BST - Chapter 10

Chapter 10: A Dead Man Cannot Defend Himself

Never in her wildest dreams had Wang Shen'ai imagined this. She had come here to meet the dynastic upheaval of Emperor Yong'an, wanting nothing more than to secure a foothold for herself first, and she was already worrying herself bald.

And the Emperor Yong'an, whom the Heavenly Screen described as unmatched in all the world, able to thrash every fierce fighter in this age of chaos, turned out to be none other than...

She herself was the person she had been looking for!

If there had been no one beside her at that moment, she would have pointed at herself and asked, "Who? Me?"

Yet strangely, after that instant of astonishment and tangled thoughts, all that surfaced in her mind was bewilderment. Not once did the thought "Am I worthy of it?" arise.

She came from a later age, and from childhood the education she had received always carried that one line: "Are kings, nobles, generals, and ministers born to their stations?"

She had transmigrated into the present less than half a month ago, and she still bore the imprint of that later era.

From that strange and fantastical night to this very day, all she had seen was the absurdity and disorder of the Eastern Jin in its age of chaos.

It was said that the times make the hero.

If... if she truly possessed the ability to reclaim the realm, to march the armies north and put an end to the warfare in the Central Plains two hundred years early, then she had no need whatsoever to shrink away.

She could not claim to know history well, but she dared to think and dared to act, which was far better than the many emperors of this era whose very character was unsound.

So then, why couldn't it be her!

In that lightning-flash instant, she worried about only one thing of the greatest importance.

Strange and wondrous as the Heavenly Screen was, judging from the conduct of Sima Daozi and his son, of Huan Xuan, Wang Xun, and the rest, they were still far from taking it as gospel.

Such was the South; the North was likely worse.

Those with the power to stand above imperial authority still wished to enjoy their privileges. Those who believed themselves capable of becoming emperor still nursed an emperor's dream.

Unless the Heavenly Screen's later narrations could make people viscerally feel Emperor Yong'an's ability to subdue the North and the South, then the moment her name was exposed, she could at any time meet with utter destruction.

The Sima clan's usurpation of the Cao Wei throne had set a splendid precedent indeed, severing the once-powerful bond between imperial authority and the Mandate of Heaven.

Not to mention, she was a woman!

That was the truly fatal part.

Though the Han dynasties had seen empress dowagers rule as regents, even Lü Zhi and Deng Sui, women with the bearing of emperors, had never made the leap from empress dowager to emperor. Yet she would be the first to do so, and the resistance she would meet went without saying.

No wonder the Heavenly Screen said she would hold the Son of Heaven in her grasp and command the ministers for more than ten years.

Even though the perceptions left by her predecessors, together with that line about the Wang Clan of Langya being slaughtered almost to a man, meant that she could not possibly appear on Wang Xun's list of suspects at present, she dared not make any firm judgment about how long this stroke of luck would last.

She could not walk forever along a tightrope of danger. She had to be prepared for accidents at all times.

If the very next moment the Heavenly Screen announced her name, the Wang Clan of Langya could turn against her right then and there.

"This handwriting... it is a fine hand."

Wang Xun, unaware of what Wang Shen'ai was thinking, had already begun studying the characters shown on the Heavenly Screen with great care, fearful of missing the slightest clue.

It was said that handwriting revealed its writer; surely one could glean something from it.

Yet the forms of the characters on the Heavenly Screen were simplified, and the style... did not much resemble the regular script written by the Two Wangs. As for the strokes, they were more stately and substantial.

Perhaps those four characters had troubled Emperor Yong'an at the time, and were written to vent emotion; the handwriting was somewhat careless and free.

Wang Xun searched through all his memories and could find no one whose handwriting bore the least resemblance to the sample above.

He turned to look at Wang Shen'ai, and saw a trace of bewilderment on her face as well.

She murmured softly, "Uncle, what manner of person, do you think, would be steeped in the classics and yet prefer to write in simplified characters?"

The question left Wang Xun at a loss.

Given what the Heavenly Screen said of Emperor Yong'an's extensive reading, this habit could not stem from someone who had only just learned to write and could not remember the strokes. Rather it was...

The mark of a person who had very definite ideas of his own in all he did, perhaps even a somewhat arbitrary one?

Fewer strokes meant faster writing, more decisive and practical. One of the simplified characters, moreover, appeared to be newly invented.

Almost the first person he thought of was Huan Xuan, away in Jingzhou.

But before he could voice this conclusion, he heard the Heavenly Screen say:

[Where does power come from? That was the question Emperor Yong'an, caught in Jiankang's whirlpool, pondered day and night.]

