Lin Yuan suddenly thought: Isn't Weng Tongyi the book of the household? If he does this, even if he lets himself make eight strands of writing in front of everyone, there is nothing to be afraid of!

Lin Yuan made up his mind and saw that Zhang Shiliang hadn't left yet, so he said: "By the way, you ask someone to tell the villagers to keep the wheat that does not have blackfoot disease, and use it as seeds in the future, don't eat it!" ”

Zhang Shiliang asked, "What is this for?" ”

Lin Yuan smiled: "This is natural selection, you don't understand it if you talk too much, just do it." ”

Zhang Shiliang left suspiciously, Lin Yuan was thinking about how to find an opportunity to see Weng Tongyi, at this time, Liu San came to report that Li Hongzhang returned to Beijing from Tianjin to handle the matter of handing over the governor of Zhili, Prince Gong held a banquet at home to pick up the wind for Li Hongzhang, and also took this opportunity to banquet all the ministers, so that Lin Yuan also passed.

Lin Yuan asked the housekeeper Liu San: "Who else did Prince Gong invite?" ”

Liu San replied: "I heard that there are also Lord Weng of the household department, Dali Temple, and several attendants of the Metropolitan Inspection Academy. ”

Lin Yuan originally wanted not to go, but when he heard that there was Weng Tongyi, he instantly changed his mind, changed his clothes and rushed to Prince Gong's mansion.

This banquet is not as strict as the palace banquet, there are several large tables in the hall, as soon as Lin Yuan enters the door, he is brought to the main table, Li Hongzhang and Weng Tongyi are at this table, the two have already taken their seats, but they are far apart, and they only talk and laugh with the people around them.

Lin Yuan saw Weng Tonggong's appearance very relaxed, as if he didn't know that the locust plague at the junction of the four provinces of Ludao was already very serious, Lin Yuan thought to himself: "Didn't the people from the household department tell him about this matter?" ”

After a while, Prince Gong entered the banquet, and the banquet began, and the focus of the banquet for high-ranking officials at this level was naturally not on eating and drinking, but on chatting with wine, so each dish was made very exquisitely, and there was not much portion.

Everyone raised their glasses a few times, and Prince Gong proposed: "Between the banquets, empty drinks are boring, why don't we make a wine order, how about it?" ”

Weng Tongyi smiled and said: "This wine order must have an order, since the prince is the proposer, you might as well have the prince himself serve as the supervisor and come up with the topic." ”

The wine order of the ancients was actually a disguised poem, but the form and content of the poem needed to be constrained by the title of the commander, for example, each person wrote a poem, and there should be something at the banquet in the poem, and so on, and so on.

In the Ming and Qing dynasties, there were eight strands of poetry, and among the eight strands, the upper and lower sentences required neat battles, so the ancient literati had a lot of study on poetry and couplets on weekdays, so it was easy to make a wine order, where would Lin Yuan know this, he quickly got up and said with a smile: "Say goodbye to the next and come back in a while." ”

Lin Yuan found a clean place to hide, thinking about how to rectify Weng Tongxi, at this moment, Li Hongzhang came over, and when he saw Lin Yuan, he smiled and said: "Xiaolin, why did you run here to hide and come to Qingjing, go back quickly, otherwise the commander should be punished for drinking!" ”

Lin Yuan suddenly thought of a way and said to Li Hongzhang: "Lord Zhongtang, I won't do those drinking orders, you have to do me a favor in a while." ”

Li Hongzhang asked, "How do you want me to help you?" Lin Yuan approached Li Hongzhang and said a few words in a low voice, Li Hongzhang was embarrassed, and said, "Why do you want to do this?" ”

Lin Yuan smiled mysteriously and said, "Lord Zhongtang, can't you still believe in the people below?" This move is guaranteed to benefit the country and the people! ”

Li Hongzhang nodded, and agreed to it, the two returned to the table, everyone had obviously gone through a round of drinking orders, and several people's faces were already flushed, Li Hongzhang smiled: "Why don't we have a couplet below." ”

