BST - Chapter 11
Chapter 11: What a "Surprise"
[Given Yong'an's identity at this point, no one would have expected him to decide so quickly to kill both targets and then carry it out at once.]
[The targets remained the Prince of Kuaiji and the Prince of Kuaiji's heir.]
Wang Xun and the other courtiers below would have given anything for the Heavenly Screen overhead to have a button that could drag the playback forward, so that they might learn as soon as possible just who this Yong'an Emperor was.
The "special status" and "the position he held at this point" that the Heavenly Screen had mentioned again and again seemed to be common knowledge to the immortals up there, but these people down here knew nothing of it!
Every time they heard such ambiguous information, they were eaten up with frustration.
By rights, such a description could not fit many people in Jiankang.
Merely having access to the central figures of power and having read widely would already filter out a considerable number.
And yet why! Why, for all their vaunted talent, could they not find a single person who matched!
Was tormenting them like this really so amusing?
Regrettably, these complaints were destined never to reach the person who had posted the video.
In the history revealed by the Heavenly Screen, Sima Yuanxian had not, as in the present, been lured into the palace by the Empress Dowager's edict and ambushed and killed. Instead he had gloriously been made Palace Attendant, run rampant through Jiankang, and at last, finally, run up against someone who would not be pushed around.
[At this point the Yong'an Emperor was in no position to raise troops. Fortunately, a clever person, when caught in circumstances beyond their control, knows what must be done: stir up internal strife, and turn another's strength against them.]
[Two people entered Yong'an's view at this time. One was named Zhi Miaoyin, and one was named Wang Gong.]
[Let us speak of Wang Gong first.]
[Though his surname was Wang, he came from the Wang clan of Taiyuan, not the Wang Clan of Langya. At the mention of the Wang clan of Taiyuan, any viewer with a good memory ought to recall that this name appeared before, during the introduction of Sima Yao's consorts.]
[Indeed, Sima Yao's late empress, Wang Fahui, was a "Wang" of that same clan. Wang Gong was precisely Wang Fahui's elder brother.]
[Wang Gong was handsome in person and fine in bearing; by the standards of Wei and Jin appraisal of distinguished scholars, he would have ranked near the front. There was a time when, because he was fond of watching the snow in a crane-feather cloak, people mistook him for one of the immortals.]
[Of course, Yong'an valued him so highly not merely for his looks and his manner, but because military power lay in his hands.]
[Sima Yao could be counted among the few emperors of the Eastern Jin who held real power. So even as he gave free rein to his appetites and drowned himself in wine and women, delegating authority to the Prince of Kuaiji the better to enjoy himself, he also knew that a check was needed, and so he placed the forces of the outer provinces in Wang Gong's hands.]
[What led him to this choice was chiefly the fact that Wang Gong and Sima Daozi were at odds.]
[Just how far did Wang Gong's military authority extend?]
[Sima Yao died in the twenty-first year of Taiyuan. Counting back six years, as early as the fifteenth year of Taiyuan, Wang Gong already held the post of General of the Front and commanded the military affairs of Yanzhou, Qingzhou, Youzhou, Bingzhou, Xuzhou, and Yangzhou. Of course, given that part of this territory had been seized by foreign peoples and did not belong to the southern dynasty of that time, the weightiest posts Wang Gong held were Inspector of Yanzhou and Inspector of Qingzhou. At the same time, Sima Yao bestowed upon him the tally and staff, empowering him to hold the line with full authority.]
[By the time Sima Yao died, he still held heavy forces and commanded from out in the provinces.]
[If Yong'an had held that position, he might have laughed himself awake with joy. Anyone with that kind of power would be a force for others to fear...]
Under the Heavenly Screen, Wang Shen'ai's face was full of envy.
Had she not obtained the Empress Dowager's edict, the Beifu Army would never have accepted her orders. Even those two hundred elite troops of her own were hers in name only because of the treatment they had received of late.
But look at this General Wang...
At any rate, his military authority exceeded Wang Xun's by no small margin.
Wang Xun faintly sensed a look of disdain; he turned to look, but caught sight of nothing at all, only everyone staring intently up at the Heavenly Screen.
[It is said that in earlier years, Sima Yao also intended to have Wang Gong concurrently serve as Inspector of Jingzhou. Had he done so, the outer provinces would have completely encircled the capital.]
[With things moving in that direction, Sima Daozi panicked outright; he had to scuttle Sima Yao's plan. Rumor has it that another man too was deeply displeased with this appointment, namely Huan Xuan, who had made Jingzhou his base of operations.]
[How credible this account is, is hard to say, for it is recorded only in the Biographies of Nuns and passed over in a single line. After all, in the year the post of Inspector of Jingzhou was settled, Huan Xuan had only just entered official life, and it should not have been so quickly apparent that within a few years he would retake command of the Jingzhou army. Still, as a bold and powerful minister who would later nearly follow his father's example and proclaim himself emperor, Huan Xuan may well have possessed such foresight.]
