The thief who stole the steamed buns ran away. Ang Lee was very curious about this thief, so he let a guard follow him to see the situation of this thief.
"That thief just now, does he often come here to steal steamed buns?"
Ang Lee walked to the front of the stall and asked.
The man replied, "Yes, I've stolen it more than ten times! Each time, he stole two steamed buns, less than thirty steamed buns in total. Today, I was really angry, so I chased after him. But I didn't expect this kid to have a conscience. These copper coins are enough for thirty steamed buns. If I had known, I wouldn't have chased him. "
It could be seen that the man was really regretting his actions. He probably felt that his previous actions were a bit reckless. On this day when the whole country was celebrating, he actually chased after a hungry beggar for two worthless steamed buns. In the end, the beggar took the initiative to compensate him for stealing the steamed buns. This made him very embarrassed and flustered. He felt that he had gone too far and should not have treated a little beggar like this.
This was naturally within Ang Lee's expectations. Since the little beggar took the initiative to send the money over, Ang Lee had guessed the result. He just asked to confirm it.
However, this little beggar did return the money for stealing the steamed buns, but the money was not his own. It was given to him by Yan Ruyu. He returned the money for stealing the steamed buns, but he also owed Yan Ruyu. However, the two were really different. He stole the steamed buns, but Yan Ruyu took the initiative to give the money to him. Therefore, he might think that the money was his because others took the initiative to give it to him, and he would feel guilty for stealing things.
Ang Lee couldn't judge whether such a child was good or bad. This needed time to prove. He had to wait for the child to grow up to know. Perhaps this child would be a beggar for the rest of his life. So, whether he was a good or bad person was not important.
"There are many stalls nearby. He only stole your steamed buns?"
Ang Lee asked.
"There are many stalls nearby, but only steamed buns are easy to steal. Other things are not easy to steal! Look at the noodle soup, it's impossible to steal! And the fried dough twists here, they can burn people's hands as soon as they come out of the pot. "
The stall owner selling steamed buns said.
There were many snacks on the street. Steamed buns were definitely the lowest grade, but steamed buns were more suppressive. After eating them, it was easier for people to feel full. If one ate some delicious snacks, they might have to spend several times more money to have the same effect. For the poor, it was better to save as much as possible. Spending several times more money was intolerable. This was also the reason why steamed buns shops could exist.
While they were talking, many people came to buy steamed buns. These people were all the poorest people, without exception. Those who were slightly better dressed went to eat the fried roujiamo next to them, which was much more delicious than the steamed buns.
"How many kinds of steamed buns? How many steamed buns can you sell in a day? "
Ang asked asked with concern.
"Steamed buns of steamed buns, wheat buns, wheat buns buns bunbunbuns buns, corn buns,, and there's buns........... buns.... bread. bread.
. is? and so many steamed buns. Can sweet potatoes be made into steamed buns?
Ang Lee asked curiously.
According to Ang Lee's understanding, even if sweet potatoes were dried and ground into powder, it was difficult to make steamed buns. It was too difficult.
"It's a mixture of sweet potato flour and wheat flour. You can taste the sweetness of sweet potatoes, so it's called sweet potato steamed buns. Do you want to have a taste?"
The man said and politely took out a steamed bun to give to Ang Lee.
"I'll buy a few of each. See you later."
Ang Lee told the guard, then left with Yan Ruyu.
"Sweet potato steamed buns are really delicious!"
Ang Lee broke open a sweet potato steamed bun and gave Yan Ruyu a small piece each. He gave the rest to the guard who followed him. They just wanted to taste it, not to eat until they were full.
Yan Ruyu nodded and said, "It tastes sweet. It's really sweet potatoes. If only the steamed buns had stuffing."
"Isn't it easy to make steamed buns with stuffing? However, the price of steamed buns like this will be high. Moreover, they won't be so hungry. Steamed buns can be stored for many days, but if they have stuffing, they won't last that long."
Ang Lee said with a smile.
Steamed buns with stuffing would definitely have a better appetite. This should be available in the Tang dynasty, but it was a little more troublesome and the cost was naturally higher. The peddler just now was just not good at making steamed buns with stuffing. Perhaps he would make steamed buns like this in the future.
Soon, the guard who followed the thief came back and brought back the information that Ang Lee wanted. The thief he saw just now didn't steal steamed buns for himself, but for his disabled companion. The two of them sat together and ate two steamed buns.
"What a poor child. They are full today, but what about tomorrow? Will they come out to steal steamed buns again? They can't keep stealing steamed buns like this! "
Yan Ruyu's heart of the Virgin Mary was triggered. She frowned slightly and appeared to be very sympathetic. It was most appropriate to describe her as being overflowing with sympathy.
"Madam, what do you plan to do? There are not many beggars in the capital, but there are also quite a few. You can't put all of them into the workshop! Moreover, these people who are used to begging may not be able to do their work well. It won't be good if they are more of a hindrance. "
Ang Lee said.
His wife was kind-hearted, which was naturally something to be happy about. However, being too kind-hearted might not be a good thing, because there were too many pitiful people in the world. It was impossible to pity all of them. Even if he gave away all his wealth, he might not be able to save all of them.
"My husband is right. However, we have met them today. Why don't we be kind and take care of them for a while, and then let people teach them to work? After that, they can support themselves."
Yan Ruyu said with a smile.
Ang Lee said helplessly, "I really don't know what to do with my wife. Alright! As long as my wife is happy, it's fine. Isn't it just two children? Our workshop can afford to raise them. "
It had to be said that Ang Lee was persuaded by Yan Ruyu and agreed to Yan Ruyu's request.
