Counting the enthroned Duke Xiang of Qin as a prince in 770 BC, the Qin state has gone through the arduous struggle of 31 monarchs for 550 years and successors, and finally unified the world in 221 BC, growing from a vassal small country to a world lord. After the unification of the world, from 221 BC to 210 BC, the reign of Qin Shi Huang was the most prosperous and brilliant period of the Qin State, and in just 11 years, it has laid the basic political, territorial and cultural pattern of China for thousands of years to come, and has a far-reaching impact on China and is still indelible. However, such a great and brilliant Qin state, with a total of 560 years of grand inheritance, quickly disappeared three years after Hu Hai succeeded to the throne. Hu Hai can be regarded as the well-deserved "strongest loser in history".
According to historical records, in October of the thirty-seventh year of Qin Shi Huang (that is, 211 BC), Qin Shi Huang went out on a parade. The young son Hu Hai wanted to go on a cruise and asked to follow, and Qin Shi Huang agreed to him. When Qin Shi Huang cruised to Pingyuanjin, he fell ill. Because Qin Shi Huang hated to say the word "death" before he died, the group of courtiers did not dare to say what happened after death, and it was not clear who would inherit the throne after death. When Qin Shi Huang was more ill, he wrote a letter with a jade seal to give to his eldest son, Gongzi Fusu. According to the "Records of History", the content of the letter is: "Burial with the funeral meeting in Xianyang", which means that gongzi Fusu was allowed to return to Xianyang and preside over the funeral. The letter had been sealed and sealed with a jade seal, but it was stored in the Zhongche Prefecture Ling Zhao Gao and had not yet been handed over to the emissary. Zhao Gao was the favorite of Qin Shi Huang and was in charge of the affairs of the seal, which gave Zhao Gao a chance. Zhao Gao used to teach Hu Hai to write, and the Jade Law Decree and other things, and Hu Hai secretly liked him. Therefore, Zhao Gao secretly consulted with Hu Hai and Zuo Cheng Xiang Li Si to open the sealed letter that Qin Shi Huang had given to Gongzi Fusu. Falsely claiming, Li Si accepted the will of Qin Shi Huang in the sand dunes and made the crown prince Hu Hai the crown prince. At the same time, he wrote a letter to Gongzi Fusu and the general Meng Tian, listing their crimes, and ordered them to commit suicide. After Gongzi Fusu saw the letter, he believed it to be true and committed suicide. In this way, Hu Hai illegally inherited the throne. Because he was illegal and young (Hu Hai was only 21 years old at the time of his reign), Hu Hai was weak in heart and lacked self-confidence. As the saying goes: if the name is not right, the words are not smooth. Many of Hu Hai's subsequent behaviors were related to his improper name, unsmooth speech, and weak heart.
In the second year of Hu Hai's reign, in 209 BC, Hu Hai was worried that others would say that he was weak, so he followed his father Qin Shi Huang and toured the world. It went south to Huiji, north to Jieshi, and finally from Liaodong back to Xianyang.
Even when he went on tour, Hu Hai was still weak in his heart, worried that others would not obey, so he secretly consulted with Zhao Gao and said: "The ministers do not obey, the officials are still very powerful, and the princes will definitely fight with me for power, what should I do?" ”
Zhao Gao returned: "Your Majesty should take the opportunity to establish his own prestige this time, kill those officials who do not obey, choose those who have been abandoned, let the lowly nobles rise, let the poor become rich, let the estranged become close, so that the upper and lower levels can be united and the country will be stable."
In the first year of the second century, Hu Hai was 21 years old and officially became emperor and changed his name to Yuan. Hu Hai appointed Zhao Gao as Lang Zhongling (郎中令), serving left and right, and participating in the handling of political affairs. Hu Hai was worried that the people would not be subordinated, and followed the example of Qin Shi Huang in touring the counties, east to Jieshi, south to Huiji, inscribed praises, and then returned to Xianyang. Hu Hai, worried that his ministers and princes were suspicious of his improper position, sought countermeasures from Zhao Gao. Zhao Gao suggested that Hu Hai destroy the ministers and clansmen, severely punish them, and promote joint sitting, so that all the ministers of Qin Shi Huang's time were removed and replaced by his own cronies. Zhao Gao persecuted the crown prince, the clan, and the chancellor. 12 princes were beheaded in Xianyang for public display, 10 princesses were split by cars, and the number of people who were affected by the plant was innumerable. The three brothers of Gongzi Lu acted cautiously and law-abidingly, but were still urged to commit suicide by Hu Hai, and the courtiers and clan members were in danger. Another of Hu Hai's brothers, Gongzi Gao, wanted to escape, but he was afraid of being raided, so he took the initiative to request that Qin Shi Huang be buried, and Hu Hai happily agreed, believing that the severe punishment had worked. Hu Hai ordered the continuation of the construction of Afang Palace and recruited 50,000 men to guard Xianyang. In July, Chen Sheng and Wu Guang revolted in Daze Township (present-day Suzhou, Anhui), shouting "The prince will have a kind of Hu!" " slogan. Chen Sheng attacked Chen County (陳县, in present-day Zhoukou, Henan) to establish the Zhang Chu regime, established himself as king, and divided his troops to attack the city to the west, and the people of the world responded one after another. Hu Hai did not want to hear the news of the rebellion, and punished the messenger who came to report the rebellion, so that no one dared to raise the rebellion. In August, Chen Shengbu established Wuchen as king of Zhao. In September, Liu Bang killed Pei County Ling and rebelled against Qin at Pei County (沛县, in present-day Xuzhou, Jiangsu), calling himself "Duke of Pei"; Xiang Liang killed Shou Yintong of Huijian Commandery (守殷通) and raised an army against Qin at Huiji County; and Tian Dan rebelled against Qin at Di County (in present-day Gaoqing County, Shandong), and established himself as the King of Qi.
