Liu Bei's plan to change his destiny unexpectedly failed.
Facing Liu Bei who wielded the three axes of the time traveler, the Eastern Han Dynasty society did not hesitate to strike hard and teach Liu Bei how to behave in place of his loving mother.
The success of three consecutive punches gave Liu Duo a social university education, which also put his spirit into decline and made him doubt his so-called prophetic advantage.
But this is not necessarily a good thing.
At least these three heavy blows made him start to focus on reality and truly understand the lower class society of the Eastern Han Dynasty instead of pursuing the illusory world of fame. The whole person gradually got rid of the impetuous desire to escape from the poverty life in the first place.
During that time, he was really impetuous.
The main reason is that I can't stand the pure poverty.
The millet that is the staple food at home does not taste good. Liu Bei, who still remembers the taste of Northeastern rice, feels uncomfortable every time he takes a bite and it is difficult to swallow.
There were no hot stews or stir-fries that could go with the meal. The only thing that could go with the meal were the pickled vegetable stems whose original appearance had long been blurred. They were hard and bitter, and the astringent feeling made him almost nauseous, which made him even more uncomfortable.
It's really unpalatable, so unpalatable.
But if he doesn't eat these things, he will starve to death. The strong feeling of hunger is the best warning. He has to endure it and force himself to accept it.
In this process of gradual acceptance, he also accepted the fact that he would be in this state of poverty for a period of time, and gradually became less impetuous.
He realized that even Uncle Liu would have to wait more than fifty years before he could become emperor. What he had experienced during these fifty years might be the reason why he could become emperor.
Later, he learned that his origin was not low among the Liu clan in Zhuo County, at least not grassroots.
His grandfather Liu Xiong was once promoted as a filial and honest man, and served as a county magistrate. He was also a county magistrate of a large county, with a rank of one thousand stones. Unfortunately, he died young and was unable to climb further. In other words, he did not have the opportunity to become the county magistrate of two thousand stones. He did not further advance his career.
Liu Bei's family moved to a higher family level.
In this era of extremely narrow upward channels, if you don’t advance, you will retreat.
Liu Xiong failed to lead his family upward, and if he died again, the Liu family would naturally fall down the class ladder.
So when it was Liu Bei's father Liu Hong's turn, he could only rely on Liu Xiong's little bit of help to get into a lowly position as a local official, and he could barely be regarded as a humble middle-class man.
It is not impossible to move up as a minor official. If you want to move up further, the best chance is to be appreciated by your superiors and be selected as "Integrity" in the process of promoting filial piety and integrity. Then you will have the opportunity to become an official.
Unfortunately, Liu Hong did not wait for this opportunity and passed away in his twenties, leaving behind an orphan and a widowed mother.
Therefore, the Liu family could not even guarantee the false middle-class status, so they landed hard, chewed a mouthful of yellow mud, and lost their dignity.
According to my mother's recollections of the past, when she first married into the Liu family, that is, when Liu Bei's grandfather Liu Xiong was still alive, the Liu family was also a fairly respectable official family, with a house, land and servants.
Who could have imagined that within three to five years, two men would pass away one after another.
After the two funerals, the family was in a state of ruin.
Grandpa Pin couldn't fight, and Dad couldn't fight either. Liu Bei and his mother could only rely on their own hands to weave mats and sell shoes to support themselves.
As for this job, the family members only assigned Liu Bei and his son to take care of the orphans and widows because they were still in the clan. It can barely be regarded as a small and micro enterprise or a self-employed business.
At this time, I really saw the benefits of clans living together and staying together for warmth. If it weren't for the Liu clan in Zhuo County, they would have fallen directly from the middle class to kneeling soldiers.
Due to the early death of their grandfather and father, they were unable to further consolidate the family business. When it was passed down to Liu Bei, because he was too young to inherit any of his father's connections, the family was no different from ordinary grassroots people.
The house is gone, the land is gone, the servants are gone.
But in the midst of despair, Liu Bei, who gradually became calmer and no longer impetuous, discovered an important point keenly.
He is qualified for basic education.
The Liu clan in Zhuo County has a rudimentary clan culture of its own, and there are no classics to teach, but teaching the clan's children to read and write is not a big problem.
It is not that there are no wealthy families in the family. Some families who are better at business or land management will be richer.
Wealthy families often use some of their income to help poor tribesmen and donate it to ethnic schools so that the ethnic schools can continue to operate, which is also considered charity.
