Chapter 44 Chapter 43: Emperor Hui Sima Zhong

In ancient China's imperial succession system, the succession of the throne was based on the elders and not the virtuous.As long as he is the eldest son, even an urchin and idiot can succeed him as emperor.Jin Hui Emperor Sima Zhong is a typical example. Sima Zhong is the second son of Sima Yan, Emperor Wu of Jin Dynasty. Since the eldest Sima Gui died at the age of two, he became the de facto eldest son. Sima Zhong was established as the crown prince when he was 9 years old.Emperor Wu, who was eager to love his son, specially invited Li Xi, who dared to impeach corrupt officials and was regarded as a direct minister, to be the prince and Taifu.Unexpectedly, Sima Zhong was an idiot by nature, stupid and dull, unbearable.For example, he often heard ministers arguing about "for the public" and "for the private". Once, when he was playing in the royal garden, he heard a toad cry, and asked his left and right: "Is it called for the official, or for the toad?" Private name?" For this kind of ironic question, the attendants have long been used to it, and they know how to fool him, and then someone answered skillfully: "The person who is called in the official land is an official, and the person who is called in a private land is a private person. .” The idiot was very satisfied.Another time, he heard that people in many places starved to death due to famine. He felt incomprehensible and said, "Why don't you eat minced meat (meat porridge)?" There are too many jokes like this.

Of course, Emperor Wu had heard about the prince's virtue, and it became a problem for him. Emperor Wu decided to conduct a test on the prince.On this day, he summoned all the officials of the Eastern Palace, held a banquet for them, and then wrote down the difficult questions of Shangshu Province on paper, and ordered Zhang Hong to send them to the prince, and waited for a reply immediately.Zhang Hong first sent the question to the Crown Princess. The Crown Princess Jia looked at the question in Zhang Hong's hand, frowned slightly, and said, "You should draft your answer carefully on behalf of the Crown Prince, and we will share wealth with you in the future." Zhang Hong has always been a bit of a literary talent. , After a while, the draft was drawn up, and then the prince copied it again, and took it back to hand over.Emperor Wu was very happy to see that the answer was well written, and immediately handed it to the officials.The ministers took the opportunity to flatter the emperor and shouted long live three times in unison, expressing their congratulations to the prince for his success.After this test, Emperor Wu's mood improved a lot, and the more he looked at it, the more he felt that the prince was making progress every day.

After a few days, Emperor Wu saw new hope in the prince's eldest son.Speaking of which, this grandson was picked up for nothing.At the beginning, Emperor Wu was afraid that the crown prince would be too young to know about room curtains, so he sent Xie Jiu, a talent in the harem whom he had been blessed with, to the East Palace to serve him. Xi Gong gave birth to a son there, named Sima Yu.Until he was three or four years old, Sima Zhong didn't know he had such a son.later.Sima Zhong went to meet his father and met Sima Kui playing with other children. Emperor Wu told him: "This is your son." Sima Zhong was completely different from his idiot father. He was very smart and wise. Keep him by your side.Once, there was a fire in the palace at night, and Emperor Wu went to the tower to watch. Sima Yu, who was just 5 years old, pulled Emperor Wu's skirt to ask him to enter the house. Emperor Wu was surprised and asked him why?He said: "Sudden accidents at night should be prepared for extraordinary events, and the fire should not be seen by the emperor." Emperor Wu couldn't help being surprised to see that he had such insight at such a young age.Another time, Sima Yan followed Emperor Wu to see the pigsty, and said to Emperor Wu: "The pig is very fat, why don't you kill it and use it to reward the soldiers, and keep it as a waste of food?" Emperor Wu immediately ordered the pig to be slaughtered, and he patted it. Sima Yi's back, said to the people around him: "This child will definitely revitalize my family in the future." Emperor Wu even compared him to Sima Yi in front of his officials.In this way, Emperor Wu felt that although his son was not ideal, his grandson had great hope. Therefore, he finally made up his mind to let the idiot Sima Zhong be the prince and the legal heir.

