Chapter 44 43 Li Sijian chasing away guests

Although Qin State lost a battle in Handan, its strength is still very strong.In the second year (256 BC), he attacked Han and Zhao and won the battle.Later, the nominal Eastern Zhou Dynasty was simply destroyed.After the death of King Zhaoxiang of Qin, his grandson King Zhuangxiang of Qin died less than three years after his accession to the throne. Prince Yingzheng, who was only thirteen years old, took the throne. At that time, the political power of the state of Qin was in the hands of Lu Buwei, the prime minister. Lu Buwei was originally a wealthy businessman in Yangdi (now Yuxian County, Henan Province). He became a prime minister because he helped King Zhuang Xiang obtain the throne.After Lu Buwei became the Prime Minister, he also followed the example of Lord Mengchang and took in a large number of followers, many of whom came from other countries.

During the Warring States period, many schools of thought wrote books one after another, and this situation was called "a hundred schools of thought contend" in history.Lu Buwei couldn't write a book himself, so he organized his disciples to write a book called "Lu Shi Chunqiu".After the book was completed, Lu Buwei also sent someone to hang it on the city gate of Xianyang, and issued a notice saying that whoever can comment on this book, no matter if a word is added or deleted, will be rewarded with a thousand taels.As a result, his reputation became even louder. Qin Wangzheng was getting older. When he was twenty-two years old, a rebellion broke out in the palace, which involved Lu Buwei.Qin Wangzheng felt that keeping Lu Buwei was in the way, so he dismissed Lu Buwei.Later, it was discovered that Lu Buwei was powerful, so he was forced to commit suicide.

As soon as Lu Buwei fell from power, some nobles and ministers of Qin State began to discuss, saying that people from other countries came to Qin State for their own purposes, and some might come to be spies.They asked Qin Wangzheng to drive all Keqing out of Qin. Qin Wangzheng accepted this opinion and issued an order to expel the guests.Officials, big and small, who are not from Qin, have to leave Qin. There was a guest Qing Li Si from the state of Chu, who was originally a student of Xun Kuang, a representative of the famous Confucian school.He came to the state of Qin and was retained by Lu Buwei as a guest minister.This time, Li Si also got expelled, and he was quite unconvinced.When he left Xianyang, he wrote a memorial to King Qin.

Li Si said in the memorial: "In the past Qin Mugong used Baili Xi and Jian Shu to become the overlord; Qin Xiaogong used Shang Yang to reform and strengthen; King Huiwen used Zhang Yi to break up the Six Kingdoms Alliance; King Zhaoxiang had Fan Ju has increased the prestige of the imperial court. These four monarchs all relied on guest officials to establish their careers. Now that they are in the hands of the king, but all the foreign talents are driven away, isn't this helping the enemy country to increase its strength?" Qin Wangzheng felt that what Li Si said was reasonable, so he quickly sent someone to retrieve Li Si from the middle of the road, restored his official position, and canceled the expulsion order.

After Qin Wangzheng used Li Si as a counselor, he strengthened his offensive against other countries, sent people to other countries to lobby the princes, and also used methods such as counterintuiting and buying and selling to cooperate with the offensive by force.When Han Wangan saw this situation, he became frightened and sent his son Han Fei to Qin to ask for peace, expressing his willingness to be a vassal of Qin. Han Fei was also a student of Xun Kuang, a classmate with Li Si.In Korea, he saw that the country was weakening day by day, so he advised the King of Han several times, but the King of Han just ignored him.Han Fei was full of knowledge and was not reused, so he closed the door and wrote a book called "Han Feizi".In his book, he advocated that the monarch should concentrate power and strengthen the rule of law.When this book was passed to Qin State, Qin Wangzheng appreciated it very much and said, "It would be great if I could meet this man."

This time, Han Fei was appointed by the king of Han to come to the state of Qin. Seeing the strength of the state of Qin, he wrote a letter to the king of Qin, expressing his willingness to contribute to the unification of the world by the state of Qin.As soon as the memorial was sent up, King Qin hadn't considered reusing Han Fei, but Li Si became anxious first, fearing that Han Fei would take his position.He said in front of King Qin: "Han Fei is the son of South Korea. The king annexed the princes. Han Fei must plan for South Korea; if he is allowed to return to the country, it will be a future trouble. It is better to find a crime and kill him."

Qin Wangzheng hesitated a little after hearing this, and ordered Han Fei to be detained first for interrogation.Han Fei went to prison and had no chance to defend himself.However, Li Si sent him poison, and Han Fei had no choice but to commit suicide by taking the medicine. Qin Wangzheng detained Han Fei and regretted it a little. He sent someone to release Han Fei, but it was too late.Qin Wangzheng was very annoyed.At this time, a man from the state of Wei Liao came to the state of Qin. Qin Wangzheng talked to him and thought he was a rare talent, so he appointed Liao as Qin Guowei, and later people called him Weiliao.