: Died after two lifetimes, calling a deer a horse

Hu Hai was terrified by those gazes that seemed to want to slowly torture him.

He scrambled to his feet and fell to Ying Zheng's feet, tears streaming down his face, incoherent in his speech.

"Father! You've been wronged, Father! Your son has no such intention! This is slander! It's the people of later generations spreading rumors, trying to sow discord between us and shake the foundations of our Great Qin!"

His cries were piercing, filled with grievance and fear.

However, Ying Zheng simply looked down at him, his gaze colder than that of someone looking at a dead man.

He spoke slowly, his voice devoid of any warmth.

Whether it was a wrongful conviction or not, let future generations say.

"Now, I just want to see what else you, this rebellious son, will do next."

This statement is more terrifying than any thunderous rage.

This means that the First Emperor had already accepted everything in the heavens as a given fact!

Hu Hai's crying stopped abruptly. His face turned ashen, and he collapsed to the ground, trembling uncontrollably.

Above the sky, Zhu Dijun's voice never stopped, like a ruthless carving knife, engraving that bloody future stroke by stroke into everyone's minds.

"Hu Hai ascended the throne, becoming Qin Er Shi. The first thing he did was to eliminate all potential threats."

He asked Zhao Gao, "The ministers are not convinced, the people are not loyal, and the princes are fighting against me. What should I do?"

Zhao Gao's answer was extremely ruthless and vicious: "Execute the ministers and princes, and eliminate all former officials of the late emperor!"

"And so, a bloody massacre targeting the Qin royal family began!"

Zhu Dijun's voice suddenly rose, filled with grief and indignation!

"Twenty-two young masters were slaughtered in Xianyang! Ten princesses were crippled in Du!"

"What does 'death in cradle disease' mean? Family members, it means being dismembered alive! Chopped into mincemeat!"

"The three brothers, Gongzi Jianglu, were imprisoned in the inner palace and eventually forced to commit suicide. Before their deaths, they looked up to the sky and cried out in anguish: 'What crime have we committed against Heaven!'"

Inside Xianyang Palace, all was deathly silent.

Those young masters and princesses who had been gloating just moments before were now ashen-faced and ice-cold.

They looked at Hu Hai, who was paralyzed on the ground, their eyes filled with primal fear and hatred.

That's not their brother.

That was a demon who was about to chop them into mincemeat!

Gongzi Gao's eyes were bloodshot as he stared intently at Hu Hai, his teeth grinding together.

He could almost see himself and his sisters being slaughtered!

"That's not enough!"

In the sky, Zhu Dijun's voice was like a death knell.

"Having slaughtered their brothers and sisters, Hu Hai and Zhao Gao turned their butcher's knives on the empire's meritorious officials!"

"The brothers Meng Tian and Meng Yi were forced to commit suicide!"

"Right Chancellor Feng Quji and General Feng Jie, unable to bear the humiliation, committed suicide!"

"Finally, it's the turn of the greatest contributor who helped them forge the imperial edict—Prime Minister Li Si!"

Li Si, who was slumped on the ground, suddenly trembled and raised his head in despair.

"Zhao Gao was jealous of Li Si's talent, so he fabricated charges against Li Si and falsely accused him of treason."

"Qin Er Shi Hu Hai, this foolish puppet, believed it without hesitation."

"He ordered that Li Si be subjected to the five punishments: tattooing his face, cutting off his nose, chopping off his left and right feet, whipping him to death, and finally, chopping his body into mincemeat in the middle of the marketplace!"

"This is the fate of Prime Minister Li Si!"

"And his crime extended to his entire family! His father, mother, wife, brothers, children... all those related to him by blood, young and old, were all killed!"

"Exterminate their entire clan!"

These three words caused the temperature in Xianyang Palace to plummet to freezing.

Li Si could no longer hold on and let out a mournful cry that was not human, completely collapsing.

He saw it!

He saw himself being torn to pieces! He saw his white-haired parents, his gentle and virtuous wife, and his infant child, all lying in pools of blood!

remorse!

Endless regret, like a venomous snake, gnawed at his internal organs!

Why!