[But alas, though Sima Daozi certainly made his position plain, and Huan Xuan may well have spoken up too, neither in the end changed Sima Yao's mind. And so at this point we must bring up the person called Zhi Miaoyin.]
[Sima Yao was a fervent believer in Buddhism, and was especially intimate with Buddhist nuns. He did not merely let these clergy pass through the palace gates to expound the sutras; he drew them into politics as well. The one in whom Sima Yao placed the greatest trust was Zhi Miaoyin.]
[Most Buddhist nuns of the time came from great aristocratic families; learning was perhaps the least of their talents. Zhi Miaoyin, for instance, was praised for her eloquence and literary talent. No wonder Emperor Yong'an later entrusted her with compiling collections of writings scattered during the wars. More importantly, these women expressed their political views in dealings with powerful figures and had significant influence over affairs at court.]
[In order to prevent Wang Gong from taking command of yet another province's forces, Sima Daozi had no choice but to place his wager on Zhi Miaoyin. He brought a considerable sum of wealth to bribe the abbess of Jianjing Temple, begging her to put in a few extra words before the emperor.]
[In the end, the combined exertion of all parties produced the outcome that a "man of little ability", one Yin Zhongkan, then serving as Gentleman of the Yellow Gate, was appointed Inspector of Jingzhou.]
"No wonder..." Hearing this, Wang Shen'ai could not help but sigh a little.
"No wonder what?"
Wang Shen'ai looked around at the others. She remembered the military dispatch that had been intercepted earlier; it had been passed to her hands alone, and the other courtiers knew nothing of it. So, taking advantage of a lull while the Heavenly Screen shifted scenes, she gave a brief account in a few words.
Her "no wonder" meant: no wonder Jingzhou changed hands so easily.
It was precisely because the Inspector of Jingzhou, Yin Zhongkan, was a "man of little ability" that he could be manipulated so readily by Huan Xuan, and because Yin Zhongkan had failed to establish a strong enough footing among the Jingzhou forces, Huan Xuan dared to kill him out of hand.
Trash, of course, dies quickly!
The courtiers looked at one another in dismay.
They could not decide whether to lament that something so momentous had happened in Jingzhou, apparently a replay of Huan Wen's doings of old, or to lament that the Crown Princess had better information than they did.
But who was there to complain to?
There really seemed nothing to be said...
[...In short, of the two people Yong'an had taken note of, one was a Buddhist nun who had enjoyed the late emperor's deep reliance and had behind her a web of connections stretching in every direction; the other was a trusted intimate of the late emperor, who still held heavy forces out in the provinces.]
[But a nun was still a nun, not a court official, and once Sima Daozi and his son took power, she was driven back to Jianjing Temple.]
[Wang Gong held heavy forces, but when he came to pay his respects at the imperial tombs he merely sighed that the pillars of state were still new, yet one could see the portents of a ruined kingdom, hinting that Sima Daozi and his kind were destroying the state; he remained posted outside.]
[The Yong'an Emperor turned the matter over and over, and concluded that these two were precisely the two blades best suited to kill Sima Daozi and his son.]
Wang Shen'ai was cursing silently to herself: if the Heavenly Screen had never appeared and Wang Xun had not become her ally, her first choice might well, just as the Heavenly Screen said, have been these two.
Zhi Miaoyin was plainly no otherworldly person who sought purity and inaction; she hoped to use religion to gain status equal to a court official's, and even to gain more than that.
The loss of power that followed a change of throne would be especially terrible for her.
Wang Gong had openly condemned Sima Daozi, so he was surely willing to rid the court of the traitor. Yet he seemed to lack the resolve to act and had delayed for too long.
Better to add fuel to the fire!
When the flames were consuming Jiankang, who would have any time to spare for her?
[Though Emperor Yong'an's position was perilous, a previous informant and a few trusted followers were still at hand. Yong'an acted at once.]
[The first step of the operation was to have Sima Yuanxian, under the goading of flattery and with the assistance of five-mineral powder, seize a batch of valuables for himself.]
[With the position he held at that time, such conduct in Jiankang was nothing surprising. But as luck would have it, the portion of valuables he plundered had originally been offerings belonging to Jianjing Temple.]
While the late emperor lived, one could say that whatever Jianjing Temple asked for, it received. The ritual vessels and tribute offerings used for worship and sacrifice were beyond counting, and the gold, silver, and valuables never ceased to flow, until the temple reached the point of "wealth that rivaled the whole capital".
Even though Jianjing Temple held only a little over a hundred disciples, its carriages and horses numbered more than a hundred.
Some days ago, when Wang Shen'ai had been going through the palace account books, she had been greatly astonished.
Had Noble Lady Zhang not provided her with the first batch of military funds and provisions, she would have suspected that she herself would end up taking the Beifu Army to the temple's door to rob it.
Sima Yuanxian had robbed the right person!
But for the abbess of Jianjing Temple, Zhi Miaoyin, this was hardly good news.