Emperor Wu was a lecherous person, and his sensuality became more and more wanton in his later years.As a result, in November of the tenth year of Taikang (AD 289), the 54-year-old emperor fell ill due to excessive indulgence.Therefore, he stepped up arrangements for the funeral: using Wang You's plan, the prince and his mother and brother Sima Jian were appointed as the king of Qin and left the town of Guanzhong; Sima Yi was the king of Chu and left the town of Jingzhou; Heavy troops guard the key points, and they are regarded as vassal guards.Since most of the political affairs in his later years were entrusted to his relative Yang Jun, Emperor Wu was afraid that the Yang family would become too powerful in the future and threaten the emperor, so he made Wang You the middle prince of the Northern Army, and he was in charge of the forbidden soldiers.He also heard from astrologers that Guangling (now Yangzhou, Jiangsu) had the spirit of the emperor, so he named the emperor's grandson Sima Yu as the king of Guangling, with as many as 50,000 households. He also carefully selected Liu Shi and others as his teachers and friends to assist the hopeful Star.

In April of the second year (AD 290), Emperor Wu died.On that day, the 32-year-old prince, the idiot Sima Zhong, ascended the throne, named Jin Hui Emperor, and changed Yuan Yongxi. When Emperor Wu was alive, the Empress's natal Yang family was very powerful. After Emperor Wu's death, Empress Yang became the Empress Dowager. Due to Emperor Hui's incompetence, the Yang family became more noble. Empress Yang's father had three brothers, and Yang Jun was the eldest. In terms of fame, talent and ability, he was not as good as the second and third eldest, Yang Ji, but in terms of ambition, he was the biggest.As soon as his daughter entered the palace, he had good luck and was promoted from Sima in the small general's mansion to general of the town army.His daughter was established as a queen, and he moved to be a chariot general, named Linjin Marquis, and became an important member of the court.Many people are deeply disturbed by the meteoric rise of this foreign relative.Some people commented privately: "The feudal princes are for the purpose of guarding the royal family. The queen's father named Lin Jin as a marquis. This is not auspicious, and it may be a sign of chaos in the world." Some people reminded Emperor Wu: "Yang Jun It is too small to be entrusted with important tasks for the community." Emperor Wu ignored it, but instead used it more and more.

The three brothers of the Yang family began to use affairs in the court, solicit connections, go through the back door, extend their hands everywhere inside and outside the court, reject loyal and upright ministers, appoint new nobles from Afu, gain power for personal gain, and do everything.Everyone in the world knows that "Three Yangs" are powerful officials in the court.Shang Shupu She Shantao was a veteran minister in charge of selecting officials for more than ten years. He urged Emperor Wu to pay attention to this problem many times. Although Emperor Wu understood his good intentions, he did not take effective measures.

In March of the eleventh year of Taikang (290 A.D.), Emperor Wu was seriously ill. At this time, most of the old ministers were no longer with him. Get off Yang Jun and his cronies.Emperor Wu got a little better, and found that Yang Jun was surrounded by upstarts. Only then did he feel that the problem was serious, and he reprimanded Yang Jun sharply: "How can you do this!" Jun jointly assists the government, and plans to escape and elect several famous ministers to help manage political affairs.However, it was too late.The inside and outside of the court have been controlled by Yang Jun.Before the edict was issued, Yang Jun borrowed it from Zhongshu Province to watch it, and hid the edict. Zhongshujian went to ask for it in person, but Yang Jun refused to return it.It just so happened that Emperor Wu became delirious again, so no one would pursue the matter, and let it go.After a few days, Emperor Wu came to his senses and asked, "Has King Runan come yet?"Of course he didn't know what happened during his coma.Left and right replied that they did not come.Emperor Wu probably knew that the matter was irreversible, his spirit was hit, his condition suddenly turned critical, and he died immediately.As a result, the idiot succeeded to the throne, and Yang Jun became the only Minister of Gu Ming.

Yang Jun swaggered into the Tai Chi Hall, started his business in the place where Emperor Wu used to go to court, and was equipped with hundreds of tiger and cardinal guards as bodyguards.In mid-May, after the burial of Emperor Wu's remains, Yang Jun, in the name of the idiot emperor, added the titles of Tai Tuo and Dadudu to himself, and endowed him with a fake yellow axe, recorded the government affairs, and all officials obeyed his orders.Fu Xian advised him: "My sage is humble enough to entrust you with political affairs, but people in the world don't think so. I'm afraid your job is not easy! There are rumors and gossip about a great sage like the Duke of Zhou assisting the government, not to mention that the sage is 32 years old now. , far from being as young as King Zhou Cheng. I think now that the funeral is over, you should seriously consider your own advances and retreats." Yang Jun refused to listen.Fu Xian tried to persuade him again and again, but Yang Jun got tired of hearing this, so he wanted to send Fu Xian out to serve as a sheriff, but his nephew Li Bin hurriedly advised him, "If you cast out decent people, you will lose people's hearts!" Yang Jun reluctantly refused to drive Fu Xian away Walk.

