paranoianovel Chapter 2969 The Power and Limitations of the Intelligence-Degrading Aura
Chapter 2969 The Power and Limitations of the Intelligence-Degrading Aura
Chapter 2969 The Power and Limitations of the Intelligence-Degrading Aura
Otherwise, it would be really difficult for them to walk those extra dozens of miles.
This wasn't the first time Wen Rensheng had witnessed real starving people.
Truly, starving people are no longer human.
Instead, they are walking wild beasts, completely free from human moral and ethical constraints.
Never impose human moral standards on starving people.
Those who drowned, hanged themselves, or killed themselves in advance to avoid suffering when a major disaster struck can be said to be the group of ordinary people with the highest moral standards.
Without the replenishment of this broth, it would be good if even 1/10 of the people made it to the Wang family's house.
Everyone else will naturally fall on the road.
It was thanks to this food that they were able to get here.
When they arrived at the Wang family's house, they found that the Wang family had not left.
Some big players always harbor a侥幸心理 (a gambler's mentality).
They felt that this was the way their ancestors had always lived by.
Therefore, they still believe that they can get through this major disaster by relying on the experience of their ancestors.
However, their ancestors' experience was only 200 years old.
This limited experience cannot lead to any profound truths.
This can only lead to incorrect conclusions.
The Wang family has gathered more than 200 able-bodied men to guard their manor.
Because it was a closed-off area, the imperial court had a strong degree of control.
A fortress is out of the question.
The construction of that thing could only have occurred when the court was divided.
Now, the Wang family, their long-term tenants, shop workers, their own relatives, and some people from the same village.
Both large and small households sent people to defend the walls.
Then they saw thousands of people crowding in from all directions.
They were also very afraid.
They huddled on the wall, trembling.
The walls of this manor are only a little over two meters high.
It only takes a few people to build a ladder to climb up.
The county town only had city walls that were three or four meters high.
After all, this was a closed dynasty, and it was impossible to allow county towns to have too high city walls.
There are no external enemies.
When there are thousands of people, it becomes a dense, crowded mass.
One playground isn't enough for everyone.
Looking up from there, you can see a huge crowd of people.
Of course, once you calm down, you'll find that most of them are old, weak, sick, or disabled; when it comes to actual fighting ability, they are not as good as them.
The problem is that there are very few calm people.
"Oh no, they've sent so many of them, what do we do?"
"I told you long ago that the Wang family's two ounces of rice are not easy to obtain, but you still insisted on wanting it."
"Now look what's happened, we're going to risk our lives here!"
"But if not here, where else can we go?"
"Yes, at least the Wang family has rice to eat, which isn't available elsewhere!"
"Yes."
"We're doomed, let's all die together!"
And at this time.
The head butler of the Wang family was quite courageous.
He picked up a megaphone and shouted to the people outside:
“Hey, we know you want food.”
"But we Wang family have no food here either, so get out of here!"
"You lowly people, go back and eat your own food!"
"There will be no food when we go back!"
"Then go home and obediently wait to die!"
"Do you think you can just come out here and expect to get food?"
How sad.
Wenren Sheng sighed.
In such a closed-off place, food is always the biggest problem.
A closed system can always be subject to a massive collapse due to even the slightest disturbance.
Science has long proven that an external energy input is necessary to maintain the good order of a system.
At this moment, the Wang family's butler was still shouting.
Wen Rensheng was even more speechless.
This guy is really afraid the powder keg won't explode.
Even at this point, they're still so vicious.
But I have to say, this trick actually worked.
Wenren Sheng discovered that the other party's words had actually worked.
After the Wang family steward gave him a stern lecture, nearly one-third of the people actually began to waver.
They found the butler to be just as fierce as he always was.
They believed that the Wang family still wielded considerable power.
And it's still the same powerful force as before.
So, one by one, the villagers slowly retreated.
They pushed others to the front.
He shrank back.
Some even wanted to go home and wait to die.
They also felt that starving to death was more comfortable than being hacked to death.
Wen Rensheng was speechless.
He shouted directly:
"You're all starving to death, what are you afraid of?"
"Nothing matters except death!"
"Everyone, step forward and tear this manor apart!"
"If we win, we can eat an extra bite of meat!"
"Real meat!"
"If we retreat now, we'll just starve to death."
Which way of dying is the most comfortable?
"It's much more satisfying to die a good death in battle!"
