Lu Xiangsheng fell silent after listening to Li Deming's words, his eyes were a little dazed, and he stood blankly for a while, then sat down and said: "The Ming Dynasty has been raising scholars for two hundred years. Someone should be buried with him. Someone should be buried with him."

"Then why is this person you!"

Li Deming asked the heart-wrenching words again. After hearing this, Lu Xiangsheng looked up at Li Deming and said, "Why can't it be me? Don't you think it should be me?"

Li Deming said: "You already have the idea of ​​​​martyring your country, but you cannot be the only one to die for your country in this great Ming Dynasty. If you are the only one to die for your country in this Ming Dynasty, this Ming Dynasty will die, and no one can stop it."

After hearing this, Lu Xiangsheng looked at Li Deming dumbfounded and asked for a long time: "What do you mean?"

Li Deming laughed and said: "Master Lu, are you afraid that you are the only one left in the Ming Dynasty who is willing to die for him?"

Lu Xiangsheng was stunned when he heard this, then he laughed and said: "What nonsense are you talking about? How could I be the only one in the Ming Dynasty who is willing to die for him? If the Ming Dynasty were to perish, there would be countless people buried in the Ming Dynasty. Daming, the Ming Dynasty, he did not die.

There were no people even buried there. The Song Dynasty was so unbearable. One hundred thousand soldiers and civilians jumped into the sea to be buried in the Battle of Yashan. Didn’t the Ming Dynasty not have one hundred thousand people?"

After listening to Lu Xiangsheng's words, Li Deming laughed. At this time, he was not in a hurry to argue. Instead, he sat down slowly, poured himself a glass of wine, took a mouthful of fried pork with chili and said: "Master Lu, what you said, you

Do you believe it yourself?”

"How many people does the Ming Dynasty really care about now? Your Majesty cares, so although he is not capable, there are still people who are willing to serve him. Old General Sun Chengzong cares, so he fought in Gaoyang and his whole family was buried. You, Lu Xiangsheng, care and are willing to serve

If you die like this in prison, who else but you? Who cares about this Ming Dynasty?"

"And Sun Chuanting, and Hong Chengchou, and..."

Lu Xiangsheng fell silent after naming these two people. He suddenly found that apart from these two people, he could not find anyone in the court who was willing to die for the great dynasty. Lu Xiangsheng's eyes widened, and Li Deming laughed and said:

"Zhou Yanru, Yang Sichang, Chen Yan, Wei Zaode, haha... these princes in the court, will they die for the Ming Dynasty?"

"No, they won't. If the Ming Dynasty is ruined, they will definitely be the first to surrender, but they will have to change their masters. Whether it is a rogue bandit who will take the throne in the future, or my county magistrate will take the throne, or even a slave from outside the customs will take the throne.

, they will surrender immediately, this is the loyal minister of the Ming Dynasty, this is the Ming Dynasty that you, Lu Xiangsheng, are trying your best to protect."

"The king regards the people as nothing. The reason why he persists is that he is afraid of disappointing his ancestors and losing the inheritance of his ancestors on his own responsibility. Our emperor loves his people, and when his status conflicts with his people,

When the time comes, will he care about his people? Haven't you already tested it?"

"He won't. And the ministers in this court, do they love the people under their rule? No, they don't. They regard the people as pigs and dogs. They just want to squeeze oil and water from the people to satisfy their desires.

"

"With such a king and such a minister, what is there for you, Lu Xiangsheng, to miss? What's the use of protecting such a Ming Dynasty!"

"Enough, enough!"

After hearing Li Deming's words, Lu Xiangsheng roared loudly, saying that he didn't want to hear it anymore, he didn't want to hear it anymore.

"That's enough, stop talking. Even if you say nothing today, even if you say golden lotuses emerging from the ground, I won't listen. I won't escape from this death row. I don't care what others do, I will."

Buried for the Ming Dynasty."

Lu Xiangsheng said with a lonely expression, this was his last persistence as a minister of the Ming Dynasty. Lu Xiangsheng picked up the wine glass in front of him and drank it all in one gulp, looking at Lu Xiangsheng who was drinking.

Li Deming's expression became subtle. He watched Lu Xiangsheng drink it all in one gulp and said, "Lu Xiangsheng."

"Um?"

Lu Xiangsheng was stunned. What happened? He changed his face too quickly. Just now he was Master Lu, but in the blink of an eye he became Lu Xiangsheng, and his tone of voice sounded very awkward.

Lu Xiangsheng looked at Li Deming and was confused. At this time, Li Deming looked at Lu Xiangsheng and said, "I'm surprised. Okay, stop pretending. I'm showing my hand. I'm not here to save you."

