The disaster of national subjugation is just around the corner, but Zhao Gao and Hu Hai are still living in their own world.
Since becoming the prime minister, Zhao Gao feels that the road ahead of him is getting brighter and brighter. Before that, under Zhao Gao's clever words, Hu Hai began not to meet directly with the ministers, hoping to establish a majestic image in this way. In this way, the presentation of memorials and the transmission of government orders would all go through Zhao Gao's hands, making it easy for Zhao Gao It can blind Hu Hai's vision and hearing. Now that Zhao Gao has become the prime minister of the dynasty again, with overwhelming power, he inevitably has the idea of replacing him.
In order to verify his influence and further deceive Hu Hai, on this day, while Hu Hai was playing in the garden, Zhao Gao led a deer in and said, "Your Majesty, I have a good horse, and I have come here to offer it to you." Here you go." Although Hu Hai was a confused person, the deer and the horse still knew each other, so he immediately said: "Prime Minister, are you confused? This is obviously a deer, how can you say it is a horse?"
"Your Majesty, this is indeed a horse." Zhao Gao said with certainty.
Hu Hai was delighted and said to his ministers: "The Prime Minister is really good at telling jokes. Tell me, is this a horse or a deer?"
Among these close ministers, some wanted to flatter Zhao Gao and hurriedly said "It's a horse"; some did not want to deceive the emperor but did not dare to offend Zhao Gao, so they remained silent; a few were loyal to Hu Hai and refused to agree with Zhao Gao, saying bluntly "It is a horse". deer". Zhao Gao watched from the sidelines, remembering the outspoken people one by one, and went back to find excuses for each of them, either jailing or beheading them, and sorted them out.
Throughout Chinese history, it can be said that there are few people like Zhao Gao who dare to tease the emperor like this in broad daylight. Even among the famous military, powerful and ambitious ministers in the past dynasties, no one has done anything similar to "turning a deer into a horse". This shows how rampant Zhao Gao is.
When the ministers took a look, they found that Zhao Gao was indeed cruel. Once he offended him, he would be retaliated against. Everyone was in danger and in order to protect themselves, no one dared to confront Zhao Gao. From now on, no one around Hu Hai dared to speak ill of Zhao Gao, and no one dared to say anything that Zhao Gao did not want Hu Hai to hear.
Just when Zhao Gao was enjoying playing tricks on Hu Hai, Xiang Yu recruited Zhang Han and began to march towards Xianyang; Liu Bang was also on the way; Han, Zhao, Wei, Chu, Yan, and Qi had all established themselves as kings. The area east of Hangu Pass basically betrayed the Qin Dynasty and responded to the various princes.
In order to prevent Hu Hai from coming out to manage the government in person, Zhao Gao kept coaxing Hu Hai and said: "There are no rebels, they are just thieves with no ability, and they can be wiped out quickly."
But now the rebels are getting stronger and stronger. Especially since Liu Bang had sent envoys to contact him secretly and encourage Zhao Gao to help him enter Xianyang. It can be seen that the anti-Qin situation in the world has reached the level of burning a prairie fire.
The paper could no longer contain the fire, and Zhao Gao was in panic. He was afraid that Hu Hai would know that the situation in the world was out of control, and that Hu Hai would know that there were rebels coming to incite rebellion against him. He was so frightened that he did not even dare to enter the palace, and refused to show up claiming to be ill.
Hu Hai hadn't seen Zhao Gao for several days, and he probably felt something was wrong in his heart. When he went to bed that night, he had a nightmare, dreaming that a tiger ate the horse that was pulling his cart.
The ancients were superstitious and believed that dreams were a harbinger of good and bad luck. Hu Hai had such a nightmare that he quickly called for a diviner to interpret the dream. The fortune teller made a calculation and said: "Your Majesty, you have collided with the Jinghe River Water God. The Jinghe River Water God caused trouble, and that's why you had such a dream." You have collided with the Water God, is this okay? Hu Hai quickly moved to Wangyi Palace (the former address is between Wufu Village and Eryangzhuang, Jiangliu Township, Jingyang County, Shaanxi Province today) to fast, and sank all four white horses pulling his cart into the Jing River to worship the water god. What he means is: Aren’t you going to eat my horse? I'll give you all four horses, so don't come to me again.
Let me spread some geographical knowledge to everyone.
The Jinghe River is a major tributary of the Yellow River, and in the Qin Dynasty it was also equivalent to the river that protected the country. So why is the God of the Protector River angry? Hu Hai analyzed that it was probably because he was always unable to wipe out the bandits that had appeared recently. So Hu Hai sent people to Zhao Gao's house to accuse Zhao Gao of not doing things well, which made the gods angry.