Yang Jun knew that he had always had a bad reputation, so he wanted to use rewards to buy people's hearts.General Fu Zhi of the Zuo Army wrote to him and said: "There has never been an emperor who rewarded his ministers according to their merits as soon as they died." Those who handle the funeral of Emperor Wu will be the second class, and all those above 2,000 stones will be sealed off as Marquis of Guanzhong.One year free rent adjustment.Even so, no one seems to have come out to praise him. Yang Jun was afraid that the government's order would not work and his reputation would not be established, so he had to intervene in everything big and small, and he was self-willed and easy to use severe punishment.He didn't have much talent and knowledge, and he didn't want to bother to familiarize himself with the existing rules and regulations. Therefore, many measures violated the established laws.Such ignorance is inevitably ridiculed by the world.

Yang Jun's actions were quickly despised by most people inside and outside the court, and everyone could see clearly that the disaster of extinction was approaching him step by step.Even some of his relatives and friends persuaded him one after another, and even kept a distance from him, for fear of being implicated in the future.Sun Chu, the prefect of Feng Yi who had always had a close relationship with Yang Jun, persuaded him: "There has never been a foreign surname that dominates and has good results. Today, the clan is strong. If you don't share power with them, you will be jealous inside and build a secret party outside. I think disaster is imminent." Yang Jun didn't believe it.Kuai Qin, the Shaofu of Hongxun Palace, was the son of Yang Jun's aunt. He had been close to Yang Jun since he was a child. Even though I am ignorant, I still know that innocent people should not be killed indiscriminately. It is just alienating me. Only by alienating me can I avoid being implicated. Otherwise, I will soon be exterminated together with him.” Everyone understands, Only Yang Jun himself is still in the dark, not knowing that the end is coming.

