Li Si had not gone out for more than a month and had been staying home because of illness. Even when Zhao Gao was killed at the entrance of the market, he just listened to his son's report, but he did not laugh, but sighed.
"Now that things have happened, among the old ministers of the dynasty, who is not the victim of Hei Fu's sword?"
Although he was the one who jumped on the chopping board all by himself, because Li Si knew very well that if he didn't jump in in time, he would only be stewed in a pot.
Thirty years ago, he also made a choice. He jumped from Lu Buwei's close disciple to the Qin Wangzheng. Afterwards, he advocated the execution of Lu and spared no effort to clear up his relationship, thus establishing his status as the first minister of Qin.
But this choice is obviously not as easy as the last time. Heifu has his own team, so there is no way he can trust Li Si. As the Marquis of Che and Prime Minister, Li Si cannot lower himself to serve Heifu in the construction of this building.
He has a share of the credit, and besides, he also cares about his posthumous reputation.
Both parties were smart people and knew this tacitly. When Hei Fu saw Li Si, he looked like an old prime minister and bowed to him.
Li Si also knew very well that Heifu's needs for him mainly focused on two things: one was the handover of government affairs, and the other was the reputation of Li Si's veteran ministers. Many things that Heifu could not explain clearly required Li Si's endorsement.
However, what surprised Li Si was that there were many capable officials in Heifu's team. Needless to say, Zhang Cang had served in many positions and was proficient in the operation of the court. The second one was Xiao He, the little-known Sishui County governor.
Li Si was impressed by the ability and vigilance shown by the official when handing over the power of planning and prime minister.
"No wonder Heifu used one state to fight against the whole world, but he had enough military supplies and was able to withstand Wang Ben's offensive."
He also lamented: "Xiao He is just an official with swords and pens, and there are no special details in the records. However, Hei Fu was able to discover him early and take him under his command. He asked and talked with him. He must have the talent of a prime minister and assistant. Hei Fu is good at recognizing people."
In addition, there were Lu Jia and others as assistants. In just over a month, Heifu completed the handover of the government books. The group of shogunate officials he had started to build as early as the Jiaodong period replaced the already incomplete ministers of the old Qin and took over the central role.
's lock key.
So Zhou Qingchen and Wang Wu were sent to serve as deputy ministers in the Yushi Mansion. Li Si, the right-hand prime minister, became unworthy of his name, and his power was taken away by Heifu and distributed among the ministers.
He wisely reported his illness at home and began to express his desire to retire. In response, Hei Fu reciprocated and promoted Li Si's son Li Yu from the deputy position of Tingwei and made him Jiuqing.
The transfer of power between the old and the new has been completed.
Li Si was also open-minded. After his family's old house was burned down by Zhao Gao, Hei Fu chose a small palace near Xianyang and invited Li Si to stay temporarily. However, Li Si refused and vacated Zhao Gao and Zhao Cheng's mansion.
Then he happily moved in and had all the furniture belonging to Zhao Gao shipped out for the people of Xianyang to take.
For the rest of this month, Li Si closed his door tightly and refused all visitors. He lived a comfortable life at home. He hired dog lovers to buy good dogs that were lucky enough to survive Hu Hai's butcher's knife and kept them in the backyard. Li Si went there every day.
He took a look at them, named them one by one, asked the servants to feed them the best meat, and trained them himself, which was a pleasure.
It was not until early September that his second son, Tingwei Li Yu came to report something:
"Father, Yushi Yang Zhen sent his servant to deliver the letter. Do you want to..."
"No need."
Li Si only squinted at the young hounds with a firm attitude. After asking the servants to retreat, he said to Li Yu:
"I can guess what he said without opening it."
"It's nothing more than wanting me to stand out and protect the country with the surname Ying."
Li Su read the contents and nodded: "That's true. Yang Zhen hopes that his father can cooperate with the pure ministers in the court internally and externally with Chang Wei of Shu County, so as to maintain the balance of the court and prevent Wu Zhonghou from doing whatever he wants."
"Are there any pure ministers in this pass?"
Li Si smiled. He raised his head, his eyes were a little dim, but his mind was still clear...
"Xi and Youzhan were pure ministers, but Xi was banished to a distant place because he offended the First Emperor; Youzhan had his tongue pulled out because he said something wrong."
"Feng Quji and Wang Ben were pure ministers, but Feng Quji was killed by Zhao Gao and his family was destroyed; but Wang Ben was finally unable to save himself and died in grief and anger."
"Nei Shibao, Meng Tian, and Meng Yi brothers were also pure ministers, but Nei Shibao was defeated by Han Xin because of his loyalty to his duties and died in the army; Meng Tian and Meng Yi brothers were too prestige in the army and the DPRK, so they became
Kill first..."
The deaths of Meng Tian and Meng Yi were blamed on Zhao Gao as one of his crimes, but Li Si could vaguely guess who was responsible.
"Among the remaining people, Zhou Qingchen is afraid of death and is flattering, Wang Wu is timid and hesitant, Ziying will never stand up again, Hu Wujing is wise enough to protect himself, and even Yang Huan..."
Li Si sneered: "When Yang Huan was the first emperor's visitor, he had an extraordinary relationship with Hei Fu. Why did he suddenly change his nature now and go against him everywhere? Is he really determined to fulfill his duties for the country named Ying? These words are also true.
