The person who followed Zhang Huangyan looked not very old, with thin cheeks and a pale face. Seeing Deng Ming right in front of him, he seemed a little hesitant. Seeing this, Zhang Huangyan hurriedly said to him: "Didn't you tell you that the Duke Baoguo likes the most is Pingli, especially for scholars. Duke Baoguo will never receive a great gift from you."

"Shangshu Zhang is right," Deng Ming said with a smile. Although he was only in his early twenties, the Duke of the State was in hand. In theory, Zhang Huangyan should kowtow when he saw him. However, Deng Ming did not kowtow to the prince or the prince. When he was proclaimed as an admiral in the past, he just bowed his hand when he saw Huang Yan, but now he will not accept other people's gifts: "What is this gentleman?"

"This is Mr. Wanmura."

"The grass-roots Lu Liuliang has met the Duke."

Zhang Huangyan and Lu Liuliang replied at the same time, and after reporting to the house, Lu Liuliang fell silent again, and heard Zhang Huangyan introduce his situation to Deng Ming.

Lu Liuliang was only 33 years old this year. When he was seventeen, his brother Lu Yuanliang went to Yangzhou to assist Shi Kefa. When the city broke, he was extremely lucky to break through and escape. Lu Liuliang and his nephew sold their wealth and organized volunteers to resist the Qing army around Taihu Lake. His nephew Lu Xuanzhong (older than Lu Liuliang) was recommended by Zhang Huangyan and was awarded the position of deputy governor by the King of Lu.

King Lu and Zhang Huangyan were defeated in Qiantang. The king and his ministers fled into the sea. Lu Xuanzhong was chased by the Qing army and resisted and retreated to Wuzhen. He tried to revive the situation again and again, but was defeated again and again. Finally, the desperate Lu Xuanzhong disbanded the army and ordered his subordinates to escape. After being captured, the 22-year-old Lu Xuanzhong refused to surrender to the Qing court and was killed. After his nephew was killed and his brother fled back to his hometown and died of illness, he also lost the fighting spirit to continue fighting and devoted himself to studying Zhu Xi's Neo-Confucianism.

In Deng Ming's previous life, Lu Liuliang wrote a large number of articles about the debate between China and the barbarians, and worked hard to teach his disciples to not forget the pain of Lu Chen in China. During the Yongzheng period, the Qing court determined that the thoughts spread by Lu Liuliang were extremely harmful to the rule of the Manchus, and ordered that the deceased Lu Liuliang beheaded, the clan members were over fifteen years old, and were sent to slaves under fifteen years old, and all the works of Lu Liuliang were banned. The Qing court's persecution of the Lu family continued until the end of the year.

In the second year of Xuantong, two years before the fall of the Qing Dynasty, the Qing court lifted the slaves of Lu Liuliang's descendants and allowed them to restore their freedom. After the Xinhai Revolution, Cai Yuanpei went to Qiqihar to meet the descendants of the Lü family, and admired this family that had been regarded as enemies throughout the Qing Dynasty. Because of his hatred for Lu Liuliang, the Aisin Gioro family imprisoned his descendants forever as slaves, forbidden them from reading and literacy, and stubbornly persisted until the last moment before the demise of this dynasty.

"Wancun (Lu Liuliang's name) was known as a child prodigy when he was young. He learned from one example and never remembered it all." Although the age difference is quite different, Zhang Huangyan and Lu Liuliang's brother are both good friends, so he also talked about friendship with Lu Liuliang.

Deng Ming went to Jiangnan all the time, but he did not deliberately win over scholars, basically asking them to lurk. Zhang Huangyan did not mean to recruit Deng Ming. In Zhang Shangshu's view, the relationship between a monarch who is eager to seek talents and a noble aspirations is like a couple, just like a man who needs to ask a matchmaker to say he is close to him. Celebrities should also wait for the visit of the monarch at home, which is also beneficial to the reputation of both parties. If it is the other way around, it is a bit inappropriate, just like no matter how much a girl likes a young man, she will definitely not be able to jump out to propose by herself.

But Deng Ming came once, twice, three times, and there was no movement every time. At most, he brought some small landlords and rich peasants' children back to Sichuan. Zhang Huangyan saw it and was anxious in his heart, worried that Deng Ming would leave a very bad reputation among the gentry. In fact, the gentry in Jiangnan was indeed dissatisfied with this. Before Zheng Chenggong passed away, he also wrote a letter to Zhang Huangyan to mention this matter, and privately asked Zhang Huangyan to help Deng Ming find some talented assistance.

Zheng Chenggong was as close as a bottle of Deng Ming's life experience. Zhang Huangyan was both suspicious and dissatisfied with this, but his old friend Zheng Jiansheng still cared about Zhang Juren. Last time he heard that the Sichuan Army was expeditioning the east, Zhang Huangyan thought about introducing several gentry children to Deng Ming to know him. Unfortunately, he heard that Deng Ming went to Burma to serve the king. Zhang Huangyan had no choice but to sing with Ren Tang and mobilized Zhu Zhiyu to Sichuan, which was better than nothing.

