Zhao Gao grew up in a secluded palace in the Qin Dynasty, and was punished because his mother broke the law. The so-called hidden palace is similar to the place where prisoners live, and Zhao Gao is the descendant of prisoners. Therefore, the hidden palace is not an ordinary prison. At least prisoners can live a normal life here and have children. Zhao Gao's brothers were born and raised in the hermitage, but Zhao Gao was neither a eunuch nor a eunuch at this time.
Although Zhao Gao grew up in a secluded palace, he received a good education, which can be seen from his familiarity with Qin laws and his good handwriting. Zhao Gao's calligraphy work "Ai Li Pian" is regarded as a literacy textbook of the Qin Dynasty. Today, it is like an article incorporated into primary and secondary school textbooks. Zhao Gao's calligraphy was second only to Lisi in the Qin Dynasty, and Zhao was the best at learning the law. Qin ruled the country by legalism, and the law must be learned.
Then the question is, why did a man who grew up in a hidden palace where prisoners lived get such a good education?
Only a well-educated senior can have these talents. If it is just the families of ordinary prisoners, there is no condition for receiving education at all, let alone ordinary farmers. In the Qin dynasty, only the children of dignitaries, officials at all levels and powerful landlords could receive a good education. So Zhao Gao's life experience is definitely not simple.
The only reason that can be explained is that Zhao Gao's family background is noble. Just because his parents broke the law, Qin Law only punished his parents, which led to the decline of his family background. However, the Qin Dynasty gave him a good education, because his parents broke the law regardless of their children, and Zhao Gao surnamed Zhao won. I can only think that Zhao Gao was born in the royal family of Qin.
The royal family of Qin coexisted with Qin for 563 years (since Qin became a vassal state). So the royal family of Qin is a huge family. In 563, there were dozens of generations, and there were thousands of people if not tens of thousands. It is not surprising that Zhao Gao is a member of the Qin royal family. After all, the royal family is too big and most of them are unknown, so there are only a few people.
This can also understand why Qin Shihuang used Zhao Gao and pardoned Zhao Gao's capital crime. There are two main reasons:
One is that Zhao Gao is talented. Familiar with law and good at writing. Qin Shihuang was originally a talented person and liked to promote talented people. Therefore, although Zhao Gao grew up in a secluded palace, Qin Shihuang promoted Zhao Gao to the rank of central government.
Second, Zhao Gao was born in the royal family. This is a pass to enter an important place in the royal family. This background is unmatched by others. Whether it was the Qin Dynasty or the later feudal dynasty, people who could serve as important clerks around the emperor in the palace were required to examine their origins, and they must be people with good family background and political innocence. Zhao Gao has this identity.
Let's continue to look at Zhao Gao's behavior. After the death of Qin Shihuang, Zhao Gao joined forces with Hu Hai and Reese to launch a coup, tampered with the imperial edict and made Hu Hai his successor. The three men formed a temporary political alliance, forcing Meng Tian, Meng Yi and Fu Su to death, killing all the other children of Qin Shihuang, and eradicating disobedient ministers in the DPRK, such as General Feng Jie and Right Prime Minister Feng Quji.
Then, Zhao Gao used the emperor Hu Hai to root out the left prime minister Reese and became the prime minister himself. Then he accused the deer of being a horse and killed a large number of ministers who were not loyal to him. Above the whole imperial court, except the emperor, Zhao Gao seemed to be a powerful minister under one person and above ten thousand people, but Zhao Gao was not satisfied. He did a surprising thing: Zhao Gao ordered his son-in-law, Xianyang county magistrate Yan Le, to lead an army to kill Qin Ershi Hu Hai.
This is the crime of regicide, which is a felony in any dynasty. The emperor system created by Qin Shihuang, only Qin Shihuang himself worked for a lifetime, and then Qin Ershi was killed by Zhao Gao. This idea is crazy. What does Zhao Gao want?
Generally speaking, there are few direct kingslayers who usurp the throne. Instead, we should first be a powerful minister, establish a puppet emperor, and then force the puppet emperor to abdicate and let the powerful minister take his place. If we kill the emperor directly, the whole world will rise up and attack him. Zhao Gao's idea is crazy.
