The establishment of the academy in the last years of the Ming Dynasty was not a great event, and the most famous one was the Donglin Academy. However, at this time, it is a bit sensitive for one of the princes to come forward and pay for the establishment of an academy. When Wen Anzhi taught Deng Ming this trick, many words were not explained, and Wen Anzhi didn't expect Deng Ming to understand this at all.

There are two sources of the Son of Heaven's official reserves, one is the right path of the imperial examination, and the other is the students of the Gongyuan. When the emperor of Yongli ran east and west, and had no time to hold the imperial examination, Li Dingguo supported him to run a school in Kunming and teach young people to read, these people were naturally the emperor's students, and they would also become officials of the Ming Dynasty in the future. For the education of these students, even Li Dingguo, who leans towards the government and the opposition, does not interfere, and the Son of Heaven alone has the final say.

Deng Ming is not a great Confucian, and it is obviously impossible for him to run a school in order to inherit any sect, so it can only be used to train his own preparatory officials. In other words, if studying in this academy does not bring fame, why should the scholars waste their time? As for Deng Ming's use of the name of the academy, he just didn't intend to blatantly train and select officials, which could be regarded as the last fig leaf in the action of grabbing class and power.

Deng Ming had noticed that the atmosphere around him had become awkward at this time, but he was still a little dazed, and he didn't know what he said wrong-he had been leading troops to fight for the past few years, and he didn't care about other things, whether it was Wen Anzhi or his subordinates, they thought that he should understand, but he just deliberately pretended not to understand.

Seeing that Chen Zuocai's face was indignant again, and the others in Kunming began to try to divert the topic, Deng Ming felt more and more wrong in his heart, and thought to himself: "The academy was asked to be run by the Inspector Wen, and he also supported me to set up education and enlighten the children who couldn't read and write, is there anything wrong with this?" ”

Although Deng Ming did not know what the problem was, he hurriedly explained, saying that his academy was open to all children in Chengdu, and in addition to teaching them some common words, he also taught arithmetic and other skills, so as to cultivate more talents and satisfy the hunger and thirst for talents in all walks of life in Chengdu.

However, Deng Ming's words are not very convincing, and his description of compulsory education is unprecedented. Because the people of Kunming didn't understand what Deng Ming wanted to mean, the final result was that no one took over - except Chen Zuocai.

"Is Admiral Deng just going to teach the children to read? Do you just want to turn a private school into an official house? Chen Zuocai's tone was full of suspicion, obviously he didn't believe a word of what Deng Ming said.

"That's true." Finally, someone spoke out, Deng Ming was really grateful to Chen Zuocai, and he felt very uncomfortable sitting alone in his seat and singing a one-man show.

"Xia Guan once taught in Kunming Gong Academy," the Gong Yuan opened by Yongli in Kunming closed in a few days, during which Chen Zuocai was one of the teachers: "I don't know if there are enough professors in this academy of the Admiral, Xia Guan should still be competent, just idle and have nothing to do, you can go to Chengdu to help Admiral Deng." ”

In Chen Zuocai's opinion, Deng Ming would definitely not agree, Chen Zuocai just wanted to sarcastically say a few words to Deng Ming and vent a little evil. In this kind of place to train future officials, the key to education is not knowledge but loyalty, and it is necessary to ensure that they are their own people from top to bottom, so as to teach a clique of civil officials who are determined to die.

It's a pity that Deng Ming still doesn't understand, in his impression, the students who come out of the Gongyuan are all prison students, so the level of being able to teach in the Gongyuan is obviously even better, after listening to Chen Zuocai's self-recommendation, Deng Ming replied almost without thinking: "Welcome, the academy in Chengdu is indeed lacking professors, but I am afraid that Mr. Chen will not give in." ”

In this era, it is the official standard, and being a teacher is naturally not as popular as being an official, and the scholars recruited by Deng Ming are all low-level scholars who have little chance to be officials. And Chen Zuo is the wang family of Dali, and now he also has a place in the imperial court, and he can still enter and leave the shogunate of the king of Jin on weekdays, so Deng Ming feels that most of the other party will not come to his school.

But Chen Zuocai was taken aback, he didn't expect the other party to agree: "Isn't this academy really used to cultivate party henchmen?" No, if it weren't for cultivating party members, how could you be willing to spend money on this? In Chen Zuocai's mind, public schools have no other functions than the selection of officials, so he thought about it and thought that he understood Deng Ming's intentions: "Hmph, he probably thinks that the imperial court is in decline, and wants to win over loyal ministers and righteous people to achieve his extraordinary plan." Now it's on my head! ”

The position of the head of a school used to produce officials cannot, of course, be an inconspicuous position as Deng Ming said, on the contrary, it is extremely important, and Deng Ming's handing it to Chen Zuocai can be called an extremely blatant bribe. But Chen Zuocai sneered in his heart: "I have no regrets about my loyalty to the emperor and the court, do you want to buy me?" This is absolutely impossible. Okay, I'm going to Chengdu for a trip, and I'm sure you'll steal chickens and rice. ”

……

The next day, Chen Zuocai explained the reason to Li Dingguo, and then came to Deng Ming to report here. In Chen Zuocai's view, the academy is a very important position of public opinion, and since he has made up his mind to go to the academy in Chengdu to tell about the righteousness of the monarch and the minister, of course, the sooner he goes, the better. After seeing Deng Ming, Chen Zuocai said that he was willing to leave immediately and rush to Chengdu first, as long as Deng Ming gave him a letter of appointment for sacrificing wine in the academy.

