Chapter 75: The Rats in the Rice Barn
"The assassin kills, heh, a fool would do this."
In Zhu Gaoxian's mind, Cao Cao said disdainfully, "The dead emperor is the most worthless, why not blackmail the Son of Heaven to order the princes!" β
Ying Zheng raised his eyebrows slightly: "You're pretty good at playing?" β
Cao Cao's attitude of not taking the emperor in his eyes made him feel insulted.
"Ahem." Cao Cao changed the subject, "Brother Zheng, have you seen Li Si, I have some questions I want to ask." β
"Hmph." Ying Zheng snorted coldly, "Li Si? The widow doesn't know this man! β
Qin Shi Huang Yingzheng, he was the first emperor in history, swept the six countries, the book is the same text, the car is on the same track, and the weights and measures are unified...... What he did was not the merit of one lifetime, but the merit of eternity!
When he was alive, he actually understood that the Great Qin Empire would last forever, and it would only be a hope rather than a reality. It has been too long, even if it is an eight-hundred-year-old Zhou Dynasty, what remains in the history books is just a sigh.
But what Ying Zheng never expected was that Daqin would be over in two and a half generations!
Although the third son of Qin has the talent of the hero, but he was born at the wrong time, when he ascended the throne, Great Qin had come to an end, and the general trend had gone.
Ying Zheng couldn't forgive Li Si, he looked at the long river of history from afar, and saw the young King Qin sitting alone on the throne, waiting for the demise of Great Qin, looking at Ying Zheng from life and death, with loneliness in his eyes.
Ziying sighed tiredly: "Ziying and Qin's business is gone." β
The third son of Qin, who reigned for only forty-nine days, was killed after King Xiang led his army into Xianyang.
β¦β¦
Li Si, who had been silent, walked over and spoke slowly: "I am the guilty minister of Qin." β
Cao Cao asked with some doubts: "Li Si, if it weren't for you tampering with Brother Zheng's edict back then, the evaluation of you by future generations should be a famous appearance through the ages, why did you choose such a road that is not guaranteed?" β
Everyone else also looked at Li Si at this moment, deeply puzzled.
Li Si's eyes were a little gloomy: "This is a long story, do you really want to hear it?" β
Everyone nodded, and even Han Xin, who had always dived, couldn't help but come over.
"Where do you start...... Well. Liston paused for a moment and said, "In Shangcai, a few hundred miles southwest of Lanling, there lives an unknown young man, who was born in cloth clothes, writes beautifully with a brush, and is a small official in charge of documents. β
"An empty life is like a stone thrown into the sky, and it is ethereal that I don't know where it will fall."
Finally, one day, this young man named Li Si decided that he would no longer live a life of pretending to be happy, and that he would become a promising scholar. In this way, Li Si and Han Fei, two people with completely different backgrounds, coincidentally worshiped under Xunzimen. β
"Time passes unconsciously, just like the fine wine abundant in Lanling, Xunzi's thoughts have been fermented, precipitated, and matured day by day."
Although Xunzi advocated the simultaneous development of ritual music and criminal law, he always insisted that Confucianism was the most fundamental solution, and that etiquette and music should be the foundation, supplemented by punishment. Li Si used the example of Qin to put forward the opposite opinion. β
He said that the four generations of the Qin State were victorious, and they had the strongest troops in the four seas, and they did not rely on benevolence and righteousness, but only according to the reality in front of them. For Li Si, the politics of the Qin State is the best example of governing the country. β
"Although Li Si is a native of Chu State, he knows that the future of the world and his own future are in Qin State."
He said that the opportunity must not be lost, and now the king of Qin wants to annex the world and rule as the emperor. It was the time when the cloth-clothed traveler showed his skills, so he chose to go to the Qin State. β
"At this time, Li Si was full of fanaticism for power, and he could no longer fill in other doctrines, and his lifelong pursuit was to be a rat in a rice barn."
"The timing of Li Si's appearance was just right. He presented a plan to annex the Six Kingdoms, sent strategists, and bribed the ministers of the Six Kingdoms with a lot of money, and killed those who were not used by Qin! β
Everyone was listening quietly and carefully, and they knew that Li Si was slowly telling his life.
From a small official born in cloth clothes to the future prime minister of Great Qin.
History has prepared a Qin State for Li Si, and a Li Si for the Qin State.
Ying Zheng looked at Li Si silently, recalling what he thought when he offered advice.
At that time, he was very sure that the mediocre-looking scholar in front of him could help him sweep through the Six Kingdoms and accomplish an unprecedented feat!
"Since then, Li Si has been reused, and with the continuous expansion of the Qin State, Li Si's status has skyrocketed."
Li Si continued, "He is a villain, when he first entered the Qin State, he once said that LΓΌ Buwei refused to give up power when he was old, and when he himself was old, he was also obsessed with power. He has different political views from Gongzi Fusu, but His Majesty only has high hopes for Fusu and has been paving the way for Fusu outside. β
He knew that if he waited for Fusu to take the position, he would not end well. Fusu is the master of the Ming, and at this time, Li Si has become a traitor. β
In fact, Li Si had already thought that his fate would not be much better after that, because judging from Zhao Gao's daring to tamper with the edict, it can be judged that his ambition has reached the point of terror. And he, Li Si's official residence, is it possible that Zhao Gao will let him go? β
But in order to keep his hard-won glory and wealth, Li Si chose to compromise and help Zhao Gao tamper with the edict.
"Dominated by the lust for power, Li Si has lost the wisdom of his youth. He saw it very clearly: Qin II was desolate and brought disaster to the country and the people, and Great Qin would die sooner or later. But when Qin II was dissatisfied with himself, he did not hesitate to publish the absurd "Letter of Responsibility" to please the other party. He knew that Zhao Gao was a sinister and vicious person, but when he saw that Zhao Gao was favored by the emperor, he gave up his principles to cater to Zhao Gao. β
In the end, Zhao Gao decided to eat Li Si, the rat in the rice warehouse, alive. He falsely accused Li Si of rebellion, and Qin II believed it. Li Si ushered in the end of his life and was beheaded in Xianyang. β
After finishing speaking, Li Si closed his eyes lightly and was speechless for a long time.
For the sake of power, he disregarded his principles, exhausted his organs, and was eventually eaten up by power.
Everyone looked at each other and looked at Yingzheng.
Yingzheng at this moment is the person who should be most angry.
Yet his face was calm, as if he were indifferent.
Ying Zheng, Li Si, Meng Tian, Meng Yi, Wang Ben, Li Xin...... A few high-spirited young men in their twenties, they swept the six countries with the same great ambition and won the world, and their names remained in the history books forever.
To this day, Yingzheng can't forgive Li Si, but he can't forgive himself either.
Zhao Gao had committed a serious crime and was sentenced to death according to the law, and Ying Zheng remembered the old feelings, and finally pardoned Zhao Gao.
If he directly killed Zhao Gao back then, passed the edict to Meng Yi, who was more trustworthy than Zhao Gao, so that Fusu could succeed to the throne smoothly, would the fate of Great Qin change......
However, all this is irreversible.
The charm of history lies in the fact that it has left people with infinite reverie and at the same time, it has brought people a cruel reality.