Why did I believe the nonsense of that eunuch Zhao Gao?

Why take that gamble?

Ying Zheng looked at Li Si coldly, without a trace of pity in his eyes.

Traitors deserve their fate.

"After Li Si's death, Zhao Gao seized power and even became the prime minister." Zhu Dijun's voice was full of sarcasm.

"To test how many people in the court still dared to oppose him, he staged a farce that will be remembered for all time."

The scene changes.

In the imperial court, Zhao Gao led in a deer and said to Qin Er Shi (Hu Hai), "Your Majesty, I present you with a fine horse!"

Hu Hai paused for a moment, then laughed and said, "Prime Minister, you've got it wrong. This is clearly a deer, how can you call it a horse?"

Zhao Gao ignored him and instead questioned all the ministers in the court.

Some people remained silent.

Some people, in order to curry favor with Zhao Gao, went against their conscience and said, "That's right! This is a thoroughbred horse!"

A few upright ministers insisted that it was a deer.

"And the result?"

"The next day, all the ministers who claimed the deer were executed by Zhao Gao on various charges!"

"From then on, not a single word of truth was ever spoken in the imperial court."

"This is the origin of the idiom 'calling a deer a horse'!"

The Great Tang Dynasty, Taiji Hall.

Li Shimin was so angry that he trembled all over.

"Absurd! Shameless! Utterly shameless!"

"With eunuchs in power, they call a deer a horse! How can the country not perish! How can the country not perish!"

The Ming Dynasty, Hongwu Hall.

Zhu Yuanzhang's face was filled with murderous intent.

He thought of the corrupt officials at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, and the powerful ministers who turned black into white.

If someone like Zhao Gao falls into his hands, he has a thousand ways to make him wish he were dead!

"Calling a deer a horse, the government was corrupt. And the policies of Qin Er Shi (Hu Hai) pushed the entire empire into the abyss!"

"He embarked on massive construction projects, building the Epang Palace, conscripting laborers from all over the land, and imposing taxes several times heavier than during the reign of the First Emperor!"

"This has completely enraged the people of the land! Especially those in the former territories of the six former states who already harbored deep resentment towards Qin!"

The scene above the sky changes again!

In the stormy Dazexiang, two ragged soldiers raised their arms and shouted!

"Are kings and nobles born with a special destiny?"

This roar was like igniting a long-suppressed volcano!

The world has turned upside down!

The nobles of the six states, including Xiang Liang and Xiang Yu, uncle and nephew of the Chu state!

Liu Bang, the head of the Pei County pavilion!

Countless rebel armies marched towards Xianyang from all directions!

"And what was our Qin Er Shi doing?"

"He remained in the deep palace, listening to Zhao Gao's lies, enjoying a life of peace and prosperity!"

"It wasn't until the rebel army reached Guanzhong that he finally woke up from his dream!"

"He panicked, he began to resent Zhao Gao, and Zhao Gao, fearing he would be punished, decided... to strike first!"

"Zhao Gao sent his son-in-law Yan Le with troops to storm the palace and force Huhai to commit suicide!"

"That emperor who once raised a butcher's knife against his own brothers and sisters, in his final moments, groveled and begged for mercy, asking only to be a prince, or even a commoner, but even that was denied him!"

"Finally, in despair, he drew his sword and committed suicide!"

"From the time the First Emperor unified China to the time of Hu Hai's suicide, the Qin Empire existed for only fifteen years!"

"It perished after only two generations!"

Zhu Dijun's voice fell heavily, like a final verdict.

Inside the Xianyang Palace, Ying Zheng slowly closed his eyes.

A single tear silently slid down his dignified face.

He did not look at the paralyzed Hu Hai, the devastated Li Si, or the trembling Zhao Gao.

He simply raised his head and looked at the vast land that belonged to him.

Gone.

He devoted his entire life to building the empire that had been established by six generations of ancestors.

All because of a rebellious son, a eunuch, and a fool.

In the blink of an eye, it vanished into thin air.

The one who destroyed Qin was Hu.

The one who brought down the Qin Dynasty was Hu Hai!

How ridiculous!

How... pitiful!