Lin Yuan said with a smile: "I'm here to help Master Sun make a great contribution." ”

Sun Yuwen smiled: "Lord Lin is joking, what great merit can I make." ”

Lin Yuan said: "My lord is in charge of the Criminal Department, if he can eradicate a tyrant for the local government, wouldn't it be a great achievement!" ”

Sun Yuwen waved his hand and said with a smile: "It doesn't make sense, it doesn't make sense, local affairs are managed by the state capital and county government, and there are also inspectors at the top, and there are governors and governors at the top, and it is not our turn to take care of anything." ”

Lin Yuan smiled: "What if this person is a heinous criminal? ”

Sun Yuwen said with a smile: "No matter how big a villain is, we don't need our criminal department to come forward directly." ”

Lin Yuan's face was stunned and said, "If it is a traitor and a rebel, you don't care?" ”

Sun Yuwen couldn't laugh anymore, he knew that in the eyes of the emperor, whether it was Russia, Japan or England, no matter how much they devoured it, it was just an elbow and armpit problem, although the disease was painful, it was not fatal, and the traitor rebel party was a big problem, if the traitor rebel party was destroyed, it would be a great achievement.

Sun Yuwen hurriedly asked: "Who do you say is a traitor and a rebel?" ”

Lin Yuan lowered his voice and said: "This is out of my mouth, like your ears, you must not let the third person know the Tao, that person is Long Wu on the dock." ”

As soon as Sun Yuwen heard this, he actually laughed and said: "Who am I talking about, it turned out to be that little thing, he also took smuggling goods and plotting rebellion, he never dared to do it, and he still ......"

Sun Yuwen looked left and right, and whispered to Lin Yuan: "He is still Lord Ronglu's small treasury, and he really has a lot of things to honor Lord Ronglu!" ”

As soon as Lin Yuan was about to say something more, a eunuch said: "Please ask the people who take the test to go to the hall, and the palace test will begin." ”

Everyone entered the main hall, the ministers were lined up on both sides, and people stood in the center, the so-called palace test, that is, the emperor personally made the question, and there was no fixed formula for what came out, depending on the emperor's mood.

Emperor Guangxu said: "I have been reading Western books for the past few days, I don't know what Aiqing knows about these Western artifacts?" ”

As soon as he heard this, Lin Yuan was relieved, at this time, everyone lowered their heads, no one answered, Emperor Guangxu said: "I have recently looked at various Western utensils, as big as a warship, as small as a rifle, the composition of things is complicated, take this battleship as an example, there are hulls, decks, steam engines, cannons, etc., if you take out everything, there are many things, such as this steam engine, there are cylinders, pistons, connecting rods, etc., and then subdivided, there are threads, pins and other small objects, there is really a foot of hammer, the day takes half of it, the sense of inexhaustibility, I wonder how I'm going to build these artifacts from scratch in the Qing Dynasty? ”

Lin Yuan's purpose in participating in the examination was to block the mouths of those Confucian officials, as for whether he could win the champion in the palace examination, he didn't care at all, he couldn't think of it, so he didn't intend to answer the question asked by Emperor Guangxu, and stood aside silently.

Lin Yuan didn't want to answer, and the crowd really wouldn't answer, a few cold sweats came down, Emperor Guangxu saw that no one took the initiative to answer, stretched out his hand and pointed to the front one, and said, "Just you can answer." ”

After hearing this, the lifter hurriedly knelt down and said: "Zi said: 'The gentleman is not a weapon', Zhu Zi said ......" So he began a long speech, many words in it Lin Yuan did not understand, this sentence "the gentleman is not a weapon" comes from the Analects, which means that the gentleman has many talents, and the lifter does not understand what "Western utensils" are, and when he heard that there is a word "instrument" in it, he thought of this sentence.

The lifter talked nonsense, I don't know what to do, and after the mountain shouts long live, he finished answering, and Emperor Guangxu was also dizzy when he heard it, waved his hand, and let the lifter enter the ranks.