[Sima Yao was given the posthumous title 'Emperor Xiaowu' and buried as quickly as possible in the hope of putting the imperial scandal behind them. Sima Daozi, who already held the reins of government, immediately raised the imbecile Crown Prince Sima Dezong to the throne, the man later known as Emperor An of Jin.]

[The imbecile could not handle the affairs of government, and so all military and administrative power at the center fell into the hands of Sima Daozi.]

[At the same time, Sima Daozi's fifteen-year-old son Sima Yuanxian was summoned into the court to assist his father in administering the government...]

Wang Xun muttered, "Both father and son are dead men already; it seems even the Heavenly Screen can be changed," even as he formed a judgment in his mind: if this Emperor Yong'an were at this moment in Jiankang, then without a doubt, he would not be Huan Xuan.

Of course, when the question "Where does power come from?" first appeared on the Heavenly Screen, Huan Xuan in distant Jingzhou had already reached this same conclusion, with a good measure of wistfulness.

---

"It is not me."

That Emperor Yong'an was not him.

Because that was not his handwriting.

Huan Xuan stroked the bloodied long sword in his hand and slowly let fall a sigh of regret.

His appearance was extraordinary, deserving of the words "of a free and open bearing." Since killing the Inspector of Jingzhou, Yin Zhongkan, several days before and forging his orders to seize the Jingzhou army, he felt that with each passing day he grasped more clearly just why, when his father had already stood at the very summit of the great families alongside the Wang Clan of Langya and the Chenjun Xie clan, he had nonetheless gone one step further and tried to scheme for the throne of the Son of Heaven.

A man, once he has gained power and tasted that flavor, finds it hard to set it down again. He will even want to grip it tighter, and never let another take it from him.

The only one who could do that was the ruler of all under heaven.

"Will the General come to regret his earlier actions because of this?"

Huan Xuan cast a glance at the long-bearded old friend beside him. "What do you think? I am a man of the Huan clan."

The Huan family had risen on military merit; they could never learn the Wang Clan of Langya's ways.

Before the Wang Clan of Langya rose to prominence, Wang Xiang was one of the key figures in its rise. After making a name for himself through the story of lying on the ice to catch carp, he withdrew from public life for twenty or thirty years, waiting for the right opportunity. When he finally entered office, he was promoted at once. By siding firmly with the Sima clan, he secured the Wang family's position for generations to come.

It was precisely because of what this founding figure had done that for the past hundred years the Wang Clan of Langya had mostly moved with the times, judging the situation, preferring to make their move half a step late in order to come out ahead.

But they had perhaps forgotten that the present scions of the Wang Clan of Langya were mostly a sorry lot; hardly one of them possessed the clear judgment of the situation and the boldness to stake everything that men like Wang Xiang and Wang Dao had shown!

Before the tremendous changes brought by the Heavenly Screen, where life and death hung in the balance, hesitation meant falling behind.

He did not regret his earlier decision in the least!

At the very least, with military power now in his hands, he would never become fish and meat for others to slaughter.

He had far more confidence than that pitiful Emperor Yong'an spoken of on the Heavenly Screen.

Just look at the life of fear this poor thing led in Jiankang...

[Compared with certain people of their time, the one thing Sima Daozi and his son could still claim as a virtue was that they did not kill indiscriminately. They did not, like Murong Chong who once seized Chang'an, unleash a great slaughter after taking power. Yet Emperor Yong'an's situation at this moment could still be called walking on thin ice.]

[Emperor Yong'an had rarely left Jiankang before and had weathered few storms; now, in the span of a single night's change in identity, the first fatal threat had arrived.]

[According to the Book of Jin, not long after Sima Yuanxian entered the capital, Sima Daozi conferred on him the post of Palace Attendant, together with the title of General Who Conquers the Caitiffs, and for a time he was unrivaled in prominence. This was of course an appointment that broke all the rules. But the emperor was an imbecile, and the power of government had been granted to Sima Daozi by the late emperor; unless the court ministers took up arms in rebellion, they had no grounds for expelling this father and son.]

[The post of Palace Attendant... was a particularly subtle one.]

The old hands at court reacted swiftly.

The Heavenly Screen's explanation followed close behind.

[What is a Palace Attendant? Before Emperor Yong'an's reform of official posts, the Palace Attendant was responsible for remaining at the emperor's side to offer counsel, and at the height of its power the post rivaled the chancellor.]

[Of course, when Sima Daozi arranged this post for the son he valued most, it was not to grant him the power of a chancellor from the outset, but so that at times when Sima Daozi could not keep watch himself, the young man would 'accompany' the emperor, serving as a pair of eyes that watched with full legitimacy.]

