In history, after many dynasties pacified the world, the founding emperors would kill the heroes who had made great contributions to the process of pacifying the world and accumulated a lot of prestige. Whether it was Zhu Yuanzhang, Liu Bang, and Zhao Kuangyin, they all carried out a purge of the former heroes for various reasons, and such a move could greatly stabilize their position. In history, there is such an emperor, who has never killed a hero, and he is the first emperor in Chinese history- Qin Shi Huang Yingzheng.
Let's talk to you about Qin Shi Huang's way of employing people and why Qin Shi Huang's children were slaughtered in less than ten years after Qin Shi Huang's death.
In terms of employing people, Qin Shi Huang can be said to be thirsty for talents, meritocratic, and widely accepted advice, and can be called a model among ancient emperors in terms of employing people. This has a lot to do with the historical period in which Qin Shi Huang lived, and the Qin State has attached great importance to the exploration and cultivation of talents since Qin Xiaogong, recruited talents from all over the world, and given full trust and reuse to talents from various origins. Qin Xiaogong accumulated a large number of family foundations through the Shang martingale transformation method, and finally defeated Chu and Wei, and expanded the land for thousands of miles; King Hui of Qin reused Zhang Yi and broke the six kingdoms of the strategy; King Qin Zhao's appointment of Fan Ju to encroach on the princes, etc., so the tradition of the Qin state valuing talents has a long history, which also makes the Qin state step by step from a small country in the original barbaric land to an invincible superpower.
Qin Shi Huang completely inherited this fine tradition of his predecessors, and in qin shi huang's heart, these heroes had a very high status and were not tools that could be abandoned at any time.
Before Qin Shi Huang, there was no precedent for such killing heroes, and in this context, Qin Shi Huang would not achieve the purpose of consolidating imperial power by purging heroes. And Qin Shi Huang's attitude towards the minister is precisely full trust, for the selected talents, Qin Shi Huang fully demonstrated what is the use of people without doubt. For the generals who fought abroad, Qin Shi Huang rarely pointed fingers behind them, and Li Xin, Wang Qi, Meng Tian and others all commanded hundreds of thousands of troops outside alone.
Mr. Zhang Fentian once made this assessment of the relationship between Qin Shi Huang and his subordinates: "Qin Shi Huang formed a rather close relationship with a number of important assistants such as Li Si, Wang Qi, and Meng Tian through trust, courtesy, knighthood, heavy reward, marriage, and disciple ceremonies. Among the emperors of great talent and grandeur in the past, Qin Shi Huang had the closest relationship with his main assistants. ”
Moreover, although Qin Shi Huang unified the Six Kingdoms, he did not have a peaceful birthday, conquering Northern Vietnam in the south and attacking the Xiongnu in the north, and some famous generals led heavy troops to guard the front line until qin shi huang died.
Just after a long period of division during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, there are too many unstable factors in the world, and many people do not yet have the concept of great unification, at this time, the killing of heroes can be said to be asking for trouble, and it is easy to make the Central Plains fall apart again.
One of the major consequences of Qin Shi Huang's such "benevolence" was that he did not concentrate imperial power in the hands of the emperor, so that Qin II was later elevated by Zhao Gao.
After the death of Qin Shi Huang, Li Si and Zhao Gao, who forged edicts and forced the crown prince Fu Su to commit suicide, were also the "heroes and generals" left by Qin Shi Huang. According to the deeds of the founding monarchs after Qin Shi Huang, more than half of the "hidden dangers" like Zhao Gao, who had both ambition and strength, would find excuses to get rid of the former emperor before his death. A general like LiSi, who can cover the sky with one hand, will most likely be forced to dismiss them and return home to retire. But Qin Shi Huang did not do this, or rather it was too late to do so.
The change in the dunes after the sudden death of Qin Shi Huang was initiated by a group of heroes who were able to cover the sky with one hand, and since the publication of the "Chronicle of History" for more than a thousand years, Li Si, Zhao Gao and others tampered with the edict of Qin Shi Huang and established Hu Hai as Qin II. After the sudden death of Qin Shi Huang, Zhao Gao, Hu Hai, Li Si and others not only forged edicts to cause Fu Su to commit suicide, but also killed qin shi huang's other children.
The only recorded is that at that time, there were three people including Gongzi General Lu who were summoned to the palace and forced to commit suicide, and six Gongzi died in Du County, in addition to the more famous Gongzi Gao, who took the initiative to ask for a martyrdom for Qin Shi Huang in order not to involve his clan.
At the same time, there is also such a record in the "Biography of Li Si in the History": "Killing the minister Meng Yi and others, the twelve princes died in Xianyang City, the ten princesses died in Du, the property went into the county officials, and the number of people who sat together was innumerable." ”
Therefore, Zhao Gao did purge the children of Qin Shi Huang after the death of Qin Shi Huang, and the children of Qin Shi Huang can be said to have been slaughtered, but there should be other children who survived, after all, the historical records are not complete.
Finally, I still have to talk about Hu Hai, the eighteenth son of Qin Shi Huang, who studied under Zhao Gao in his early years, and Qin Shi Huang happened to travel by chance. After launching the Dune Rebellion with Zhao Gao and Li Si, he successfully ascended to the throne, but the final outcome was quite miserable, and Zhao Gao and his son-in-law, in order to avoid the punishment of Qin II, simply launched the Wangyi Palace Change and forced Hu Hai to die. If Qin Shi Huang could predict that Zhao Gao had killed so many of his own children, he would certainly not have let Zhao Gao hold such a great power.