Lifesaving fish
Once upon a time, there was a village in Baizhou, where there was a rich man named Wang. There were more than 200 people in the village, all of whom were tenants of the king's rich family.
This year, the local drought, there is a large pond in front of Wang rich man's house, the water level has never dropped for decades, but now it is almost bottom. Wang rich man worried, went to the backyard to find the old housekeeper to discuss.
The old steward has been 90 years old, and has helped the rich family of the king for three generations, and now he is no longer in charge, and is worshipped by the Wang family as an ancestor. When things are difficult, the king and the rich will go to him for advice.
Listening to the words of the rich man, the old steward opened his half-closed eyes and said: "I will go and see." He stood on crutches by the pond, looked at it for a while, lifted his head to the sky and sighed, and said to the rich man Wang, "Eighty years ago, this pond was also dry once, and many people starved to death that year." There seems to be another famine. We must prepare for it now."
Back in the backyard, the old manager told the king of the rich, after the bottom of the pond, no one is allowed to go down to catch the fish in the pond. Fish and water are the wealth of the royal family, and cannot be destroyed by feng shui.
After a few days, the pond really saw the bottom, I saw the bottom of the pool seems to have a layer of dark clouds, keep rolling and surging. Looking closely, it turned out to be a long iron catfish, as many as countless. The villagers came running after hearing the news, at this moment, every household in the village is short of food, seeing the fish available, everyone wants to catch, but the king has already arranged several family members guarding the pond. Everyone can only look at, secretly scold the king rich man is not a person.
Two days later, there was no water left in the pool, leaving only a dense layer of dead fish. The old manager came out to have a look and said to the king: "The fish died at the bottom of the pool, I am afraid it is unlucky, until it is clean, let everyone pick it up."
Then the king did a good deed and allowed the villagers to go down to the pond to pick up the dead fish. But the dead fish failed to let the villagers eat a few meals, and soon, every household was out of food, and could only borrow from the rich family of the king.
The king of the rich budget, naturally will not let go of this profitable opportunity, borrow a liter of grain, next year will have to return a liter and a half, the interest is very high. We know that the king of the rich take advantage of looting, but there is nothing to do, can only bite the teeth to go home to survive.
After half a month, I saw the villagers running to borrow grain every day, and the rich man had no bottom in his heart, so it was not a way to borrow! He frowned and tripled the interest, trying to make the villagers quit.
Now everyone can not help, around the king rich man, scold him without conscience. The noise outside alarmed the old housekeeper in the backyard. He called the rich man Wang in and advised him, "Now there is a famine. If you don't borrow the grain, they will have to flee the famine."
'My grandfather! The rich man said with a bitter face, "Who knows when this bad year will come to an end, and the whole village of more than 200 people depend on me to support them, and my small family will not be eaten up by them?"
The old manager said, "You can't say that. As the old saying goes, water can carry a boat, but it can also overturn it. Everyone has fled the famine, and it is doubtful whether they will come back alive. Who will help you plant your food and with whom will your debts go?"
The rich master Wang was speechless for a moment and could only rub his hands and sigh. The old steward continued: "Now there is chaos outside, and there is a disaster year, even the royal law is not very effective." If people are hungry, what royal and criminal laws can still control them?"
Hearing this, the rich man looked anxiously at the old steward and asked, "What should I do then?"
"Grain must be borrowed first." The old housekeeper said, "Interest, I don't think so."
No interest? Wang CAI insisted to open his mouth. The old manager then voiced his idea to have the villagers dig mud from the pond in order to offset the interest. By doing so, the pond will be desiccated; Second, silt is a good fertilizer and wall materials, can be stored for use; Three villagers must be grateful to the king of the rich, no longer have a coveted heart to the Wang family.
King of the rich listen, although distressed to borrow out of the grain, but also can only hard scalp to do so. So he went out and told each family to send a strong man to dig the pond and borrow a liter of rice a day, without interest. When the villagers heard it, they rejoiced naturally.
The pond of the Wang family had cracked long ago, and the silt was as hard as stones, and a stick was used to pry a large piece into the crack. The old manager stood by the pond, and told everyone to move the silt back to their homes, and then send it to the Wang family when they needed it.
