Seeing Li Xu talking openly in front of him, Song Mu was surprised and his appreciation in his eyes became stronger and stronger. He sighed and said, "If everyone in the world understands my difficulties as you do, then I can live a few more years. The word "paper maker" is well used. After so many years of busy work, isn't it just that I am working as apaper for Daqin?"

"Uncle Song is obviously a sign of longevity and wealth. It's better not to listen to the idiots and vulgar words."

Li Xu comforted him casually.

Song Mu laughed loudly, took Li Xu's hand and led him into the table, and sat beside him.

Liu Jian and Song Yu also took a random seat and looked at Li Xu with a smile.

Both of them knew that the protagonist of this banquet tonight was Li Xu, and they were just accompanying guests, so naturally they had no objection to Song Mu's arrangement.

After seeing everyone sitting down, the maids served various dishes like flowing water. Although there were only fifteen or sixteen dishes, each dish seemed to be carefully prepared and an unusual delicacy. Even if it had not been eaten yet, it was pleasing to the eye and the index fingers were thrilling.

After the dishes were served, Song Mu personally presented a small jar of sealed wine. After opening the mud seal, the rich and intoxicating aroma of wine spread out with the night wind. The wineworms in Li Xu's belly, who usually did not linger with wine, began to move.

Not to mention Li Xu, even Song Yu and Liu Jian also showed a fascination on their faces.

Song Yu looked at the wine jar and asked anxiously: "Brother, is this the jar of imperial bar that the late emperor gave you back then? When you asked you for it before, you kept saying that you had finished drinking it, but unexpectedly it was a lie."

Liu Jian also smiled and said, "I heard that this jar of wine was the tribute wine that was tribute to the late emperor after Lin Ruhai, a small country in the Western Regions gave to the late emperor a tribute. It is said that it was brewed with a unique secret method, and there were only ten jars in total. The tribute was given to the late emperor five jars that year. The late emperor drank two jars at the celebration banquet, and the remaining three jars were given to the Ningguo Duke, one jar was given to the prime minister, and one jar was treasured in the palace. It is said that if you smell this wine, you can be fascinated by it, and after drinking it, the fragrance remained for three days. Unexpectedly, the prime minister was willing to take it out to entertain Brother Xu today. But we were both affected by Brother Xu."

Looking at the "resentment" in the eyes of his third brother, Song Mu smiled and said, "I really didn't lie to you before. The jar of wine given to me by Your Majesty was drunk on Xiaoyuer's birthday. What you drank that time was lying on the ground and softened into mud. He was still drunk and muttering nonsense like "This wine should only be available in the sky, how many times can I drink it in the world?" Xiaoyuer laughed at you, the third uncle at that time."

When Song Yu heard this, he also heard this, his old face turned red and said, "What's going on with this jar of wine? Could it be the jar of wine that was treasured in the palace?"

Song Mu smiled and said, "This is the last jar collected by the Empress Dowager after hearing that Brother Xu was going to Beijing. The Empress Dowager said that Brother Xu could come to the palace to thank him, but he was a foreign minister after all, and he would definitely be restrained when drinking a banquet in the palace. So he sent someone to express his feelings for Brother Xu. Speaking of which, it was because we followed Brother Xu to gain a lot."

Li Xu didn't expect that there would be such a twisted story behind such a jar of wine. He immediately looked solemn and clasped his fists in the direction of the palace and said, "Li Xu thanked the Queen Mother for Long's kindness, and will definitely come to the palace to thank you another day!"

Song Mu smiled and said, "The Empress Dowager said that you must be busy with a lot of things when you first arrived in the capital. You don't have to rush to enter the palace. After a few days, it will be His Majesty's birthday. Then I will enter the palace with Xiaoyuer and thank you for your kindness."

When Li Xu heard this, he felt a little more fond of the unmasked Queen Mother Song.

In any case, although the Song family is the most powerful family in Qin today, Li Xu did not feel the arrogance of the powerful family in them at all. Instead, he was quite friendly and tolerant of himself. This made Li Xu feel better and better about them. He kept thinking that if he controlled Qin in the future, the Song family could be used by him.

Although Li Xu had not deliberately inquired, according to the various information he has received, although the Song family is now in power, with the support of the Empress Dowager Bingzheng in the palace, and the three brothers Song Mu have the power of military and political power outside. They look like flowers are blooming and cooking oil in a raging fire, and are arrogant.