In fact, there is only one reason for Zhao Gao to do this, that is, to be emperor himself.
At that time, the situation was special, and the anti-Qin uprising all over the world had become a general trend. Zhao Gao is well aware of this situation. Zhao Gao has no time to train puppets to abdicate step by step, and time is not allowed. Later, the anti-Qin army entered Guanzhong. As can be seen from the later historical development, Zi Ying was only the king of Qin for 46 days, and Liu Bang entered Guanzhong from Wuguan. Zi Ying surrendered and the Qin Dynasty perished.
Zhao Gao killed Hu Hai a little more than 46 days before Liu Bang entered Guanzhong. Zhao Gao also wants to take his time, but time is pressing, so he has to do so. Otherwise, the anti-Qin army will enter Guanzhong, and Hu Hai will deal with Zhao Gao. Hu Hai has been living in a lie made by Zhao Gao. The question is, why did Zhao Gao have such a crazy idea of straightforwardness? Can anyone be emperor?
In other words, what does it take to be an emperor? What is the standard?
The ancients talked about the divine right of kingship and called the supreme power of the emperor given by God. After Qin Shihuang unified the six countries and established the Qin Dynasty, he hoped that the emperors behind the Qin Dynasty would be handed down from generation to generation. In other words, only the descendants of Qin Shihuang can inherit the position of emperor, so Hu Hai is Qin Ershi.
But now, it is no coincidence that all the descendants of Qin Shihuang have been killed. If we associate a series of events together, we will find that the entire Qin Dynasty began with the Dune coup, and went to Hu Hai to force Fu Su, Meng Tian and Meng Yi to kill all the descendants of Qin Shihuang and the ministers in the DPRK. It was all planned by Zhao Gao. Zhao Gao's purpose is to be emperor himself. Only when the direct descendants of Qin Shihuang are all dead can Zhao Gao become emperor. So from this logic.
Is this an extremely fearful thing that makes people tremble with fear? Since the Dune coup, Zhao Gao has set his ambition as: to become the emperor of Daqin Empire. Because the emperor is supreme and has the greatest power in the world, he can do whatever he wants without restriction. Because the emperor is the product of high centralization and was invented by Qin Shihuang, it has become the ideal of Zhao Gao. Zhao Gao was promoted by Qin Shihuang, which has to be said to be ironic.
But Zhao Gao sometimes miscalculates. He thought that as long as he had the power, the minister of the DPRK would obey him, but he was obviously wrong. Being an emperor and being a powerful minister are two different things. Being a powerful minister at least has room for manoeuvre and a fig leaf. But it is an insult to the whole world for Zhao Gao to become emperor directly. If he kills the emperor, he can be the emperor directly, so it's too easy to be the emperor.
Not everyone can be an emperor. Although Liu Bang later became emperor by war, Liu Bang still had to make up a fairy story that he was the son of a dragon, and at the same time he had to show kindness and care to the people all over the world in order to win the support of the people all over the world. Zhao Gao equated power with everything, which was the main reason why he had no support as emperor. Zhao Gao can't kill all the ministers, so he and Zhao Gao are not the only ones in the DPRK. Isn't that really lonely?
So when Zhao Gao found that no one supported him, he took a slow step and made Zi Ying the king of Qin. Zi Ying may be Qin Shihuang's cousin, that is, the son of Qin Shihuang's father and brother, because Qin Shihuang's own team was basically killed, and his brother Cheng Jiao's team has defected. There can be no one in the state of Qin, only Qin Shihuang's cousin's generation.
Zhao Gaoli and Zi Ying just want to ease the tension, then use Zi Ying as a puppet to make the transition, and finally he wants to be emperor himself. But what Zhao Gao didn't expect was that Zi Ying was a very clever man. He tricked Zhao Gao into the back room by pretending to be sick, and the eunuch and his son jointly killed Zhao Gao. When Zhao Gao died, the power structure he established collapsed.
Although Zhao Gao was killed, his destructive power and ambition still frightened people all over the world.