The living conditions of working people in old China.

One is the landlord class and its lackeys. They support themselves purely by exploiting the fruits of others' labor. (1) Take care of long-term and short-term workers and work hard for them. The grain planted every year belongs to the landlord, and the workers can only go home empty-handed. (2) Lease land to poor peasants and lower-middle peasants who have no land or little land. They have worked hard for a year, and after the autumn harvest, they will pay more than half of the grain they received as rent to the landlord. When paying the rent, the tenant will personally send the food to the warehouse designated by the landlord for storage, and the landlord will send someone to check and accept it. Only after passing the test can they be weighed and put into storage. (3) usury. The annual interest rate ranges from 30% to 100%, and some monthly interest rates are 20%. Some landlords also engage in industrial and commercial exploitation, and landlords get something for nothing. The working people's money was exploited and squandered by them. They eat opium, smoke cigarettes and marry little wives for fun.

Second, some officials of the National Government and their minions. They hold Indians, Pakistanis and Poles in their hands and cheat farmers at will. They used all kinds of exorbitant taxes to defraud the people of their money to support themselves. (1) Pseudo township head, pseudo governor, pseudo township head, pseudo governor. (2) representatives of villages and towns, Bulgaria and some great gentlemen. They are not only the minions of the pseudo-county government, but also the thugs who guarantee to catch able-bodied men in various towns and villages, and are the deciders and executors of various exorbitant taxes and levies. There is also Mr. Shu Shu, who invented and issued a notice for rural public grain. They are the executors of farmers' buying and selling land and property circulation. They deprive farmers of a lot of food and money every year, and they are also freeloaders.

The third is superstitious professionals. They mainly use feudal superstitious activities, such as talking about bodhisattvas, ancestors, immortals, living buddhas and the fate of the eight characters, to defraud the masses of money and live a life without jobs. These people are: (1) fortune tellers. They say that as long as you count your destiny, they can know your past and future. They also say that the fate of the eight characters has already been doomed. As long as you give him money, he can change your horoscope fate, and bad luck can also turn into good luck. (2) Witches and clues. They play tricks and talk nonsense. They are gods, who can keep your family safe and cure all diseases. (3) Mr. Feng Shui, Mr. Yin Yang. When you build a house or bury an old man, ask him to show you a treasure trove of geomantic omen, and you will be promoted and become rich and prosperous.

The second category, freelancers. They were not laborers in farming, but they were also indispensable occupations in the local area at that time. Under the conditions of underdeveloped science and backward economy at that time, their occupations still played a very good role in solving some practical problems. What are their occupations? (1) Teachers who run private schools in rural areas. It is necessary for them to learn literacy and cultural knowledge for rural children. (2) Doctors who treat farmers. Under the condition of underdeveloped scientific and health undertakings at that time, they were able to heal the wounded and rescue the dying, cure some minor illnesses and solve the urgent needs of farmers in time. Otherwise, farmers' minor illnesses will become serious diseases and many people will die if they are not treated in time. (3) Some small shops, workshops and businesses in rural market towns. Such as small department stores, small grocery stores, small cloth shops, small smoke hotels, slaughterhouses, printing and dyeing workshops, brewing workshops, tofu workshops, etc. , as well as grain shops, pig and cattle shops, firewood shops, etc. These small professionals have played a very good role in activating the rural market and facilitating the exchange of materials among farmers. (4) Various businesses peddling in rural areas for a long time. Such as vendors, oil sellers, side dishes, tofu, fried dough sticks. These freelancers are mainly freelancers, but some people also cultivate a small amount of land. When they have free time, they go to agricultural production. They are hard manual workers and mental workers.

Third, 80-90% of the people in rural areas are mainly engaged in agricultural production. They mainly make a living by farming. Farmers are most afraid of floods and droughts. Faced with floods and droughts, the government has no relief. Most families can only go out to escape the famine and beg for a living in the harvest area. If you are a poor family with a big mouth, you have no choice but to sell your children and give them to your child bride. Some middle peasants began to sell land to support their families because of lack of food, and gradually changed from middle peasants to poor peasants. This is a normal year. After the autumn harvest, poor peasants and lower-middle peasants generally rented out the landlords' land, paid back the arrears, and imposed various exorbitant taxes, so there was not much food left. At the turn of winter and spring, many farmers stop cooking.

Therefore, as long as the busy farming in rural areas ends and Tian He leaves the land, it is necessary to rely on various sideline businesses to maintain the life in winter and spring. There were two forms of sideline at that time. First, people don't go out and start family sideline business. This is a man with slightly better economic conditions and a little money at home. What are the family sideline businesses? Such as wineries, flour mills, sugar mills, flour mills, tofu factories and so on. The other is to go to other places for various sideline businesses after the summer and autumn peak season. This sideline is actually all kinds of handicrafts. At that time, the broad masses of working people, especially poor and middle peasants, began to learn a skill at an early age in order to make a living, and when they grew up, they would go abroad to run their own handicrafts.

What handicrafts are there? To sum up, it is called "three seams, four guys and eighteen craftsmen". The three seams are tailor seam, embroidery seam and pen seam; These four guys are the guy who raped pigs, the guy who had sex with chickens, the guy who got a haircut and the guy who got a pedicure. Eighteen craftsmen are: gold, silver, copper, iron, tin, cutting, mud, wood, stone, paint, elastic, wool, carving, saw, umbrella, hoop and leather. At that time, when the industry was underdeveloped and farmers were living in poverty, these handicrafts were essential and solved the practical difficulties of farmers at that time.

I will now explain the first five craftsmen among the eighteen craftsmen. The so-called gold, silver, copper, iron and tin are collectively referred to as hardware handicrafts. In fact, there are only two kinds of hardware in rural areas: a famous coppersmith in Xiaogan and a blacksmith in Huangpi. Here is the concentration of these two kinds of craftsmen, mainly relying on the copper blacksmiths in these two places, who traveled all over the province and served thousands of households. Gold, silver and tin artisans are rare in rural areas, because the finished products of those products are mainly used in cities and the cost is high, so they cannot be produced in rural areas. In rural areas, it is basically the coppersmith who changes the size or replaces the old ones with new ones. Although a coppersmith is called a coppersmith, in fact, if something in the countryside is broken, you can only find a coppersmith to repair it. The coppersmith not only repairs locks and keys, but also repairs big things. Such as the cauldron for cooking salt and the vat for brewing wine in Yingcheng Salt Mine. Small things can also be made, such as girls' hairpins and ears, women's gold necklaces transformed into small gold hoops and rings, or silver dollars transformed into bracelets. Blacksmiths mainly manufacture or repair farm tools and various daily necessities for farmers. Such as hoes, shovels and various iron products.

The fourth category, various guild organizations. These organizations are divided into two situations: one is the upper class with status. They have organizations such as green gang, Red Gang, Red Society and White Society. These organizers are not only politicians serving the upper class, but also death squads of upper class accomplices. Second, there are also various groups and organizations among the lower classes, that is, the poor working people. Otherwise, they go out to make a living, and sometimes they will be bullied by others when they encounter difficulties. At that time, there were organizations in all industries, some called trade unions, some called gangs, that is, the lowest professional beggars, and there were also beggar gangs. In the old society, I worked as a coppersmith for several years, and I also worked as the director and chairman of the hardware trade union. We had two tasks at that time: one was to join a trade union and have a trade union certificate to prove that we were legitimate handicraft workers, not bad people, so as to facilitate various inspections when we went out to change places. Second, every year, the hardware workers hold a meeting of the old gentleman to pay homage to our ancestor, Grandfather Tai, because we are descendants of Li Laojun.