Although the construction of Zheng Guoqu itself was more beneficial than harmful to Qin, his intention to weaken Qin caused the local ministers of Qin to be alerted, believing that the guest ministers from the six countries of Shandong were not trustworthy at all, and at their instigation, Yingzheng issued a "guest expulsion order" to expel all guest ministers from the six countries. According to the "Historical Records of Qin Shi Huang Benji", Ying Zheng promulgated the "Expulsion Order" in the tenth year of the reign of King Qin (237 BC), which coincided with the time when Lü Buwei was deposed due to the Chang Yu Rebellion.

One of Lü Buwei's protégés, Li Si, who was born in Shangcai of the Chu State, was also expelled. In order to avoid the fate of being expelled, Li Si took the initiative to write to Ying Zheng, which is the famous "Book of Expulsion", which is roughly as follows:

"When the ministers heard that the officials were talking about expelling the guests, they thought it was too much. Ximu Gong sought scholars, took Yu Rong in the west, Xi Yuwan in the east, welcomed Uncle Yu, asked Pi Leopard, Gongsun Zhi in Jin; these five sons were not produced in Qin, but Mu Gong used them, and merged the country twenty, and then dominated Xirong.

Filial piety and public use of the law of martingale, change customs, the people to prosperous, the country to be rich and strong, the people are happy to use, the princes are subordinate, won the Chu and Wei divisions, lifted thousands of miles, and has been strong so far.

King Hui used Zhang Yi's strategy to pull out the land of Sanchuan, merge Ba and Shu in the west, collect Shangjun in the north, take Hanzhong in the south, Bao Jiuyi, control Yan and Ying, and take the risk of Chenggao in the east, cut the soil of the paste, and then disperse the six countries from the west, so that the west of the Qin Dynasty, and the merit has been done to this day.

King Zhao got Fan Sui, abolished the Marquis, chased Huayang, Yi Gong, Du private door, encroached on the princes, and made Qin the emperor. These four gentlemen are all based on the merits of guests.

Look at it from this point of view. How can the guest be inferior to Qin? Xiang envoy the four monarchs are not polite and not inside, and the scholars are not used; it is to make the country have no wealth and profit, and Qin has no strong name. —Excerpt from Lis's Book of Exiles.

Han Fei was born in a Korean clan, had a stuttering problem, and Li Si was a student of the famous thinker Xunzi of the Warring States Period.

Since the Shang Dynasty made the Qin State strong after the reform of the law, the ruling class of the Qin State attached great importance to Legalist thought and used it as a policy for governing the country. On the other hand. After Han Fei returned from Xunzi's studies. He wrote to King Han many times, but he was not used, so he wrote "Five Worms", "Lonely Anger", "Xianxue", "Unspeakable" and other works.

After Han Fei's writings were circulated to the Qin State, Ying Zheng greatly appreciated the ideas of governing the country expounded by him. When he learned from Li Si's mouth that the author was Han Fei. That is, to use war as a threat. forced the king of Han to order Han Fei to send an envoy to Qin.

In 233 BC (the 14th year of the reign of King Qin), Han Fei sent an envoy to Qin and was appreciated by Yingzheng. Ready to be reused, Li Si and Yao Jia were afraid that Ying Zheng would reuse Han Fei, so they privately framed Han Fei, saying that Han Fei was the son of the Korean clan and would definitely not be loyal to the Qin State.

However, Li Yao and the others were afraid that Yingzheng would repent, so in order to avoid having too many dreams at night, they sent someone to send poison to Han Fei and make him commit suicide. Han Fei wanted to tell Ying Zheng his heart, but he couldn't see him.

As expected, since Han Fei was imprisoned, Ying Zheng seemed to regret it a lot, so he ordered someone to pardon Han Fei's crime, but it was too late, Han Fei had been poisoned.

For example, Han Fei said in "Lonely Anger" that a talented and resourceful person must have foresight and be able to discern everything, and if he can't see it, he will not be able to illuminate the evil in his private parts; a person who can enforce the law must have a resolute character and be strong and upright, and if he is not strong and upright, he cannot correct his rape.

On the other hand, Han Fei also argued in the "Five Worms" that as a Ming monarch, he should not use relevant academic literature and classics (referring to the Book of Poetry and Books), but should use laws and regulations as the textbook; forbid the speech of the previous kings and take officials as teachers; and did not advocate the fierceness of ranger assassins, but only used the courage of killing enemies and making meritorious contributions.

