As we all know, the poet Li Bai had two major hobbies in his life, one was to write poetry, and the other was to drink alcohol. Many of his works are not only related to alcohol, but also written after drinking. For example, in "Will Enter the Wine", Li Bai once wrote: "Life must be full of joy, do not make the golden bottle empty to the moon." Will be into the wine, the glass does not stop. With a song of Jun, please listen to it for me. Du Fu also said in "Eight Immortals in Drinking": "Li Bai has a hundred poems, and the restaurant in Chang'an City sleeps." Tianzi did not come to the ship, claiming that his subject was a wine immortal. ”
It can be seen that Li Bai is not only famous for his literary style, but also has one of the best alcohol in the circle of friends. However, Li Bai, who called himself a wine immortal, was not an opponent at all in front of the Ming Dynasty. Because Li Bai drank by the bottle, and this Ming Dynasty leader drank according to the barrel. So who is this Ming Dynasty cattle man? He was Zeng Di of jiashenke during the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty.
Zeng Tang's ancestral home was Yongfeng, Jiangxi, and because he was rejected by his father in his early years, he could only study hard while herding pigs. After Zhu Di launched the Battle of Jingnan to ascend to the throne, in order to win the hearts and minds of the people, in the second year of Yongle, he issued an edict to open a branch to take soldiers and select talents. Zeng Tang was favored by Zhu Di for his excellent results. After reading Zeng Di's examination papers, Zhu Di personally wrote on his examination papers: "'Through the history of the scriptures, understand the heavens and the people'". When it came to the temple examination link, Zeng Tang did not even play the draft, and the court said 20,000 words. This talent, not to mention ancient times, is even now that few people can do it. Therefore, Zhu Di personally designated him as the first place in the first division.
Because it was the first time that Zhu Di had opened a branch after he ascended the throne, he attached great importance to it. In order to select talents, Zhu Di specially selected 28 people as Shu Jishi and entered the Wenyuan Pavilion. Zeng Di was the first person to be selected by Zhu Di. After that, whenever Zhu Di summoned them to ask for allusions, Zeng Di could answer like a stream. Once Zhu Di improvised and asked a group of courtiers to do "Tianma Haiqing Song". Zeng Tangwen thought about the fountain, and within a few moments he had handed in the papers. After Xie Jin, Hu Guang, and others retired, the imperial court's decrees were basically from Zeng Tang's hand.
Later, Zhu Di developed the habit of relying on Zeng Tang, and every time he summoned Wenchen to discuss poetry, he had to ask, "Is it like Zeng Hanlin?" Under zhu Di's appreciation, Zeng Tang also rose step by step, and later became the vice president of the Yongle Canon. Zhu Di originally thought that Zeng Di was only in literature, but he did not expect that he was also amazing in terms of alcohol consumption. Once, two emissaries from the Jiaotong Kingdom came to see Zhu Di, and Zhu Di arranged for these two emissaries to receive the wind and wash the dust.
As a result, at the banquet, these two foreign envoys drank all the official personnel of the Ming Dynasty. After the news reached Zhu Di's ears, Zhu Di felt humiliated. The Great Ming Dynasty would actually lose to the small country of Fan bang in drinking! So Zhu Di ordered the recruitment of people who could drink to regain face. As a result, half a day after the decree was issued, only one low-ranking officer signed up. Just when Zhu Di was about to get angry, Zeng Di asked Miao to fight. Zhu Di didn't expect this guy to be hidden, so he asked him, "How much can you drink?" Zeng Tang replied: "I don't know, because I have not been drunk."
Zhu Di thought that Zeng Tang was bragging, but he still sent him and the low-ranking officer to accompany him. By the time Zhu Di sent someone to inquire about the intelligence, the two Fan state emissaries and officers were already drunk and unconscious, and only Zeng Di looked at ease. When the British Gong Zhang Fu heard about this, he wanted to see how much zeng tang really drank. So he ordered someone to make a wooden barrel according to Zeng Tang's stomach and put it in the back of the hall. When he asked Zeng Tang to drink, he ordered his servants to pour as much as he wanted into the barrel. After a day of drinking, the wine in the barrel spilled out, and the next person poured the wine into another urn. When the urn was also full, Zeng Tang still looked at ease. The British exclaimed: ''Zi Tang is really massive also!''