Meng Tian followed Li Si into the Xiangguo Mansion, and all the subordinates in the Xiangguo Mansion saw that their family and the general had entered the mansion, and hurriedly bowed to the ground on both sides of the road in the Prime Minister's Mansion.

Li Si took Meng Tian all the way to the hall in the Prime Minister's Mansion, while telling Meng Tian to sit down, and then instructed the people in the family to prepare wine and food to prepare Meng Tian.

After Meng Tian sat down, he looked at the richly decorated hall in the Prime Minister's Mansion, and said to Li Si with a smile: "The Prime Minister's Mansion looks much more luxurious than the previous Prime Minister's Mansion." ”

Li Si waved his hand, and he said to Meng Tian: "I remember that you rarely came to my mansion when you were in Xianyang City before, why did you come here to mock me when I invited you to come this time?"

"Then how dare I? For me, the Prime Minister is not only Meng Tian's former teacher, but also one of my most reliable friends in the Qin Kingdom. For the Prime Minister, I only have admiration for Meng Tian, how dare I ridicule the Lord here?" Meng Tian said.

Li Si also sat down, "I, Li Si, can have today's glory, all of which are given by His Majesty the Emperor today." After that, Li Si pointed to a screen decorated with exquisite carvings and said: "General Meng, look at this screen, it was once a treasure in the palace of King Zhao, and after the Zhao Kingdom was destroyed, it came here from the palace of King Zhao." No, and the pair of vases, which are also treasures of the Wei Palace, it is said that this pair of vases placed in the house can make the room filled with the fragrance of flowers, and was later given to me by His Majesty the Emperor. ”

Meng Tian looked at all the furnishings here, many of them were treasures that he had seen in the palaces of other princes, including the snake around the pillar lamp in the palace of the king of Chu, and the glazed white jade tea cup in the palace of the king of Qi.

Meng Tian looked around the hall of the Prime Minister's Mansion, and he said to Li Si: "Many things here are indeed treasures, thinking that His Majesty the Emperor pacified the world, and many treasures in the palace of the Six Kings were all transported to Xianyang City and distributed to meritorious officials. There are also many treasures in my Mongolian Mansion that used to be the treasures of the Six Kingdoms, but compared to the treasures in the Prime Minister's Mansion, they are a little insignificant. ”

At this time, the subordinates in the Prime Minister's Mansion outside walked in with dishes, and Li Si greeted Meng Tian: "Come, General Meng, the two of us haven't drunk together for a long time, come, let's talk while eating." ”

"Then Meng Tian is better to obey his fate than to be respectful, please Prime Minister. ”

Since Lü Buwei left Xianyang, the drunken Hunan fish, which was originally worth every inch of land, gradually began to wither, and finally had no choice but to go bankrupt. Although the drunken Xiangyu has closed down, but the chef of the drunken Xiangyu has become the most sought-after goods of the dignitaries and nobles in Xianyang City, although the dishes of the drunken Xiangyu are expensive, but they can't resist its taste is indeed very delicious, and there are few chefs in Xianyang City who can make such delicious things. Therefore, after the drunken Xiangyu closed the door, except for one chef who was in charge of the palace and was recruited by the palace, the rest of the cooks were divided up by the ministers.

Many chefs have become sought-after goods, no matter who pays the highest price, in the end, it is still the right to say. Li Si, who succeeded Lü Buwei as the new Xiangguo Lord at that time, recruited the chef who was second only to the chef in drunken Xiangyu skills to the mansion. And today, among the dishes that Li Si feasted on Meng Tian, there was the signature dish of drunken Xiangyu - drunken Xiangyu.

Looking at this delicacy in front of him that he hadn't seen for a long time, Meng Tian couldn't believe it, he hadn't paid attention to the matter of drunken Xiangyu at all, so he felt a little surprised to see this Zi Yanran's favorite dish in Li Si's mansion.

"Is this fish the signature dish of the drunken Xiangyu fish before, "Drunken Xiangyu"?" Meng Tian asked in surprise.

Li Si nodded, and he smiled at Meng Tian and said, "That's right, I didn't expect that Drunken Xiangyu had been closed for so long, and General Meng still remembered the taste of this dish so clearly." ”

Meng Tian laughed, he opened his mouth and said: "No, no, no, what I remember is not the taste of this dish, but the appearance of this dish, to be honest, the Prime Minister and I, even if it is His Majesty's imperial banquet, the two of us have eaten more times than others have combined in their lives, but to be honest, there is really no such thing as the appearance of the dish made by the drunken Xiangyu." As for the taste, anyone who has eaten it will never forget the unique taste of this dish. ”

Li Si felt the same way, "General Meng's words are true, so when Zui Xiangyu was closed, I specially sent someone to buy a chef from Zui Xiangyu into the mansion, just hoping to be able to eat this delicious food from time to time." ”

"The Prime Minister is also a man of temperament, come on, let's have a drink. Meng Tian raised his wine glass and said to Li Si.

