In 208 BC, Li Si was falsely accused of conspiring against him, and with five punishments, he was beheaded in Xianyang City and razed the three tribes.
Li Si was a highly controversial historical figure who contributed to the destruction of the Six Kingdoms of Qin, and at the same time he advocated the unification of writing and culture, and laid the pattern of Chinese unification in terms of system and ideology.
However, the same person who planned the "Dune Change" with Zhao Gao and became the gravedigger of the Great Qin Empire...
Mouse apocalypse
When Li Si was young, he worked as a clerk in charge of documents. The "History" records such a small incident: Once, Lees saw a mouse in the toilet, stealing something in the toilet, and when people came to go to the toilet, it quickly fled. But there are also rats in the rice barn, these rats eat big and fat, leisurely frolic in the rice pile, and do not panic when they see people.
As a result, Lees sighed: The environment has a great impact on people. So, Lees decided to quit his job to study. He worshiped under Xunzi, and after completing his studies, he defected to the Qin state.
After Li Si arrived in the Qin Kingdom, he quickly showed his talent, was valued by Qin Xiang Lu Buwei, and could often see the King of Qin.
Once, Li Si said to the King of Qin: "Anyone who does great things must seize the opportunity. Duke Mu of Qin was very strong, but he failed to complete the unification because the time was not ripe. Now that the Qin State is powerful, the Great King is virtuous, and it is as easy to destroy the Six Kingdoms as sweeping away ashes, and now is a great opportunity to complete unification. ”
King Qin listened very well and asked him what he suggested. Li Si proposed a plan to divide the countries, and for the order of destroying the six countries, he also believed that Korea should be destroyed first, and then the other countries should be annexed step by step. Li Si also suggested that the King of Qin buy the ministers of the Six Kingdoms, and sure enough, he received a miraculous effect, and he was made a guest secretary.
It can be said that Lees's suggestion is very effective, and he made a correct judgment after clearly analyzing the situation in various countries.
The six countries realized the horror of the Qin State and sent "spies" to the Qin State as guests. The King of Qin had great opinions about the guest secretaries of other countries, and wrote to the King of Qin to issue an eviction order and expel the foreign guest secretaries. The King of Qin issued an eviction order, and Li Si was among those expelled.
In this regard, Li Si also wrote a very famous "Eviction Letter", citing the examples of Duke Mu of Qin appointing Bailixi, Duke Xiao of Qin using Shang Martin, King Hui of Qin using Zhang Yi, and King Zhao of Qin using Fan Yan, all of which made the state of Qin strong. King Huanzheng of Qin was a monarch with great ambitions, and naturally could hear Li Si's advice, decisively canceled the eviction order, and still used Li Si, and Li Si was made a court lieutenant.
The court lieutenant is the head of the highest judicial body, a position almost equal to that of a cool official. Doing their job is intimidating to listen to, and it is easy to become a lonely courtier. As a staunch supporter of the Legalists, Li Si must not tolerate sand in his eyes, and who will commit something if he can't do anything, so Li Si must have offended many people at that time.
After Qin destroyed the Six Kingdoms, Qin Shi Huang continued to use Li Si, and Li Si proposed the abolition of the division of seals, the province of counties, and the unification of writing, weights and measures, all of which strengthened the centralization of power and conformed to the historical trend of the time.
So far, Li Si is almost perfect, and his imperfect turning point is in Qin Shi Huang's sudden violent attack.
The fall of Lees
After Qin Shi Huang was violently killed, Zhao Gao approached Li Si and asked him to work together to tamper with the edict and support Hu Hai as emperor. Under Zhao Gao's clever words, he compromised. This is due to his personality, he has talent, he has ideas, but he is too greedy for wealth.
He didn't agree with Zhao Gao's proposal, but Zhao Gao knew him too well, "The prince expects that he can match Meng Tian", do you think you are comparable to Meng Tian? Yes, Gongzi Fusu trusts Meng Tian so much, and Fusu will be finished himself. Zhao Gao saw that he had loosened, and added, you can not care, but what about your descendants?
Therefore, Li Si in the first half of his life may be for the ambition in his chest, the so-called "if people do not have dreams, what is the difference between them and salted fish." "However, the second half of his life was entirely for his own benefit, for the power in his hands. framed Han Fei, killed Fusu, and wrongly killed Meng Tian.
Li Si looks down on Zhao Gao, he thinks he is stronger than Zhao Gao, Zhao Gao has only read a few law books, and he is from a serious class. He felt that Zhao Gao was not his opponent, he could assist the King of Qin in unification, and now he could also guide Hu Hai to govern the world.
So he agreed to Zhao Gao's proposal.
But Li Si did not expect Zhao Gao to be so inhumane, due to his physical defects and hatred of Mengshi, he not only killed Mengshi, but also mutilated the Huan clan. He didn't expect Hu Hai to be so stupid and obey Zhao Gao's words...
However, Li Si still has a chance, because with his position and ability, as long as he dares to turn the situation around, someone will inevitably follow. However, he once again chose to compromise, not only did not resist Zhao Gao and Hu Hai, but also wrote a horse fart article to seek theoretical support for Qin II's perverse behavior.
But even if Li Si did this, Zhao Gao still didn't want to let him go.
No one interceded
However, Li Si also made great contributions to the unification of the Qin state, so why didn't anyone intercede for him?
This first point is mentioned earlier, Li Stingwei was born and a staunch supporter of the Legalist family, and he has offended many people. Coupled with the current Zhao Gao, the power is all over the sky, and the deer can be for the horse, who would risk his life to intercede for him.
The second point is that Li Si has stood with Zhao Gao since the beginning of the "Dune Change". After Zhao Gao persuaded Li Si to participate in tampering with the edict, many ideas were made by Li Si on how to deal with Fusu and Meng Tian.
Most of the people who forced Fusu to death and imprisoned Meng Tian were Li Si's people, and the people who took over Meng Tian's army were Li Si's sacrificers. Therefore, in the eyes of everyone, Hu Hai, Zhao Gao, Li Si, these three people are a gang of gangs. As for the two people who broke up later, it was just "uneven sharing of the spoils".
In the final analysis, the reason why Li Si is in a high position as an outsider is nothing more than the trust of the emperor. Since the death of Qin Shi Huang and the reshuffling of power, Li Si's power naturally ceased to exist. When he loses power, don't say that someone protects him, it's not bad if he falls into the well...