This time, when he heard that Deng Ming had come in person, Zhang Huangyan immediately wrote to Lu Liuliang, asking him to come to meet Deng Ming with him. Lu Liuliang's brothers were Zhang Huangyan's friends. His nephew also accepted the official position of King Lu, and he also served in King Lu's army. So this is a person with a close personal relationship and a political faction belonging to the King Lu family. Although helping Deng Ming make friends with gentry was Zheng Chenggong's instructions during his lifetime, this did not prevent Zhang Shangshu from introducing the gentry of the King Lu family first.

Although Lu Liuliang's ancestors were officials from the Ming Dynasty for generations, when he and his nephew rose up to respond to the Lu Jianguo, they had already sold all their ancestors' industries, and later their brother died of hunger and coldness. Lu Liuliang had no life at this time and only made a living by teaching. Therefore, after receiving Zhang Huangyan's letter, he did not have much concern and rushed to Zhenjiang with his wife and children.

The reason why Deng Ming was not enthusiastic about winning over gentry was that he felt that he had no position to show off. Most of these gentry had industries in their hometowns. If they were asked to abandon their families and go to Sichuan, it would be contrary to the concept of the times if they did not give them a single official position. In the eyes of ordinary people, Deng Ming was also insulting those who defected to him. Therefore, Deng Ming only recruited the children of small landlords and rich peasants. It was not humiliating to let these people become teachers, and they would not feel dissatisfied.

I heard that although Lu Wancun was a gentry, he could study with peace of mind. After teaching, Deng Ming was of course very happy. Moreover, judging from Zhang Huangyan's introduction, he was still a first-class scholar. Although he was only in his thirties, he was a master of Neo-Confucianism and a famous calligrapher in Jiangnan.

"Recently, Caomin has been discussing Zhu Zi with Huang Lizhou." After the three of them sat down, Lu Liuliang told Deng Ming that he and Huang Zongxi have often studied science together in the past two years. Last time, Qian Qianyi and Huang Zongxi sent their disciples to Deng Ming's army, but Deng Ming did not invite them warmly, but politely gave them some money to send them away. After hearing about this, the gentry in Jiangnan was quite disappointed. It was similar to Zhang Huangyan's opinion. The gentry in Jiangnan was like a girl in spring. Seeing that Deng Ming was reluctant to come to propose marriage, he threw out a fragrant handkerchief, but Deng Ming did not take the opportunity to talk. This was like an open rejection.

Therefore, when Lu Liuliang came this time, Huang Zongxi and others also reacted coldly, believing that Lu Liuliang was probably a waste of time. In Deng Ming's previous life, Lu Liuliang later broke off friendship with Huang Zongxi, because Lu Liuliang believed that the Qing Dynasty would destroy the world, and would rather die than accept the conspiracy of Emperor Kangxi. Huang Zongxi insisted that Kangxi was a natural saint, and scolded the incompetence of the Ming Dynasty. Later, Huang Zongxi's disciples were active collaborators of the Qing court, and Lu Liuliang's disciples ran around to expel the Tartars, so the two naturally parted ways. However, the relationship between Lu Liuliang and Huang Zongxi has not yet reached this point, so he also came to Deng Ming's army to ask for directions.

In addition to Lu Liuliang, Zhang Huangyan also wrote a letter to another famous scholar Zhang Dai, inviting him to come to Zhenjiang to meet Deng Ming. Zhang Dai was also an active supporter of King Lu. After Lu Jianguo and Zhang Huangyan escaped from the sea, Zhang Dai also returned to his hometown in disheartened. Just like Zheng Chenggong was Qian Qianyi's disciple, so the first thing he thought of after invading the Yangtze River was the scholars of the Qian Party. When Zhang Huangyan saw that Deng Ming's strength was expanding and he was about to return to Jiangnan, he hoped that King Lu's supporters could take the lead in forming Deng Ming's scholars and gentry teams.

However, Zhang Dai did not come at the invitation of Zhang Huangyan, but planned to observe Lu Liuliang's experience first: if Deng Ming still looked at the gentry of Jiangnan and was perfunctory to the people recommended by Zhang Huangyan, then Zhang Dai could be sure that Deng Ming was indeed as rumored, and regarded scholars as dispensable, then he would not be humiliating him.

After listening to Zhang Huangyan's introduction, Deng Ming was extremely enthusiastic about Lu Liuliang, which made Zhang Huangyan secretly feel proud, and the big rock in his heart fell to the ground; Lu Liuliang was also overjoyed, feeling that Deng Ming's rumors of despising scholars were completely different from those of the facts. And neither of them knew that Deng Ming was secretly happy at this time: a gentry who had a decline in his family was still a well-educated scholar, a master of Neo-Confucianism, probably the position of a professor plus a generous salary is enough, and there is no need to give up an official position to comfort him - who said that there is no good product at the cheaper one?

