Chapter 307: Master Wuji≈The Leader?
Wuji Village has limited land resources. The villagers of Wuji have a cultural tradition of maintaining balance and have technical means to limit the population. Therefore, in order to avoid destroying the balance between man and nature, the villagers of Wuji have taken the initiative to limit the population of the village.
This forms a logical closed loop.
The mystery of Wuji Village’s population balance seems to have been solved.
But Riven, who came from a rural background and had conducted research on the untouchable groups in rural Ionia, knew that this answer was simply not true.
Because in rural areas, even though there is a cultural tradition of balance, and even though the villagers know that having more children will cause conflicts between people and land, they will still actively reproduce.
Why?
There are many reasons.
The first is the technical means issue mentioned earlier.
But this is not the main reason. Moreover, all kinds of wild spiritual herbs grow abundantly in Ionia, and the technology of avoiding the hidden danger is unlikely to be the exclusive patent of Wuji Village.
The second is the issue of medical conditions.
In the rural areas of Noxus, where conditions are harsh, children in the village may die from a minor illness.
So to be on the safe side, the villagers would have more children.
But this is not the main reason.
And the situation in Ionia is different from that in Noxus. In Ionia, there is abundant magical energy, and even the air is considered a tonic.
Children here rarely get sick and the infant mortality rate is not high.
The third point is the most fundamental reason:
The countryside is also a private property society. In a private property society, there is a distinction between the rich and the poor among people.
Since there are rich and poor, people naturally have the desire to escape poverty and become wealthy.
In rural areas, having children is actually a low-risk investment with stable returns.
Yes.
According to Riven's understanding, having more children in rural areas does not make people poor. On the contrary, the poorer the people are, the more they need to rely on having children to get out of poverty.
This is actually a money-making thing.
Because the cost of raising children for Runeland farmers is extremely low:
It is enough to just feed them enough food on a daily basis. There is no need to send children to school or spend money to develop their other skills.
The minimum standard is that they will not starve to death, and the maximum standard is to let the children have more food to eat and wear newer clothes.
The benefits that children can bring to their parents are relatively high:
For example, in Riven's hometown, a Noxian self-employed farmer's child can help herd cattle at the age of 5, cut grass for pigs and feed livestock at the age of 6, cook and help with many housework at the age of 7 or 8, and can help work in the fields at the age of 10...
And when the first two children grow up, the parents will even be able to afford the time cost of spending with the children.
As long as the older brothers and sisters help take care of the younger brothers and sisters at home, it is possible to create and raise children at almost zero cost...
"If you regard a rural family in Runeterra as a 'small business', then the father as the head of the family is the boss of the business, and the children are the employees of the business."
"As a boss, who doesn't want more hardworking and cheap employees?"
At this time, Riven remembered the theory mentioned by President Levi in the relevant article.
Levi also mentioned another reason:
"For Runeterra farmers, reproducing offspring is not only a value investment with stable returns, but also a zero-risk lottery game."
Levi described having a child as buying a lottery ticket.
Because in Runeland, if a self-employed farmer just farms the land honestly, he will most likely never be able to achieve a social class leap in his lifetime.
Forget about leaping up, it would be good enough if one could avoid being torn apart by natural disasters or man-made calamities and become a serf of the landlord.
The only way they can change their fate is to have children, and more children.
If one of these children turns out to be successful, the fate of their entire family will change.
In particular, Runeterra is a magical world - the probability of poor children here being "successful" is much higher than in a magic-free world with the same social background.
Because you never guarantee that you will give birth to a gifted warrior, a natural born wizard, or a scientific genius born with extraordinary mental powers.
Just like Riven.
If her poor parents had not died early, they would have probably risen to a higher level with her, their warrior daughter, from serfs to military masters of Noxus.
So everyone is happy to spend money to draw cards. Drawing an SSR like Riven is a huge profit, and drawing a minion is not a loss at all.
And all of the above are just positive incentives for having children.
In the rural society of Runeterra, not having children can result in severe negative penalties.
Because human civilization here is generally backward and primitive, the fact that the royal power can be extended to towns and cities is already a testament to the country's incredible administrative capabilities.
Therefore, there has never been any real law and order in the countryside, and it ultimately follows the natural law of the survival of the fittest.
No one will protect your private property here, you can only rely on yourself.
If you don't have children, there will be fewer people in your family, and you can only fight 1V5 when the odds are against you.
If you compete with your neighbors for land and water resources, you will suffer losses, and it will be easy to lose your pitiful property.
Because you don’t have to wait until you are too old to move. When you are a little older, your good neighbors and relatives who are waiting to be destitute will come to visit you with a smile.