The emperor is an idiot, and he can be at the mercy of Yang Jun, but the empress Jia is not a kind person who is willing to live under others.Although Yang Jun knew that she was difficult to deal with and took precautions, he never thought that he would be defeated by this woman. Empress Jia's father, Jia Chong, won the trust of Emperor Wu, and his officials ranged from servants, ministers, and generals of chariots and riders.Jia Chong was good at flattering and flattering, and he quoted each other with Taiwei Xun Qiye, Shizhong, Zhongshu Supervisor Ge Xu, Yueqi Xiaowei, etc., and formed a party for personal gain. Originally, Emperor Wu had found a concubine with excellent talent and appearance for Emperor Hui. But Jia Chong couldn't help but bribed Queen Yang to keep blowing the pillow wind, and with the help of his buddies, they all tried their best to boast that Jia Chong's daughter was a peerless beauty, virtuous and talented, so Emperor Wu agreed to Na Jiachong's daughter as the princess. In fact, Concubine Jia is short in stature, with black skin and a blemish behind her eyebrows, she is extremely ugly.But sinister, vicious, cunning, jealous, and cunning.Treated the idiot prince submissively, feared and liked her so much that he seldom approached other women in the Eastern Palace.Once, Concubine Jia accidentally discovered that a concubine in the East Palace was pregnant, so she picked up a halberd and threw it at the concubine, causing the fetus to fall immediately, and the concubine died unexpectedly. Because Yang Jun has always been rude to them, Meng Guan and Li Zhao, the middle servants in the palace, spread rumors secretly that Yang Jun was about to usurp the throne.When Empress Jia discovered these two treasures, she immediately sent her trusted eunuch Dong Meng to secretly contact them, planning to kill Yang Jun and abolish Queen Mother Yang.Then, Li Zhao was sent to mobilize Sima Liang, king of Runan, to send troops. King Runan was timid and unwilling to stand out.Li Zhao went to see Sima Wei, King of Chu again, who was young and brave, and readily agreed. In February of the first year of Yongping (AD 291), Sima Wei, king of Chu, and Sima Yun, king of Huainan, entered the court.After more than half a month of secret preparations, the attack was launched on the eighth day of March.According to the plan, the imperial guards rushed out of the palace and surrounded and blocked Yang's mansion, so that none of the soldiers in the mansion could get out.Immediately rushed into Yang's mansion, Yang Jun fled into the stables, and was killed by the forbidden army with a halberd.Yang Yao, Yang Ji, and his cronies Zhang Shao, Duan Guang, and Li Bin all wiped out the three clans, and thousands of people were killed. After the outside affairs were sorted out, Empress Jia began to take action against Empress Dowager Yang.According to Empress Jia's suggestion, someone wrote a letter requesting that the Empress Dowager be abolished as a commoner and her mother Pangshi be executed.The idiot did so, Empress Dowager Yang hugged her mother and wailed, cut her hair and kowtowed, expressing her willingness to be Empress Jia's concubine and begging Jia to spare Pang's life, but Empress Jia still refused.Less than a year after Pang's execution, in February of the second year of Yuankang (AD 292), Empress Jia murdered Empress Dowager Yang, taking away all the remaining ten servants around her and cutting off her diet. , Empress Dowager Yang was starved to death without food for eight consecutive days.At this point, the Yang family was wiped out. The new auxiliary ministers are Dazai Runan Wang Sima Liang and Taibao Weiguan, Qin Wang Sima Jian, Chu Wang Sima Wei and other clan princes and veterans. .Such an arrangement was obviously the result of a temporary compromise, and a new power struggle immediately began again. For Jia Hou, the two auxiliary ministers did not pose a major danger for the time being, because the Runan King was weak and incompetent, and Wei Guan was a civil servant, so they were easy to deal with.The main threat came from Sima Wei, king of Chu, and Sima Yao, king of Dong'an, who held military power. The first to be eliminated was Sima Yao, king of Dong'an.Sima Yao hated Empress Jia's cruelty very much, and wanted to abolish her. Unexpectedly, before he could act, his brother went to the King of Runan to falsely accuse him, saying: "Punish and reward indiscriminately, and want to dominate the government." Empress Jia immediately took advantage of this He was dismissed as an official of the King of Dong'an, and then moved to Daifang (in today's North Korea) because of his dissatisfied remarks. Soon a new opportunity arose, allowing Empress Jia to get her wish and eliminate the remaining opponents.Runan Wang Liang and Wei Guan saw that Chu Wang Wei was stubborn and easy to kill, and wanted to seize his military power, and used Linhai Marquis Pei Kai as the middle marquis of the Northern Army to take charge of the forbidden army.After Chu Wangwei learned about it, he lost his temper and was so frightened that Pei Kai dared not accept the appointment.Runan Wang Liang and Wei Guan wanted to send Chu Wangwei and all the kings back to the feudal state, and the Chu king was even more angry.Someone suggested that he go to seek refuge with Empress Jia, and the king of Chu accepted the suggestion, and he was indeed retained by Empress Jia as Prince Shaofu.The purpose