However, their identities meant that they would also suffer great criticism when they controlled the Qin court. After all, the Song brothers became famous as foreign relatives.

Although the young emperor of Qin is still young and is not as old as a person to personally fight, there have been a large number of court officials behind him encouraging the emperor to take power as soon as possible.

Once the emperor takes power, it is easy to imagine what the Song family will end.

So over the years, in addition to dealing with external troubles, the Song brothers have to spare no effort to suppress these strengths developed around the little emperor.

To suppress political enemies and stabilize themselves, in addition to various political means, mastering military power is an indispensable part of it.

However, the army is not as easy to control as in the court. It has been controlled by Lin Ruhai and is almost completely out of water. The needle cannot be inserted, and the water cannot be poured in. The Song family worked hard for several years before Song Cheng was given the position of a nominal general.

Lin Ruhai is actually a core figure of the God Party. With him in control of the army, it is a great help to the Imperial Party.

Therefore, over the years, Song's family has not lived as relaxed and rich as others think.

Although Lin Ruhai, Duke Ning, no longer holds military positions on the surface, he still has a strong influence on the Qin army.

Although the Song brothers have been working hard to reduce Lin Ruhai's influence in the military over the years, they have achieved little success.

Unless there are other changes, if according to the normal trajectory, Lin Ruhai could fully support the emperor's crown and take over the rule. At that time, his son Lin Yi could naturally take over Lin Ruhai's burden and replace him to continue to control the military power of Qin.

With this kind of merit, the power and status of the Lin family will become more and more consolidated and deeper.

Under such circumstances, in the face of the harassment of the Wei people on the border, Song Mucai disagreed with the opposition and asked his second brother Song Cheng to lead the army to confront the Wei army, hoping to use the merits of Song Cheng to defeat the Wei people to enhance the influence of the Song family and at the same time offset the influence of part of the Lin family.

However, although Song Cheng was not a mediocre person, he was not a famous general. There was a high-bearded thief army causing chaos within, so he could only maintain a confrontation, but was unable to fight the Wei State for a long time.

This led to the impeachment of many court officials in the Qin court, especially the officials of the Imperial Party attacked the chief minister Song Mu to be a nepotist. Song Cheng was mediocre and did not look at him. He consumed countless money and food, but did nothing.

Some of the bravest people even alluded to the empress dowager in the palace.

Although Song Mu took ruthless measures to deal with some people, this kind of thing cannot be too intense. Once the reaction is too strong, the situation of the Song family will become more difficult.

Lin Ruhai used his influence in the army to make Song Cheng's 200,000 soldiers in a different mood, making it even more difficult for Song Cheng to make a difference.

At the same time, after another operation, his son Lin Yi took command of the army to fight against the rebellion. He wanted to further enhance and expand the influence of the Lin family in the army while continuing to suppress the Song family's ambition.

There would have been almost no accidental good chess, but Li Xu was disturbed.

Tens of thousands of troops were wiped out, and Lin Yi himself was also confused about his life and death. As a result, Lin Ruhai's situation suddenly became extremely difficult.

The Imperial Party has also suffered a heavy blow, and has been much more restrained recently.

Although Song Mu did not have definite evidence that Lin Yi's defeat was related to Li Xu, it did not prevent him from thinking that Li Xu was a deputy general.

Since Li Xu saved his niece, the Song family's situation has been getting better and better, but their rival, the Lin family, has been in trouble, and there is a shadow of Li Xu in all these things.

Li Xu himself has a close relationship with his niece and is a rare talent. He speaks and does things without clichés. Although he seems lazy, he is full of wisdom.

Under these conditions, it is not surprising that Song has such an attitude towards Li Xu.

Although Li Xu did not have a deep understanding of the situation, he could guess more or less.

When the wine and food start, Li Xu is a junior, so naturally he has to toast the three elders with a cup first.

After three rounds of wine, everyone became a little drunk when facing the delicious food, wine and beautiful scenery, and they relaxed casually while talking.

Song Mu asked Li Xu what he thought about the current world situation. Li Xu said that he was young and had no idea and asked Uncle Song for advice.

Song Mu smiled and talked to everyone about the general situation of the world.

