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They live a life of working from dawn to dusk every day, and they trade things they don’t need with other people by bartering.
At this time, they might exchange a pound of gold for a pound of potatoes, or sometimes even get nothing.
Because gold has no other value except that it looks good and can be used as a decoration.
Potatoes can fill a person's stomach, so they are naturally much more precious than gold.
They lived like this for more than a hundred years.
In the past hundred years, the population of the village has increased several times. The original population of less than 50 people now has two or three hundred people.
The original size of the village was definitely not enough for living, and the food nearby was definitely not enough to eat, so they could only start to expand new territories little by little.
Because there are so many people, it is difficult for everyone to know each other, and conflicts are likely to arise when working and distributing food. The village chief is elected at this time.
The elected village chief was a very wise man and he established many rules and regulations that were beneficial to the village.
In terms of work, he required every household to send out strong labor to open up wasteland and work, and when the food was harvested, he would distribute the food equally to every villager based on the population.
Such a distribution system is welcomed by all villagers. After all, as long as there is food in the village, no one will starve to death.
Twenty years later, the village population doubled again, from two or three hundred to more than a thousand.
In order to obtain enough food, the villagers had to continue to open up wasteland and plant crops.
At this time, some villagers were already old and could not do heavy work, so they could only stay in the village to do work such as sewing clothes, making insoles, and washing clothes.
They were doing relatively simple work, but in the end they were allocated the same food as the strong men. At first, because every household had strong men working outside, and there was enough food, no one said anything.
Twenty years passed, and the village population increased dramatically again. The team that was reclaiming wasteland and planting crops outside also encountered trouble. A large river blocked their way forward, and they could no longer pass.
Food began to run short and everyone was going hungry.
At this time, the elderly people who were already paralyzed in bed had to share the same amount of food with the young and strong men.
The young and strong men naturally did not want to go hungry to support the elderly who did not work, and their emotions became more and more agitated.
Seeing that things were about to get out of control, the wise village chief hurriedly issued new village rules, stating that families without young and strong men would no longer participate in food distribution, on the grounds that they did not contribute to the village harvest.
Those families who were deprived of food were naturally unwilling to do so. They wanted to make a fuss and wanted to survive, because they also had to support a group of elderly people when they were young!
But they were destined to be no match for the group of young and strong men. They were quickly suppressed and had to fend for themselves.
Another ten years passed, and the village still hadn't found a new road to cross the river, and food was becoming increasingly scarce.
The village chief could only announce again that everyone over the age of fifty must go to the mountains where there are the most wild animals and the most dangerous places to find a suitable place to open up wasteland.
In fact, they chose to sacrifice these people and leave the food for the young and strong men.
At this time, the village chief was already very old, and according to village rules, he could not participate in food distribution. However, because he was the village chief and had made contributions to the village, no villagers openly opposed him.
But the village chief is wise. He knows that he may have a good ending, but his children may not necessarily become the next village chief.
So for the sake of his descendants, he came up with a village rule called the hereditary system.
All the family's property, including status, can be passed on to future generations.
Villagers without property and status were naturally dissatisfied with this village rule, but the village chief's authority remained, and a considerable number of people also stood on the side of the village chief.
They had no choice but to accept this unfair village rule.
Professor Wayne's story ends here.
“This story has only just begun.”
Hastur murmured in his heart. He had already anticipated how the story would develop next.
Chapter 24 The continuation of the story and the birth of the law
Another ten years passed before the village chief inherited his position as village chief to his son.
The village finally found a road leading to the outside world, and even encountered another village.
That village has abundant products and sufficient food, and every villager can have enough to eat. However, this village has a fatal flaw. There are only a few people in it, less than two hundred people.
The new village chief received the news and considered two possible options. One was to live peacefully with the newly discovered village and choose the barter method of transaction.
The second is to choose to declare war on this new village and seize their wealth and sufficient food.
After some consideration, he decided to choose the second path, because no matter how peaceful they were, the food the new village had could not be given to them for free, and the food was limited and could only feed a certain number of villagers.
After decades of attrition and pent-up anger, their village needed an outlet.
In this way, under the leadership of the second village chief, they relied on their absolute superiority in numbers to defeat the new village and occupy all the wealth in the new village.
Most of the young and middle-aged people in the new village were killed, leaving only the elderly, children, and women.
The second village chief thought about it and decided to treat these people as captured slaves. At the same time, he promulgated a new village rule: as long as any villager in their village defeated other enemies, they could raise them as slaves and let these slaves serve for themselves. Work.
As soon as this village rule came out, the villagers who had no wealth and status and were unbalanced immediately cheered and supported this new village rule.
In the following decades, they discovered several villages one after another. With the wisdom of the second village chief and the blessing of the slave village rules, they successfully annexed these villages.
At this time, there were already tens of thousands of villagers in the village. The people were mixed, plus a lot of captured slaves, making it increasingly difficult to manage.