Liu Bei mastered reading and writing skills when he was young under the guidance of his father and his family.
When the elders in the clan school taught reading and writing skills, they once scolded some young children who were not serious, saying that those who can read, read and write are only one in a hundred, and if they don't practice now, they will regret it in the future.
This is obviously a bit exaggerated, but Liu Bei has consulted some information and found that the entire Eastern Han Dynasty had a population of more than 50 million, and the most optimistic estimate was that the literacy rate would not exceed 8%.
More than 90% of the population is illiterate, and of the remaining 8% of the literate population, most of them only have the skills to read and write, and are not illiterate, that's all.
Those who were above reading and writing and could receive book-based education were an absolute minority among the eight percent. They were the absolute elite in the late Han Dynasty and were beyond the reach of ordinary people.
But no matter what, as one of the 8% of the population who have mastered reading and writing skills, Liu Bei is already standing on the heads of 92% of the people even if he has nothing.
This cruel fact frightened Liu Bei.
He is already one of the top eight percent of the population in this society. He is still struggling to survive by eating chaffy vegetables and is just starving to death. So what kind of state are the remaining ninety percent living in?
middle?
What kind of shocking poverty and pain did they experience?
Are the so-called "working people" he came into contact with in the Liu clan's settlement really look like the real working people in the late Eastern Han Dynasty?
This was the first time he had thought seriously since he was reborn in the late Eastern Han Dynasty.
But such thinking could not change his situation at that time.
The Liu Bei family was once the best among the Liu clan in Zhuo County and produced many officials. However, after the deaths of Liu Xiong and Liu Hong, some clan members who had been good friends with the Liu Bei family in the past also alienated the Liu Bei family.
To this day, only Liu Bo, a member of the clan who is engaged in business, still helps Liu Bei's family from time to time because of his friendship with Liu Hong in the past. Sometimes when Liu Bei's family is too poor to raise the pot, they rely on the rice grains he sends to survive. Mother and son
So as not to starve or freeze.
When he first came to the Han Dynasty, Liu Bei had great ambitions and wanted to change his destiny against nature, but he was defeated by his hungry stomach.
Ambition is not worth a bowl of food. When you are hungry, you can only think about eating, and then what you can eat for the next meal, and nothing else.
His vision was severely restricted by hunger.
After the time traveler swung his ax three times without any results, after the excitement and blood faded, hunger took over the mainstream consciousness.
Liu Bei had no choice but to shelve his plan to change his fate, chose to bow his head and admit the reality, and took the initiative to learn to weave straw mats and sandals from his mother, and then picked them out for sale.
He lived a life looking forward to selling more straw sandals and straw mats so that he could buy more food and eat more food. He mingled at the bottom of society and started working as a street vendor on both sides of the street.
He thought he was already very realistic, but he still underestimated the reality.
In this era, if a poor person wants to change from poverty to not being poor or even having enough to eat, it is no less difficult than it is for modern people to win the lottery and win the jackpot. It requires a lot of luck.
From that time on, Liu Bei and his mother had been struggling to survive on the food and clothing line. They couldn't eat enough and they couldn't starve to death. Even if they tried their best, nothing would change.
The food that I thought was unpalatable at first is no longer unpalatable, and is even a little bit delicious. After finishing a meal, I am looking forward to the next meal every moment.
Because there was no oil or water in his meals and he had to do many and tiring things, Liu Bei always felt hungry prematurely. After eating more than a bowl of food, he would not be able to hold on for long before he became hungry again.
When he was awake, he spent more than half of the time clearly feeling hungry. He sadly recalled the fried chicken, hamburgers, cola fries in his previous life, and when he thought about the sadness, he swallowed it with tears and saliva.
But his current family really doesn't have any extra food to eat.
He started complaining constantly, but then he stopped complaining.
Because the mother who loved him deeply had tried her best. She ate less and did more. She was in her twenties and looked like a middle-aged woman in her forties.
So much for premature aging.
So, like his mother, he could only choose to go to bed early, as soon as the sun went down, because he would not feel hungry when he fell asleep.
Such a state left Liu Bei with no time or energy to think about other plans to change his destiny. It is commonly known as - he has tried his best to live.
He could only think for a moment when he had just eaten and was not so hungry, thinking about how the real Liu Bei managed to break through this situation.
Can this endless hardship and despair really allow him to break through and succeed?