Just deceiving some stupid people."
Li Yu broke into a cold sweat: "What father means is..."
Li Sidao: "When I was young in the Chu State, I once saw a warehouseman catching mice. He made two bamboo tubes with an inner and outer tube, set up a trap, and put in corn. The hamster wanted to eat the bait, but was blocked by the trigger wire, so he bit off the trigger wire and opened the trap inside.
The tube slides down and the hamster's head is stuck, and more than ten hamsters can be caught in one day."
"This is a trap and a temptation."
Li Si has a keen sense of smell for danger.
"Taking a step back, the remaining people in the court, including me, were completely defeated when they wrestled with Zhao Gao a few months ago, let alone now?"
"In Guanzhong, regardless of government affairs, finances, soldiers and horses, and people's hearts, they are all controlled by Heifu. With a group of remnant ministers of the late emperor, how can we check and balance them? With swords and pens, history books? Or with words and words? What Heifu can use to deal with the ministers is real swords.
Ah. If you don’t move, you can still stay in a high position for a while. Once you have any different intentions, I’m afraid you will be wiped out in one fell swoop.”
To a certain extent, Heifu is more sinister than Zhao Gao. Zhao Gao is a traitor who is known to be a traitor at a glance, and is hated by everyone from the officials to the common people.
But Heifu was different. His slogan of "respecting the late emperor's edict" was so loud that he catered to everyone's resentment towards Zhao Gao. After entering the customs, he had nothing to gain and women had no luck. He only took the private property of the royal family that had no one to decide.
He opened the surgery with an attitude of relieving the people, and he did not hesitate to win people's hearts and bribe the people by high-ranking officials and nobles.
After all, there are only a few smart people in this world. After listening to his words and benefiting from them, most people in Guanzhong still believed Hei Fu's lies.
As for the ruthlessness of his methods, he was no less brutal than Zhao Gao, and he struck at the most critical points with his sword.
"But in turn, Heifu will also fight back against what he tries to promote." Li Si has already seen this clearly.
Once the persona that has been established with great effort collapses, disappointment will follow.
"Now he can act arbitrarily, he can act as regent and administer administration on behalf of the emperor, and he can make the emperor's position vacant, but he can never sit on it by himself!"
"He is not a loyal minister of the Qin Dynasty."
"But we can't directly replace Qin."
Li Yu knew: "What my father means is that Hei Fu wants to follow Tian Chengzi's example?"
Tian Chengzi was the ancestor of the Tian family in the Qi Kingdom. When he was Qi Qing, he launched several coups, killed Qi Jian Gong and imprisoned him, and executed all the Bao and Yan clans.
Qi Daquan, after several generations, finally stole the state of Qi...
Tian Chengzi lent money with big dou and received with small dou to bring the people back home, which is somewhat similar to Heifu who gave away the royal family's private property to the army and the people.
The only difference is that in order to expand the clan and compete with the difficult-to-clear Jiang Qi clan, Tian Chengzi selected Qi women who were more than seven feet tall as concubines. He had a harem of hundreds, and guests were not allowed to leave the harem. When he died,
, and he had seventy sons.
But the black husband only has one wife and two children.
"How do I choose my property?" Li Yu asked his father.
"Didn't my family already make a choice?" Li Si asked.
"I heard that the Bao family and the Yan family had been executed, and Duke Jian of Qi had died. Confucius fasted for three days and asked the Marquis of Lu to attack the Tian family. The Marquis of Lu was very embarrassed, so he declined and asked Confucius to ask the ruling Jisun family.
…”
"Am I Confucius?"
He shook his head: "No, what's more, even though Confucius couldn't bear it, even if Ji Sun's eight hundred people danced in the court, he had no choice but to leave the state of Lu. He could only see out of sight, let alone stop Tian Chengzi from stealing Qi.
"
"As "Qiu" (quqiè) said, what is being stolen is not only evil to the country? And it is stolen according to the law of his sage knowledge. The thief also has a way. As long as the black man is not confused, the old man can also start and end well as a minister of Qin.
, naturally I won’t embarrass him.”
As for the subsequent floods, what does it have to do with him? In this world, there is no country that can be passed down to all generations...
As for whether Quanxia would be ashamed of Qin Shi Huangdi? They Xunmen disciples never believe in anything after death!
The next day, officials under the regent came to invite Li Si.
"Your Majesty, the regent invites you!"
I just received the submission yesterday, and Hei Fu invited me today. Li Yu was still a little nervous, but Li Si was very calm. He understood what Hei Fu wanted to discuss when he invited him.
"Is there any so-called knower in the world who is not a big thief and hoarder? Is there any so-called saint who is not a big thief and defender?"
"Li Si is by no means a knowledgeable sage, but he only fell in love with Cai Buyi."
Li Si threw a piece of meat to the yellow dog. After watching it eat, he got up and asked someone to dress him and went out:
"He still needs my family. It's enough for you, these unworthy descendants, to enjoy wealth and honor in this world!"
…
At the same time, Chang Yan, who had arrived at Yangping Pass and was about to leave Shu County, was blocked by someone.
"Changjun, that black husband named Qin Xiang is actually a Qin thief. If he enters the dynasty, he will be harmed by him. Please don't do it, Changjun!"