Chapter 22 113 Eight Kings Melee

Emperor Wu of Jin believed that the demise of the Wei Dynasty was due to the lack of power to the royal children, which isolated the royal family.Therefore, after he ascended the throne, he named twenty-seven kings with the same surname.Each kingdom has its own army; the civil and military officials in the kingdom are all selected by the princes and kings themselves.He thought that in this way, many relatives and children would support the royal family, and Sima's rule would be stable.Who knew that this would plant the seeds of disaster instead. After Jin Huidi came to the throne, Yang Jun, his relative, used conspiracy to squeeze out Runan King Sima Liang and obtained the status of independent auxiliary government.Of course, some princes and kings were not reconciled, but they had no chance to oppose him for a while.

Emperor Jin Hui was ignorant, but his wife, Empress Jia, was a ruthless person.She didn't want Yang Jun to control the regime, so she secretly sent someone to contact Runan King Sima Liang and Chu King Sima Wei, asking them to lead troops into Beijing to attack Yang Jun. Chu Wangwei led troops from Jingzhou into Luoyang.With the support of Chu Wangwei, Empress Jia announced that Yang Jun had rebelled, sent troops to surround Yang Jun's home, and killed Yang Jun. After Yang Jun was killed, Runan Wang Liang went to Luoyang to assist the government.He wanted to monopolize the power, but the military power was in the hands of Chu Wangwei.Conflicts arose between the two.Empress Jia thought it would be a hindrance to keep Runan Wang Liang, so she falsely passed on the secret order of Emperor Hui of Jin and sent Chu Wangwei to arrest Runan Wang Liang and kill him.

Chu Wangwei was originally an accomplice of Empress Jia, but Empress Jia was afraid that he would have too much power after killing two kings in a row.That night, it was announced that King Wei of Chu had forged the emperor's edict and killed King Runan without authorization, and Wang Wei of Chu was sentenced to death.Knowing that he had been duped by Empress Jia, Chu Wangwei yelled that he was wronged, but it was useless. After that, there were no assistant ministers in the imperial court. In name, Emperor Hui of Jin was the emperor, but in fact it was Empress Jia's exclusive power.

Empress Jia has been in power for seven or eight years. She is arrogant, domineering, and has a bad reputation.The crown prince, Sima Yu (sound yu), was not born after Jia.Jia Hou was afraid that when he grew up, his status would not be maintained, so she tried every means to get rid of the prince. Once, Empress Jia asked someone to draft a letter written in the tone of a prince in advance, the content of which was to force Emperor Hui of Jin to abdicate.Empress Jia invited the prince to drink, got him drunk, and tricked him into copying the letter while the prince was in a daze. The next day, Empress Jia asked Emperor Hui of Jin to summon the ministers and handed over the letter written by the prince to everyone, announcing that the prince had treasoned.The ministers suspected that the letter was not written by the crown prince.Empress Jia asked everyone to check the handwriting.Everyone saw that it was indeed the prince's own handwriting, and they dared not say it again.

Empress Jia abolished the prince. The court ministers were very dissatisfied with Empress Jia's cruelty, but now seeing her abolishing the crown prince, they were very angry behind the scenes and talked a lot.King Simalun of Zhao, who was in charge of the imperial army, thought this was a good opportunity. He remembered that the soldiers opposed Jia, but he was afraid that the prince would be in power, and he would not be easy to deal with, so he spread the air outside, saying that the minister was secretly planning to support the prince to restore him.When Empress Jia heard the rumor, she was really frightened and sent someone to poison the prince.As a result, Zhao Wanglun seized the handle and sent the imperial guard and Qi Wang Sima Jiong (sound jiong) to lead troops into the palace to arrest Jia Hou.

Empress Jia, who specializes in playing tricks, also fell into someone else's trick.When she saw King Jiong of Qi leading troops into the palace, she was taken aback and said, "What do you want to do?" Qi Wangjiong said: "According to the emperor's edict, I am here to arrest you." Empress Jia said: "I issued all the emperor's edicts, so what other edicts are there?" Empress Jia yelled and made a fuss, counting on Emperor Hui to rescue her.Zhao Wanglun arrested her and killed her. Zhao Wanglun took power and had greater ambitions.He is not satisfied when he is a prime minister.After a year, Emperor Hui of Jin was put under house arrest altogether, and he called himself emperor.As soon as he came to the throne, he sealed his party members, whether they were scholars, officers, military generals, attendants, or soldiers, into official positions, large and small.At that time, the official hats worn by officials were all decorated with mink (sound diao) tails.Zhao Wang Lun granted too many officials, and there were not enough sable tails in the official treasury, so he had to find some dog tails to make up the number.Therefore, the folks made up ballads to satirize them, which is called "the mink is not enough, the dog's tail continues".

The princes and kings from all over the world heard that Zhao Wanglun had become the emperor, and everyone wanted to take the throne.In this way, one fight after another was launched between them.Participating in this melee were King Sima Lun of Zhao, Sima Jiong, King of Qi, Sima Ying, King of Chengdu, Sima Yong (sound yong), King of Hejian, Sima Yi (sound yi), King of Changsha, and Sima Yue, King of East China Sea.Including Runan Wang Liang and Chu Wangwei who had been killed, there were a total of eight princes and kings, which was called the "Eight Kings Rebellion" in history. The Rebellion of the Eight Kings lasted for 16 years. In 306 A.D., seven of the eight kings died, and the last king of the East China Sea, Yue, poisoned Emperor Hui of Jin to death. Sima, the younger brother of Emperor Hui, was appointed Chi (sound chi), this is Emperor Huai of Jin Dynasty.