Lü Buwei was born in the late Warring States period and was a merchant. Because of his meritorious service in assisting the First Emperor to ascend the throne, he was honored as Zhongfu by the First Emperor. He was appointed as the Prime Minister of the Qin State. For a time, he had great power in both the government and the public, and had 3,000 guests in his mansion. In order to leave a name for himself, he asked the diners in Fuzhong to compile a book "Lu Shi Chun Qiu". This book has a unified form but diverse contents, thus creating the Zajia style. Later, due to Liao Ai's case, he was removed from his post and dismissed from the fiefdom. Fearing that he would rebel, the First Emperor wrote a letter sternly reprimanding Lu Buwei. The threatened Lu Buwei committed suicide. Lu Buwei's life fully reflected his characteristics as a businessman - he was shrewd, and everything he did was driven by profit; Because of this, once his interests were harmed, he would fight back. As a result, his fight with Liao Ai eventually led to his death.
1. Strange things to live in
In the 11th century BC, a big shot came out of the Lu family, and he was Lu Buwei.
When Lu Buwei was born, Weiguo was declining day by day. In order to seek development, around noon in 265 BC, Lu Buwei came to Handan, the capital of Zhao State, which he had longed for. The prosperity of Handan City dazzled Lu Buwei. While he was living and drinking, he wandered among the singing houses and dancing pavilions. The other side did not forget that he came here to obtain wealth and to search for a product that could make a lot of profits. Soon this kind of profit-making product was discovered by Lu Buwei. At that time, Prince Yiren of Qin was taking hostages in the State of Zhao. During the Warring States Period, various vassal states sent people to each other as hostages. Most of them were to unite with each other to fight against Qin. The exchange of hostages between Qin and the six countries was the so-called strategy of distant friendship and close attack.
There is a reason for letting a foreigner serve as this unfortunate mission. His father, An Guojun, was not the prince. In 267 BC, Prince Yuanli died young, and An Guojun took the throne. However, King Zhao of Qin lived a long life and did not pass away until Lord An Guo was fifty-three years old. An Guojun had more than twenty sons, and Yiren was only one of them. He was not the eldest son and was not favored. After Yiren came to Zhao, when the relationship between Qin and Zhao was friendly, Qin Wang Sun Yiren was naturally regarded as an honored guest. But when the relationship between the two countries was tense, he became a prisoner.
When he first arrived in Handan, Lu Buwei heard that a Qin nobleman was trapped here. After many inquiries, he understood the stranger's life experience, family relationships, current situation and other aspects clearly. Later, when Lu Buwei saw the down-and-out king and grandson, with his many years of business experience, he could tell at a glance: The treasure he had been looking for for so many times was here! He couldn't help but blurt out, leaving a famous saying: This rare thing can be lived in. Lu Buwei rushed home to sue his father and found a profitable item.
In 262 BC, Lu Buwei came to Handan again. He came to Yiren's residence, had a heart-to-heart conversation with Yiren, and said that he was willing to devote all his money to help Yiren achieve his lofty goals. ambition. After hearing this, Yiren said gratefully that if your plan can be realized, I will become the king of Qin, and Qin will definitely belong to both of us!
After Lu Buwei and Yiren finalized the plan, they immediately followed the plan implement. He first used part of the money for strangers to make guests and friends, so as to accumulate strength and prepare to return to the country to seize power. Lu Buwei himself took the rare treasures and headed west to Qin. When he came to Qin, he quickly met Yang Quanjun, the brother of the favored Mrs. Huayang, and lobbied them for a way to avoid disasters and gain blessings. When Lu Buwei revealed the plan he planned with the stranger in Handan, Lord Yangquan was overjoyed and hurriedly told his sister, making Mrs. Huayang understand the simple truth that using sex to do things to others will not last long, as old age and sex will lead to loss of power.