of Empress Jia's leaving King Chu was to use him to commit murder with a borrowed knife.In June of the first year of Yuankang (AD 291), Empress Jia asked Emperor Hui to issue an edict to King Wei of Chu, asking him to lead his troops to kill Wang Liang and Wei Guan of Runan. , The general in the palace was sent to the palace to hold the Zouyu banner used by the emperor to disband the soldiers, and announced to the soldiers: "The king of Chu is making trouble, everyone should not listen to him!" The soldiers immediately put down their weapons and dispersed.Chu Wangwei became a poor commander, he was at a loss, and was arrested immediately.Before the execution, Chu Wangwei took out the imperial edict written on blue paper from his bosom, and gave it to Liu Song, the supervisor of the beheading officer, and said with tears: "I acted under the edict, thinking it was for the country, but now it has become a crime. I too The descendants of the late emperor, why should they suffer such injustice!" The 21-year-old prince has always won the hearts of the people for his bravery, kindness, and generosity, but he is still too young, too simple and gullible, courageous and foolhardy. , It is inevitable to become the meat of Zushang. Kill two birds with one stone, and after removing Dazai, Taibao and King Chu at the same time, the power completely fell into the hands of Empress Jia. Seeing that he was in power, Empress Jia began to be licentious and unrestrained, doing whatever she wanted.This dark, short, ugly woman has a particularly dissolute private life.Not only messing around with the imperial physician Ling Chengju and others, but also often sending people to find beautiful young people in and out of Luoyang City to come to the palace to fool around with her.Although Empress Jia had fornicated many men, she only had three daughters, and she still had no sons until she was in her 40s.Seeing that his daughter had no children, Jia Chong advised her to take good care of the prince, but Empress Jia didn't listen at all.Jia Chong wanted to marry the daughter born to his youngest daughter Jia Wu to the prince as his concubine. The prince was also willing to marry this marriage to consolidate his position, but Jia Wu and Jiahou's two sisters disagreed.The prince heard that the eldest daughter of the minister Wang Yan was very beautiful, but the empress Jia let Jia Mi marry her, and hired a younger daughter for the prince who was not as good as the boss.In November of the ninth year of Yuankang (229 A.D.), when Jia Chong was dying, he held Empress Jia's hand and told his daughter: "After I die, I must support the prince with all my heart. Zhao Can and Jia Wu will disturb my family's affairs. Don't let them Then enter the palace. You must remember my words." Instead of remembering, Empress Jia went against the law, stepping up plans with Zhao Can, Jia Wu and others to murder the prince. Although the prince was not promising, he was born with a stubborn character.Jia Mi relied on favor and arrogance, and was often rude to the prince, and the prince retaliated. Whenever Jia Mi went to Dongguan, he avoided seeing him.Jia Mi felt that the succession of the crown prince would not be good for him in the future, so he went to Empress Jia and framed the crown prince for "accumulating a lot of private wealth, making friends with villains, and preparing to deal with Jia. Once the emperor dies and the crown prince comes to power, he will punish him just like we did with Yang Jun." Kill us and abolish the Queen Mother. It’s better to get rid of him as soon as possible, and establish another obedient one.” Empress Jia then stepped up her actions, publicizing the prince’s faults, and falsely claiming that she was pregnant, so that people could prepare the necessary items for childbirth, and then steal the beam and replace it. , took Jia Wu's son to be raised, and lied that he was the son of an idiot, and planned to use him to replace Sima Yu as the prince. In the first month of the tenth year of Yuankang, after careful planning, Empress Jia forced the eunuch to surrender, admitting that he had conspired with the prince in rebellion, and made his confession known to the public.Then, Ma Dan of Dongwu Company was sent to lead 1,000 soldiers to escort the prince to Xuchang for imprisonment, and Liu Zhen, the censor of Zhishu, was specially responsible for monitoring.So far, Empress Jia's power can be said to have reached its peak.However, the god of death also began to wave to her. Empress Jia abolished the crown prince. On the surface, no one dared to object. In fact, behind the calm situation, a big typhoon was brewing. Sima Ya and Xu Chao, the leaders of the forbidden army, once served the prince Sima Yan in the East Palace, and received the favor of the prince. Seeing that the prince was abolished, they felt displeased, so they conspired with the palace Zhonglang, Shi Yi, and others to depose Empress Jia and restore the prince.They analyzed the situation and believed that Zhang Hua and Pei Weiye only wanted to keep their officials and were difficult to rely on. General Zhao Wang Sima Lun of the Right Army had been in control of the military power since he was transferred back to Luoyang from Guanzhong.So he went to persuade Sun Xiu, the counselor of King Zhao, and Sun Xiu agreed, and then talked to King Zhao, and King Zhao also agreed. Just before the incident, Sun Xiu came up with a tricky