Hu Hai was so anxious and angry that he simply wanted to chase Zhao Gao away to appease the Water God, regardless of the relationship between Zhao Gao and himself. When the emperor is angry, blood will flow like a river! Zhao Gao was even more frightened this time and quickly called his brother Zhao Cheng and son-in-law Yan Le to discuss countermeasures. Of course, he couldn't take the responsibility on himself and put it all on Hu Hai. Zhao Gao said: "Hu Hai did not listen to loyal advice, which led to the critical situation now. But he actually wants to put all the blame on our family. We can't let him do this, it is a crime of genocide. I plan to kill Hu Hai , let Ziying be the emperor. Ziying is kind, thrifty, and has high prestige. If we make him, we will definitely get everyone's support."
In the Zhao family, Zhao Gao is in charge, and everyone else listens to him. When he said this, Zhao Cheng and Yan Le would not have any objections. Immediately, Zhao Gao divided his troops and sent generals. Zhao Cheng was the Langzhong Ling at the time and was in charge of guarding the palace entrance, so Zhao Gao asked him to be the internal response; Yan Le was the Xianyang Ling at the time and was in charge of many people, so Zhao Gao asked him to be responsible for breaking into the palace and killing people. Zhao Cheng is Zhao Gao's younger brother. Naturally, he and Zhao Gao are like grasshoppers on the same rope and cannot escape. The son-in-law is different and may not necessarily have the same heart. In order to prevent Yan Le from having other thoughts, Zhao Gao forcibly invited his mother-in-law to be a hostage and ordered Yan Le to summon his men to the palace to kill people.
August of the third year of Qin II (207 BC) was the harvest season.
In the middle of the night, the moonlight is miserable.
It was dark inside Wangyi Palace.
"Catch the thief!"
Suddenly, a shout broke through the quiet night sky.
Xianyang ordered Yan Le to be murderous. He led more than a thousand people to the gate of Wangyi Palace, tied up the captain of the guard guarding the palace gate, and sternly asked the captain why he didn't stop the thief.
The captain felt aggrieved and just replied, "There is one post every ten steps and one sentry every five steps in the palace. There is absolutely no possibility of a thief."
Yan Le just wanted an excuse to enter the palace. He didn't listen to the argument at all. He killed the captain with a knife and led the team to rush into the palace while shooting arrows everywhere. Some of the eunuchs and guards on duty in the palace fled in all directions, while others took up weapons and fought to the death. Yan Le had many people and was fully prepared. He killed dozens of people along the way, but no one could withstand his attack. Not long after, Yan Le rushed to Hu Hai's palace and broke in with Zhao Cheng.
Hu Hai had already been awakened by the shouts of killing outside. When he heard someone coming in, he quickly turned over and sat up. Seeing this, Yan Le shot an arrow at Hu Hai's bedside to show off his power first. When Hu Hai saw it was Yan Le, he immediately understood that this must be Zhao Gao's instigation. Furious, Hu Hai repeatedly shouted at the guards to take down Yan Le. Hu Hai shouted several times, but the guards in the room were too frightened to move and hid far away. Only one young eunuch was loyal enough. Although he was also scared, he still served Hu Hai and could not bear to leave him and run for his life. Seeing this, Hu Hai sighed and said to the young eunuch: "Why didn't you tell me earlier that Zhao Gao was this kind of person! If you had told me earlier, how could I have ended up in this situation! How could you let this old thief succeed!"
The young eunuch replied at that time: "I can only live today because I dare not tell the emperor. If I had told the emperor earlier, my bones would be rotten, and how could I still be here to serve you?"
How could Yan Le allow Hu Hai to linger here? "Teng Teng Teng" stepped forward and wanted to kill Hu Hai.
Hu Hai didn't want to die, so he knelt down and begged for mercy, howling and hoping to see the prime minister.
But Yan Le was unwilling and immediately ordered the soldiers to come forward, threatening to kill Hu Hai without taking action.
Hu Hai was desperate. He mustered up his last courage and committed suicide at the age of twenty-four.
Hu Hai is dead. Zhao Gao summoned his ministers, announced his righteous deed of "eliminating the tyrant", and announced his support for Ziying.
Zhao Gao said: "Qin was originally a country of vassals. The first emperor unified the world and was called the emperor. Now that the six kingdoms have been restored, Qin's territory is smaller than before. In this case, no matter what the situation, It is impractical to call him emperor. It is not possible. He can only call him king." He made the decision on his own and buried Hu Hai in Dunan Yichun Garden (today's south bank of Qujiang Pool in the southeast of Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province) with the courtesy of a common people. He named his son Ying. The King of Qin asked him to fast for five days in the Imperial Ancestral Temple and receive the seals of the princes and kings. The feudal unified Qin Dynasty declared its demise.
What a tragedy!
Qin II died!
Sad and deplorable!