The childless Mrs. Huayang decided to accept Yiren as her son and persuaded Lord An Guo to make Yiren his heir. Now that his status has changed, of course he can no longer be a hostage. Lu Buwei used his lobbying skills to get Zhao to agree to send foreigners back to the country. Just as Yiren and Lu Buwei were happily packing their bags and preparing to return home, unexpectedly the Changping Battle between Qin and Zhao happened. King Zhao changed his mind and banned foreigners from returning to the country.
2. Offering Handan Princess
When Yiren was besieged Zhao again, it was the Battle of Changping, and Lu Buwei could not find a chance to escape. During this period, Lu Buwei successfully made another deal.
In Handan, Lu Buwei had long chosen a beautiful young woman who was good at singing and dancing to live with him. One day, when the Lady of Handan told Lu Buwei that she was pregnant, he took advantage of her and invited a stranger to his house for a drink that night.
The greedy and lustful Yiren learned about it and happily went to the appointment. During the dinner, he saw the romantic and charming Handan Princess accompanying him. He was immediately fascinated and immediately asked Lu Buwei to give him the beauty. . Lu Buwei, who pretended to be angry, later took the initiative to give the beautiful concubine to another person, which made the other person burst into tears of gratitude. He took Handan Ji, who was pregnant with Lu Buwei's child, back to his residence and lived a loving married life. In the first month of 259 BC, Handan Concubine gave birth to a son, named Ying Zheng, who later became Qin Shihuang. This is Lu Buwei's righteous investment, and its benefits will be recovered from the next generation of foreign monarchs.
The birth of Yingzheng has left an eternal mystery to history. Some records say that Qin Shihuang's biological mother was pregnant with Lu Buwei's son before she married a stranger. This was a deliberate design. There are also records saying that the wife of a foreigner gave birth to a son in the early stages of life. He was older than 12 months, so he could not be Lu Buwei's son. To say that Qin Shihuang was Lu Buwei's illegitimate son was an attack and insult by people who hated Qin Shihuang at that time and later, and is not sufficient evidence. However, a careful examination of the lives of Lu Buwei and Qin Shihuang, as well as relevant information from later generations, shows that the latter statement lacks basis. Because: First, there are not just one or two records proving that the relationship between Yingzheng and Lu Buwei was extraordinary. Secondly, even if Handan Ji came into power in her later years, we cannot rule out the possibility that they are related by blood. Because Lu Buwei's affair with Handan Ji was not interrupted by her marriage to a foreigner, this relationship continued until Yingzheng succeeded to the throne.
A foreigner married a concubine in Handan and gave birth to a son. He was happy to miss Shu. Unexpectedly, the situation changed, and the war changed again during this period, creating conditions for Yiren, who had no desire to return to his country, to return to Qin.
At that time, the Qin army was taking advantage of the victory to attack Handan. Bai Qi led the victorious division to attack, and the fall of Zhao was just around the corner. However, after Bai Qi conquered Shangdang and waited for the King of Qin to issue an order to attack, internal conflicts arose in the Qin State. Bai Qi finally received the order to send troops, thus losing the opportunity to occupy Handan, but the foreigners trapped in the city avoided a bad luck. With the help of Lu Buwei and the guests he befriended with money, the foreigner successfully escaped from Zhao. But Handan Ji and her young son stayed in Handan. Under the protection of the wealthy family, they survived and were not caught by King Zhao.
C. When King Zhao passed away, Lu Buwei was extremely happy because the goal he pursued had taken another step forward. Another person who rejoiced was Yiren, who became the crown prince after his father, King Xiaowen, succeeded to the throne, and was only one step away from ascending to the throne.
It is a pity that the crown prince, who has been on the throne for many years, has been intoxicated with sex and lust in the palace for a long time. He is obsessed with the beauty of Mrs. Huayang and his body is empty and unable to cope with the complicated government affairs. He died tragically after sitting on the throne for three days, becoming one of the shortest reigning monarchs in Chinese history.
Subsequently, another person succeeded to the throne, King Zhuang Xiang. Lu Buwei immediately entered the political stage of Qin and began to show his personal talents.
