I've divided this mess into six rounds,

Round 1:

The first year of Yongning (301)

Sima Yin, King of Qi, Sima Ying, King of Chengdu, Sima Ying, King of Hejian VS Sima Lun

Result: Victory, Emperor Hui of the Jin Dynasty, Sima Zhen was reinstated, and the usurper Sima Lun was killed. Sima Jian, the king of Qi, entered Beijing as a great Sima to assist the government.

Round 2:

The first year of Tai'an (302)

Sima Hao, King of Hejian, Sima Yi, King of Changsha VS Sima Yin, King of Qi

Result: The power of the Great Jin Empire fell into the hands of Sima Yi.

Round 3:

2nd year of Tai'an (303)

Hejian Wang Sima Hao, Chengdu Wang Sima Ying VS Changsha Wang Sima Yi

Result: Sima Hao ordered Zhang Fang, the governor of the capital, to lead 70,000 elite soldiers to advance from Hanguguan to Luoyang; Sima Ying mobilized more than 20 troops and also crossed Henan to Luoyang. The coalition forces of the two kings were repeatedly defeated by Sima Yi, the king of Changsha. Didn't work out.

Round 4:

The first month of the first year of Yongxing (304).

Sima Yue, King of the East China Sea VS Sima Yi, King of Changsha

Result: Capture Sima Yi and hand him over to Zhang Fang, the general of Sima Hao, the king of Hejian, who was "scorched and killed" by Zhang Fang. In today's parlance, it is "barbecued". Sima Ying, the king of Chengdu, entered Luoyang as the prime minister, but still returned to the base area of Yecheng and ruled as the emperor's younger brother, and the political center was moved from Luoyang to Yecheng.

Round 5:

The first year of Yongxing (304)

Sima Yue, King of the East China Sea VS Sima Ying, King of Chengdu

Result: Kidnapping Emperor Hui of Jin and attacking Yecheng in the north. Defeated by Sima Ying, the king of Chengdu, Emperor Hui was captured in Ye, and Sima Yue, the king of the East China Sea, fled to his own feudal state (present-day north of Tancheng, Shandong). At the same time, Sima Hao, the king of Hejian, sent Zhang Fang to lead the army to occupy Luoyang, and then Sima Teng (Sima Yuedi) and Wang Jun, the assassin of Youzhou, joined forces to break through Yecheng, and Sima Ying, the king of Chengdu, and Emperor Hui defected to Luoyang and went to Chang'an. Sima Yue and Sima Ying were both defeated, and it was Sima Hao, the king of the river, who won.

Round 6:

2nd year of Yongxing (305)

Sima Yue, King of the East China Sea VS Sima Hao, King of the River

Result: Sima Yue, the king of the East China Sea, raised troops from Shandong to attack Guanzhong and defeated Sima Hao, the king of Hejian. In the first year of Guangxi (306), Sima Yue, the king of the East China Sea, welcomed Emperor Hui back to Luoyang, and Sima Ying, the king of Chengdu, and Sima Hao, the king of Hejian, were killed one after another, and the power fell into the hands of Sima Yue.

This was the end of the Rebellion of the Eight Kings.

The process is not important, the final result of this war is what matters. From Jia Nanfeng to raise troops to kill Yang Jun (291 years), to Sima Yue re-welcomed Emperor Hui of Jin back to Luoyang (306 years), a total of 16 years, many of the kings who participated in the war were defeated one after another, the people were killed, the social economy was seriously damaged, the power of the Western Jin Dynasty was exhausted, the hidden class contradictions, the contradictions between various nationalities broke out, and the country that had just been established not long ago should have been vigorous, but it was exhausted and twilight by this great turmoil.

One point of weakness of oneself actually means that the opponent is one point stronger! When the Sima family used countless lives to build the steps to the pinnacle of power, those ethnic minority tribes that had always been suppressed by the Han nation, taking advantage of the opportunity of the overall weakening caused by the struggle in the suzerain's nest, rose rapidly in this turmoil, and even entered the Central Plains, bringing deep and painful disasters and indelible shame to the entire Chinese nation.

First of all, let's take a look at the heroes created by the times.

In August of the sixth year of Yuankang (296), the Qin (now Tianshui, Qin'an, Gansu) and Yong (now Guanzhong and eastern Gansu) regions of the Di and Qiang tribes elected Qi Wannian as the "emperor".

In the second year of Yongkang (301), Zhang Liangqiu, a regular attendant of the loose cavalry, sought to be the assassin of Liangzhou, "Yin has the ambition to protect Hexi".

In the first month of the second year of Tai'an (303), the barbarian Zhang Chang supported Qiu Shen (later renamed Liu Ni) as the Son of Heaven according to Jiangxia (now Anlu, Hubei), and founded the country with the name "Han";

In the first year of Yongxing (304), Li Xiong, a native of Bayi, proclaimed himself king in Chengdu, and the founding name was "Cheng", and he was proclaimed emperor two years later;

It was also in this year that Liu Yuan, a Hun of the Huns, proclaimed himself king in Zuoguocheng (now northeast of Lishi, Shanxi), founded the country as "Han", and proclaimed himself emperor in 308;

In the second year of Yongxing (305), the right general Chen Min rebelled according to Jiangdong and proclaimed himself the king of Chu.

In addition, Liu Yao, a Hun who later established the "Former Zhao", Shi Le, a Qianren who established the "Later Zhao", and Murong Diao, a Xianbei man who opened the foundation of the "Former Yan", have all grown and strengthened through the tempering of this war. Let's unfold them one by one, and look in detail at the history of that grand and chaotic, glorious and humiliating one.