The Han Dynasty of Wang Yue

The Han Dynasty of Wang Yue

The latter two conditions were easy enough to meet, but Zhao Gao and Li Si couldn't possibly obey the first one.

After all, Zhao Gao and Li Si had thoroughly offended Prince Fusu long ago. The moment Prince Fusu ascended the Imperial Throne, it would be the end of them.

Even if Fusu didn't want to kill them, the people supporting him wouldn't stand for it. They had a blood feud, after all. How could they possibly spare the two men once they were back in power?

Zhao Gao understood this, and Li Si understood it even better. So when Zhao Gao summoned Li Si and proposed altering the imperial edict while Yi Xiaochuan was missing—ordering Prince Fusu to kill himself and naming Prince Hu Hai as successor—Li Si hesitated only briefly before agreeing.

In Li Si's eyes, Zhao Gao was just a eunuch, a man with no heirs. In the end, it was the Li family that stood to benefit. Why would he turn down such an opportunity?

With Yi Xiaochuan—the greatest opponent of Zhao Gao and Li Si—still nowhere to be found, no one could object to the altered edict. And so Hu Hai became emperor.

Deeply influenced by Confucian teachings and foolishly led astray, Fusu had been persuaded by certain Confucian scholars to twist Confucius's words, "A ruler should treat his ministers with courtesy, and ministers should serve their ruler with loyalty," into "If a ruler orders a minister to die, he must die; if a father orders his son to die, he must die."

So when Fusu received the edict ordering him to take his own life, he obeyed without a second thought.

After Fusu died, the others who were dissatisfied had lost their support, and could only accept