Chapter 49 Chapter 48: Emperor Cheng Sima Yan

Sima Yan, Emperor Cheng of the Eastern Jin Dynasty (320-342 A.D.), styled Shigen, was the eldest son of Emperor Sima Shao of the Ming Dynasty.In March of the third year of Taining (325 AD), he was established as the crown prince.In the eighth month of the same year, Emperor Ming died, and Sima Yan, who was just 5 years old, took the throne as Emperor Cheng.The reign name is Xianhe.Because the emperor was young, the ministers invited the Empress Dowager Yu's family to be called in charge of the court.He also used Situ Wang, a veteran minister of the three dynasties, to guide and record Shangshu affairs, and Zhongshu Lingyu Liang and Shangshuling Bian Hu participated in the government affairs.But the power is in the hands of Emperor Cheng's uncle, Yu Liang.

When Emperor Yuan was alive, he trusted General Zuowei, King Sima Zong of Nandun, and General Yu Yin of Right Guard.Let the two of them be in charge of the forbidden soldiers and be on duty in the palace as guards.The locks and keys of the official doors are all under their control.Yu Liang and Director Wang were very dissatisfied.When Emperor Ming was ill, Yu Liang sent Biao Zou at night and asked Sima Zong for the key to enter the palace, but Sima Zong refused to give him, and scolded him, saying: "This is the imperial palace, is it my own door!" Yu Liang resented him even more.When Emperor Ming was seriously ill, he didn't want to see people and refused to let his ministers see him. Yu Liang suspected that Sima Zong and Yu Yin wanted to make trouble.After the death of Emperor Ming, Yu Liang was in power, so he began to retaliate against Sima Zong and others, taking their military power.Sima Zong and others inevitably harbored resentment and planned to remove Yu Liang from power.In the end, it was still Yu Liang who acted first.When Yushi Zhongcheng Zhong Ya impeached Sima Zong for rebellion, Geng Liang immediately sent the Right Guard General Zhao Yin to lead troops to arrest Sima Zong.Sima Zong resisted arrest and was killed by Zhao Yin.Yu Liang abolished Sima Zong's three sons as commoners, and moved Da Zong Zheng Yuyin to the left as the prefect of Guiyang.Sima Zong was the son of Sima Liang, king of Runan, and a close member of the emperor's clan, with a prominent position, but Yu Liang was killed at will.Doing so not only lost the hearts of the people, but also made everyone in the courtiers feel insecure and terrified.Moreover, Yu Liang did not report to Emperor Cheng such a major event as the killing of the clan ministers.After a long time, Emperor Cheng occasionally thought of Sima Zong, the gray-haired king of Nandun, and asked Yu Liang, "Why did the old white-headed man disappear?" Yu Liang replied, "He was killed for treason."Emperor Cheng thought of his father's friendship with Baitou Gong, and was very disgusted with Yu Liang's murder of ministers. He cried and said, "Uncle said that he was a thief, so he killed him. What if people say that uncle is a thief!" "Although Emperor Cheng was young, he said a few words with righteousness and integrity, and Yu Liang was so guilty that he couldn't answer, and his color changed with fright.

Yu Liang monopolized power, and his younger brothers Yu Yi, Yu Bing, Yu Tiao, and Yu Yi were either high-ranking officials in the court or local officials, and they supported each other.Relying on his power, Yu Yi gave poisoned wine to Wang Yunzhi, the governor of Jiangzhou, in order to fight for territory.Wang Yunzhi suspected that he had bad intentions, so he gave the dog to drink alcohol as a test, and the dog died of bleeding from the mouth and nose immediately after drinking.Wang Yunzhi was afraid that he would not escape his poisonous hands, so he had to secretly play to Emperor Cheng.Emperor Cheng was very angry, and said angrily: "My uncle has already messed up the world, so will my uncle do such evil again!" When Yu Yi saw that the conspiracy had been revealed, Emperor Cheng was furious, and committed suicide by drinking poisoned wine.

In his short life, Emperor Cheng was the puppet of his uncle Yu Liang for a long time, and the prisoner of the traitor Su Jun for a short time.And Su Jun's rebellion is directly related to Yu Liang's monopoly and wrong handling. In the first month of the third year of Xianhe (328 A.D.), Su Jun, the prefect of Linhuai who had always been closely related to Simazong, led Zu Huan, Xu Liu and others to mobilize 20,000 troops to launch a rebellion in the name of condemning Yu Liang.Crossed the Yangtze River from the Hengjiang River to attack Jiankang (now Nanjing).In February, Yu Liang rejected the correct opinion again, and lost everywhere in the defense. Su Jun's rebel army then advanced all the way, invaded the capital, set fire to the Tai Province and the various camps and temples, and wiped them out for a while.All the people led by Yu Liang collapsed.Yu Liang and his younger brothers Yu Yi, Yu Tiao, Yu Yi, etc. ignored the little emperor, ran away with their heads in their arms, and went to Xunyang to join the prefect Wen Qiao.