"Um?"

Lu Xiangsheng was even more confused. If you don't come to save me, you just talked so much. At this time, Li Deming took out a piece of paper and said with a smile: "Lu Xiangsheng, I am not in my capacity as a Lantian official, let alone

I am talking to you as an acquaintance whom you have met twice, but I am talking to you now as a creditor and creditor of Lantian."

"About half a month ago, you, Lu Xiangsheng, as a borrower, lent 10,000 kilograms of gunpowder and 3,000 grenades to the people of Lantian County. These materials were all made with the hard-earned money of the people of Lantian County. If you don't pay back, Lantian will

The common people will suffer huge losses. Don’t you, Lu Xiangsheng, love the people as your own son? You won’t borrow money from the common people and not repay it, right?”

Li Deming looked at Lu Xiangsheng with a playful look, and Lu Xiangsheng said: "I, I borrowed it from Li Chaosheng."

Li Deming smiled: "I'm sorry, Lu Xiangsheng's borrower, our county official is an individual subject. His monthly salary is one hundred taels, and he has to pay for his own family expenses. How can I lend you the money to produce these materials?"

They are all Lantian Banks that the county magistrate has contacted through connections. The banks are equivalent to banks, which contain people's money. The banks lend money to the military factories, and the military factories are processing this batch of materials for you. In other words, this money is

If you don't pay back the money that's been deducted from people's accounts, it's a bad debt, and those people who are unlucky enough to pay will have to bear the loss."

"The people of Lantian have just had enough to eat, and they have some spare money in the bank. Now you have borrowed it. Maybe the money will be used to buy medicine for his seriously ill old mother. Now you can use the money

If you borrow it and don't pay it back, then this poor old mother may die because she has no money to buy medicine."

"This account will be recorded on you."

"This money may also be used to buy nutritional supplements for the newborn child. I asked you to borrow it this time, but you still haven't paid it back. The child did not have nutritional supplements, resulting in malnutrition, and finally died, and it is also your fault."

"It's possible that this young man from Lantian wants to get a wife. This young man may be the only son of the eighth generation of his family. Without your money as a gift, if he can't get a wife, their family's incense will be cut off. Then you will have to pay for it."

He has become a sinner through the ages."

"Lu Xiangsheng, I beg you to do well and take pity on our innocent people in Lantian. They also borrowed money to support your construction. Now it's fine. You died and fulfilled your eternal wisdom, but there are a bunch of ordinary people in Lantian."

But you are out of luck, you are no different from those corrupt officials who harm the people and satisfy their own selfish desires."

"It's just that what others covet is material enjoyment. What you, Lu Xiangsheng, covet is the enjoyment of fame. Lu Xiangsheng, ask yourself, are you feeling guilty? Pay back the money as soon as possible."

Li Deming's attitude was extremely bad. The county magistrate said that some people are shameless. The more vicious you are, the less guilty he feels in his heart. So when asking for money, don't care if he is Lu Xiangsheng or whoever he is.

Be as bad as possible, just like the one who wants to pay and the one who is being paid.

"Lu Xiangsheng, pay back the money."

Li Deming's attitude was extremely arrogant and he reached out to ask for money. Lu Xiangsheng said: "How much?"

After hearing this, Li Deming said: "Let me do the math for you. According to the market price, Lantian gunpowder costs twelve qian per catty. However, this is the purchase price in our Lantian. If it is sold on the battlefield, it will cost more. Calculate

Give me one tael, ten thousand jin is ten thousand taels."

"There are also three thousand hand grenades. If you buy a large quantity of these grenades, I will give you a discount. Let me give you four taels of silver. Three thousand are twelve thousand taels. The total is twenty-two thousand taels. The fraction is

I won’t wipe it for you, it’s a small business, so please forgive me.”

After saying this, Li Deming stretched out his hand and said to Lu Xiangsheng with a smile: "Master Lu, the total amount is twenty-two thousand taels, please accept the favor."

Lu Xiangsheng said with a dark face when he heard this: "I still have land in my hometown, my mother and brothers also have old houses, and there is some land, which can be used as a deduction."

"Sorry, these old houses and fields are gone. When the old man heard that you were arrested and sentenced to be beheaded, he was extremely anxious, so he found us and sold your old houses, fields and everything.

We didn’t use the money we exchanged for corruption. Isn’t it all related? The old lady said that as long as people come out, money is nothing. Now the old lady has been taken to Lantian by us. Our county has an unused room.

When the yard was not in use, it was given over to the elderly, and now the elderly are spinning every day to save money for you to pay off your debts."