The first order King Zhuang Xiang made after he came to the throne was for Lu Buwei: Make Lu Buwei his prime minister, make him Wenxin Marquis, and use the twelve counties of Lantian as food towns. As soon as the edict came out, the civil and military officials of the entire dynasty were shocked, because no one of the hundreds of officials in the dynasty could combine the highest levels of officialdom, nobility, and food in one body. Lu Buwei himself knew very well that this was just the profit recovered from the investment in Handan more than ten years ago. The political affairs of the Qin State were actually completely controlled by the Prime Minister and Wenxinhou Lu Buwei, and the king was only the mouthpiece of the Prime Minister's will. The Qin State thus began the era of Lu Buwei's dominance.
The first thing Lu Buwei did after taking power was to grant amnesty to sinners, reward the heroes of the previous kings, and perform some small favors on the people. This made Lu Buwei have a profound influence among the subjects of Qin. He wins people's hearts and brings benefits to sinners, heroes and the people.
At this moment, another piece of good news came. Jiaoji and Zhizi, who had been separated from King Zhuang Xiang for six years and had stayed in Handan, returned to Xianyang from Zhao. This is undoubtedly the result of Lu Buwei's arrangement.
The Handan Concubine who returned to the country is still beautiful, coquettish, and lustful as before. When King Zhuang Xiang saw Mei Ji returning to his side, he was naturally very fond of her. From then on, he indulged himself in the brocade quilt and embroidered tents and had no interest in intervening in political affairs. Lu Buwei's arbitrary power over the Qin government was unimpeded. A calculating businessman's ability to seize opportunities and achieve maximum benefits is evident in every aspect of his political career. The elimination of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty was the first monument he erected after taking office.
In 249 BC, the surviving Eastern Zhou Dynasty actually united various vassal states in Gongdi to plan to attack Qin. Originally, annihilating the Emperor of Zhou would be morally condemned, but now the time had come. The Lord of Eastern Zhou actually planned to attack Qin, which gave Lu Buwei the opportunity to establish his achievements. Lu Buwei easily conquered the Eastern Zhou Dynasty and incorporated its territory into Qin's territory, completely eliminating the last obstacle in the process of unifying China. However, Lu Buwei destroyed the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, but moved the Eastern Zhou Dynasty to Yangren, continued his sacrifices, and established good deeds for himself of advocating etiquette and justice, "rise and fall" and "continue", thus winning the favor of the scholars, and also reduced some The hatred and opposition of the vassal states surnamed Jiang and Ji created conditions for a large number of scholars to defect to Qin and successfully complete the unification.
In the first year when Lu Buwei came to power, the Qin State was vigorous both militarily and politically. The Qin State's national border was approaching the Wei State's capital, Daliang, and the Wei State was in chaos. Later Wei invited back Lord Xinling who had stayed in Zhao after stealing the talisman to save Zhao. Lord Xinling relied on his reputation to form a five-nation joint military operation. The five-nation coalition resisted Qin and defeated the Qin army. This gave Lu Buwei, who was proud of the spring breeze, a blow to the head. This was Lu Buwei's first and only military failure after he came to power. From then on, he became more cautious in using troops. From the failure, Lu Buwei knew that if Lord Xinling was not eliminated, Qin's military conquest would encounter more difficulties. After many days of planning and careful arrangements, Lu Buwei spread rumors everywhere and used a plan to sow discord to get King Wei Anlu to remove Lord Xinling from his military power, which led to Lord Xinling's death four years later.
4. Assisting the New King
In May of 247 BC, when the apricot flowers were fading and the lotus flowers were blooming and the garden was green, shocking news came from the Qin Palace: King Zhuang Xiang passed away. . King Zhuang Xiang, who was regarded as a rare commodity by Lu Buwei, did not hesitate to sell himself in order to climb to the throne of the king, and gave himself as a commodity to Lu Buwei for speculation. He did not hesitate to abandon his biological mother, the Queen Mother Xia, in the cold palace to please Mrs. Huayang. However, after paying such a high price, he died three years after he took the throne of King Qin. He was only thirty-five years old when he died.