Deng Ming also knew that sacrificial wine was almost equivalent to the principal, and the scholars he recruited from the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River were all young people, and before they went to the warships of the Ming army, they were all bored at home and studying, and they had neither much experience nor management work. Chen Zuocai was originally a gentleman in Yunnan, and after joining the army, he served as Mu Tianbo's general, and once went to Jianchang to ask for military salaries, inspect the military tun, and successively served in the shogunate of Yongli Imperial and Li Dingguo. With such a headmaster who is both civil and military, Deng Ming felt that it would be of great benefit to the academy in Chengdu - until now, Deng Ming was still confused, and he still didn't know why the cold scene caused at yesterday's dinner, and thought that he should not talk about education at the banquet of military generals.

Seeing that Chen Zuocai really came, Deng Ming, who was surprised and delighted, replied to him, he was very satisfied with Chen Zuocai's resume and knowledge, and immediately wrote a letter of appointment for him, and also suggested that he stay in Yunnan for a few more days, and then go back with him.

But Chen Zuocai's mind was now full of thoughts about how to sabotage Deng Ming's attempt to usurp the throne, and of course he refused to stay longer for a day, and even said that he was in a hurry to take office and could not stay here in Kunming for more - Deng Ming's joy was understood by Chen Zuocai as a means of bribery. At present, Chen Zuocai is concerned about how to sabotage Deng Ming's conspiracy, rather than simply ridiculing him, so Chen Zuocai hides all the dissatisfaction in his heart. He had already made up his mind that when he arrived in Chengdu, he would shout out to the students and work hard to publicize the Compendium of Monarchs and Ministers - this would inevitably cause Deng Ming to become angry and ashamed, but Chen Zuocai had already put life and death out of the way, and when the time came, it would be a big deal to be cut by a thousand knives from careerists. And the death of a martyr can leave a deep impression on the people of Chengdu and inspire the students' conscience.

For this noble purpose, Chen Zuocai temporarily made a false accusation, hiding his contempt for Deng Ming, a careerist, and even flattering him against his will, but if he got along with this traitor for a long time, Chen Zuocai was worried that he would reveal his true feelings and let the other party perceive his righteousness - Chen Zuocai was determined to go to Chengdu and plant the great principle of loyalty and filial piety into Deng Ming's academy.

After getting Deng Ming's consent, Chen Zuocai was afraid that the other party would suddenly wake up, so he didn't stay longer for a day and hurriedly left Kunming. Anyway, he has been to Jianchang once, and now he has Deng Ming's letter of appointment and letter of introduction in his hand, and he is not afraid that Jianchang will not entertain him.

Deng Ming sent the newly appointed academy sacrificial wine out of Kunming City, and when he saw Chen Saijiu neatly turn over and get on his horse and leave the dust, Deng Ming couldn't help but sigh: This Chen sacrificial wine's equestrian skills are almost the same as that of soldiers, and he is really a rare talent. Moreover, Chen Xijiu is so highly motivated to work that he is obviously also an educator who can be met but cannot be found-which makes Deng Ming feel that his luck is really good.

The weather in Yunnan is like spring all year round, Cangshan and Erhai are picturesque, and the variety of vegetables and vegetables is abundant, there are a large number of edible fungi, which is also very suitable for the taste of Deng Ming. However, the guards sent by Li Siye did not let Deng Ming pick it by himself. According to them, every year Yunnan people are poisoned by eating mushrooms, many of which are edible in some people's hometowns, but in other places they produce toxins and become inedible because of the different wood they attach to. Therefore, only the fungi picked by the locals can be put on Deng Ming's table, and the guards sent by Li Siye in advance must let the cooks taste it first.

Chengdu's crops crop twice a year, and Deng Ming planned to launch an attack on Chongqing after the second grain harvest in August, and there was nothing to do to return to Chengdu too soon, so he waited here in Kunming for the title to be awarded to him by the imperial court. In addition to playing around Kunming, Deng Ming is also very concerned about the situation in Guizhou, and seems to have something to look forward to.

But until the end of May, Wu Sangui in Guizhou was still very honest and had no signs of attacking Yunnan.

"Could it be that Wu Sangui is just motionless like this?" When Deng Ming and the guards were playing in the suburbs, he said to Zhao Tianba: "In the past, every time I went somewhere, I always had trouble and kept coming to the door, and the final result was always unexpected; If Wu Sangui is honestly motionless this time, it will be the first time that I have returned to the capital without encountering any accidents. ”

Zhao Tianba was also a little anxious in his heart, he didn't understand why as soon as it was his turn to go out, his days suddenly became dull: "The emperor's decree has not yet arrived, Wu Sangui still has a while, don't worry." ”――