As soon as Wenren Sheng said this, many people immediately believed him.
This brain-degrading aura is really useful.
For the first time, they finally obeyed one person's orders completely.
Before, those guys were all very cunning.
Although they are foolish and numb, they still possess the cunning to survive.
A very small number of people are truly numb; their minds have stopped thinking, and they just work numbly to get by.
If something happens, he will hang himself.
These people are truly pitiful.
They're not even as good as wild beasts.
Wild animals also know how to resist and run away.
They wouldn't listen to anyone.
They only know how to wait for others to step forward, and for others to provide relief and make arrangements.
Just like before, they only wanted to wait for Wenren Sheng to help them.
After all, when Wenren Sheng appeared before, they were treated to a meal.
This gave them more hope.
Now, Wenren Sheng simply said this, and they immediately agreed, under the influence of the diminished aura of wisdom.
"He's right!"
"What you say is true, sir. It's better to fight to the death than to starve to death!"
"Old bastard, we'll fight to the death until our blood runs dry!"
Several men who had served in the border army shouted together.
This group of people started working incredibly hard.
They charged forward, intent on killing and devouring their opponent...
Their only goal is to eat.
To describe the specific process, it involved storming into the village and seizing grain and all living things...
They are no longer human.
Rather, they are wild beasts with rudimentary intelligence.
Wisdom was diminished by Wenren Sheng.
And so, a great battle broke out between the two sides.
At this time, the Wang family's resistance was equally fierce.
Especially the tenant farmers, they all received the promise.
As long as the estate doesn't collapse, they will have their rent reduced and their food provided.
During this famine, food was the absolute hard currency.
none of them.
There are still over 100,000 jin of grain stored in the entire village.
This amount of grain is enough to feed more than 100 households for more than half a year.
Of course, they couldn't possibly eat only grains.
It must have been mixed with weeds, tree bark, grass roots, leaves, and even soil to survive for more than half a year.
Logically, there should be more grain, but the problem is that the Wang family and the Chen family are different.
The Wang family is too short-sighted.
When the famine began, they thought it would be a good time to sell their wares for money.
So most of the grain was transported to the city and other places and sold at high prices.
They panicked when they realized the famine was ongoing and dared not sell anymore.
But it was already too late.
They were also worried that the famine would last for several years, and they couldn't hold out for that long.
In retrospect, surviving another year is already a great achievement for them. Both sides are fighting desperately.
They attacked each other with sticks, teeth, and fists.
They did not have good weapons.
The imperial court forbids the possession of weapons, let alone armor.
They could only use wooden sticks and shields.
Wenren Sheng shook his head.
Both sides are just makeshift teams.
He shouted:
"Stop hitting me like that!"
"You are both suffering the same way!"
"Your common enemy is the rich man Wang inside!"
"Only by getting rid of Wang the rich can you all have a few good days together!"
"This can't go on, you all need to be smarter!"
Those who resisted suddenly realized that this was the case, so they stopped and didn't want to fight anymore.
Butler Wang immediately became anxious.
"No, if we kill our master, his estate will be divided among thousands of people. How much will you get?"
"There are only a few hundred of you now, and the food supply is enough for you."
"As long as you serve the master, he will give you money and food!"
"All for you!"
Anyway, what he says won't count.
Once the famine is over and all the starving people are killed, their master will still retain his land and will absolutely not let anyone take advantage of it.
Upon seeing this, Wen Rensheng realized that his reduction of the wisdom aura had no effect on the butler.
The Wang family's steward isn't stupid either.
He chose to deceive these people during an emergency.
The other party chose to distribute their wealth verbally.
At this point, it's just a perfunctory response, a false promise.
But that's precisely what drives many people to work incredibly hard.
Wen Rensheng was then slightly taken aback.
He discovered that the "intelligence-reducing halo" he had bought was not working.
Damn it, I'm returning it!
He thought subconsciously.
At this point, a prompt appears:
"The 'Intelligence Reduction Aura' is currently only at level one."
"For now, we can only reduce the number of people with an IQ below 105."
"It is very difficult to lower an IQ above 105."
Wow, it seems the butler is quite intelligent.
It turns out that most farmers have an IQ below 105.
Actually, they're probably around 70 or 80 years old, which is pretty good. Being able to think like a normal person is already quite impressive.
Many people's intelligence is not developed through upbringing.
They just parrot what others say and have absolutely no logical thinking.
Others can easily deceive them with information.