"Okay, General Meng, please. The two men raised their glasses and brought the wine into their bellies.

After a glass of wine, Li Si said to Meng Tian: "I invited General Meng to come today for the sake of the treasury. ”

Meng Tian sighed, he looked at Li Si, and Li Si was also looking at him. To tell you the truth, I have not been in the court for more than two years, and now His Majesty has appointed me to the post of internal history and asked me to manage the treasury. ”

"General Meng misunderstood, in fact, as the prime minister of Great Qin, to outsiders or the common people of Qin, I am in power, if it weren't for Li Si being a literati, I wouldn't be able to lead the troops. I'm afraid that I can take half of General Meng's military power. ”

Meng Tian did not raise any objections, indeed, a talent like Li Si has a first-class strategy for governing the country, which Meng Tian has no choice but to refute.

Li Si continued: "Hahaha, it's a joke. Actually, my life is not easy, as the prime minister of Great Qin, although I have more rights than General Meng, there are too many things to govern. General Meng wants to lead his troops to fight, and I have to be responsible for dispatching grain and grass for the army in Xianyang City. The general wants to build the Great Wall, and His Majesty will write down an edict, and I will draft a document and recruit the people in the country. At the end of the day, if it weren't for other colleagues, I'm afraid I would have nothing to do today, sitting here with the general to drink and chat. ”

Meng Tian nodded, when he was young, he also envied his father and grandfather as a general who led thousands of troops and horses into battle, and when he really became a general, he knew the hard work of the general. The form on the battlefield is changing rapidly, and the slightest carelessness is the casualties of thousands of troops and horses, the success or failure of a war may not be very important, but those soldiers who died in battle really can't survive anymore, so Meng Tian, as the commander of the Mengjia army, and even the generalissimo of the entire Qin State, he has always been cautious.

"Prime Minister, in fact, I think there are many similarities between leading troops to fight and governing the country as an adult, they are both walking on thin ice, and if you don't pay attention to it, it will be a loss to my Great Qin Sheji. ”

Li Si raised his glass, and he said: "It's all one sentence, it's all for the sake of Great Qin's thousands of miles of rivers and mountains, and for His Majesty the Emperor." Here, cheers. ”

The two men raised their glasses and continued to drink.

"Okay, let's talk about going back to the treasury, I want to know what General Meng can do about the emptiness of the treasury?"

Meng Tian thought for a while, and he said: "I don't have a clue about the treasury for the time being, but I want to know why the treasury has been depleted so much in the past two years, and can the Prime Minister tell me about it." ”

Li Si smiled slightly, and he nodded. Li Si took a bite of the dish and put it in his mouth, and then said, "Okay, then I'll talk to you about it." ”

Meng Tian didn't speak, he looked at Li Si quietly.

Li Si drank a glass of wine, and then he said to Meng Tian: "Actually, I can't tell you these things clearly. Although I have the right to intervene in the affairs of the treasury, Zhao Yu has the final say on all this, all I can do is how much money is needed, and then ask me to write the will, as for the specific expenditure of the treasury, I have never cared too much. ”

"So, I can't interfere in the affairs of the treasury?"

"Actually, it's not necessarily true, in my opinion, the matter of the treasury still has to find a breakthrough in Zhao Yu's body. Although in the past two years, the northern Xinjiang has used troops, built the imperial mausoleum, and the Afang Palace on Lishan Mountain, but if it is all returned to Daqin today, the taxes of various counties and counties are also transported to Xianyang City, but if you want to say that the treasury is empty, then I still don't believe it. ”

Meng Tian felt that Li Si should have many secrets in his heart, but he didn't want to tell them to himself.

Meng Tian raised his glass and said to Li Si: "The Prime Minister and I are both working for Your Majesty, if there is something I do wrong, I hope the Prime Minister can help." ”

Li Si also said to Meng Tian: "This is natural, after all, you were also one of my students, of course I will help you, I just hope that you can turn a blind eye in some places, because there are too many people involved in the affairs of the treasury, I don't want you to be in danger one day, do you understand?"

It seems that the affairs of the treasury are not as simple as imagined, Meng Tian secretly thought to himself. However, since His Majesty the Emperor handed over this matter to him, he naturally spared no effort to handle this matter well.

"In the end, I only have one thing to say to you, you remember, Zhao Yu is Zhao Gao's brother. As long as you remember this sentence, then I am relieved. Li Si looked at Meng Tian and said a sentence in a serious tone.

Meng Tian was shocked in his heart, Zhao Gao, could it be that this matter still has something to do with him. Meng Tian's impression of Zhao Gao has always been one of the most trusted eunuchs around Ying Zheng, but when he heard Li Si's words today, it turned out that it was this silent and inconspicuous Zhao Gao who had been hidden deeply.

Meng Tian drank a glass of wine silently after listening to Li Si's words, it seems that the affairs of the treasury are indeed greasy, and they are not small. No matter how many people were involved in this matter, Meng Tian decided that he had to make this matter clear and give a satisfactory explanation to his good brother, His Majesty the Emperor.