idea for King Zhao, saying: "The crown prince is a fierce man. If he returns to the East Palace, he will definitely not want to be controlled by others. You have always been a member of Empress Jia, and everyone knows it. However, the prince will think that you were forced by the situation and had no choice but to turn against you. Although the prince can settle the old score, he will not appreciate your kindness. As long as you make a slight mistake, you will still be punished. It is better to postpone the action. Waiting for Empress Jia to kill the crown prince, and then abolish Empress Jia for the crime of murdering the crown prince, will not only save you from disaster, but also realize your ambition." King Zhao Xiang has the ambition to usurp the throne, and of course he fully agrees with Sun Xiu's opinion. Sun Xiu further played tricks and sent people to spread rumors that someone in the palace planned to abolish the empress Jia and establish a prince.Empress Jia was terrified when she learned about it.Sun Xiu and Zhao Wang took the opportunity to persuade Jia Mi to get rid of the prince as soon as possible.In March of the first year of Yongkang (300 A.D.), Empress Jia asked the imperial physician to order Cheng Ju to combine poison, and sent eunuch Sun Li to Xuchang to poison the prince in the name of Emperor Hui.Since the crown prince was abolished, he has been worried about being poisoned, and often cooks by himself. Sun Lu saw that it was difficult to do so, so he went to Liu Zhen, who was in charge of monitoring the crown prince. Liu Zhen moved the crown prince to a small courtyard, did not give him food, and wanted to starve him die.But there are still palace people secretly delivering food to the prince from the courtyard wall.Sun Li was helpless, so he went into battle shirtless and forced the prince to take poison in person, but the prince refused, so Sun Li hammered the prince to death with a pestle. Zhao Wang Sima Lun and Sun Xiu knew that the prince was dead, so they agreed to kill Jia Hou on the third night of the third month of April.In the daytime of the third day of junior high school, Sun Xiu sent Sima Ya to tell Zhang Hua: "The king of Zhao intends to help the country with you and eliminate harm for the world." You still say such things!" He left without looking back.In the evening, at the appointed time, Zhao Wang Jiaozhao said to the three Sima Imperial Army: "The empress Jia and Jia Mi killed the prince. Now after the emperor sends me into the palace to abolish Jia, you should obey my orders. To the Marquis of Guanzhong. Those who do not obey will be punished by the three clans!" All the soldiers naturally obeyed.Then he sent King Qi to lead more than a hundred people to take Emperor Hui to the East Hall, and issued an edict to call Jia Mi to the front of the hall to behead him.King Qi went to arrest Queen Jia again, and Queen Jia was surprised when she saw King Qi coming, and asked, "Why did you come here?" King Qi said, "I have an edict to arrest you." Where did you get the edict?" Anyway, Empress Jia had no choice but to follow King Qi to the East Hall, and shouted at Emperor Hui from afar: "If you abolish me, it means that you have abolished yourself!" King Qi: "Who is the one who led the rebellion?" Sima Tong, the king of Liang who was the general and record minister at that time, also participated in the plot, so King Qi said: "King Liang and King Zhao." Empress Jia said regretfully: "Tie the dog to tie the neck, and I tie the tail instead. How can I not be harmed!" She thought that she had killed the kings of Chu and Runan, but not the kings of Liang and Zhao. Do it the other way around, and the ending won't be much better.As a result, Empress Jia was abolished as a commoner, and Jia's relatives and party members were exterminated.A few days later, Empress Jia was bestowed with gold flakes wine to death. After the death of Empress Jia, a new battle for power, the Rebellion of the Eight Kings, kicked off, and this time it was the clan kings.Because most of the clan kings had heavy troops to guard the key points, and the military and civilian administration were concentrated in one body, but the emperor was an idiot. The clan kings who were somewhat ambitious and powerful could not help but dream about things.In this case, a catastrophe is inevitable. Among the eight kings, Emperor Hui was always hijacked by the powerful or the first to arrive, and became a puppet in their hands, a flag to command the world.Moreover, the capital also went from east to west, Luoyang for a while, and Chang'an for a while.Emperor Hui suffered unspeakably, and suffered physical and mental damage. In the third year of Yongxing (305 A.D.), the "Eight Kings Rebellion" finally came to an end.This 16-year melee caused hundreds of thousands of deaths, millions of exiles, destroyed cities, barren land, and severely damaged the northern economy.The Western Jin regime has lost its actual ability to rule and is about to perish.The idiot emperor also came to the end of his life at this time. In November of the first year of Guangxi (306 A.D.), Emperor Hui of Jin Dynasty Sima Zhong suddenly died of noodle poisoning. He was 48 years old and was buried in Taiyang Mausoleum.Some people say that the murderer who poisoned was Sima Yue, the king of the East China Sea, but there is no evidence. Like the death of many emperors in history, this is also a suspicious case.