When Fang Zheng arrived at the restaurant, he saw that all the students were already there, but they were not eating. Instead, almost everyone was sitting in their seats, staring in amazement at one corner of the restaurant - there, white plates had piled up like a mountain, and were rising rapidly at a speed visible to the naked eye. In contrast, on the other side, the food that had also been piled up and was enough to feed the entire school was falling rapidly at a speed visible to the naked eye.
The culprit of all this is the red-haired, dignified and elegant nun sitting at the dining table.
"Uh...what's going on?"
Seeing this scene, Fang Zheng curled his eyes, then looked at Tova beside him, who explained helplessly.
"It's like this. According to the chefs, this classmate Liz came to the restaurant and asked if we had breakfast. Of course we answered yes..."
In order to ensure the supply of food, Fang Zheng's restaurant adopts a buffet-style model similar to that of a five-star hotel. Basically, there are always meals to choose from from breakfast to dinner, with only a period of time in between for shifts and preparation of the next meal. After all, Fang Zheng also wants his students to eat and drink well, so he can't let them down in this regard, right?
"so what?"
"Then that classmate Liz ate up all the breakfast we prepared, and by the time she finished her breakfast, our lunch was already ready, and then...it became like this."
"…Didn't she just have breakfast?"
"Uh... according to Liz, I'm full for breakfast, but I haven't had lunch yet..."
“…”
This guy must be born in the Year of the Ox. Doesn't that mean he has three stomachs in his body to digest the three meals a day?
Fang Zheng looked at Rufina silently, and the latter smiled embarrassedly.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Fang Zheng, my sister is good in every way except that she gets hungry easily... When she was a child, she would often go to the kitchen secretly to find something to eat because she was hungry..."
Is this a problem of being hungry easily?
"So what's the question now?"
Fang Zheng held back his complaints and looked at Tova again, who was also speechless.
"We don't have enough food... because the canteen's budget is limited, so..."
"... Let's double the cafeteria budget."
Fang Zheng held his head in silence. The expenses of the Semuria Academy were of course funded by Starlight Technology, but in order to ensure financial audits, the daily expenses were basically fixed. Originally, Fang Zheng set the expenses based on the staff + teachers + students of the entire academy, with 50 meals per meal.
Now it seems that this nun can eat the amount of thirty people by herself...
Fang Zheng now finally understood why this nun had always acted calm and composed, but why he always felt that she was unreliable.
Fortunately, this was just an episode, and everything returned to normal after that. The next day, Fang Zheng held a small meeting with a dozen students, explained the rules to them, and then left. The girls then made their own choices.
Since the entire knowledge base of the Semlia Academy is actually on Fang Zheng's side, he simply promotes all-round development of morality, intelligence and physical fitness, and divides all major items into two subjects: liberal arts and martial arts. This is actually similar to the liberal arts and science classes in junior high and high school, each with different emphases.
For example, the liberal arts class focuses on politics, economy, trade, guidance and science and technology, while the martial arts class pays more attention to actual combat, training and tactical skills research.
So it’s up to the little girls to choose.
Soon, after a day, Fang Zheng received the class division application form.
Group A, which is the main members of the liberal arts and science department, is: Princess Elfin from the Erebonian Empire, Emma Milstin, Miaojie Igret, Louise from the Principality of Remifilia, Elaine Okrel from the Republic of Calvard, and Tita Russell from Liberl. There is also Qia, Ling and Tio - these few are all following Tita, so naturally they go wherever Tita goes.
Group B - The main members of the Martial Arts Department are: Laura S. Alseide, Emma Milstin, Altina Orlean, Elise Schwartz from the Erebonian Empire, Lisha Mao and Elaine Okrel from the Calvard Republic, and Liz Argent from the Seven Stars Church.
Well, it's not that they made a mistake in choosing the right person. The fact is that Emma Milstin and Elaine O'Krell are planning to cultivate both civil and military skills...
However, the admission scores of these two people were indeed excellent, and Fang Zheng also knew that Emma was a witch, so she must be strong in combat power. As for Aileyin... Although Fang Zheng was not familiar with her, he approved her without hesitation. It would depend on the actual combat test. If she really couldn't perform well, he would persuade her to withdraw.
If there was one person that surprised Fang Zheng, it was Elise Schwartz. After all, he had thought that as Princess Alfin's best friend, Elise would choose the same as Princess Alfin, whether it was arts or science. But she actually chose martial arts... Out of curiosity, Fang Zheng called Elise over to ask her about it, and only then did he understand her thoughts.
Originally, when the civil war broke out in the empire and the nobles invaded the imperial capital and occupied the royal city, they also sent troops to suppress the Saint Astlet Girls' College where Princess Elise and Princess Elfin studied. After all, it was an aristocratic girls' school, and most of the students there were children of nobles from all over the place. In order to threaten other nobles to stand on their side, the nobles had to occupy this place.
So after that, Elise also became a hostage. Although she thought about escaping or resisting, she was outnumbered and worried about Princess Elfen at the time. It was not until Fang Zheng defeated Huangmo City and that stupid mecha and the imperial capital was liberated that she returned to her original life.
However, this civil war still dealt a heavy blow to Elise, so she was eager to hone her skills to protect herself and the people around her. Elise was not the kind of girl who was powerless. Although the Schwartz family was not as powerful as the swordsmith Alsaid family, she had also learned swordsmanship and was pretty good.
Since it was not a rookie's impulsive decision but the result of careful consideration, Fang Zheng naturally stopped asking questions and gave it the go-ahead.
