Lü Buwei, this person, was a big businessman in Yangzhai during the Warring States period, he usually traveled all over the place, adopted the strategy of buying low and selling high, and slowly accumulated thousands of gold of family property.
When King Qin Zhao of the State of Qin was 47 years old, the prince could not survive King Qin Zhao, and he took a step first. As a result, King Qin Zhao's second son, An Guojun, was made crown prince, An Guojun was very good at giving birth, and he had more than twenty sons. Among them, Zi Chu was in the middle, his mother was not favored by An Guojun, and Zi Chu himself was sent to Zhao Guo as a hostage. At that time, the State of Qin often sent troops to beat the State of Zhao at every turn, so Zi Chu's treatment in the State of Zhao can be imagined, not only the people of the State of Zhao do not give a good face, the key is that the living expenses are not enough to spend, and the life is embarrassing.
It was in this context that Lu Buwei just went to Zhao Guo's Handan to do business, and after he came into contact with Zi Chu, the shrewdness of the businessman made him instantly go up, feeling that Zi Chu was a strange product. Lu Buwei was a man of action, and he decided to gamble his family fortune for a political venture.
First of all, Lu Buwei went to visit Zi Chu and told him that he could glorify Zi Chu's court. Of course, Zichu did not believe Lu Buwei at first, and he said to Lu Buwei: Don't brag, you first brighten your own court, and then talk about this. Lu Buwei said unhurriedly: "I want to make you prominent first, and then I can follow suit." ”
Zi Chu was also curious, so he asked Lu Buwei to talk about his plan. Lü Buwei analyzed: This King of Qin Zhao is already old, and the crown prince An Guojun will become the king of Qin at any time. This An Guojun's favorite is Lady Huayang, and she can decide who to make An Guojun the crown prince. But the problem is that Mrs. Huayang herself does not have a biological son, so as long as Zi Chu climbs the high branch of Mrs. Huayang, Zi Chu can not achieve a counterattack and become the future King of Qin.
Zi Chu also felt that Lu Buwei's analysis was very reasonable, and he also knew his predicament, so he asked Lu Buwei how he could climb to Lady Huayang. Lü Buwei said that he was aware of Zi Chu's predicament, and he paid for his own money to go to the Qin State to help Zi Chu make some connections and strive to make Zi Chu the heir. After Zi Chu listened, he was moved to tears, and immediately said that as long as he became the king of Qin, he would give Lu Buwei the land of the Qin state.
Therefore, Lu Buwei took out five hundred gold and gave it to Zi Chu, so that Zi Chu could improve his living conditions, and more importantly, let Zi Chu make some connections and make friends. Then, Lu Buwei took out another five hundred gold to buy rare playthings, and then came to the Qin Kingdom and gave these things to Lady Huayang through Lady Huayang's sister. Lü Buwei took the opportunity to exaggerate Zi Chu's intelligence and virtuous ability to Mrs. Huayang, and also made friends with guests from all over the world, and also said that Zi Chu admired Mrs. Huayang very much, and missed his father and her day and night, and Lu Buwei's output made Mrs. Huayang very useful.
Then, Lu Buwei struck while the iron was hot, and he asked Mrs. Huayang's sister to lobby Mrs. Huayang, and he analyzed: Although Mrs. Huayang looks at the beauty to win the favor of An Guojun, but people always have old age and decay, and Mrs. Huayang has no son, and then her status will be dangerous. Why not let An Guo Junli be willing to turn to his son Chu as his heir when he is still favored, so that he can ensure his status and be respected in the Qin Kingdom all his life.
After listening to it, Mrs. Huayang felt that it was indeed very reasonable, so she blew the wind in An Guojun's ears, and An Guojun really listened to Mrs. Huayang's words and established Zichu as her heir. In the future, this An Guojun and Lady Huayang both sent a lot of treasures to Zichu, and also made Lu Buwei Zichu's teacher, so the originally unknown Zichu became more and more famous among the princes.
Previously, Lu Buwei married a beautiful woman Zhao Ji who could sing and dance in Handan, and Zhao Ji was also pregnant with Lu Buwei's child. However, Zi Chu once went to Lu Buwei's house to drink, and Zi Chu fell in love with this woman at first sight, and he asked Lu Buwei to give this woman to him. At first, Lu Buwei said that he was very angry, but he thought about it, he had already spent a lot for Zichu, and he didn't want to tear his face with him, so he really gave this woman to Zichu. Zhao Ji concealed her pregnancy, and twelve months later, Zhao Ji gave birth to a son, named Huan Zheng, which was later famous as Qin Shi Huang. Zichu was very happy about this, so he made Zhao Ji his wife.
In 257 BC, the State of Qin sent Wang Yan to attack Handan, the capital of the State of Zhao, and the State of Zhao wanted to kill Zichu in a fit of anger. At this critical moment, Zi Chu escaped smoothly with the help of Lu Buwei and slipped back to the Qin Kingdom. Zhao Guo saw that Zi Chu ran away, and wanted to kill Zhao Ji and Huan Zheng, but Zhao Ji happened to be the daughter of Zhao Guo's rich family, and her mother's family secretly hid the two women, so the two were saved.
Not long after, King Zhao of Qin died, and An Guojun finally survived and successfully succeeded to the throne as King of Qin, Lady Huayang was also crowned queen, and Zichu became the crown prince of the State of Qin. In order to establish a good relationship with the new King of Qin, they also had to escort Zhao Ji and Huan Zheng back to the State of Qin.
An Guojun hung up a year after succeeding as King of Qin, and Zichu successfully succeeded to the throne, that is, King Xiang of Qin Zhuang. After taking the throne, King Zhuangxiang returned the favor, honoring his mother, Queen Huayang, as Empress Dowager Huayang, and at the same time keeping his promise to appoint Lü Buwei as the prime minister of the Qin state, making him the Marquis of Wen Xin, and rewarding Lü Buwei with 100,000 households in Luoyang as his food.
King Zhuang Xiang also hung up three years after becoming king of Qin, and the 13-year-old crown prince Huan Zheng succeeded him as the king of Qin, and Huan Zheng honored Lü Buwei as Xiangguo, and honored him as "Zhongfather". In this way, Lü Buwei went from a merchant to the second-in-command of a vassal state, above ten thousand people under one person, and his power reached its peak at this time.