The pond was as wide as four or five mu, and it took us twenty days to dig the mud clean. There were hills of mud in the yards of every family. Village family only sent a person to work, others will go to the mountains to find wild vegetables, come back to add a little rice a cook, borrowed a liter of rice can still be left a lot, naturally, everyone is grateful to the king of wealth.
After digging the silt, the villagers really read the good of the king rich man, did not come to him to borrow grain, and only relied on the saved grain to survive, which made the king rich man relieved.
A few days later, the old housekeeper asked the rich man, "Is there anyone in the village who comes to borrow grain from you?" The rich man shook his head.
The old steward sighed: "They should have eaten up that little grain, they do not come to borrow food from you, it seems that they are ready to flee the famine."
The rich man said with a sad face, "Just run away, I can't care about so much anymore." The old housekeeper sighed and walked back to the backyard.
On that night, the door of the Wang family was knocked open with a bang, and a group of robbers rushed in. The bandit leader claimed that they were from Erlong Mountain, a hundred miles away, and that the mountain was also out of food, so they came here not far from a hundred miles away. They only rob grain and do not kill, but if they resist, they will be destroyed. After saying this, the robbers swept away everything that could be eaten in the royal household like clouds, and left all night. Wang sat down on the ground and sighed, "God, how do you let me live?"
The old steward came to comfort him, and the rich man said with a bitter smile: "What a surprise! My Wang family is going to flee the famine!"
The old housekeeper sighed: "Rest assured, heaven will never stop the road, we are not there yet."
The rich man cried, "Now there is not a single grain of grain in my family. Even if I hide some money, where can I buy food?"
The old housekeeper looked up at the sky and said, "It's dawn, I'll go to the village with you."
Two people slowly into the village, found that every family are packing, it seems to be ready to go out of the famine. One villager took a look at the rich man and said, "We wanted to borrow some more grain from the owner, but the owner doesn't have much grain left."
The rich man Wang said with a bitter face, "To tell you the truth, a gang of robbers came to my house last night and robbed all that I could eat. Now I can only go with everyone to escape the famine."
Hearing that Wang's house was robbed, everyone ran out of their home. The old steward said trembling, "Folks, don't go! As the old saying goes, things are valuable when they leave home, people are cheap when they leave home, and nine times out of ten they will not come back, so we will die in the land of our ancestors."
An elderly villager said, "We don't want to leave, but we can't starve to death here." Other villagers also echoed, saying that they could still count on the Wang family, but now even the Wang family can't protect itself, and they have to go.
The old manager said mysteriously: "As long as everyone stays, there will always be something, and no one will die of hunger." The whole village stared at the old man in a strange way. Where could the whole village have anything to eat? The old steward said: "You helped the Wang family dig pond mud, carry a piece."
Everyone did not understand the old housekeeper's intention, but they still moved a pond. The old housekeeper called people to smash the pond mud, and several villagers brandished a hammer and smashed it. The old housekeeper came close, took a closer look, and then asked someone to bring a basin of water, picked up a piece of the broken mud and threw it into the basin.
After a while, the piece of mud started to move in the basin. Everyone looked, where is what mud, it is clearly an iron catfish, and still alive. Now, everyone was surprised, did not expect that there was a fish hidden in the mud.
The old manager slowly talked about the disaster eighty years ago, at that time, most of the people in the village went out, but none of them could come back, and those who stayed in the village survived by these fish. They stumbled upon fish hiding in the mud to escape the drought, and realized that the fish also had the ability to fake death in the mud and come back to life when there was water. He deliberately did not let the villagers go fishing in the pond before, in order to hide more fish in the mud, in case the villagers tide over the difficulties at the last moment.
The villagers listened, all surprised, with these fish, there is no need to flee the famine.
The old manager said to the Wang rich man around him: "The owner, these mud are all from the Wang family, you tell me, what to do?"
Everyone looked at the king nervously. The rich man shook his head with a wry smile and said, "At this time, what is divided between your family and my family? Divide it according to the population. If you can live, everyone will live together."