After the division of subjects, the students finally started the formal classes, and Fang Zheng’s first lesson was... the relationship between productivity and class.
"…We must first understand that classes are the product of economic relations, the product of production relations corresponding to definite productive forces, and the different social groups produced by economic relations."
Fang Zheng dusted off the chalk on his hands and looked at the girls sitting in the classroom.
"I know what you want to hear, but I can tell you that no system is eternal. Just like the Orbital Revolution, changes in productivity will also lead to changes in classes, thus creating completely new classes and orders - that is, a new system."
"productive forces?"
Hearing this word, Alfin tilted his head in confusion, while Fang Zheng chuckled and began to explain.
"Yes, productivity. In fact, it is very easy to understand. Suppose you are a farmer. The amount of crops you can grow on one acre of land represents your productivity. For example, as a farmer, the crops you grow on one acre of land are only enough for your own survival. This represents your current productivity. But productivity will change. You see, gradually, we learned to use fertilizers and improve tools and grains. In this case, the part of the crops you harvest is not only enough for your own survival, but you can also exchange the surplus. This is the improvement of productivity. And when you have extra property, you will hire other people to help you work, and you will sit back and enjoy the fruits of their labor - you see, class is born in this way."
Having said this, Fang Zheng clapped his hands.
"You have all studied history, and you should all know that there was slavery and serfdom on the continent of Semria, but in fact it was not simply 'evil' or 'barbaric', because under the production environment at the time, this system could liberate productivity to the greatest extent. However, this system is not static. Looking back at history, we can see that with the continued development of productivity, various tools for connecting various places have emerged, such as the emergence of horse-drawn carriages and guided trains, which connect distances to the greatest extent, and also represent the further liberation and development of productivity. At this time, the original class cannot bear the burden and may even be overthrown."
As he spoke, Fang Zheng glanced at Alfin, who was taking notes seriously with a serious look on his face.
"Let's continue with my previous example. You are a farmer. Relying on advanced production technology, you have excess means of production. You rely on these means of production to trade with others to produce for you. In terms of class, you are the slave owner and the other party is the slave. However, with the continuous growth of productivity, the treatment of slaves will also change. At the beginning, they were willing to endure your whipping because they needed to work hard to get three meals a day, and under the production environment at that time, this was all that productivity could give them.
However, as productivity grows, the treatment of slaves will also change. They will go from being poorly clothed and hungry to having clothes to wear and three meals a day. And they will have surplus means of production of their own. This is when conflicts will arise... The upper class wants to deprive the lower class of their means of production to maintain their own living standards, while the lower class does not want to go back to the past, so they will naturally rise up in rebellion. "
Having said that, Fang Zheng pointed at Alfin again.
"In fact, this imperial civil war is a good example."
"Why?"
Hearing this, not only was Elfen shocked, but everyone else also perked up. After all, what Fang Zheng said before was too far away from them, but the civil war in the empire had just ended!
"The reason why the aristocrats launched a rebellion was that they wanted to maintain the ruling interests of the existing class. However, since the Orbital Revolution, the growing productivity has made the people of the empire unwilling to continue to maintain their original form. They are eager to gain a higher level of upward mobility. It is for this reason that the Iron Chancellor Osborne and the reformists have formed a force within the empire to compete with the aristocrats. Because they represent the expectations of the vast majority of the people of the empire, and the aristocrats saw this, so they tried to rely on seizing power to maintain their status, because history moves forward."
"But, Mr. Fang Zheng."
Miaojie raised her hand.
"The aristocracy does have a huge force, and they are assisted by strong people in the realm of reason. In my opinion, if we simply rely on the power of the people, we will not be able to overthrow the rule of the aristocracy."
"Haha, that's not the case."
Facing Miao Jie's question, Fang Zheng chuckled. In fact, he thought so at the beginning, but after traveling through so many worlds, Fang Zheng has formed a set of theories of his own.
"Indeed, the strong are very powerful, such as those idiots in the society, who occupied the imperial capital with only a handful of people. But the development of productivity has no contradictory relationship with power itself. The development of productivity is a historical, natural, and irresistible process. It's like a person grows up, then grows old and dies. This is a natural law. No matter how powerful you are, all you can do is kill this growing person. You can never change the whole process of people growing up, then growing old and dying. This is a natural law that you cannot fight against no matter how powerful you are."
"But Mr. Fang Zheng..."
This time it was Alfin who raised his hand.
"Is this the only way? Is this the only way to... change?"
"I won't say that this is the only way, but conflict is inevitable. Just like I said before, you become a slave owner, you have a happy and beautiful life, and you need your slaves to maintain your life through means of production. But now they are unwilling to continue working for you, and they also hope to have the same life and means of production as you, which causes losses to your interests... Of course, it may be different for individuals. But from the perspective of the interests of the entire class, since the change in productivity will cause damage to their own interests, they have only two ways to go. Either maintain the status quo and do everything they can to suppress it, or choose to accept the change and keep pace with the times. Of course, the latter sounds beautiful, but in fact, how many people are willing to spend so much time and effort to change when they can make money lying down? Isn't it the same for the aristocracy? Why can't they coexist peacefully with the reformists, or even take the initiative to change themselves? Because the reformists are not eroding the interests of a certain person among the aristocracy, but the interests of the entire aristocracy. If you accept this change, it means that the entire aristocracy will have to change, and it will cause great losses, so how likely do you think it is that they can coexist peacefully?"
"this……"
Hearing this, Alfin couldn't help but close his mouth and fell silent.
At this moment, other people in the classroom also began to think.