01 Lamentations of the Dead
The history of the fall of the Ming Dynasty is documented. At the last moment when Li Zicheng led his troops to the city of Beijing, the Chongzhen Emperor raised money from his ministers, hoping to save the building from the general.
But none of the ministers responded, and they all bowed their heads and asked who was crying poorly.
In the end, Chongzhen had no way to let the empress's father, Zhou Kui, also known as the abbot, take the lead. As a result, Zhou Kui said that he could only take out 10,000 taels of silver, and Chongzhen bargained and said 20,000 taels.
Later, Zhou Kui ran to the empress to cry for this, and the queen listened, "Saying that I still have five thousand taels here, give my father a piece of it." As a result, Zhou Kui used the five thousand taels given by his daughter and withheld two thousand taels himself, and only donated three thousand taels in total. The sum of all the ministers' money is two hundred thousand taels.
After Li Zicheng attacked the city of Beijing, the Da Shun army searched for 530,000 taels of silver from zhou kui's mansion, and the silver taels from the chancellor's house added up to 70 million taels, and the annual military salary of Liaodong at that time was only 4 million taels.
These vested interests of the Ming Dynasty, blind and greedy, were preoccupied with calculations before the disaster of the nest came, and only cared about the immediate interests.
The end was that eight days later, the Da Shun army attacked the city of Beijing, they all became prisoners, under the pressure of torture, sacrificed all their property, one by one, the family was destroyed, if you can regret it, I believe they have repented of the intestines.
They were all aware of the cruelty of the peasant army, because Li Zicheng had a precedent of slaughtering the city.
However, just when the soldiers were approaching the city and there was still a fight, they shrank their heads and tails one by one, preferring to be slaughtered by the enemy rather than take the initiative to take care of the overall situation, perhaps not daring to expose their huge assets.
Some people may think that the Ming Dynasty has exhausted its gas, and even if it has money, it is difficult to turn over. But in any society, as long as there is no serious inflation, then money and goods correspond, and money is resources, is power. With this money, you can buy grain, you can treat the army, you can make people sell their lives, at least you can reduce the oppression of the people, in that era when people were already poor enough to eat people, money and food were worth more than life.
02 The feeling of human nature and greed
This is the nature of human nature, eat the food, want to make him spit it out, it is impossible.
Moreover Chinese since ancient times, there has been the habit of hoarding grain and saving money, which has been deeply rooted in the inner part of a nation. Perhaps it is the embodiment of the excessive war and natural disasters experienced by the common people, and the lack of security.
Therefore, the older generation of people are accustomed to saving money and saving money in the hope that one day they will be able to use it, or to provide for the elderly.
And those who have some ability are also trying their best to only enter and leave, and pursue the accumulation and appreciation of wealth. These are no problems, but they are reluctant to spend money, are reluctant to invest in themselves, and let money lie at home and sleep, which is not in line with modern business philosophy.
Today's young people, affected by credit cards and overdraft consumption, have been completely different from their parents, and many financial concepts have also subverted the past habits, which is a progress.
However, there has been no change in the fundamental nature of human nature and greed, and everyone is like a businessman, striving to maximize profits, and even unscrupulous means.
03 Be a person who is neither greedy nor poor
At this point, there are also some people who are out of place with society. They are so collectively honored and so big-picture that they have repeatedly suffered losses in this society where human nature is inherently greedy, in which everyone is selfish, and they are classified as honest and fools. I'm one of those people myself.
Sacrifice, not only no gain, but also ridiculed, this is the reality. But can such a person, such a practice, be changed? This seems to be difficult again, it is a matter of values, and everyone cannot become what they hate.
People who know how to dedicate still have to work hard to exercise their core abilities and strive to be able to eat by their ability, so that the two are not mistaken, and they do not have to be greedy people, nor do they have to struggle on the poverty line.