"If you really don't pay back the money, we will ask the old man for money because we don't allow the people of Lantian to suffer losses. Think about it, the old lady is almost 70 this year and she has to spin yarn every day to pay back the money.

, I’m so tired. I’m raising a son to live in old age, but I thought I’d have to pay back money to my son when I’m old. Alas, it’s so miserable.”

"you……"

After hearing this, Lu Xiangsheng turned back angrily and glared at Li Deming. Li Deming looked at Lu Xiangsheng and said, "What's wrong? You don't believe it. Your old butler Lu Fu is still waiting outside. That old butler of yours is so shrewd that he's afraid that we won't do anything with the money."

, he has been guarding the prison gate for seven or eight days without even moving anywhere. If the money hadn't been in place, the Jin Yiwei would have arrested him long ago. They thought he was going to rob the prison."

After hearing these words, Lu Xiangsheng's face turned blue and red. He looked at Li Deming and said, "You are so despicable."

After hearing this, Li Deming said: "There is nothing we can do. We are taking the people's hard-earned money, but we cannot let them suffer losses. Mr. Lu, even if you want to be a hero, please pay back the people's hard-earned money and go on the road.

It's more than 20,000 silver dollars, don't you think so?"

After hearing this, Lu Xiangsheng said with a dark face: "How can I pay back the money?"

Li Deming laughed after hearing this: "Hey, that's right. Look, you now have an attitude of repaying the money. Our county official said that if you, Lu Xiangsheng, want to pay back the money, we can do business and provide you with a

One hundred taels of principal, but you are too honest to do business, and your principal will be lost by then."

"Why don't you serve as Lantian County's staff and provide some strategic assistance to the county magistrate? The monthly salary will be about dozens of taels. Of course, our county magistrate has said that you, Lu Xiangsheng, are not good at quick wits. The more important thing is stability and character.

"

"So our county boss said that he doesn't know what kind of position he will assign you at the moment. He hopes that you will make your own judgment based on your own abilities and submit an employment application. Our county boss will take your job according to your qualifications."

Apply, and your salary will be assessed, but Mr. Lu, don’t worry, our Lantian officials are very well paid. Your 20,000 silver dollars will be repaid in ten or eight years. After the money is repaid, are you willing to commit suicide and die for the country, or what?

It's up to you, our county magistrate has said not to interfere."

Li Deming looked at Lu Xiangsheng with a smile and said: "Master Lu, you can express your opinion now. Are you willing or unwilling?"

Lu Xiangsheng looked at Li Deming and squinted his eyes and said: "Until today, Mr. Lu realized that a penny is too much for a hero. If I had known this, Mr. Lu might as well have been a corrupt official and paid you back your money. I won't be affected by your cowardice."

!”

"Hahaha... Mr. Lu, if you were a corrupt official, we wouldn't ask you for money. Unfortunately, you are not. What's the matter, should we leave after finishing the drink, or should we leave now?"

Lu Xiangsheng looked at Li Deming and shook his head helplessly and said: "I really can't imagine how the secretary Li Chaosheng chose is such a gangster. Okay, pour the wine. After finishing this pot, I'll give it to you.

You go to Lantian as long-term workers."

"Okay, let's make an agreement without any regrets."

Li Deming's eyes lit up. The mission was accomplished. Lu Xiangsheng smiled bitterly and said, "I asked you to go to Lantian. If I insist on seeking death, will I really pay off your debt to you until I die?"

After hearing this, Li Deming didn't say anything. Knowing that Lu Xiangsheng's mentality had changed at this time, he had to continue to help him, otherwise he would tell him directly. In fact, it's okay. Your mother's repayment of debts is a lie. We, the county magistrate, are no longer human beings. How can we

Force the old lady to spin yarn and pay back the money?

And the money in the bank is fine. Although it is a bad debt, the county will find a way to settle it, and the people will not suffer losses. In fact, those words just now were just to bluff you. Don’t worry now, there is absolutely no chance.

question.

Then aren't you trying to bully Lu Xiangsheng into committing suicide?

Lu Xiangsheng is a shameless person. How could he not know that Li Deming was acting here with him? If he was really heartbroken, it would be impossible for him to be brought back by Li Deming's words.

The real reason why Lu Xiangsheng didn't want to die was that Lu Xiangsheng was unwilling to do so. He could die, but he wanted to see the future of the Ming Dynasty. He could die, but there was no value in dying if he couldn't.

He wants to live, he wants to see if the future that Li Chaosheng described to him will come true. He wants to live, to see if Li Chaosheng is the person who can bring a happy life to the people in the future.

He wanted to see the people live a happy life. He wanted to see all the people in Ming Dynasty live a happy life like Lantian.
Chapter completed!