This has led to farmers developing nearsightedness.
You must always look at the immediate situation.
Never let anyone take advantage of you in the slightest.
Because they firmly believed that only in this way could they survive.
And that's exactly what happened; if they had believed in long-term things, they would have been ruined long ago.
Because the long-term plans promised by the imperial court are often not fulfilled.
This closed dynasty has always been like this.
They were all itinerant officials; they would only make hasty promises, deceive the people, squeeze money out of them, curry favor with their superiors, and then run away.
After reading this, Wen Rensheng said no more.
He then launched a verbal attack on the other side's people.
That was like firing one shot after another; their words were like cannonballs, aiming to kill the enemy alive.
The results were also very good.
"The Wang family stole a prime burial plot from your family, and now you expect them to serve them?"
"Your ancestors will rise up and come after you!"
Several villagers suddenly remembered this matter.
They immediately relaxed, and their defenses were quickly breached.
The butler personally led the people who had come in and drove them out.
As thousands of people took to the field one after another, they launched a coordinated attack from all sides.
Adding to this, Wenren Sheng's intelligence-reducing aura caused the defenders to waver.
Although the Wang family steward was anxious, he sent someone to bring the silver.
After all, they had studied some military strategy, and the Wang family was surprisingly stingy, unwilling to spend too much money.
They just try to fool us with copper coins and old grain.
They had absolutely no idea how to deal with the crisis.
Even on the verge of death, he was still stingy.
Isn't this nonsense?
Now they're actually distributing manpower equally.
The walls were covered with the same number of people everywhere.
This creates another problem.
That means that a breakthrough in one area can lead to a comprehensive breakthrough.
They did not set up enough mobile forces.
Only the steward was with a few guards for protection.
The gentlemen, of course, stayed in the backyard.
When things got really urgent, the servants couldn't hold on any longer.
Because there were deaths and injuries.
Some people refused to fight anymore, so they brought their own men into the village and started beating others.
Attacked from both sides, some of the servants died.
After all, the servants here are not the servants of the Ming Dynasty.
It belonged to the landlord.
They're good at bullying others, but they're not even as good as farmers at fighting.
The old farmer had at least actually fought for water with knives and guns.
And so, under Wenren Sheng's command, thousands of people launched a frenzied attack.
The butler quickly backed down.
He led his men and escaped by scaling another wall that no one was attacking.
As for the Wang family patriarch and his sons, he couldn't control them.
Anyway, he didn't have any cuckolded men.
The young master is not his child.
So he just ran away.
Of course, he fled towards the county town.
He had some silver notes and pawn tickets with him.
They are all usable in the county town.
He was unaware that there was no food in the county either.
We can only wait until the famine is over.
They need to seize food from the countryside.
However, neither side did.
There was only one thing to do: rebel and seize the county seat.
There was no food in the county town, but there were still people with flesh.
This is the terrifying reality of a famine-stricken world—without food, people are the food themselves.
Finally, the Wang family was completely wiped out.
The villagers cheered.
They rushed in and searched through the grain.
"Hurry to the granary!"
"Don't let the Wang family set fire!"
"Don't leave, Wang family!"
"Let's go find some food!"
They quickly found a full 4000 shi of grain, with each shi containing 100 jin, which is 40 jin of grain.
That's quite a lot.
After all, with 40 jin of grain, if each person eats 150 jin a year, it can sustain their minimum life needs.
This can sustain several thousand people.
Of course, this will greatly reduce lifespan and cause malnutrition, preventing one from living a long life.
However, for them, just being alive is enough; what more could they want?
And so, Wenren Sheng then divided the grain equally among everyone.
Some people think this is inappropriate.
"We should focus on nurturing the strong and healthy, and discard all the old, weak, sick, and disabled."
Wenren Sheng smiled.
"That's a good idea, but you haven't considered one thing: people will eventually become old, weak, sick, or disabled."
The man had nothing to say.
The others, however, were deeply moved.
They roared that they would serve Wenren Sheng.
This is the result Wenren Sheng wanted.
The person wasn't scammed because the trap wasn't set on them.
No one is smart enough in a field outside their expertise.
Wenren Sheng was a professional in the field of rebellion.
His words were just a way to create a persona and make people believe him.
Gaining a reputation for benevolence and righteousness makes diminishing the aura of wisdom even more effective.
People always subconsciously listen to those who are righteous and kind.
(End of this chapter)