Chapter 77 An old colleague knows the drinking order and asks for inspection
The food and wine were served. It was just a casual banquet with no formal rules. Seeing that he was the lowest in status, Li You took the initiative to serve the wine and said: "The two nobles are here from the house. I will pay my respects to the local one first."
Wang Tongzhi waved his hand and said: "Brother Li, what you said is too outrageous. Could it be that your Xujiang County is not Suzhou Prefecture? It should be said that everyone here is from the prefecture. How can we distinguish between relatives and friends?"
Zhao Liangli slapped the case and said: "Drink as a penalty!"
This set of rhetoric was too obvious... After that, everyone continued to drink and talk and laugh, but it was more than half an hour before Wang Tongzhi and Zhao Liangli said anything serious.
Li You was cautious and kept a lower profile at the banquet. If there was a simple matter, Zhao Daguan would have already mentioned it. The harder it was to explain, the more troublesome it would be. Although I am curious about what these two people can do with their abilities and status.
He could ask for something of his own, but he would never ask. He would just hide if he could. Being asked for something like this was not a proud thing.
As a result, Li You only focused on talking to the actress named Yun Cai next to him, and asked him carefully about acting and singing. Everyone knew about his romantic style, and they didn't think it was strange. It wasn't that Li You didn't have anything to say, he kept it.
If you are rich enough to raise a few women who can sing, then you can copy down the popular songs from your previous life and teach them to sing them, and use them as artificial players at home to listen to them. It would be a great pleasure.
Li Youzheng and Yuncai were chatting lively when they heard Zhao Liangli say: "The three of me will serve as the drinkers."
Wang Tongzhi asked: "What is the order?"
Zhao Liangli said with a smile: "Then the word "asking for help" is used as the order. The first person's "asking for help" is placed at the beginning of the five-character poem, and then placed in the middle of the sentence until the end of the sentence. The meaning of the sentence must be connected up and down. Miss Yuncai is the wine ordering officer.
Time the clock, and no fine wine will be given within the count of ten!"
The scholar is really... he wants to play some tricks when asking for help. Could it be that these two people have colluded in advance to be prepared? Li You secretly thought, "Master, should I politely refuse?"
Just as I was thinking about it, I heard Wang Tongzhi hurriedly cheering: "I'm here first! Listen to me: I'm looking for someone to look depressed, but I feel better after drinking."
Li You was speechless. Grandpa Wang opened his mouth so quickly. Why didn't he ponder for a while and pretend that he hadn't prepared it in advance?
Zhao Liangli hurriedly took over: "I am the second best, so listen to me: When you arrive at the place where you are asking for help, you don't realize that you are a guest."
It was Li You's turn. Miss Yuncai kindly counted the time slowly until she reached nine. Li You carefully looked at the happy expressions of Zhao Liangli and Wang Tongzhi, and said slowly: "I have a saying: peace of mind is your own, and there is no one to ask for."
.”
The three of them walked around and met Wang Tongzhi again, and they said: "We don't want to talk to each other when we have time, but when we are in a hurry, we ask for help."
After the four sentences are completed, the word "asking for help" should be placed at the beginning to start a new cycle.
Zhao Liangli quickly added: "It's shameless to ask for help, and you know your temperament is tolerant." He actually wanted to rush Li You to see if Mr. Li could stop him.
Li You slowly and leisurely waited for the clock to run out before he said: "It's hard to ask for help in this world, so try your best to be generous."
Wang Tongzhi said anxiously: "So if you have a wise heart, you must ask for help according to your eyes."
Zhao Liangli continued: "Follow the basics and not the end. Only ask for help when you have no choice."
Li You said quickly this time: "It is not as good as yourself to seek help from others, how can you be so disrespectful of yourself?"
Wang Tong knew: "The reason why I ask for help is more important than asking for help from me."
When Li You heard this, he thought, I don't think I can ask for anything from you...but then he heard Zhao Liangli say, "Sir, I'm here tonight and I'm here to ask for help."
It's Li You again, and I quickly remembered a saying: "You should kill yourself if you want to, and don't ask others for forgiveness."
After doing this for several times, Zhao Liangli and Wang Tongzhi secretly knew that something was wrong. They were almost finished with the poems they had prepared, but they still couldn't put Li You down. This guy's poetry talent was too strong, and he still seemed to be able to do it with ease so far. If this continued, if the two of them continued like this,
The one who was prepared was knocked down by Li You, and word spread that it was a big joke.
He would never compete with Mr. Li for a drinking order in the future. Zhao Liangli helplessly signaled Wang Tongzhi with his eyes.
Wang Tongzhi, who was equally helpless, smiled bitterly and said: "I'm too drunk." He then said to Li You: "To tell the truth, I want to visit Mr. Chen, please accompany me. If you offend him, please ask Mr. Li to take care of him."
This is so strange to say. A fellow magistrate of the fifth rank is afraid of offending the magistrate of the seventh rank, so he must be asking for extravagant things. You are afraid of offending Magistrate Chen, don’t you know that I dare not offend him even more? Li You pretended to be drunk.
He said: "I'm just doing a small inspection. An has the ability to make peace among all the gentlemen. Besides, as a foreign military official, he should avoid suspicion and shouldn't get involved in the county government at will."
