Chapter Fifty-Eight: The Beginning of Troubled Times

A.D. 290

The eleventh year of Taikang in the Jin Dynasty

first lunar month

Sima Yan changed to Yuan Taixi. Xi, bright, and pleasant. Sima Yan prayed for his good health and hoped that he would be able to reign over the world again.

It's a pity that as winter turns to spring, the weather is getting warmer and warmer, but Sima Yan's flame of life is like a broken candle in the wind, getting weaker and weaker day by day, and it looks like it's about to be extinguished.

Soon, spring passed, and Sima Yan's condition did not improve at all; Next is April, Mengxia is full of grass and trees, and everywhere is thriving, but Sima Yan can no longer afford it. Many people expected that "Taixi" was likely to be the last era name used by Sima Yan. Sure enough, after staying up until April, news came out: the emperor was dying.

This day did not make everyone wait for a long time, the weather was very good, the sun outside was big, the light wind was blowing on people's bodies, it would make people feel comfortable, the people in Luoyang City were full of laughter, people were rejoicing for such good weather, and they did not realize that the emperor of the empire was going to die.

Sima Yan's sickbed was set up in the Hanzhang Palace, although it was already April, but the Hanzhang Hall was still heavily curtained, and the shield was tight, and the imperial doctor was still taking the pulse and meditating painfully, in fact, everyone knew in their hearts that the emperor Sima Yan was not far from the ancestors of the Sima family. Empress Yang Zhi, Crown Prince Sima Zhen, and the princes in Beijing sat around the emperor, and everyone began to brew tears silently.

Outside the Hanzhang Palace, many ministers who had the right to enter and leave the palace rushed to hear the news, lined up according to the level of their respective official ranks, knelt neatly, just waited, and wept and mourned.

In the palace city, thousands of yellow gates and palace maids hurriedly shuttled back and forth, preparing for the state funeral in an orderly manner in silence. The coffin of the emperor after his death has been placed; The mourning clothes to be worn by the queen, the crown prince, the princes, and the concubines of the harem have been sewn; Although the leaning house where the prince lived for the funeral has not been built, the materials such as the white tent, the grass, and the plain bed have been prepared, and it will be completed immediately after an order; The members of the Tai Band who are responsible for singing the elegy are neatly tied with neat crowns and solemn expressions, and they are waiting in line in the side hall; Outside the palace, there are also special places that have been cleared out for the people to cry and sacrifice.

All in all, everything is ready, but the emperor is owed a death.

However, the emperor refused to die. Because, in the Hanzhang Palace, at this time, Empress Yang Zhi and Shangshu's left servant He Shao were holding an edict to Sima Yan and persuading him to agree. At this time, Sima Yan could no longer speak, he listened to He Shao finish reading the edict, and stretched out his hand with difficulty. He Shao hurriedly handed over the edict. Sima Yan took the edict and frowned, he looked at the queen in front of him indifferently with a rare look, Yang Zhi looked at Sima Yan's gaze towards him, he didn't dare to look at Sima Yan, and quickly lowered his head.

Empress Yang was weak-hearted, she and her father Yang Jun revised Sima Yan's edict, Sima Yan as early as a few days ago, when he could still speak, issued an edict, announcing that his uncle Sima Liang, the king of Runan, would return to the dynasty and assist the crown prince Sima Zhen with Yang Jun. This may have been Sima Yan's last attempt to consolidate the rule of the Jin dynasty in the last moments of his life.

However, Sima Yan would never have thought that his edict was stopped without leaving the Hanzhang Palace, and it was none other than his father-in-law Yang Jun, after Yang Jun withheld the edict, he kept it secret, and Sima Liang, the king of Runan, had no chance to see this edict.

In the countdown to his life, Sima Yan asked the left and right attendants from time to time, did the king of Runan enter Beijing? It's a pity that no one dares to tell him the truth, one is the emperor who is about to return to heaven, and the other is the future power group represented by the prince and queen, I believe that as long as you are not a fool, you will make the right choice. Sima Yan's inquiries could only be deceived and perfunctory again and again, perhaps these people still had a trace of pleasure in fooling the emperor.

Soon, Sima Yan didn't hold out for a few days, and when he was dying, Empress Yang Zhi summoned his cronies Hua Hui and Shangshu Zuo Servant He Shao into the palace and wrote a new edict. In the edict, Yang Jun was the chief lieutenant, the prince and the prince, the governor of the Chinese and foreign military, the servants, and the scholars. In other words, Yang Jun alone controlled all the military, political and financial power of the Jin Dynasty, except that he did not wear a dragon robe, he was basically no different from the emperor.

Can Sima Yan agree to such an edict? Naturally, you can't! However, Sima Yan can't do anything now, if he can still stand up at this time, I believe he will definitely jump up and choke Yang Zhi's neck fiercely, and pinch her fiercely until she is strangled to death, but unfortunately, now Sima Yan can only question Yang Zhi with his own eyes, but unfortunately, his queen does not look at him at all, and the only thing he can do now is to slam the edict to the ground hatefully.

The ministers outside the Hanzhang Hall knelt for an hour after hour, their kneeling legs were numb and cold until they finally lost consciousness, but they still didn't wait for the news that the emperor was out of breath, maybe Sima Yan was saying, Lao Tzu is constantly angry, you will kneel and die here today.

Finally, someone couldn't wait, and a man in his sixties stood up in the front row, looked around at his colleagues who were prostrate on the ground, and then stepped out of the queue with his hands behind his back, proudly went up to the hall, opened the curtain and walked in. No one stopped this domineering courtier, because this person was Yang Jun, the ruler of the country.

Yang Jun walked into the hall, glanced at his daughter, and then at Sima Yan on the sickbed, Sima Yan at this time was not much different from a dead corpse. Sima Yan's eyes were closed, his complexion was gray, and there was no heaving in his chest and Adam's apple, which seemed to indicate that the emperor had died. Yang Jun took out a strand of new silk wool from his sleeve and handed it to Queen Yang Zhi, who sobbed and handed the wool to Sima Yan's mouth and nose. Find out if Sima Yan is out of breath.

As soon as Yang Zhi's hand approached Sima Yan's face, Sima Yan's body twitched violently, his eyes suddenly opened, and a flush appeared on his gray face. Yang Zhi was taken aback and screamed softly, Sima Yan stared at Yang Zhi fiercely, and then turned his head to look at Yang Jun standing in front of him, and then Sima Yan's hand was released, his eyes dimmed, his face returned to a gray color, his hand hung down, and the whole person was lying on the sickbed and not moving.

This was the last action in Sima Yan's life. Perhaps, at the last moment of Sima Yan's life, he realized that he was not a successful emperor, his queen and his father-in-law united to deceive him at the last moment of his life, he seemed to understand some things that he had not understood for decades before, and he suddenly began to worry about his crown prince, the world of the Sima family, and the future of the Jin Dynasty he founded, but it was too late.

When Sima Yan was dying, Liu Yuan, a forty-year-old Hun man, was drinking with Wang Mi, a Qinglai man, in a wine shop in Luoyang City, and the two sighed that they were depressed; The Di people in Hanzhong could no longer endure the tyranny of the imperial court, and their anger grew more and more under pressure; The Xianbei people are reintegrating their forces and reshuffling; A slave boy in his twenties was enduring the whipping of a horse; The princes of the Sima clan who were divided into various places either indulged in pleasures, coveted power, expanded their troops and horses, or did nothing。。。。。。。

The curtain of troubled times is about to open。。。。。。