There are many opinions regarding the death of King Zhuang Xiang. Some people say that he was ill, while others said that it was caused by Lu Buwei. Regardless of the cause of death, in fact, as soon as he died, Lu Buwei's status in Qin changed again.
1. "Zhongfu" has the exclusive power
On one day in the fifth lunar month of 247 BC, there was a solemn atmosphere in the capital of Qin, and in the Zhangtai Palace south of the Wei River, there was a sad and voiceless sound. The music was heard in bursts, and the music of nine shengs and pipes echoed in the harem, where the enthronement ceremony of King Qin's government was held immediately after the funeral.
The King of Qin was only thirteen years old when he came to power. He was a minor. During the majestic ceremony, Prime Minister Lu Buwei was always by his side, instructing him on how to act. After Yingzheng succeeded to the throne, Lu Buwei was granted a special title - Zhongfu, in addition to Prime Minister and Marquis Wenxin. Of course, a thirteen-year-old child would not be able to think of such a title ban. This was entirely Lu Buwei's own idea. From then on, Lu Buwei sat on the right side of King Qin's throne in the main hall of Zhangtai Palace and began to handle government affairs. From 246 BC when Qin Wangzheng came to the throne to 237 BC, Lu Buwei was directly in power in Qin.
At the beginning of Qin Wangzheng's accession to the throne, the top priority was still to win the victory over the eastern countries. The main targets of the annexation war are still Han, Wei and other countries, but there has never been a major war with Chu.
In 241 BC, the five kingdoms of Chu, Zhao, Wei, Yan, and Han once again united, elected the King of Chu as the vertical leader, and jointly attacked Qin. However, this time they were counterattacked by the Qin army, and Lu Buwei adopted the strategy of attacking the vassal states. The two strategies of striking and dividing caused the five-nation coalition to collapse immediately. At the same time, it also aroused Qin's hatred towards Chu, and King Kaolie of Chu could not help but transfer his resentment to Chunshen Lord Huang Xie. In order to please the King of Chu, Lord Chun Shen searched for beauties in many ways for the King of Chu's sexual pleasure.
However, the King of Chu had many sisters and aunts, but he had no children for many years. Chun Shenjun sent countless beauties to the palace, but there was no harem to give birth to children. When the good news came out, Chun Shenjun was so anxious that he was helpless.
But one day, the guest Li Yuan asked to see him, and afterwards he dedicated his sister to Lord Chun Shen. Soon Li Yuanmei became pregnant, and one day she took advantage of the opportunity to propose a plan to Lord Chun Shen to ensure that she would be favored by the king for a long time. Chun Shenjun gave his pregnant self to the King of Chu. A year later, Li Yuanmei gave birth to a son for the King of Chu. The King of Chu immediately made her his queen and crown prince. From then on, Li Yuan's favor in front of the King of Chu immediately surpassed that of Chun Shenjun. Since Li Yuan gained power in Chu State by using Chun Shenjun, his only worry was Chunshenjun who knew his true identity, so he was always ready to assassinate Chunshenjun to silence him. After the death of the martyr Chu Kao, Li Yuan successfully got rid of Chun Shenjun and directly controlled the Chu state's political power. Li Yuan's conspiracy coincided with Lu Buwei's speculation, and Li Yuan originally came from Handan, the State of Zhao, where Lu Buwei's speculation was successful. As for whether Li Yuan was a spy sent to Chu State intentionally by Lu Buwei, it became a difficult question in Lu Buwei's life. puzzle.
2. Recruiting talented people
When Lu Buwei was in power, Qin's economy and culture made great progress, which provided objective conditions for him to display his political talents. However, another main reason for achieving stable development at home and winning continuous victories abroad is that Lu Buwei attaches great importance to talents.