After Su Jun captured Jiankang, he appointed himself Hushi General and Record Minister.The ancestors were Shizhong, Taiwei, and Shang Shuling. Because Wang Daosu was famous, he was allowed to be the official in name.In the treasury there are 200,000 bolts of cloth, 5,000 catties of gold and silver, billions of dollars, tens of thousands of bolts of silk and other property, all of which were squandered by Su Jun at will.And Taicang only has a few stone rice left to maintain the life of Emperor Cheng. Yu Liang and others fled to Xunyang, discussed with Wen Qiao, and raised an army to attack Su Jun.They sent people to Jingzhou to invite Tao Kan, the general who conquered the west, the governor of Jingxiang and Yongliang states, and the authoritarian upper reaches of the Yangtze River, to go to the country together.Tao Kan agreed, and led his army to Xunyang in May. Together with Yu Liang and Wen Qiao, he raised 40,000 troops and marched towards Jiankang together.Su Jun held the little emperor Sima Yan as a hostage and ordered Emperor Cheng to be moved to Stone City.Director Situ stopped him in every possible way, but Su Jun ignored him, and ordered the ministers to embrace Emperor Cheng to get into the car.Emperor Cheng was terrified, sad and sad, and couldn't help crying. He had to climb into the car, and the palace people wept.

After Emperor Cheng and his party arrived at Stone City, Su Jun ordered a warehouse to be vacated as a palace for Emperor Cheng to live in.Su Jun visited Emperor Cheng's residence every day, and spoke viciously and unscrupulously.As long as this evil spirit came, Emperor Cheng would always be terrified.Several ministers who guarded Emperor Cheng were also worried, fearing that Su Jun would harm Emperor Cheng. King Situ followed the Queen Mother's edict and secretly ordered the three Wus (Wujun, Wuxing, Kuaiji) to raise troops to serve the king.Wang Shu, the internal historian of Kuaiji, Yu Tan, the prefect of Wu Xing, and Cai Mo, the domestic historian of Wu, all responded.Su Jun's generals refused to fight one by one, and each other won or lost.

After several months of confrontation between the rebel army and the official army who rescued Emperor Cheng, on September 25, Tao Kan supervised the water army to storm Stone City.Su Jun fought with 8,000 men, and sent his son Su Shuo and his general Kuang Xiao to charge Zhao Yin's army.Zhao Yin's army couldn't resist and retreated backward.Su Jun was drunk and shouted happily: "Kuang Xiao can defeat the bandits, am I not as good as Kuang Xiao?" While shouting, he broke away from the army and rushed to the enemy line with several cavalry.Of course, it is difficult for a few cavalry to break into the enemy's formation, so they hurriedly retreated.Unexpectedly, the horse stumbled and overturned Su Jun.The Jin army swarmed up, beheaded him, cut his flesh and burned his bones to vent his anger, and the three armies cheered thunderously.Seeing that the leader was dead, the rebel army collapsed.Su Jun's younger brother Su Yi collected the defeated soldiers and closed the city to defend himself.

Although Chengdi Sima Yan and others were under strict detention by the rebels, they still couldn't restrain their joy when they learned that the officers and soldiers had won and that Su Jun's body had been torn into pieces, and exchanged knowing glances from time to time.At the same time, he was even more worried that the rebels would jump over the wall in a hurry and attack the Emperor Cheng who was actually a prisoner.Right Guard General Liu Chao, Shizhong Zhong Ya and others secretly discussed Fengcheng Emperor's escape from the Devil's Cave, but unfortunately the matter was leaked, Su Yi was furious, and ordered soldiers to break into the warehouse and palace, and arrest Liu Chao and Zhong Ya.Emperor Cheng desperately wailed, hugged Liu Chao and Zhong Ya, and cried, "Give me back my servant! Give me back my right guard!" The soldiers rushed up like wolves and tigers, snatched Liu Chao and Zhong Ya from Cheng Emperor's hands, and waved Kill with a knife.

In February of the fourth year of Xianhe (329 A.D.), all armies stormed Stone City, and Su Yi was beheaded.In the scuffle, Jianwei Chief Stern Han's general Cao Ju found the shivering Emperor Cheng shivering in a corner.Cao Ju picked up the little emperor and ran towards Wen Qiao's boat.When the ministers saw Emperor Cheng, they all cried bitterly and pleaded guilty, and Emperor Cheng was also full of tears, choked up and speechless.Thinking of the tragic death of Liu Chao and Zhong Ya, two loyal ministers, and not being able to witness the destruction of the rebel army, he was even more sentimental.

After Su Jun's rebellion, the palace was completely reduced to ashes.When Emperor Cheng returned to Jiankang from Stone City, he had to live temporarily in Jianping Garden as a temporary palace.Wen Qiao proposed to move the capital to Yuzhang, and the wealthy families of the three Wus asked to move to Duji. Wang Daoli opposed the move, and the imperial court settled down in the dilapidated Jiankang. After Su Jun's rebellion was put down, Yu Liang apologized very perfunctorily.However, Emperor Cheng personally wrote an edict to comfort him and said: "This is a catastrophe for the country and society, not my uncle's fault." He also asked him to supervise the military forces in Yuzhou, Yangzhou's Jiangxi, and Xuancheng.Yu Liang's relatives assisted the government, and the improper measures led to the rebellion, which caused the capital to be ruined and the imperial court almost collapsed. Instead of punishing him, he still gave him political power and military power.

Emperor Cheng had his coronation ceremony in the first month of the first year of Chengkang (335 A.D.) and changed the Yuan Dynasty. It is said that he should be in charge from then on.However, he has been under the control of his uncle for a long time, has no independent political experience, and lacks the courage to be brave, so he has made no achievements in governing the country. The only commendable thing is that he spends frugally and does not spend extravagance.He once wanted to build a shooting hall in the back garden, and the budget would cost 40 gold. Emperor Cheng regretted his labor and ordered to cancel the plan to build the hall.This may have something to do with his experience of the Su Jun Rebellion. In June of the eighth year of Xiankang (342 A.D.), Emperor Cheng died of illness at the age of 22.Buried in Xingping Mausoleum, the temple name is "Xianzong".