In this way, all the words of the people in the country must be in accordance with the law, all actions must be attributed to the state, and all courage must be used in the army to fight wars, so as to lay the capital of the king. "The Biography of Laozi Han Feilie"

Han Fei also unceremoniously called scholars (Confucian scholars), speakers (Zonghengjia), sword-bearers (Mojia chivalrous and chivalrous), troubled (people who are afraid of being conscripted to fight), industrial and commercial traders, etc., as the five types of people (Wu Worm) who disturb the rule of law of the king, referring to these people who are not conducive to farming and warfare, and are harmful to society like moths. These arguments also indirectly influenced Ying Zheng's decision to "burn books" and "cheat Confucianism" in the future.

Since the completion of the Zhengguo Canal, Guanzhong has become a fertile land. At this point, the three granaries of the Qin State - Bashu, Hanzhong, and Guanzhong were all completed, and Yingzheng launched the ten-year War to unify China.

Li Si as early as when he was a guest of Lü Buwei, he soon got the opportunity to meet Ying Zheng, and he quietly offered Ying Zheng the strategy of eliminating the Six Kingdoms, pointing out that now is the best time to annex the Six Kingdoms, if this opportunity is not seized, once the Six Kingdoms rise and enter into a joint alliance against the Qin State, the Qin State will occupy the Central Plains, and the annexation of the Six Nations will have to pay a very heavy price.

On the other hand, Wei Wei also pointed out that compared with the Qin State, the princes of the Six Kingdoms were like the heads of counties, but the six countries were in great trouble to deal with the Qin State, and in order to avoid repeating the mistakes of Zhibo, Fucha, and Qi Wang who died due to the joint attack of the enemy, he hoped that Yingzheng would not spare money, give gifts to the powerful ministers of various countries, and use the ministers who took bribes to disrupt the joint planning of the princes of the Six Kingdoms, so that although they lost some property, they could destroy all the princes.

Ying Zheng thought so, listened to Wei Yan's plan, in order to show his favor, Ying Zheng also let Wei Wei enjoy the same clothes and food as himself, every time he saw him, he always behaved very humble, and appointed Li Si as the long history, responsible for secretly sending strategists with gold and silver treasures to various countries to lobby.

For the powerful ministers of the six countries that can be bought, they will give more gifts to buy them; if they can't be bought, they will be killed; after successfully separating the relationship between the monarchs and ministers of the six countries, Yingzheng immediately sent good generals to attack them. Since the Qin army paid little price for victory, Yingzheng appointed Li Si as a guest secretary.

Ying Zheng, with the assistance of Li Si, Wei Yan and others, formulated the strategy of "destroying the princes, becoming the emperor, and unifying the world". The specific measures were: encircling Yan Qi, stabilizing Wei Chu, and eliminating Han Zhao;

Ying Zheng's first chosen target of attack was South Korea, because South Korea's strength was the weakest among the six countries, but South Korea had not yet reached the point of being vulnerable, and the three Jin were dependent on each other, Ying Zheng was worried that when Qin destroyed Han, Zhao still had the possibility of helping Han, so before destroying Han, Zhao must be greatly weakened.

In 236 BC (the eleventh year of the reign of King Qin), Pang Xuan, the general of the Zhao army, led the main force north to attack Yan, wanting to coerce Yan to attack Qin together. When Ying Zheng took advantage of Zhao to attack Yan, on the pretext of rescuing Yan, he sent Wang Qian, Huan Qi, and Yang Duanhe to lead the army to attack Zhao on two routes, which opened the prelude to the unification war.

When the Zhao army captured Shaoliang (north of present-day Dingzhou City, Hebei Province) on the border of Zhao and Yan, Wang Jian sent troops to attack Shangdang County of Zhao, and when Zhao captured Chong (northeast of present-day Renqiu City, Hebei Province) of Yan, Wang Jian had already conquered six cities of Zhao, including Xiahe (present-day Heshun County, Shanxi Province) and Luyang (present-day Zuoquan County, Shanxi Province).

Wang Jian led the army for eighteen days, let the junior officers in the army who were less than 100 stones go home, and selected two out of every ten people to stay in the army. When the Zhao army captured Yangcheng (southwest of present-day Baoding City, Hebei Province) of the Yan State, Huan Qi conquered the Chengcheng (present-day Zhenzhen Town, Cixian County, Hebei Province) and Anyang (i.e., Xinningzhong, southwest of present-day Anyang City, Henan Province) of the Zhao State.

The Qin army and the Zhao army acted simultaneously, and the Zhao state only captured a few cities on the northern border, but lost nine cities in the south and west, and its strength was greatly reduced. (To be continued......)