Although Lu Buwei ascended to the position of prime minister of the Qin State late, he did not have the common problem of jealous politicians who are jealous of their talents. He valued the elders and important ministers very highly. The most prominent among the veterans is Meng Ao. During Lu Buwei's more than ten years in power, this veteran did not take any credit or be arrogant. He continued to lead troops to fight for cities and land for the Qin State. Although he was old, he remained as good as before. Not being wary of the old giants and having no prejudice against the elders are one of the reasons for Lu Buwei's success.
Lu Buwei employs people in an eclectic way. The most famous one is Xiao Ganluo, who was able to take on the important task of being an envoy at the age of twelve. Xiao Ganluo first helped Lu Buwei to persuade Zhang Tang to accept the order to go to Yan State, and then went to Zhao State alone, making Zhao State willingly cede five cities to Qin State.
Before Lu Buwei came to the Qin Dynasty, the princes of various countries vigorously recruited talents and provided food for the diners. The most famous among them were the "Four Young Masters", namely Lord Mengchang of Qi, Lord Pingyuan of Zhao, and Xin of Wei. Lingjun, Chunshenjun of Chu State. Lu Buwei was the first politician in the history of the Qin State to realize the important role of scholars, so he recruited guests on a large scale and opened up the country to raise a large number of scholars.
At the beginning of Lu Buwei's tenure as Prime Minister, he built thousands of high halls and houses in the Prime Minister's Mansion, hired many famous chefs, and hung notices on the capital and city walls, welcoming scholars from all over the world to visit the Prime Minister's Mansion. . Because Lu Buwei himself was not from Qin, but he was the prime minister of Qin, he was very attractive to those who wanted fame. Secondly, Lu Buwei has great power, and his actions of raising scholars will not be opposed or resented by others. In addition, the Qin State has been victorious militarily, and it is only a matter of time to unify the six countries. Therefore, as soon as Lu Buwei's notice was issued, knowledgeable people rushed to the prime minister's house. Soon, there were 3,000 diners under Lu Buwei's family. Among them are the famous Sima Kong and Li Si.
3. A word of gold
Most people who become kings have two ideas: either to live a long life and be king forever, or to leave a name in history and be remembered by future generations forever. he. But Lu Buwei is the uncrowned king, so he has no choice but to settle for the next best thing. Soon he found a good way to leave his name. He has three thousand guests, and investment that does not produce actual benefits is something that a businessman is absolutely unwilling to do. So he called his disciples together and asked them to compile a book "Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals" to leave a monument for him. It is indeed a difficult problem for the book to maintain the views and styles of scholars from various schools, but also to be compiled together into a complete work, but after some research, it was finally solved satisfactorily. This book is unified in form but diverse in content. It is like a miscellaneous tree growing flowers and a group flying around, creating a miscellaneous family style.
In order to improve the quality of his works and prevent plagiarism of ready-made works, Lu Buwei came up with another trick. Early one morning in 239 BC, Xianyang City was much more lively than usual. People rushed to the city one after another and started talking about it. It turns out that the manuscript of "Lu's Spring and Autumn" was hung on the door of Xianyang City, with a lot of money next to it. A notice announced: If anyone can change a single word in "Lu's Spring and Autumn", a thousand pieces of gold will be taken away.
However, as time passed, there were fewer and fewer curious spectators, and the people standing in front of the market gate reading "Lu's Spring and Autumn" also gradually dispersed, and no one took away the gold. In fact, it's not that a word in the book cannot be changed, but that people don't dare to change it for fear of causing death. The notice is just Lu Buwei's way of bragging.
4. Yinjiu committed suicide
In 239 BC, King Qin Zheng was twenty-one years old. He was an adult. As long as the crowning ceremony was held, he could take charge.
Before taking charge, all the power of the court was in the hands of Lu Buwei, and Yingzheng was just a puppet monarch. Whenever the upper court handles political affairs, it can only listen to the truth.
