Ma Chao smiled dumbly and said, "The people's grievances are boiling? I don't think so. I have freed 250,000 people from the control of the family, and used fields, seeds, oxen, and plows to enrich and strengthen them, so that they have personal freedom and a certain amount of family resources. ”

Yang Biao was stunned for a moment, and said: "The fine people are the people, isn't the family the people under the rule of the general?" Wouldn't the general take away the wealth of the family for no reason and use it for personal use in the name of justice, so that the people's resentment boiled? ”

Ma Chao sneered: "You wait for the family, and you still have the face to call yourself a people? There are tens of thousands of servants, a wide range of customers, occupying thousands of miles of land without paying a tax, and a forest of docks and forts without a single endowment. The imperial court can't collect your taxes, and they don't dare to collect them, because you have people in the court, and you have soldiers who are not weak. How is this different from princes and kings? can actually call himself a citizen, Yang Gong is not ashamed? ”

Yang Biao was silent for a while, because he was speechless. Yang Biao glared at Ma Chao, and thought of a new rhetoric: "Although our family occupies a wide range of fields, it is also a good way to take it; Although there are many dock forts, they also come from the blue wisps of the road; The tribe is only to prevent thieves from looting family property. How could the general encroach on it for no reason? ”

Ma Chao laughed louder and said, "Yang Gong has no shame! If you and other families don't rely on tricks and coercion, how can you take so much land? If it were not for usury and natural disasters, how could there be so many servants?

All the fields you are waiting for are taken from the hands of the yeoman farmers, who have lost their land and have nothing to rely on, and can only commit themselves to the family and become your servants. In order to obtain more fields and servants, you can choose the best of the servants and train them to use when stealing other people's fields. As a result, your strength continues to expand; There is a situation in the world where the rich have a lot of fields, and the poor have no place to stand. Yang Gong prides himself on being a famous man in the world, but he doesn't know that this people's fat and people's ointment, human blood steamed buns, can be eaten deliciously? ”

Yang Biao didn't have the heart to put on what the "steamed bun" was, because after being so accused by Ma Chao, Yang Biao suddenly found that what Ma Chao said was more and more like the real facts, and he racked his brains and worked hard, and he couldn't think of any excuse to refute at all.

Ma Chao looked at Yang Biao's slightly cramped and uneasy face, and guessed in his heart that this person must be anxious, ashamed and suspicious, anxious because this person could not find any rebuttal; Shame because the person has a bit of a conscience; I was suspicious because I was half-convinced of the facts Ma Chao said.

However, Ma Chao didn't care about him, and sneered: "Yang Gong, do you know what other options those landless peasants have besides being attached to the family?" ”

"No...... I don't know ......" Yang Biao glanced at Ma Chao nervously, and immediately looked away, not daring to look at Ma Chao's burning eyes.

Ma Chao said: "Hmph! But I made a mistake. Yang Gong's generation can only clear the discussion, how can he pay attention to those lowly people? Let me tell you! In addition to becoming a slave to the family, the landless peasants had three other paths. ”

"Which... Which three paths? Yang Biao asked in a low voice.

Ma Chao stretched out his index finger and said, "The first way is to starve to death!" ”

"Huh? How could this be? Yang Biao looked at Ma Chao with a frightened expression.

Ma Chao sneered: "Hehe, how could it not? Once the people lose their land, they have nothing. Even if you still have some family assets, you can only survive for a few days. If there is no field, there will be no food, and if there is no food, you can only eat Guanyin soil, wild fruits, tree bark, grass roots and other things. Does Yang Gong know what Guanyin soil is? ”

"I don't know ......"

Ma Chao said with a smile: "Then Yang Gong is a pity, this Guanyin soil is an excellent food!" ”

Yang Biao was skeptical: "Really? ”

When Ma Chao saw that he was so stupid, he roared: "Fake! Can a man eat dirt? After this Guanyin soil is taken, the hungry person must first break it up and sift it, mix it with water, or eat it directly, or it can be steamed. After eating, the hungry person will feel full and will not starve to death for a while. However, Guanyin soil is indigestible and difficult to excrete, and hungry people can't help but eat all the time, and the final outcome is that hungry people are strangled to death by the Guanyin soil in their wombs! ”

"Huh?" Yang Biao subconsciously exclaimed.

Ma Chao stretched out his index and middle fingers and said, "Don't worry, it's not over yet, there is a second way, and that is to be displaced, wandering between places and begging for food, this is the so-called 'homeless'." But begging for food is not a long-term solution, so it is only a matter of time before the displaced people will eventually starve to death. ”

Yang Biao gasped and said, "Isn't there a third way?" ”

Ma Chao looked at Yang Biao with disdain and said, "The third way is to rebel, in order to overthrow the rule of your family and regain the land and dignity." This is how the remnants of the Yellow Turbans and the Black Mountain Army came to be. ”

Yang Biao was a little shocked, and Ma Chao said: "Maybe the Yang Guild thinks that these thieves are just coveting artifacts and are caused by human greed. But in fact, who wouldn't want to live and work in peace? Who would want to be a thief if they didn't lose their land and hover on the verge of starvation? And Yang Gong and others, as soon as they saw the uprising, they accused those who had no choice as 'ant thieves', and mobilized the army with peace of mind to kill them cleanly. ”

Yang Biao lowered his head at this time, and even used his sleeves to cover his face, and he was ashamed of Ma Chao.

Ma Chao said: "Yes, they are thieves, but who made them thieves?" Has Yang Gong thought about this question? They live a life of licking blood from the knife edge, and they always have to worry about the advance of the official army. If nothing else, the final outcome is that the officials and soldiers cut off their heads and take them back to the imperial court to repay their merits and ask for rewards. Putting themselves in such a situation, their purpose is only to eat enough and keep themselves alive! Isn't that excessive? If Yang Gong is not a son of a family, but one of them, Yang Gong can put himself in his shoes and think, in addition to rebelling to survive, do you have any other way to live! ”

In the end, Ma Chao was emotional, pointed directly at Yang Biao's nose, and scolded hysterically. Because he can no longer bear the cruel reality of the last years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, I don't know how many people are forced to come to the brink of death, I don't know how many people are displaced, unclothed, and can only watch their relatives starve to death one after another? Such people, how can there be millions, tens of millions? Every thought of it is enough to make the heart of any person with a modicum of conscience breathe.

When reading history books in the past, Ma Chao could often see records such as "cannibalism" and "eating from children", and knew what this meant, but after all, he didn't witness it with his own eyes and didn't happen to himself, so Ma Chao didn't have too many fluctuations.