If you don't want to be bullied or kicked out of your home, you have to live as hard as you can.
This trick may not work, but as a farmer living at the bottom of society, you can't come up with a better solution.
Raising children is a way to provide for your old age. This saying has never been an empty statement in the vast countryside of Runeterra.
"And the vast majority of Runeterra is still an agricultural society." Riven continued to recall Levi's article: "So the vast majority of people in most parts of Runeterra are fanatically pursuing reproduction."
"Except for two places—"
"Piltover and Zaun."
Neither the people of Piltover nor those of Zaun like to create humans.
The reason is very simple.
Because unlike agricultural society, in industrial society, having children has become a losing business.
"In agricultural societies, the family is an independent production unit. Parents can obtain the surplus labor of their offspring."
"In industrial society, the surplus value of a worker is taken away by the child's parents, but the cost of training the worker has to be borne by the parents."
In this case, reproducing offspring is no longer a valuable investment with stable returns, but instead becomes an irrational investment with more emotional benefits than material benefits.
It's like a cultivation game. No one expects to make money from this.
But after all, there are only a few people who are willing to do business at a loss, so the people of Zaun and Piltover are not very interested in creating humans.
Yes, not only Zaun, even the developed and wealthy Piltover is not very interested in creating humans.
As society becomes wealthier, the cost of raising offspring also increases.
If the only criterion is to feed the children, then a middle-class family in Piltover can easily afford to raise dozens of children.
But if the standard is to raise the child well, to ensure good study and education, and preferably to get the child admitted to Piltover University and have a bright future after graduation... then the cost will be extremely high.
Not to mention, developed industrial societies are different from agricultural societies.
Even if the people of Piltover don't have children, they have laws to protect them when they get old, welfare to take care of them, and countless social services that can be purchased with money. As long as they have money, they can still live a very comfortable life alone.
Having too many children will make it difficult to raise them, but not having too many children will not have any negative effects. Therefore, people in Piltover are unwilling to have more children.
The two industrial cities of Zaun and Piltover have always relied on a steady influx of immigrants to maintain a balanced and stable population.
"The only place in the world that can maintain a balanced population is a developed industrial city-state like the Twin Cities..."
"Then how did Wuji Village, an agricultural society, achieve a balanced population?"
Riven thought deeply for a long time, summed up a few key points, and finally asked Master Yi:
"Yi, people in your village don't have many children. Aren't you afraid that your family will be bullied by those families with more children?"
"Huh?" Master Yi looked confused.
"Bullying? How is that possible? We are all from the same village, how could someone bully others?"
"Really?" Riven didn't believe it.
With more than 1,000 people, Wuji Village can be considered a small society.
How is it possible for so many people to remain united and harmonious without even the slightest dispute?
"There will be some minor frictions..." Master Yi thought for a moment, "but it's absolutely impossible for such a thing to happen."
"Our village chief will not allow it."
"Village chief?" Riven still didn't believe it.
With a village chief in charge, there won’t be any problems with the entire family being wiped out?
Joke. Because there is no unified central government, the villages in Ionia are basically independent autonomous villages.
In theory, the village chief is elected by the villagers themselves, but in reality...what can the villagers base their election on? It's still the family status of the villagers.
Therefore, the village chief is usually a person with a prominent family background in the village.
To put it bluntly, he is called a village tyrant.
It's good enough that he doesn't take the lead in eating up the whole family. How could he help the villagers to get justice without any selfish motives? And this has been the case for thousands of years, generation after generation?
"What if..." Riven then asked, "What if the one who wipes out the entire family is the village chief? What will you do?"
"Ah?" Yi was stunned for a moment.
He instinctively replied: "How is that possible? Our village chief is a good man."
"And even if he is a bad guy, capable of doing such a bad thing, the Wuji masters in the village will never tolerate it happening."
Riven: “…”
Wow, the case is solved!
She subconsciously regarded the highest authority in Wuji Village as the village chief.
But in fact, above the village chief, there are many masters of the Wuji Sword Sect.
These masters live on the mountain at the entrance of the village, and most of them are from Wuji Village. In fact, they are part of Wuji Village, and of course they will not allow anyone in the village to do whatever they want.
More importantly, these Wuji masters are all "immortal practitioners" who believe in the Wuji way.
These immortal cultivators no longer have any worldly desires, and of course they will not have any selfish motives, and will not show any favoritism when handling village affairs.
With these selfless Wuji masters supervising, Wuji Village is naturally united and peaceful.
"Wait..." Riven suddenly reacted.
A group of selfless people in power——
How come this is a bit like...
What about the leader?