[It was precisely by virtue of this post that Sima Yuanxian ran rampant from then on, coming and going at will within and without the imperial city, gathering a band of officers under him, and swaggering about Jiankang without the slightest restraint.]

[It was also at this time that he took a fancy to Yong'an.]

A chorus of gasps rose beneath the Heavenly Screen.

Everyone looked at one another in shock, and only then were they certain they had not misheard.

[Emperor Yong'an's identity was a special one, and Sima Daozi would have been only too glad to keep him as a mascot, best if he never opened his mouth. Who could have known his own son would suddenly pull such a stunt? He flew into a rage at once. But as a 'qualified' father, his first reaction was not to rebuke his son. He felt instead that Yong'an must harbor some ulterior motive in getting close to Sima Yuanxian, that he meant to stir up trouble.]

[After turning it over in his mind, he arrived at a decision. He would have Yong'an killed without anyone knowing, to avoid unnecessary trouble.]

[But as it happened, because the quarrel between father and son was somewhat loud, it was overheard by a palace servant, who happened to be an old acquaintance of Yong'an's mother, and who actually carried the news out.]

[Plans made in secrecy succeed; words overheard bring failure. From the very first step, an enormous problem had arisen.]

"How absurd!" Wang Shen'ai's expression was severe as she suddenly spoke up.

The Heavenly Screen's earlier narration had been time enough to gather the imperial clansmen and courtiers before the Taiji Palace, just as when they had earlier received news of Sima Yao's death.

When the Crown Princess raised her voice, it was especially conspicuous, and the gazes around her instantly converged on her.

"Am I wrong?" Wang Shen'ai met those sweeping looks with perfect composure. "With the examples of Fu Jian and Murong Chong right before his eyes, for Sima Yuanxian still to harbor such intentions, however clever he might be, he was no man to achieve great things!"

"Were I in his place, I would by all means put the worthy and able men of the court to use at once and salvage some measure of reputation. To act otherwise, how could it not invite censure from all quarters and chaos throughout the realm!"

At these words, a chorus of agreement rose at once.

Indeed.

Fu Jian, the Heavenly King of Great Qin who had launched the Battle of Feishui, had once taken Murong Chong, of the imperial clan of Former Yan, as a male favorite, which after his defeat brought down upon him a mad revenge.

The abilities of this Emperor Yong'an appeared to far surpass Murong Chong's. How could he ever submit to such defilement? He was bound to make Sima Yuanxian pay dearly.

Even if the Emperor Yong'an of that time had not yet become the lord of all under heaven, his wide reading alone was enough to make him worth recruiting and putting to use.

When even a chief minister of the court like the Palace Attendant conducted himself in such fashion, the Eastern Jin court of that day must long since have been a reeking miasma!

The Crown Princess and General Wang had been so right to kill Sima Daozi and Sima Yuanxian with such speed earlier!

Amid all this discussion, only Empress Dowager Li Lingrong's expression was somewhat out of the ordinary.

Had she simply had too little contact with Sima Yuanxian before? However she racked her brains, she could not recall anything in her past dealings with him to suggest that he favored men.

Yet the Heavenly Screen spoke with absolute certainty, and such things were hardly uncommon in the present day. More importantly, Sima Yuanxian had already been executed, and could not possibly give any account of himself.

A dead man could not defend himself!

He had shut his mouth forever.

Led along by this chorus of voices, Li Lingrong had no path open to her but to persuade herself as best she could.

Even as she pondered, she could not help casting another glance at Sima Dewen's face beside her.

Before the Crown Princess had obtained the authority to move troops from her hands, she had said that the second prince was more likely than Sima Yuanxian to be that Emperor Yong'an. But she, the empress dowager, was dark and stout of build; Sima Yao resembled her, and the second prince resembled Sima Yao...

In short, though he was still young, one could already see that he was not much to look at.

There was no way Sima Yuanxian would have defied his father for his sake, however one looked at it.

The hope in her heart seemed about to come to nothing once more.

[Only the voice of the Heavenly Screen made its effort to drag her tangled thoughts back.]

[...]

[Whether to purge the court of intimidation by powerful factions and restore clean administration, or to act first and escape the threat posed by Sima Daozi, Emperor Yong'an had to move quickly.]

[That raised the question: which of the two should die, the father or the son?]

[Neither was easy to accomplish. Emperor Yong'an had none of the capable helpers available in later years and could rely only on a keen mind.]

[Some say the Great Emperor's vengeful nature and subtle, far-reaching plans emerged in the events that followed. Because what came next was a killing trap laid for Sima Yuanxian.]

[Or rather, a scheme to eliminate both father and son at once.]

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