In the late Warring States period, King Yingzheng of Qin ascended the throne at a young age and became the king of the Qin state. At that time, the harem of the King of Qin was very chaotic, and Lü Buwei, who had put the Qin king Yingzheng on the throne, had been committing adultery with Yingzheng's mother, Zhao Ji, and later, Yan Yi replaced Lü Buwei and became Zhao Ji's male favorite, and was eventually executed by Yingzheng for plotting.
Also having an improper relationship with the empress dowager and possessing a certain amount of power, why did Concubine Yi dare to rebel, while the richer and more powerful Lü Buwei did not dare? That's because Yan Yi had to rebel after the adultery was exposed, and Lü Buwei realized through Yan Yi's rebellion that he had the monopoly of power in the government, and the rebellion had no chance of winning, so naturally he would not follow in the footsteps of Yan Yi.
(1) Concubine Yiqi: The stand-in that Lü Buwei found for Mingzhe's protection
In fact, Lü Buwei has maintained an improper relationship with Zhao Ji, Yingzheng's mother, for a long time. After Yingzheng ascended the throne, Lü Buwei, fearing that his adulterous affair would be exposed and endanger his own life, decided to cut off contact with Zhao Ji. At this time, he found Yan Yi and asked her to disguise herself as a eunuch and enter the palace instead of her identity.
Later, Yan Yi successfully won the favor of Zhao Ji with his special function "The Art of Wheels", and he also became Zhao Ji's male favorite, developed relatively well in the palace, was crowned by the King of Qin as the Marquis of Changxin, and also had two sons with Zhao Ji. Later, Yan Yi had some of her own forces, united with Lü Buwei, and the two had equal power in their hands, controlling the government for a period of time before Qin Shi Huang's pro-government.
(2) The adulterous affair with Zhao Ji was revealed! Yan Yi took a desperate risk and plotted against him and was killed
So, in the case of a very popular courtier, why did she choose to take the risk and carry out a rebellion? That's because Yan Yi was a little overwhelmed, and when she was drinking with others, she was drunk and lost her words, and she made her adulterous affair with Zhao Ji public.
In this way, the face of the Qin King's yingzheng could not be hung up, and Yan Yi also knew that the King of Qin would definitely kill himself, so he only had the way out to rebel. Unfortunately, the King of Qin had already taken precautions, and Yan Yi's rebellion also failed, and he was also killed by the King of Qin.
(3) The Qin state was hierarchical, and Lü Buwei had no chance of winning in plotting rebellion
The failure of Yan Yi's rebellion also sounded the alarm bell for the powerful minister Lü Buwei, because Lü Buwei's experience was somewhat similar to that of Yan Yi, and he also had an improper relationship with the mother of the King of Qin, and he also had great power and strong power. Therefore, the King of Qin will certainly doubt himself and be prepared for his own rebellion.
In addition, the Qin state has a characteristic, that is, the power has been firmly controlled by the upper nobility, the hierarchy is very strict, the sense of hierarchy in the minds of the Qin people is also very serious, and there have been almost no rebellions in history. Therefore, Lü Buwei knew that he was born as a foreign merchant, and although he had a certain amount of power, it was completely impossible to replace the Qin King Yingzheng as the new Qin King, so Lü Buwei did not carry out rebellion activities throughout his life.
In summary, in the Qin state during the Warring States period, the difficulty of the chancellor wanting to usurp the throne and rebel was very high. Under normal circumstances, Lü Buwei and Yan Yi would not choose to rebel. However, Yan Yi's gaffe after drinking, which embarrassed the King of Qin, and if he did not rebel, he would only have a dead end, so he chose to fight to the death and carry out rebellion.