However, Lu Liuliang's performance always made Deng Ming feel a little strange. The other party seemed to be full of worries and was "school" at once. In theory, the gentry should not degrade himself so much.

When Lu Liuliang once again called himself "Caomin", Deng Ming couldn't help but say: "Even if Mr. Wancun has no fame, he doesn't have to be so humble, right?"

Deng Ming felt that this sentence was nothing, but Lu Liuliang felt like he was struck by lightning, and his face suddenly turned red.

Deng Ming didn't know what he said wrong. When he thought about it, he guessed that it was probably because the other party thought he was ridiculing him for not having real talent and knowledge, so he didn't even have a fame: "Everyone has ambition, and Mr. Wancun regards fame as dirt, which is great freedom."

Lu Liuliang was quite famous in Confucianism research at a young age. When Zhang Huangyan introduced this, his tone was full of admiration, so Deng Ming felt that his words were definitely not wrong. Lu Liuliang just didn't want to take the exam, but it wasn't that he couldn't get it.

But he didn't expect that this sentence made Lu Liuliang's face turn red and stood up from his seat: "What the Duke of the State blamed is that the reputation of the people is damaged and it is embarrassing to the heavy responsibility."

Deng Ming had no idea what the other party was saying, but finally realized that he must have added a mistake.

Zhang Huangyan sighed. He had long thought that Deng Ming's master's level was limited, so he concluded that Deng Ming's words were unintentional: "Admiral Deng, in the seventh year of Yongli, he went to the evening village to participate in the imperial examinations of the Tartars."

After the defeat of the Qing Dynasty, the Lu family was in poverty. His nephew died heroically and his brother died in poverty. Lu Liuliang participated in the imperial examinations of the Qing court, hoping to exempt himself from labor service and taxes. With Lu Liuliang's talent and knowledge, he easily got fame, but afterwards, Lu Liuliang regretted it and felt that this was a mistake that would bring eternal regret.

After listening to Zhang Huangyan's brief introduction, Deng Ming also sighed lightly. In his opinion, this was not a big deal. But then he thought that this was because Deng Ming came from the future and he did not hate the Qing Dynasty. The scholars of this era participated in the imperial examinations of the Qing Dynasty, which was probably equivalent to accepting the fake post of the Japanese during the anti-Japanese and invasion of China. For Lu Liuliang, even if it was just to support his family, it was enough to shame his ancestors.

"Actually, this is nothing." Deng Ming said softly, but Lu Liuliang's face was still flushed, obviously not taking Deng Ming's comfort seriously.

"Oh." Although they haven't been together for a long time, Deng Ming has already respected the Lu family. In order to fight against the invaders, the Lu family contributed all their property and young nephews. Lu Liuliang was only seventeen or eighteen years old when he participated in the imperial examination. In the future, he was just a high school student. What else could he ask him to do? To turn the tide or not to eat Zhou Li?

Before traveling to this era, Deng Ming never knew that so many people insisted on resisting the Qing Dynasty until the last moment in the late Ming Dynasty, and his thoughts were Mr. Lu Xun's words: The Qing Dynasty tried hard to make the people in the world, and he would never feel that there were people with a lot of backbone among our Chinese authors.

Deng Ming raised his hand and took off his helmet, gently placed it on the table, pointed to his short hair and asked, "Do you know that I have also had braids?"

Lu Liuliang was stunned, and Zhang Huangyan hurriedly explained: "Isn't Admiral Deng going to attack while eating and sleeping?"

"That was later. Earlier, before I met Duke Jingguo outside Chongqing, I was thinking about shaving my head, and I thought about not being caught and killed by the Tartars." Deng Ming said seriously: "There are very few people like Prime Minister Wen Tianxiang. Not everyone can do not be greedy for life and fear death, and do not do anything against their will for the sake of life. Perhaps Zhang Shangshu can do what Prime Minister Wen, but I can't do it. Mr. Wancun and I are the same people. I didn't make accomplices for tigers, so what's wrong with shaving my head? Just keep your hair again."

After saying that, Deng Ming invited Lu Liuliang: "I plan to set up a new academy in Xuzhou to teach my children and fellow scholars to study and understand. I wonder if Mr. Wancun is willing to help me?"

Lu Liuliang did not agree immediately, but asked back: "What is the Duke of the State to teach them?"

"Distinguish right from wrong," Deng Ming paused and added: "Let the fellow scholars in Sichuan know that people should not be arrogant, but they should not be without pride."

"So that's it," Lu Liuliang smiled slightly. Although Deng Ming said briefly just now, he relieved some of the pressure in his heart: "This should be my strength, and I will do my best."

After hearing Lu Liuliang change his claim, Deng Ming smiled: "Okay, the battle is my director, and I will do my best. As long as I have a breath, I will ensure that Mr. Wancun can display his director's strengths in Xuzhou without any interference; well, he will make money. As long as I am still in this position, Mr. Wancun will not have to worry about the books and paper and ink of the children in Xuzhou."

"A word is determined." Lu Liuliang confirmed loudly.
Chapter completed!