When Qin Wangzheng was young, Lu Buwei would go to the harem to stay with the Queen Mother after handling the affairs of the court. The Queen Mother was originally the Handan Concubine and Lu Buwei's old lover. She was a womanizer, thief and lustful, and unscrupulous. However, as the prime minister, Lu Buwei began to alienate the Queen Mother in order to avoid suspicion and because he was focused on dealing with government affairs. In order to get rid of the entanglement of the adulteress, Lu Buwei had to find another old lover of the Queen Mother, Liao Ai, to replace him, and arranged Liao Ai to live in Ganquan Palace as a fake eunuch, spending time with the Queen Mother day and night.
Soon, Liao Ai was given the title of Marquis of Changxin, and his title, status, and status could completely compete with Lu Buwei's. Liao Ai accompanied the Queen Mother, and her power grew day by day, surpassing Lu Buwei in the Qin State. Liao Ai was born as a scoundrel in the market. Although he had political ambitions, he had no talent other than the art of pleasing the Queen Mother. He relied on the Queen Mother to protect the outbreak and established a private party, but his bad habits cannot be changed. After having an affair with the Queen Mother, he committed crimes outside the palace, making the whole court extremely angry. As his wings matured, he also wanted to seek power and seize the throne, and he had a son with the Queen Mother, who was raised secretly in the palace. But he also had a premonition of his own crisis. On the one hand, the confrontation with the Lu Group had become intense. More importantly, King Qin Zheng was already twenty-one years old and could take charge of his own affairs. If the situation cannot be controlled before the King of Qin takes charge, not only will he be defeated by Lu Buwei, but he will also be in danger of being eradicated by the King of Qin.
Liao Ai, the Queen Mother, Lu Buwei, and Qin Wangzheng are all busy planning personal matters at this moment, regardless of the outcome of the front line. A life-and-death, life-and-death struggle is about to take place openly.
In 238 BC, when Qin Wangzheng held a coronation ceremony in Yongcheng, Liao Ai knew that his and the Queen Mother's dirty deeds and the rebellion plan had been discovered, so he took advantage of the emptiness in Xianyang to launch a rebellion, using the Queen Mother's Yu Xi mobilizes troops. However, Qin Wangzheng had already prepared. Before Liao Ai's rebels left Xianyang, they encountered the Qin army coming from Yongcheng. The ragtag group was quickly beaten to a pulp. Liao Ai was torn apart by a car outside the east gate, and the nine tribes were wiped out. The Queen Mother had her salary reduced, her seal taken back, and she was placed under house arrest in the farthest Yang Palace of the Lama Temple.
In 237 BC, when the Liao Ai rebellion was suppressed and the power of the Lu Buwei group had not yet been touched, the Qin State discovered another spy. The State of Qin never realized that the hydraulic engineer Zheng Guo sent from South Korea was here to implement the plan to weaken Qin. The people of Zheng and Qin built the canals, which was a conspiracy of South Korea to use the canals to bring down Qin economically. So the King of Qin issued an expulsion order and ordered all foreign guests in Qin to be expelled within a time limit. At that time, Li Si tried hard to prevent the King of Qin from expelling guests, and wrote an "Admonishment to Expulsion of Guests", pointing out the dangerous consequences of expelling guests. Later, the King of Qin accepted the order and revoked the expulsion order.
In the tenth month of the lunar calendar in 237 BC, King Qin issued an order to remove Lu Buwei from the post of prime minister. Later, Qi native Mao Jiao persuaded the King of Qin to go to Yong Palace to welcome the Queen Mother back to Xianyang, and sent Lu Buwei to the fiefdom in Henan.
When Lu Buwei was entrusting the land in Henan, he did not hide his power and bide his time. Instead, he made friends with many guests. There was an endless stream of envoys from various countries to visit him. Qin Wangzheng was afraid that he would rebel, so he sent him to Shu and wrote a letter to reprimand him. The threatened Lu Buwei was afraid of being killed, so Yinjiu committed suicide