The capital of Qi State, Linzi.

The city looks as prosperous as ever, people are bustling through the streets of Linzi City, even far away on the street can hear the sound of selling from the market, the surging crowds prove that Linzi's popularity has not only not lost anything compared to the past few years, but has increased a lot.

This is actually something that can be expected, after all, in the past few years, the war has rarely burned into this city, so it is inevitable that Linzi's popularity will increase.

Even in the so-called world of great controversy, people's desire for advantages and avoidance of disadvantages is still an instinct.

Except for a handful of war maniacs, no one likes war, let alone lives in a place where war is frequent.

Even the states of Qin and Zhao, which were famous for their military merit system, were only because the commoners had no way out but to participate in the war.

Men are responsible, and when they have to work hard to ensure that their offspring have a chance to survive, even if they don't want to fight.

After all, in the ancient barbaric era, people used their lives to fight with wild beasts, and then slowly survived and multiplied to this day.

It's just that now, the object of this struggle has changed from beasts to humans themselves.

"I hate war!" Hou Sheng sat on the carriage, staring at the bustling crowd in front of him, and thought silently in his heart.

To be honest, Hou Sheng is not actually against war, but the problem is that in the past few years, Qi has not won foreign wars!

Although it is said that the decider of these wars is Qi Wangjian, the king of Qi State, there is no doubt that people generally do not blame their own kings when they accuse.

Who is full of food and wants to offend their own monarch, what if one day the monarch gets angry and puts on small shoes for himself?

So of course, the first person under the monarch, the prime minister of Qi and Housheng, became the target of everyone's accusations.

On more than one occasion, some people have publicly accused Hou Sheng of misleading Qi Wangjian in the past few years, making Qi Wangjian make wrong decisions again and again, resulting in Qi repeatedly participating in wars in the past few years, but often not getting any benefits.

This kind of accusation was actually not taken to heart by Hou Sheng at the beginning, and even the person who accused him didn't take it too seriously, after all, Hou Sheng was favored as a well-known thing.

But as time slowly passed, as Zhao Guo became stronger step by step, the voice of this accusation began to become more and more urgent and intense.

No one is a fool, when they saw the destruction of Wei, Yan and Korea one after another, everyone could clearly feel that the shadow of war could hang over Qi at any time!

In such a situation, Hou Sheng was very embarrassed, and the saliva from all sides almost drowned him.

On this day, Housheng's house ushered in a very special guest.

A guest from the Kingdom of Zhao.

"Houqing, I haven't seen you for a long time." Zheng Zhu sat in front of Hou Sheng and greeted Hou Sheng very warmly, as if the owner of this study was not Hou Sheng, but Zheng Zhu himself.

Hou Sheng obviously didn't look as happy as Zheng Zhu, he looked at the Zhao Guoxing in front of him very coldly, and said slowly: "I don't know what happened to Zheng Qing coming this time?"

By this time, Hou Sheng had more or less come to his senses, knowing that in the last war, Zhao Guoren had actually dug a hole for himself.

If the Qi State at that time could choose to send troops decisively, although it would not necessarily be able to achieve victory, it would be the best time for the Qi State and even the other three countries to send troops.

As long as the Qi State chooses to send troops at that time, there is hope that it will be able to inflict the greatest damage on the Zhao State.

However, Hou Sheng chose to persuade Qi Wangjian not to go to war under the coercion and temptation of the Zhao people, so that the Qi State completely maintained neutrality in this war and sat back and watched the demise of Korea.

It is precisely because of this that Housheng encountered an unprecedented wave of criticism after the end of the war.

A number of Qi ministers wrote to impeach Hou Sheng and Zhao Guoren for colluding to mislead Qi Wangjian, so that Korea was annexed by Zhao in vain.

Although these impeachments were all seized by Hou Sheng, it was inevitable that some rumors came to Qi Wangjian's ears.

The most important thing is that it's still true!

So during these days, Hou Sheng could feel that Qi Wangjian seemed to be alienating himself intentionally or unintentionally.

This is absolutely terrible news for Hou Sheng.

Because Hou Sheng's talent was originally very limited, it was only by relying on Qi Wangjian's trust that he was able to mix peacefully in the political arena of Qi until now.

Now Qi Wangjian's trust in Hou Sheng has declined, which is simply the fate of Hou Sheng!

And the initiator of all this is Zheng Zhu in front of Hou Sheng!

With such some ins and outs in it, Hou Sheng felt that he didn't order someone to drive Zheng Zhu out at the first time he saw Zheng Zhu, which was really a manifestation of his own self-cultivation.

Of course, if you really want Hou Sheng to drive people away, Hou Sheng actually doesn't dare to do it......

Regarding Hou Sheng's unsalty attitude, Zheng Zhu did not show any irritation, but took out a piece of paper with a smile and put it in front of Hou Sheng.

"Houqing, please take a look, this is the gift list that my king ordered me to bring."

Gift list? Hou Sheng was puzzled in his heart, and subconsciously looked at the gift list.

1,500 eridium gold, 50 pairs of jadeite, 100 pearls......