At this time, a man stood up, fell to his knees, and replied, "The grass people are willing to relieve the sorrows of the saints." ”

When Emperor Guangxu saw it, he asked, "What's your name?" ”

The man replied, "The grass people's surname is new, and his name is Wenyuan." ”

Emperor Guangxu nodded, and Xin Wenyuan said: "The imitation of Western artifacts is really done by people with hundreds of workers, Mozi Youyun: all things are the work of saints, and to our dynasty, people with hundreds of workers are very lowly, and the grass people think that if you want to imitate Western artifacts, you must let the people of hundreds of workers not be low." ”

Lin Yuan thought to himself: "In ancient society, there was a status ranking of 'Shinong Industry and Commerce', and this new Wenyuan can break this stereotype, and it seems that he can be regarded as a person of insight." ”

Emperor Guangxu didn't seem to be satisfied with this answer, so he asked, "Is there anyone else to say?" ”

Weng Tongyi on the side said at this time: "Enlighten the saint, no one can answer, and ask the saint to change his question, it is better to try an eight-strand text." ”

When Lin Yuan heard this, he was frightened into a cold sweat, he thought to himself: "This Weng Tongyi is Guangxu's teacher, his words are naturally very heavy, if Emperor Guangxu really agrees, he will be stunned on the spot, and he can't write a word!" At that time, it was all exposed. ”

So Lin Yuan stood up from the crowd and said, "I have something to say. ”

Weng Tongyi saw that Lin Yuan didn't speak early or late, so he hurried to speak when he made suggestions, thinking that Lin Yuan was deliberately finding fault with himself, plus Lin Yuan hadn't gone to the door to apprentice like others before, so he was even more dissatisfied with him in his heart.

Lin Yuan saw that everyone quoted scriptures when they spoke, and thought that he would also come to two sentences, otherwise he would seem too uneducated, so Lin Yuan said: "Whether it is imitation or self-control, the key lies in three words: set in one." ”

Emperor Guangxu asked, "What does this mean?" ”

Lin Yuan replied: "This sentence comes from "Mencius", when King Xiang of Liang asked Mencius, how can the world be pacified, Mencius replied, which means 'fixed in unity', the same is true for manufacturing utensils, the key is to have a unified standard, utensils are composed of mechanical parts, and there are many types of mechanical parts, such as threads, pins, gears, etc. ”

"Just take the thread as an example, the thread is very widely used, almost every kind of utensils can be used, if the proportion of each part of the size of the thread is specified, and the factories produce according to these unified standards, then when manufacturing utensils, the designer can directly use them, saving the time of designing these small parts."

Emperor Guangxu suddenly realized: "It turns out that this is the case, those small parts are produced in advance, and the big utensils are directly used, I thought that to design a large artifact, we must design every small thing." ”

Lin Yuan smiled: "Of course not, threads are just one of the examples, there are also such as gears, cams, ratchets, couplings, etc., there are also certain standards, just combine them when designing." ”

Lin Yuan was very happy to hear Emperor Guangxu, and he didn't seem to have the intention of changing the topic, so he said: "Such a 'fixed one' is a trivial matter, but the real avenue is not here. ”

Emperor Guangxu hurriedly asked, "What is the real avenue?" ”

Lin Yuan said: "I want to develop industry in the Qing Dynasty and make utensils, which is several times more difficult than that of the English countries, for no other reason, the countries are trying to suppress our development, in this regard, we need to concentrate the strength of the Qing Dynasty and join hands to resist the enemy." ”

Emperor Guangxu said: "What do you mean? You explain again. ”

Lin Yuan said: "We have also set up an arsenal and a steel factory, but the guns we make are still inferior to others, because these factories are independent, and if these factories are combined, the revitalization of the Qing Dynasty is just around the corner." ”

Without waiting for Emperor Guangxu to speak, Xin Wenyuan said: "The grass people think that what Lord Lin said is not credible!" ”