Such a familiar sentence, who did you learn it from... Inspection Li is the official, and he learned from Magistrate Chen and his old father-in-law, and he gradually understood it and became successful in his studies.
Zhao Liangli interrupted and said: "Mr. Li is a humble man. Who doesn't know that Mr. Li is a close confidant of Mr. Chen and he obeys his advice?"
Li You added: "For such a matter, it is more appropriate to approach Mr. Huang. I have to take into account Mr. Huang's feelings when I participate. Aren't Mr. Zhao and Mr. Huang classmates?"
Zhao Liangli smiled bitterly and said: "Master Huang said that this matter involves financial and food matters. He is not good at it, so you have to come forward."
Li You thought, it seems that the matter that Mr. Huang wants to refuse seems to be very difficult. Wang Tongzhi is just an old man, but Zhao Daguan and everyone are coming forward. He really can't offend him too much, so he pretends to ask first. Then he patted his chest and said: "
I'll do my best! But I don't know what it is."
Wang Tongzhi said with a smile: "I can't say anything at the moment, lest Brother Li turn around and tell Magistrate Chen, which will make him more troubled. I just ask Brother Li to help you talk about it. I will give you three cups of apology. I'm sorry."
Forgive me for my sin.”
After Wang Tongzhi finished drinking, Li You took the opportunity to say, "How dare you, I'll give you three more glasses to Mr. Wang." He made up his mind to drink.
After all, Wang Tongzhi was sixty years old. He was really too drunk after drinking and retired to rest. Seeing the old man leave, Li You asked Zhao Liangli bluntly: "What happened?"
Zhao Liangli held out two fingers and said, "Here we need the money. Seeing that the disaster in Xujiang County is the least this year, the magistrate wants to ask you to pay an additional 30,000 taels of tax silver. He has a use for it."
Li You said angrily: "My Xujiang has not suffered disaster, but has become a disadvantage!"
Li You is still aware of the general situation of money and food in the county. There was a lot of tax arrears due to last year's floods. County Magistrate Chen has been demanding payment for several months since he took office. Seeing that money and food will be levied again after the autumn harvest, last year's arrears plus this year's tax arrears
Yes, we still don’t know if we can complete the rated amount, not to mention that this year the county will spend 30,000 taels of tax money to repair water conservancy projects, which has already started.
All in all, Xujiang County is not rich in money this year from the common people to the county government. If we continue to impose an additional 30,000 taels for the prefect's words that have no practical benefits, the county will definitely be in a state of uproar.
As a local, Li You is of course very disgusted with this. Your magistrate has the overall situation in mind, but why do you need money to control Xujiang County? Why should you exploit us just because we are less affected by the disaster than other counties?
Based on Li You's understanding of Chen Zhi County, he will definitely object. What he hopes is to punish the Qing Dynasty and make the county more prosperous. There will also be several outstanding political achievements, and then the official reputation will go directly to the court (it is good to have connections), and he will be promoted.
How could he be willing to see the resentment among the people under his rule boiling like a powder keg, and who would be responsible for a civil commotion? Besides, Magistrate Chen may not necessarily need to curry favor with the magistrate.
It turns out that Wang Tongzhi came to work as a lobbyist for the magistrate. No wonder he was afraid of offending Magistrate Chen. With his academic background and background, Grandpa Wang was really not as strong-willed as Magistrate Chen, who ranked fifth, second, and second in the list, and was very tough.
Maybe he was disgraced by Mr. Chen. So Wang Tongzhi came to Li You, hoping to help lobby the county magistrate.
Li You didn't want to take on this matter at all, and he had nothing to ask for from Wang Tongzhi. He couldn't get any big benefits, so what's the use of making an empty favor that can't be fulfilled?
Zhao Liangli was originally a lazy person who never worried about his livelihood. This time he couldn't get Wang Tongzhi to lead him. Now seeing Li You's unhappy expression, he said: "This matter is indeed unreasonable. But Mr. Wang is usually at home.
You are quite popular here, but you were forced by the prefect to be this lobbyist. Knowing your reputation, you have begged me for a long time. I couldn't bear to refuse, so I introduced you to me. Just wait and see.
Don't worry about me, and don't let such a big thing affect our friendship."
Li You has not known the taste of meat for three days. He originally planned to spend the night on the boat tonight, as there was no chance of having an erotic affair. But now seeing that Old Man Wang has a good way of pestering people, it would be better to escape as soon as possible.
There was also Zhao Daguan’s stubborn face. He said that, but who knows what he was thinking in his heart. It would not be good if he really refuted his face and made him angry. He said to Zhao Liangli: "The night is already dark.
I also say goodbye."
Zhao Liangli nodded and said: "Then I won't entertain guests. Don't forget the Tiger Hill Party on August 16th." Then he gently seduced Li You in his ear and said: "If this happens, I will send Miss Yuncai to her.
I’ll give it to you. Whether my female actors accompany guests or not is entirely voluntary, but this girl Yuncai has never spent the night with anyone."
I have to say that Zhao Daguan is really a rare person with a good temperament, and he is really good to Li You. Otherwise, if he uses his power to suppress others, Li You will have no room to dodge no matter how flexible he is.