Chapter 2 Self-mutilation of siblings under the guidance of teachers

When Qin Ershi ascended the throne as emperor, he himself knew that the throne was not so legitimate, and he always felt guilty, so the most urgent task was how to consolidate the throne.In this regard, his teacher Zhao Gao came up with a very simple solution for him, that is - to kill. The first thing to kill was his own brother.Before Qin II came to the throne, he conspired with Zhao Gao and Li Si to kill his son Fusu.However, Qin Shihuang had many children during his lifetime. In addition to Fusu, he left behind more than 20 sons and princesses.Hu Hai is the youngest son of Qin Shihuang. In his opinion, these elder brothers are all potential threats to his throne.So he made up charges and let Zhao Gao come to trial.Zhao Gao was sinister and cruel, and getting rid of these young masters was premeditated. The so-called trial was just a formality.So he arrested twelve princes, ten princesses, and several old ministers and servants. Under severe torture, they were all charged with felony treason.As a result, twelve sons were killed in Xianyang, ten princesses were dismembered in Duyou (now Xianyang City), all property was confiscated into officials, and countless people were implicated.

If the young master still poses a potential threat to Qin Er Shi's throne, then it would be senseless to execute ten princesses.Women have always been forbidden to participate in political affairs. In fact, these sisters of Qin Ershi did not pose any threat to him, but they were also sentenced to such cruel punishments, which shows that Qin Ershi's crazy killing has reached the level of insanity.It must be "attributed" to his teacher Zhao Gao for making a young man in his twenties so murderous. When Hu Hai was a son, Zhao Gao was his teacher.The Qin Dynasty established the country with Legalism. The so-called "teach the law and use officials as teachers". punishment and the like.In this way, Qin II, who was accustomed to seeing prison torture, became emperor, and immediately put into practice what he had learned before.

Qin Ershi was so aggressive that he even refused to let go of his half-brother. Jiang Lu and the other three were his half-brothers, and they were calmer than the other brothers. Qin Ershi really couldn't find any crimes to frame them , and shut them up in the palace.They thought that Qin Ershi would be lenient, and after being imprisoned in the inner palace, he still considered himself innocent, thinking that he would be released soon.But after many other brothers were killed, they also received an imperial edict ordering them to commit suicide. Jiang Lu and others said to the visitors: "We have not made any mistakes in court etiquette; we have not made any mistakes in court etiquette. We never disobeyed; obeyed orders, and we have no fault at all, why do you say that we did not abide by the etiquette of being courtiers, and asked us to kill ourselves." The visitor replied: "I don't know why you were convicted and executed, I just followed orders." The three of Jiang Lu wept at each other, shouting "not guilty", and finally had no choice but to draw their swords and kill themselves.

One of Qin Ershi's brothers was named Gongzi Gao. Seeing such a massacre, he knew that he would not be spared.So he came up with a way to protect his relatives.He wrote to Qin Ershi, saying that he missed his father and was willing to die for his father.Qin Ershi saw how "cooperative" this brother was, and he was overjoyed. He issued an imperial edict to praise him, and gave him 100,000 yuan to assist in the burial. Qin Ershi mutilated his brothers and slaughtered his own brothers, and at the same time massacred his officials.The first to kill were brothers Meng Tian and Meng Yi.They had a grudge against Zhao Gao, and Zhao Gao had long ago gritted his teeth with hatred.Once the power is in hand, naturally it will not let it go.At the beginning, Qin Ershi wanted to continue to use these two brothers, and didn't want to kill them.Zhao Gao slandered him just in front of him, saying that Qin Shihuang originally wanted to make him the prince, but because of Meng Yi's opposition, he was not established.So Qin II was furious, locked them up, and sent messengers to force them to commit suicide.Meng Tian was still unwilling at first, and wanted to meet Qin Er Shi to express his grievances.But how could the envoy not know what Qin Er Shi was thinking, so he naturally refused, so Meng Tian had no choice but to take poison and commit suicide.After the Meng brothers, the right prime minister Feng Quji, the general Feng Jie and other veteran officials were also forced to commit suicide by trumped-up charges.Except for Li Si, all the heroes in the court were almost wiped out, and the court was empty for a while, and the survivors were all in danger.The vacant position was filled by Zhao Gaoan with his cronies.His younger brother Zhao Cheng was appointed Lang Zhongling, who was in charge of the capital and the emperor's guard, and his son-in-law Yan Le was the Xianyang Ling.Other officials such as censors and servants were also replaced by Zhao Gao's people. Zhao Gao's minions and eyes and ears were everywhere in the court.

After killing many ministers in the court, Qin II began to focus on local officials again.In the second year of his accession to the throne, that is, at the beginning of 209 BC, he imitated his father Qin Shihuang and toured the world.It went south to Kuaiji (now Suzhou), north to Jieshi (now Changli North, Hebei), and finally returned to Xianyang from Liaodong (now Liaoyang, Liaoning).During the parade, Zhao Gao advised him to take the opportunity to establish his prestige and kill all the disobedient officials.So Qin Ershi didn't care about injustice, and ordered to kill dissidents again and again. As a result, the ministers were panicked and everyone was in danger.

Qin Ershi obeyed Zhao Gaoyan, and Zhao Gao's power grew day by day, so he coveted Li Si's position as prime minister.However, Li Si was also a hero who helped Qin II succeed to the throne.Moreover, in the view of Qin Ershi, who was deeply rooted in Legalist thought, the existence of Li Si just played a role in checking and balancing Zhao Gao's power.Therefore, even though Zhao Gao spoke ill of Li Si in front of him, he didn't take any action immediately.At this time, due to Qin II's severe torture and cruel laws, excessive expropriation and extortion, Chen Sheng and Wu Guang's uprising was aroused.Li Si remonstrated several times, but Qin II ignored him.But he sent envoys to accuse him of failing to stabilize the country as a prime minister, but causing thieves to flock.Li Si was criticized, fearing that he would fall out of favor, he wrote an article to persuade Qin II to practice "the art of supervision and blame", and presented to Qin II the method of governing the country with arbitrary power and cruel law to rule the people, which fueled his tyranny. Oil.But this trick didn't work, and Qin Er Shi finally listened to Zhao Gao's slander and took Li Si to prison.

Li Si was severely tortured in the prison, but he still imagined that Qin Ershi could understand his grievances, so he wrote a self-defense letter in prison and entrusted the jailer to Qin II.But this book fell into the hands of Zhao Gao.Zhao Gao was afraid that Li Si would retract his confession, so he asked his cronies to pretend to be censor servants to interrogate Li Si in turn.Li Si didn't know there was a fraud in it, so he told the truth, but he was brutally tortured every time.Later, Qin II sent people to verify Li Si's confession. Li Si thought that he was the same as the previous few times, and he never dared to change his words and admitted the crime of treason.

Zhao Gao played this confession to Qin Ershi, and Qin Ershi was very happy after reading it, thinking that if Zhao Gao hadn't been there, he would have been fooled by Li Si.So Li Si was sentenced to death, cut in half in Xianyang, and wiped out the three clans.Before his execution, Li Si said sadly to his second son: "Now I will never have the chance to take the yellow dog with you and go hunting at Caidongmen." Once Li Si died, the power in the court was completely concentrated in Zhao Gao's hands.