However, even so, Ang Lee was still an exploiter to the craftsmen working in the workshop. No matter how good Ang Lee was, and no matter how much he exploited the craftsmen, as long as this exploitation was milder, the craftsmen would not be disgusted. Moreover, the craftsmen did not know how much Ang Lee earned. They did not have the concept in this regard. As long as they earned enough money, they could get a much higher remuneration from Ang Lee's workshop than other workshops. For them, this was enough.
In fact, when he was calm, Li An would feel that he was an exploitative capitalist when he opened the workshop. Although he was milder and did not use too strict a system to force the craftsmen to do the most work, the nature of exploitation would not change.
Every craftsmen in the workshop could create a lot of wealth for Ang Lee, but these craftsmen could only get one-tenth of the wealth they created, or even one-hundredth. The remaining value was exploited by Ang Lee.
In order to make the craftsmen willing to be exploited, Ang Lee also took a lot of measures. For example, an incentive system. For the craftsmen who did a good job, he would give them high rewards so that they could get more wealth. During the New Year, he would even personally go to these craftsmen's residences and give them expensive New Year goods to appease them.
In addition, in order to gain a good reputation, Ang Lee would often do charity activities to send warmth to the poor people who did not have money. This made people look at Ang Lee in a new light.
However, this still did not change Ang Lee's role as an exploiter. The same was true for the capitalists in the later generations. They would do everything possible to motivate their employees to work actively and make their employees treat the company as their home. At the same time, they would exaggerate the difficulties they faced in the early stages of entrepreneurship. They would make the exploited employees feel that their boss's achievements today were all due to his ability and hard work, not through exploitation. This would increase the rationality of their own wealth and weaken people's hatred of the rich to a certain extent.
In order to make their employees work harder, the capitalists would occasionally choose to set an example and go to the workshop personally to work. They would even make it clear in public that they would treat all their employees as brothers. They would not abandon any of their brothers and would not let any of their brothers live in tragedy because of poverty.
These promises were actually just a means for the capitalists to win people's hearts. They could not be taken seriously because when an employee really chose to seek help from the capitalists because of their family's poverty, the capitalists would overturn all their previous promises, tear off their hypocritical mask, and expose their indifferent nature. They would ruthlessly kick out the employee who could not work hard because of his family's poverty and leave him to fend for himself.
Capitalists were the exploiting class that ate people without spitting out the bones. It was impossible to expect them to have a conscience and truly care for and love their employees. At least, it was impossible under normal circumstances. In other words, if there really were such a conscientious capitalist, he would soon be eliminated by the times and become nothing.
This was because the competition between capitalists was very fierce and cruel. In order to gain more wealth and higher social status, many capitalists would use various means to attack their competitors. The most common and reliable way to attack them was undoubtedly to reduce production costs and make their products cheaper. In this way, capitalists with high production costs would go bankrupt. Among the ways to reduce production costs, the best way to operate was to squeeze the employees to do more work and receive as little salary as possible. This way, the labor costs would be greatly reduced, and the total cost would be reduced.
However, capitalists with high production costs would not be willing to be defeated like this. They would not be willing to see their company go bankrupt, so they would take the same measures to reduce labor costs by squeezing their employees, or even more.
As a result, a large number of capitalists, in order to survive and defeat their competitors, needed to constantly increase the extent of squeezing their employees. They even forced their employees to die, causing many employees to commit suicide. The capitalists would only give some symbolic compensation, and it was still moral compensation. They would not think that they had done anything wrong. After all, all capitalists squeezed their employees like this. If they were a little kinder, they would go bankrupt and close down. In this way, they would be the ones committing suicide.
In an environment where all capitalists were constantly increasing their exploitation, the few remaining conscientious capitalists had to be ruthless in order to survive. Blindly being kind would drag them down. Only by getting rid of the burden could they move forward better and go further.
Of course, all of these were ordinary capitalists, not including capitalists who monopolized the industry. Because monopolizing capitalists had no competitors, the pressure of survival was not as great as ordinary capitalists. Even if they gave more benefits to their employees, it would not have a big impact on their industry. Just like Ang Lee's industry, it was unique in the Tang dynasty. The profit was more than one thousand percent. In the eyes of a bearded scholar in the future, this was enough for people to trample on any law in the world and dare to risk being beheaded.
Ang Lee dared to willfully give a lot of benefits to his employees and let them have a better living environment because of his monopoly status. If his industry technology was mastered by others and they made the same products, then Ang Lee's monopoly status would be broken. The price of the products produced would be greatly reduced, and even a very low profit price would be maintained. In this way, Ang Lee could not be willful. Unless he gave up this industry, he had to be a cruel capitalist.
Yan Ruyu was very happy to get Ang Lee's affirmation. She also felt that she was a little willful when she looked at the lanterns tonight. She actually did good deeds one after another. First, she took in a poor mother and daughter and let them work in the workshop. Then, she helped two little beggars. She could not stop doing good deeds.
The most important thing was that the lanterns were not finished yet. If she continued to meet poor people, would she save them again? How many poor people could she save with her ability? Would these rescued poor people have a grateful heart? Would they be grateful to Yan Ruyu?
Ang Lee would never object to his wife doing good deeds. However, how to do good deeds and to what extent, Ang Lee had to remind and intervene. This was because if you did too much good deeds, it would bring disaster to yourself. You could not be sure whether the poor person you saved was a good person or a bad person. When the farmer saw the snake frozen, he put it in his arms. After the snake woke up, the first thing it did was to kill the farmer who saved it.
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