As soon as these words came out, everyone responded, and Li Hongzhang smiled: "It's the first to come." ”

Everyone looked at Li Hongzhang, he touched his belly, and said: "The old man was handsome when he was in his prime, and there was no fat on his body, but now that he is old, this belly is already full of fat, and he has sighed for Liu Xuande's resurrection that day, and he has worked hard for the Qing Dynasty for several years, but the sailor was wiped out in a war!" ”

After that, he sighed lightly and said: "My uplink is: Prime Minister Hefei is thin in the world." ”

This Shanglian is really too difficult to be right, although the Qing Dynasty did not have the position of prime minister, but Li Hongzhang holds great power, and the prime minister is no different, and Li Hongzhang is from Hefei, so the word "Hefei" is a pun! The most difficult thing is the three words "the world is thin" in the back, which means that the country is still not strong, which is in contrast to the "fat" in front, so as soon as this upper link came out, the people at the table fell into contemplation.

Lin Yuan waited for a while, and saw that everyone shook their heads, and then said, "I came up with a lower link." ”

Everyone thought to themselves: "Does this Lin Yuan still have this talent?" So they stared at him one after another, and Lin Yuan said: "My next link is: Si Nong Changshu is desolate in the world!" ”

As soon as this remark came out, everyone saw Weng Tonggong, Weng Tonggong was the head of the household department at this time, the household department was in charge of household registration, and the matter of agriculture and mulberry was called Si Nong by the ancients, Weng Tonggong was still a Changshu in Jiangsu, and it was very ingenious, and everyone here did not know about the locust plague in Ludao, so they didn't know where the "world famine" behind Ludao came from?

Weng Tonggong saw Lin Yuan talking about himself like this, his face was a little unbearable, but it was too immeasurable to turn his face in front of so many people, Weng Tonggong smiled and said: "I don't know if what Lord Lin said about the world's desolation is grounded?" ”

Lin Yuan hurriedly said: "No, no, I am only a shallow learner, and I am short of words for a while, so I will pop up such a word, and I hope that my lord will forgive me." After speaking, Lin Yuan glanced at Weng Tongyi with ulterior motives.

Prince Gong hurriedly said: "It's just a game, don't pay attention." For a while, everyone staggered and turned over the words.

But Lin Yuan's most embarrassed look made Weng Tonggong feel that things were far from being so simple, and sure enough, as soon as the banquet ended, Weng Tonggong invited Lin Yuan to the household yamen alone.

Weng Tongyi asked, "Lord Lin seems to have something to say at the banquet just now, can you say it now?" ”

Lin Yuan said, "Don't Lord Weng know the Dao? A locust plague occurred at the junction of Zhili, Shandong, Shanxi, and Henan provinces, and the number of victims has exceeded one million! ”

Weng Tongyi stood up, his eyebrows locked, and called the household servant in outside the door, and asked angrily: "There is a locust plague in the four provinces, why don't you report it!" ”

The head of the household replied: "The subordinates thought that there was still surplus grain in the four provinces, and no one would starve to death, so they did not report it. ”

Weng Tongyi picked up the inkstone on the table and smashed it at the waiter, so angry that his voice trembled: "I don't know if the wheat in these places is sick in the spring, and there is no harvest!" Now you can't starve to death, as long as a few days pass, you will be cannibalized! ”

Weng Tongyi scolded: "What are you still doing in a daze, and you haven't quickly transferred food from all over the country." ”

The squire replied hesitantly: "Lord Qiyu, there is no grain to transport, the grain in the capital has been transported to the front line, and the grain in the south of the Yangtze River will not be able to be transported for a while." ”

Although Weng Tongyi looked at Lin Yuan unpleasantly, despised foreigners, and despised foreign affairs, as a traditional literati, the idea of "the people are precious" had long been engraved into his bones.

Lin Yuan said on the side: "Lord Weng, don't worry, I can help you solve this food problem!" ”

Weng Tongyi asked, "What can you do, can you conjure food out of thin air?" ”

Lin Yuan smiled: "I have a way, but you have to promise me one condition." ”