was really interesting. Someone actually saw the problem. "The landlords and gentry took away other people's things. They rented out their things at 50%, 60%, and some even wanted to get 70%. They took away other people's things. We and Master Changxin cooperated by taking out what we had, and everyone got a share based on their efforts. Those who are willing to come can come, and those who don't want to come can forget it! So, everyone, look, we once temporarily withdrew from Mouping County, and that group of gentry had more than half a year. Did they accomplish anything? Why do you think they couldn't do anything?"
"They want others to work and collect rent for themselves, just like collecting a share?" Yang Wangfu was able to draw inferences from one instance to another.
"Everyone is not stupid about this kind of thing. Everyone wants to take away the fruits of others' labor. They have no interest in labor itself. Labor is so tiring! You have all done it, organizing production and arranging schedules. How many of you have been scared and unable to sleep, and cried out of anger. I know, I know!"
The cadres nodded as they recalled their own experiences. Even feeding rabbits would be a very busy job if there were hundreds or thousands of rabbits to be managed.
"It's so nice to take other people's harvest as your own. It's the truth that a poor man can't get rich without being stupid. But we won't do that!"