Of course, in addition to his brothers and sisters, Hu Hai did not spare other disobedient ministers of culture and military affairs. The first to persecute were the generals, the Mengtian brothers. At the beginning, when Fu Su committed suicide, Meng Tian did not commit suicide, but surrendered his military power, got into a prison car, and prepared to meet Hu Hai in Xianyang.
At first, Hu Hai wanted to continue to use Mengtian and their brothers, but Zhao Gao was afraid that Mengtian would pose a threat to him, so he rumored to Hu Hai that Qin Shi Huang had originally wanted to make Hu Hai crown prince, but Meng Tian's brother Meng Yi tried his best to stop him, and Qin Shi Huang dismissed the idea of making him crown prince.
Hu Hai believed that this was true, and not only did not release Meng Tian, but also imprisoned Meng Yi in the prison of Dai County. Later, Hu Hai sent emissaries to force Meng Yi to commit suicide, and then sent people to yangzhou prison to force Meng Tian to commit suicide, Meng Tian began to refuse, arguing that he wanted to see Hu Hai and ask him to retract the edict, the messenger did not allow it, Meng Tian saw that there was no hope of life, and had to take poison to commit suicide. For the other ministers, Hu Hai, at the instigation of Zhao Gao, also went on a killing spree. The right chancellor Feng Went to the disease and the general Feng Hao, in order to avoid humiliation, died and chose to commit suicide. At the same time as killing the chancellor, Zhao Gao inserted his own cronies into it one by one, his brother Zhao Cheng made the Zhongche Fu Order, his son-in-law made the county order of the capital Xianyang, all of which were important positions, and other important positions in the DPRK and China were also all over Zhao Gao's henchmen.
In the third year of the second life, Hu Hai was 23 years old. In November, Song Yi sat on the mountain to watch the tiger fight, did not save Zhao Guo, Xiang Yu killed Song Yi, and led the army to save Zhao. In December, at the Battle of Julu, Xiang Yu broke through the cauldron and defeated Wang Li, who besieged Julu, and fought with Zhang Handan's two armies. In June, Zhang Handan asked Hu Hai for reinforcements, and Hu Hai blamed Zhang Handan for repeated failures, and Zhang Handan was terrified and led 200,000 Qin troops to surrender to Xiang Yu. Xiang Yu designed to kill 20,000 Qin troops in the south pit of Xin'ancheng, and since the suppression of the rebellion, the most powerful force of the Qin state was destroyed. Zhao Gao "referred to the deer as horses", and all the courtiers who opposed it were retaliated against, and Hu Hai was completely overthrown. In August, Liu Bang arrived at Wuguan (武關, in modern Shangluo, Shaanxi), and Hu Hai held Zhao Gao accountable. Zhao Gao preemptively ordered his son-in-law Xianyang Ling Yan Le to pretend to be pursuing the fugitives, bring troops into the palace, and force Hu Hai to commit suicide. After Hu Hai's death, he was buried according to the etiquette of the commoners. Zhao Gao allowed Hu Hai's nephew Infant to succeed to the throne, because the State of Qin had already lost the Six Kingdoms of Shandong and was no longer called "Emperor" but "King of Qin". In September, Zi Bao fasted for 5 days and refused to go to the Zongmiao Temple to receive the jade seal. Zhao Gao personally went to invite Zi Bao, was assassinated by Zi Bao, and then killed Zhao Gao's three clans. Zi Nian was the king of Qin for 46 days, Liu Bang broke the Wu Pass, the garrison bashang (xi'an city east), Zi Nian led the crowd to surrender, and the Qin state was destroyed.