Let me first talk about Qin, talk about the internal and external troubles of Qin, and talk about Qin's old enemy Wei, and finally talk about the situation of all countries in the world one by one.

Li Xu naturally would not miss this opportunity to understand the world, listen carefully, and interfere with questions from time to time.

Seeing that Li Xu was so studious, Song Mu spared no effort to explain to him.

Song Yu and Liu Jian listened carefully, and occasionally added a few more.

Li Xu could hear from Song Mu's words that Qin State has spies in all countries around the world, so he has some understanding of the current situation of various countries.

However, this understanding is also biased. For example, Song Mu's speeches were obviously more detailed about the old enemy Wei State and Zhao State, which was separated by a river, and a brief one for Qin State and Chen State, which were even more far away from Qin State.

The same is true for the Chu State in the south.

I have only a few words about the Jin Kingdom in Liaodong and the Dali countries such as Tubo, and obviously I don’t know much.

As for the countries in the Western Regions, they basically said one sentence.

Song Mu's tone was filled with a hint of contempt and disdain in his tone. After all, Shu was a country that was famous for its comfort and was not very enterprising.

However, this is obviously in line with reality. The manpower is limited, so in terms of intelligence collection, we must follow the factors of nearness and then far, and consider actual threats.

The biggest threat to Qin State at present is Wei State, followed by Zhao State, then the Mongol Yuan State in the north and the Western Regions in the west.

Other countries cannot stand against Qin, and they cannot fight together even if they want to.

Li Xu listened with relish, and Song Mu was also talking about it with great enthusiasm, but he didn't eat much good dishes on the table.

I don’t know how long it took, but Song Mu stopped and looked at Li Xu and smiled, “It’s been a long time since I’ve been so happy. Brother Xu is indeed a big-minded person. If you like it in the future, I can show you the information files about various countries.”

Li Xu was delighted and hurriedly thanked him.

A lot of intelligence collected from official channels is naturally much more perfect than the ones collected by my own rough and simple intelligence network.

Li Xu suddenly asked, "Uncle Song, I heard that the Black Ice Platform of Qin is famous and famous. It is as famous as the Palace Front Office of Wei and the Xuanjing System of Qi. I wonder who is in the hands of the Black Ice Platform now?"

Li Xu actually asked about this a bit abruptly, but he was just a tough person without desire, so he naturally asked when he thought about it.

For Song, in his opinion, if they can always show kindness and friendship, they will definitely give them a good future.

So, in his heart, he was actually examining them.

Song Mu and Song Yu looked at each other and saw the surprise in each other's eyes, but soon disappeared. Song Mu said: "The commander of the Black Ice Platform is called Song Yi."

As soon as Li Xu heard this, he understood.

That must be from the Song family.

However, the Black Ice Platform is an intelligence agency directly under the emperor. The emperor is still young and has not taken power.

The palace was the Empress Dowager Song, and the control of the Black Ice Platform naturally fell into the hands of the Song family.

The ability of Song's control of the Qin Dynasty was obviously related to the black ice platform in his hand.

So Li Xu was not surprised by this answer.

The four of them ate the dishes for a while. Seeing that the dishes were cold, they ordered the maid to take them down, change to a flower hall next to the water, and continued to add a few new dishes, and continued to chat with the jar of tribute wine.

The topic finally talked about Zhou Taizulai, who once unified the world a hundred years ago, and finally died suddenly, causing the world to fall apart. Song Mu sighed: "A stunning and stunning figure like Zhou Taizu can definitely be a hero who can compare with Qin Emperor and Han Wu. He is a rare figure in the entire historical occasion. Now if the world wants to be unified again, it is impossible for such a person to do it."

Song Yu also sighed: "The current pattern of the world is like the Warring States Period, but it is different. Although our Qin State is also Qin State, it has neither the strength to go east to Hangu to unify the world, nor the other countries have the motivation and conditions to unite against Qin. The countries in the world are hindering and restraining each other. Although their strengths are different, none of them can beat the country. Even if the Zulong really reborn, it will be extremely difficult to make the world unified again."

Although Liu Jian didn't say anything, he nodded in agreement.

Li Xu said after hearing this: "If you want to unify the world, in addition to a hero with great talent, if a new weapon that can sweep the country appears, the possibility of unification in the world will be greatly increased."
Chapter completed!