The second village chief once again showed his wisdom and announced that he would build a big city that could accommodate everyone.
At the same time, he also formulated many new city regulations that were beneficial to maintaining the stability of the city and his own rule.
such as:
The city lord can only be succeeded by someone from their village chief's lineage, and others cannot overstep, otherwise they will be punished with death.
Any villager who owns more than five slaves automatically becomes a slave owner, and they have the power of life and death over these slaves.
Those who were close to the second village chief were named city managers, with a status higher than slave owners and lower than city lords.
As a result, there are only five different classes in the new city.
The city lord at the top, the administrator who assists the city lord in managing the city, the slave owner who owns a large number of slaves, the ordinary villagers who do not have enough slaves, and the slaves with the lowest status.
With the new city rules, the originally shaky group was brought together again. The citizens of the new city were eager to fight several more wars so that they could have enough slaves and become new slave owners.
Slave owners also wanted to plunder enough wealth through war so that they could become managers of the city.
The smallest number of city lords and managers are
Wars are waged according to the desires of the majority.
As decades passed, they occupied many cities, and the individual cities joined together to form a city-state.
The son of the city lord became the leader of the new city-state. He formulated many new rules and orders. At the same time, he thought of a method of divine authority to show that he was the chosen son favored by the gods, thus maintaining the rationality and supremacy of his rule. .
The people who followed and got close to the new leader also gained their own position second only to God in the false myths and legends.
After the city-state stabilized, they started a new round of conquest because they did not want to attack others and would attack themselves when others became stronger.
They were lucky. Hundreds of years of war had passed, and the city-state leaders had changed two or three generations. By the fourth generation of city-state leaders, they had defeated all city-states that dared to oppose them.
At this time, a kingdom beyond the city-state appears, and new rules and order will be brewed accordingly.
They have a new name, law.
……
Hastur completed the story that Professor Wayne had not told in his mind. At this time, a large portion of the potion was digested, leaving only the last part.
He estimated that in another half month, his lawyer's potion would be fully digested.
At this time, the sky was already dark, and the number of residents watching nearby not only did not decrease, but also increased.
Because the workers working at the dock heard about the situation here and came to join in the fun with cups of cheap beer.
Professor Wayne has suspended teaching, leaving Professor Folan to answer questions and popularize the new laws recently revised by Loen for the working class.
During this period, some people chose to leave midway because they did not understand, some were filled with questions, some frowned and seemed to have gained something, and only one or two had eyes shining like stars rising from the dark night.
"Do you want to go up and talk?"
Professor Wayne came to Hastur's side, holding a glass of beer given to him by someone unknown.
"I still have a lot to learn, so I won't go up and make a fool of myself." Hastur refused the proposal.
Professor Wayne took a sip of beer and said, "Since you are determined to study the law, sooner or later you will have to go on stage and explain your views to a group of people you don't know."
"Then before that day comes, I need to learn more knowledge to avoid being kicked out of office with stones."
Professor Wayne smiled, looked at the residents of the dock area who listened attentively, and sighed: "Do you think they understand?"
"You have opened a window for them. As for what kind of scenery they see outside the window, that is no longer your responsibility."
"Haha, I can't open a window. The most I can do is draw a window frame in the room. If they want to open the window, they need to work hard on their own."
Professor Wayne said as he finished the large glass of beer, breathed out a breath of alcohol, and said with a smile: "Do you want a glass too?"
"Thank you for your kindness, but I can't get used to the taste of beer."
Professor Wayne looked a little strange and pursed his lips. Hastur did not explain anything.
He simply couldn't get used to the taste of beer, even Southwell beer, which was known as the best in Loen, he couldn't get used to.
It's not because he is of noble birth that he looks down on the docks.
The cheap beer that the residents of the area drink on a daily basis.
He prefers to drink fruit wine, even if it is a little sweet.
After a while, Professor Wayne brought a glass of beer and a plate of sausages from nowhere. The smell of smoke was very strong and had a strong aroma of meat.
"Want some?"
This time, Hastur did not refuse Professor Wayne's kindness.
By the time Professor Foulun finished his lecture and Q&A, it was already past eight o'clock in the evening.
None of the three of them had eaten dinner yet. The two administrators accompanying the workhouse originally wanted to invite Hastur and the others to try the special delicacies in the dock area, but Professor Wayne refused.
Because he has had enough to drink and eat.
Hastur just counted, Professor Wayne drank three large glasses of beer, and ate four sausages and two slices of toast.
He also had something to eat with Professor Wayne, and was not very hungry. Only Professor Foulun lectured for two hours, making him both thirsty and hungry.
Seeing that Professor Wayne and Hastur had no intention of eating dinner outside, he also felt that the security in a place like the dock area would not be very good at night, so he chose to go back to the workhouse first and then have something to eat.
Back at the workhouse, Hastur looked at his pocket watch, nine-eighteen.