Chapter 509: Whitewashing the Truth
After handing over power, Lu Desheng retained the titles of Governor of Pingzhou and Honorary President of Liaodong Academy, and lived a very happy life.
That day, after a hot breakfast, Lv Desheng looked outside and saw that the weather was nice and sunny, so he decided to take a walk in the yard. He asked his wife if she wanted to join him, but after being rejected, he still had the energy to do so.
Jiang called out to his back, "My daughter said she's leaving for Youzhou today, so she wants you to look after the government office for a little while longer."
Lu Desheng waved his hand to indicate that he understood.
After walking around the yard, Lu Desheng went to the outer study, which had glass windows installed and was bright and clean.
He took a book, lay down on a bamboo lounge chair, covered himself with a blanket, and a pot of hot tea was brewed beside him, with steam rising slowly.
When the servant just came in, he saw their master lying on the recliner that the second young lady and the second young master had given him, rocking back and forth, looking extremely relaxed and comfortable.
The sun shone on him, making him feel warm and peaceful, giving him a feeling of peace and tranquility.
At this time, Lu Desheng put down the book in his hand and looked sideways at the attendant, "What's the matter?"
The attendant quickly calmed down and said, "Master, the government office has received many letters written to you again." Such letters arrived two days ago, all of which were cursing their master.
"Give it here, give it here!" Lu Desheng put the book in his hand on the small coffee table beside him and motioned him to put the letter on it.
The servant placed the basket containing the letters on the small coffee table.
Lu Desheng took a look and said, "Wow, there are quite a lot of letters today." As he said that, he became energetic.
The attendants felt that their master now had the air of a general about to go to war.
Lu Desheng really prepared to read the letter with the same attitude as reviewing memorials.
After the rebellion in Pingzhou, Lu Desheng made a statement in Pinggang that he was prepared to face the criticism from the people of the world, and he also set up a stage in Houcheng, waiting for the wise men of the world to come and debate.
Such outrageous words shocked scholars all over the world.
If it weren't for the winter, when travel is difficult, and the snow blocking the roads in the north, it would be even more difficult, there would definitely be many people on their way to Pingzhou. Now these people can't come, but that doesn't stop them from writing letters to curse people.
Just a few days later, letters came to Pingzhou like snowflakes, and Lu Desheng accepted all of them.
He read the letters one by one.
This is to scold him for dividing the Li Kingdom and causing great suffering to the people.
This is to call him ungrateful.
This is a curse on him, saying "You are the cause of all evil, and everyone has the right to kill you."
Lu Desheng didn't get angry after reading it. He looked at the signatures at the end of the letter, put the important ones aside, and piled the unimportant ones together.
"Come here, please prepare the writing brush and ink."
Lu Desheng planned to personally reply to several important people, and give a unified reply to the others.
He first filled nearly twenty envelopes and, after finishing, handed them to his attendant. The attendant brought back a stack of stationery, on which was an official reply. This reply was naturally written by Lü Desheng, but after he finished it, he had it printed, just to deal with the current situation.
There were so many people scolding him that if he had to reply to every one of them, he would be exhausted to death. So, he came up with this method to deal with those less important people.
Lu Desheng was secretly proud of his own wit. After writing on the envelope, he began to reply.
Those who called him a traitor did not argue but admitted it readily.
Then he wrote, "…if only Pingzhou rebelled, then we might be wrong. But now, it is clearly Song Mo who is immoral, so how can we be wrong?…"
"…Correspondence debates are too slow. Why don't you come to Pingzhou and we can debate face to face? Oh, and you can also bring along the outstanding students from your academy to discuss with our Liaodong Academy. Let's all sit down together and discuss the true path to saving the country and the people."
As soon as Lu Desheng put down his pen, his attendant put the printed letter paper into the envelope he had written.
Lu Desheng was very satisfied with this and said, "Okay, take it and send it out."
All the replies were either provocative or enticing, with only one meaning: come here, come here.
After finishing this, Lu Desheng wanted to lie down again.
"Master, Mr. Pan is ill." The doorman came to report.
Lu Desheng sighed, it seemed that he couldn't lie down anymore.
He looked outside and saw that the weather was good, so he decided to go.
Recently, Pan Sitong came from Houcheng to Changli to scold him because of his rebellion.
Lu Desheng had an argument with him, which made the old man angry. He stayed in Changli to recuperate and did not return to Houcheng.
Lu Desheng thought to himself that it was a good thing he was in Changli. If he was in Houcheng now, he would have to run back to Houcheng to visit him.
As Lu Desheng had the car ready, he muttered, "Why is that old man so depressed?"
Pan Sitong's house is in the east of the city and is a very suitable house for recuperation.
When Lü Desheng arrived, Pan Sitong had just finished seeing the doctor. The two disciples who were serving him, one went to get medicine, and the other went in to tell him that Lü Desheng was here.
Pan Sitong was resting with his eyes closed, and when he heard this, he just hummed.
After Lu Desheng came in, he sat down on the small stool beside the couch without any courtesy. "Old Pan, are you okay?"
Pan Sitong said unhappily, "You won't die." He still didn't open his eyes.
Lu Desheng nodded. "That's good, that's good. Even if you die of anger, it still won't change the current situation of Dali being torn apart."
This time, Pan Sitong was so angry that he opened his eyes. "If you, the troublemaker, hadn't led the rebellion, Prince Jin, Prince Cheng, and Xie Zhan might not have rebelled. Dali would definitely still be fine."
Lu Desheng laughed at him, "You're just kidding yourself. Even if they don't rebel now, they will rebel later."
"I'd rather be a dog in peacetime than a man in troubled times. Lu Desheng, you are the one who caused this disaster and the sinner of Dali. You've started the war."
Lu Desheng was not happy to hear this. "You are just trying to whitewash the situation. If I don't rebel, will the world remain in chaos?"
"The Xianbei barbarians are so ambitious that they've even rushed into our home. What is Song Mo doing? He's killing loyal officials! If Song Mo had just used the Qin family earlier, Jinyang in the north wouldn't have been lost, and then Yanmen and Daijun wouldn't have been lost either!"
"If we hadn't rebelled, Dali would have been intact, and we would all have been slaughtered by the Xianbei barbarians."
"Master Lu, Master Lu, our headmaster is still sick." Pan Sitong's eldest disciple quickly begged for mercy.
Pan Sitong was so angry at his words, "Are you here to see me, or to piss me off?!"
"Even if you're a patient, you should be reasonable, right?" Lu Desheng muttered softly, "You only know how to point your finger at me and scold me. Why don't you submit a memorial to your superiors, accusing Song Mo of being incompetent and unjust? You wouldn't dare, would you? It must be because you're afraid of the strong and bully the weak."
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