Chapter 378: Two Empress Dowagers

Just as Lu Buwei expected, after Zhao Ji had the assistance of the gifted Lao Ai,

she was like Liu Xie, who was enfeoffed as the Duke of Anle in the Wei state, happy and not thinking of home,

in the blink of an eye, she threw him, who was old, weak, and increasingly powerless to bring her happiness, to the back of her mind,

wholeheartedly living a shameless two-person world with Lao Ai in the harem.

If things stopped here, although it wasn't perfect, it could be considered passable,

after all, Empress Dowagers keeping male pets, it wasn't as if other Empress Dowagers of Qin hadn't done it.

The famous Empress Dowager Xuan, Mi Yue, mother of King Zhaoxiang of Qin, Ying Ji, kept several male pets,

and didn't she land safely, and was even considered by later generations as a model of a virtuous Empress Dowager?

Unfortunately, the development of things is always unsatisfactory, or rather, Zhao Ji's stupidity was truly beyond people's imagination.

As an Empress Dowager who had already lost her man, she, she actually got pregnant!

This is playing, this is joking, don't make fun of the reputation of the former King.

An Empress Dowager of a country actually got pregnant after her husband died; this was simply a huge scandal!

Zhao Ji was anxious in her heart, but on the other hand, under Lao Ai's persuasion, she couldn't bear to part with the child in her womb,

so she came up with the idea of leaving the palace to live in the imperial villa outside the city.

An Empress Dowager wanting to leave the palace to recuperate in the imperial villa, no one would object,

so Zhao Ji successfully gave birth to her illegitimate child with Lao Ai in the imperial villa.

At the same time, Lao Ai took advantage of Zhao Ji's east wind and rose rapidly.

Although it was said many times that Zhao Ji was beautiful but extremely stupid, doing things too emotionally, without using her brain,

she was ultimately the biological mother of Wang Ying Zheng of Qin, and she lacked none of the power and status that an Empress Dowager should have.

Lao Ai, who had walked the shortcut of Zhongnan, henceforth rose steadily and was enfeoffed as the Marquis of Changxin.

After Lao Ai was enfeoffed as a Marquis, he used Shanyang (southeast of Jiaozuo, Henan today) as his residence,

used Taiyuan Commandery in He Xi as his fief, and the rewards he received were extremely generous; all matters in Yongcheng were decided by Lao Ai,

and all matters in the palace, big or small, were also decided by him; his family had thousands of servants and guests,

and there were more than a thousand guests and retainers who came to Lao Ai to seek official positions, making his door like a marketplace for a time, becoming a wealthy family in Xianyang.

But Lao Ai was ultimately a petty person from the marketplace; when a petty person gets his way, it is inevitable that he will forget himself and often speak recklessly.

Later, he had fun with powerful ministers and spoke recklessly after drinking, saying the rebellious words that he was the fake father of Wang Ying Zheng of Qin.

Later, because the matter was exposed, he launched a rebellion and failed, and was executed by Ying Zheng with the extreme punishment of being torn apart by chariots.

The two illegitimate children he had with Zhao Ji were also treated as firecrackers by the Ancestral Dragon.

The First Emperor had many women in his life and dozens of children, but he never clearly established an Empress,

which was not unrelated to the influence of Zhao Ji and Lao Ai's affair.

Zhao Ji's stupidity formed a sharp contrast with her predecessor, Empress Dowager Xuan, Mi Yue.

Speaking of Empress Dowager Xuan of Qin, Mi Yue, the name that cannot be bypassed is the King of Yiqu.

During the period when Empress Dowager Xuan was in power, one of the main pressures facing the Qin state was the Yiqu tribe in the northwest.

This force repeatedly went south, posing a serious threat to Guanzhong of Qin.

At first glance, this was just a border problem; after all, with Yiqu's strength, it was impossible to break through Xianyang,

but in reality, it involved the grand strategy of whether Qin could safely move east:

Having a hungry wolf behind one's back, even if this hungry wolf couldn't bite people to death,

one still had to divide at least three points of strength to guard against it.

After all, although a hungry wolf can't bite someone to death at once, if it bites many times,

and loses too much blood, in a situation where the human body is weak and loses the ability to resist,

dying in the hands of the hungry wolf almost becomes inevitable.