To be honest, in the past few years, Hou Sheng has actually not received gifts from Zhao Guo, but the problem is that there has never been such a gift as this time, so rich that Hou Sheng himself is moved.

In terms of value, there is definitely no time that is more valuable than the Heshi Bi sent by Zhao State, but this kind of thing is definitely going to be paid tribute to the King of Qi, and Hou Sheng has not died to the point where he stays.

And all the gifts in this gift list are completely acceptable to Hou Sheng himself!

The difference between receiving gifts for the king and receiving gifts for oneself is obviously very big.

Therefore, even after many years of experience in receiving gifts, he was still stunned by this rich gift, and it took a long time before he said: "This, King Zhao is so generous, it really makes Hou Sheng feel ashamed."

If he said this kind of thing when he was usually receiving a gift, then he was probably just being polite. But now that Hou Sheng said this, it was really from the bottom of his heart.

It's like when the prime minister of a country suddenly receives tens of billions of dollars from another country, and anyone else will be as shocked as Hou Sheng.

Zheng Zhu smiled slightly, and said to Hou Sheng: "Hou Qing don't need to be afraid, my king just felt that Hou Qing was of great help to Zhao in the last war, so he specially ordered me to send these things to thank Hou Qing."

When he said this, Hou Sheng wanted to give Zheng Zhu a slap at that time.

Isn't this a victory after naked ridicule from the monarch of another country?

However, this slap after victory can't be beaten out, after all, Zheng Zhu's face is full of sincerity, and secondly, Zheng Zhu is an important minister of Zhao after all, and he is here on behalf of King Zhao, humiliating Zheng Zhu is equivalent to humiliating the powerful King Zhao, which Hou Sheng will not dare to do anyway.

So after being silent for a while, Hou Sheng had no choice but to say sullenly: "Since this is the case, then please ask Zheng Qing to thank King Zhao for me."

Hou Sheng finally chose to accept this very expensive gift.

Why not? After all, Hou Sheng did something for Zhao Guo, and Hou Sheng felt that he deserved it.

Anyway, the Zhao people have conquered several countries, and it is natural to be rich.

So after Hou Sheng accepted this gift, Zheng Zhu took advantage of the situation and put forward another request: "It's such a Hou Qing, in fact, my king still has something to ask for."

Hou Sheng was stunned for a moment and asked, "What's the matter?"

Zheng Zhu said with a smile: "That's the case, there has been some public opinion in the territory of Qi recently, saying that the next target of Zhao is Qi State, which is simply unreasonable!" Although there have been some occasional frictions between Zhao and Qi in the past few years, most of the time Zhao and Qi are friendly neighbors, so these public opinions are completely nonsense!"

Speaking of this, Zheng Zhu approached Hou Sheng with a smile and whispered to Hou Sheng: "Since this is the case, then my king naturally wants to ask Hou Qing to make more efforts to eliminate these nonsense, so that the people of Qi will not be disturbed by these nonsense."

After listening to Zheng Zhu's words, Hou Sheng seemed to have been punched in the chest, and his whole body shook violently.

At this moment, Hou Sheng had only one thought in his mind: "Zhao Guoren, sure enough, he is still here!"

Although Hou Sheng is very greedy for money, although Hou Sheng's talent is quite difficult to use to govern the country, Hou Sheng is not a fool.

Zhao Guoren can use such a rich gift to let Hou Sheng persuade Qi Wangjian, then he can only explain one thing,

Zhao Guoren is trying to cover up!

Since they are trying to cover up, then the purpose of the Zhao people is about to come out.

Hou Sheng stared at Zheng Zhu deadly, looking eager to completely pull out Zheng Zhu's heart and see what Zheng Zhu had in his heart.

These damn columnists who say one thing and do another are really despicable and shameless models!

For Hou Sheng's anger, Zheng Zhu may or may not feel it, in short, this Zhao Guo's big bank just pushed the gift list in front of Hou Sheng with a smile, and then reached out and knocked on the gift list gently, and then stopped talking.

After Zheng Zhu's action, Hou Sheng's whole person suddenly withered like a deflated ball.

Over the years, Hou Sheng has received many gifts from Zhao Guo, and Hou Sheng has a number in his heart.

If you really reject Zhao Guoren's words, then what if Zhao Guoren pokes out all these things......

If it was in normal times, this was actually not a big deal, after all, Qi Wangjian had already known about Hou Sheng's acceptance of gifts in private.

But the problem is that the current Zhao State is the enemy country of the Qi State!

Once the Zhao State attacked and the matter of Hou Sheng's gift was exposed, then a charge of communicating with foreign countries would definitely be indispensable.

Combined with the current situation of Hou Sheng, then it will really be the wall that everyone will push down!

Hou Sheng was silent for a long time, and finally showed a wry smile helplessly.

This thing...... I'll do my best.

……

This is what happened half an hour ago in the Housheng Mansion.

After that, Hou Sheng left the house and prepared to enter the palace in a carriage.

Looking at the Qi Kingdom Palace City that was getting closer and closer, Hou Sheng's mood gradually became extremely contradictory.

Do you really want to cooperate with Zhao Guoren to be this traitor?