The relationship between Empress Dowager Xuan and the King of Yiqu, historical books perhaps also felt that this period of history was not very glorious,

so there were not many records, but the key information was very clear:

The King of Yiqu entered the court many times, stayed in Xianyang, and even had two sons with the Empress Dowager.

Such frequent and deep contact was very rare among the heroes of the Warring States.

In other words, this "private affair" was tied to the relationship between the two countries from the very beginning.

From the timeline, King Zhaoxiang of Qin reigned for as long as fifty-six years,

which was one of the longest-reigning monarchs in the Warring States, living to exhaust several generations of monarchs of the six eastern countries.

During his middle reign, the national strength of Qin greatly increased, and the general Bai Qi repeatedly broke strong enemies,

and the Battle of Changping directly severely damaged the Zhao state, which was the only one that could compete with Qin, and from then on, there were no enemies in front of Qin,

and Ying Ji henceforth ruled the world more than the Five Hegemons of the Spring and Autumn period, and was jokingly called the "Warring States Demon King" by later netizens.

And the reason why Qin could have such a stable and continuous expansion process,

was inseparable from the relatively stable environment in the northwest.

This stability, the "being dragged down" of Yiqu, was very critical.

The interaction between Empress Dowager Xuan and the King of Yiqu gave Qin decades of buffer time.

Because the hostile force had an intimate relationship with the Empress Dowager, it slowed down the direct threat to Qin.

The King of Yiqu was stationed in Xianyang, seemingly favored, but in reality, he was far away from his own tribe,

which instead facilitated the Qin court's infiltration and control of the Yiqu region.

Even Zhang Jie, who now had several empires under his command, had to admit that

this method of tying private affairs and diplomacy together was very seasoned.

In "Lurk," Wu Zhanzhang, Wu Jingzhong, who invented the "Jade Throne Golden Buddha" principle and sighed that time is like a wild donkey,

that never returns, said a very good sentence:

"Politics without human feelings is short-lived."

What is even more worth pondering is that when Qin was well-developed and strong enough,

Empress Dowager Xuan and the heavy ministers in the court began to consider completely solving the Yiqu problem,

and this relationship became a thread that could be cut at any time.

According to the records of "Records of the Grand Historian: Annals of Qin" and "Biographies of Empress Dowager Xuan,"

later, the Qin people directly turned their faces and refused to recognize anyone, lured and killed the King of Yiqu, destroyed his country, and set up a commandery in his land.

The King of Yiqu, who was the leader, died in Xianyang,

and the Yiqu force quickly disintegrated without a leader, and was swallowed by Qin in one bite, skin and bones.

The emotional bond here completed the dual functions of "utilization" and "abandonment."

As for Empress Dowager Xuan's other famous male pet, Wei Choufu, he belonged to the later period.

By the time King Zhaoxiang personally governed and Empress Dowager Xuan gradually retreated to the second line, Wei Choufu appeared by the Empress Dowager's side.

Although the two were close and did not avoid suspicion when walking together in the palace, the situation at this time was very different:

Qin had become a strong country externally, and the center of power internally returned to the monarch; Empress Dowager Xuan no longer directly controlled the military and politics.

Wei Choufu's existence was more like the Empress Dowager's private life in her later years, and his influence on the court was limited,

and even if the courtiers discussed it, it was mostly within a controllable range.

In contrast, Zhao Ji's way of handling emotions seemed surprisingly risky.

Zhao Ji and Lu Buwei had a relationship in their early years, and later people kept discussing whether Crown Prince Zheng was Lu Buwei's son,

but such claims were mostly guesses by later generations, and there was no confirmation in historical books.

However, it is certain that Zhao Ji had trust and even reliance on Lu Buwei,

and this entanglement of private and political affairs laid the groundwork for the later situation.

From the perspective of risk management, Empress Dowager Xuan used emotions as a tool and always maintained the initiative;

Empress Dowager Zhao lost her vigilance in emotions, allowing a foreign petty person to climb to the high place of the power structure.

In the two emotional stories, one had a "scale in the heart," while the other was almost defenseless doting. ===== CHAPTER 379 =====