The emperor had changed, yet the friendship she had cultivated with Sima Daozi had brought her no benefit at all; on the contrary, she was being suppressed. The gifts Sima Daozi had once sent her were now seized back by his son in another form.
What sort of affair was this?
Her followers had earlier told her a strange rumor: that Sima Daozi had long been dissatisfied with her, afraid that people would bring up again how in his early years he had had to rely on a woman to put in a good word for him.
Now, seemingly, nothing had come of it yet; who knew what would happen in the future? With Sima Yuanxian's plundering visited upon her, the rumor might be said to have been borne out.
[...This nun had long been skilled at political maneuvering and had won Sima Yao's wholehearted trust; she was clearly a capable strategist with a keen eye for people. The more she considered it, the more certain she became that if Sima Daozi and his son remained in power, she would eventually lose far more than the temple's offerings.]
[If Sima Daozi had it in mind to usurp the throne and take his nephew's place, the help she had given him in those early years would not become her blessing, but a warrant for her death. Rather than that, she would do better to call Wang Gong into the capital to purge corrupt officials around the emperor, so that she could seek some benefits from that fool of an emperor in the future.]
Wang Xun took two small steps back to Wang Shen'ai's side and asked in a low voice, "Shall we put Jianjing Temple under control?"
Zhi Miaoyin's methods were extraordinary, and the Heavenly Screen had confirmed that she had dealings with the Yong'an Emperor's people; perhaps they could use her to find a trail leading to Yong'an.
But Wang Shen'ai shook her head. "Let's wait and see first. I'd rather not gain nothing and end up repeating Sima Daozi's fate from the Heavenly Screen."
Wang Xun never took the initiative when he should, yet now he was fretting when there was no need. He did not have half the composure of her, who was the one in danger.
She was still carefully catching every piece of information on the Heavenly Screen.
Zhi Miaoyin in particular.
[Zhi Miaoyin knew that she had once acted as Sima Daozi's go-between; were she to contact Wang Gong rashly, she might well be thrown out before any alliance was reached. Wang Gong would also suspect she was setting up a Hongmen banquet as a trap for him on Sima Daozi's behalf.]
[That left only one way: to burn her bridges so thoroughly that Wang Gong would have no room left for doubt.]
[You could call it Sima Yuanxian's bad luck. In fact, had he returned the goods to Zhi Miaoyin after taking them and offered a proper apology, those rumors need not have been taken seriously, and things need not have gone as far as they later did. But he was young and hot-blooded to begin with, and had quarreled fiercely with his father over whom Yong'an belonged to; how could he listen to talk of returning things to their owner?]
[So he took what belonged to someone else, and that someone else could only, reluctantly, take his head as a gift to yet another.]
Pfft...
Wang Shen'ai very nearly laughed aloud.
What a "reluctant" act indeed!
On the Heavenly Screen, this was how Sima Yuanxian had died, and he had died in an even more slipshod fashion. At most, his death carried a little strategic significance.
[While Sima Daozi raged and searched all of Jiankang for his son's killer, Sima Yuanxian's head had already been delivered to Wang Gong, along with Zhi Miaoyin's promise to support him from within the city.]
[Wang Gong then immediately decided to march on Jiankang, and three days later his army arrived beneath the walls!]
In an instant.
The stirring beat of war drums shattered Jiankang's calm.
Yet the common folk watching beneath the Heavenly Screen did not feel their hearts race as they had at the sight of the Battle of the Fei River.
Even setting aside the fact that this battle existed only on the Heavenly Screen and posed no direct danger to them, there was more to it.
They might not quite understand the earlier scheming and the jockeying of interests, but they understood one very simple situation.
The general outside the city had overwhelming forces, and there were allies within the walls; together, they could enter the city in no time!
Not to mention, watching Sima Yuanxian make havoc in the city only for his own head to end up, for no fathomable reason, on the enemy commander's table was rather entertaining.
[Beyond any doubt, this was a one-sided war. In the end it was not fought at all, and the people of the city suffered no harm.]
Slowly, a thread of a smile surfaced on Wang Shen'ai's face.
Yet the next instant, that smile froze where it was.
For a single sentence from the Heavenly Screen struck down like a bolt from a clear sky: [Because Wang Gong never entered the city at all!]
Wang Gong had not entered the city. How could that be?
He held every advantage!
[Sima Daozi, faced with Wang Gong's sudden march, had long since lost his head entirely, no longer even able to attend to how his son had died. But his station was high enough that capable men were inevitably to be found among his subordinates, and at this juncture they put two proposals before him.]
[The first was to make a scapegoat of his subordinate Wang Guobao: kill him to appease the public anger, and lay all that had gone before at Wang Guobao's door.]
[The second was to send an envoy to question Wang Gong as to how far he intended to go.]
[To raise troops and force the death of the treacherous minister Wang Guobao, Wang Gong could still be counted an unblemished loyal subject, an imperial in-law whom the late emperor had relied upon. But if he led his army into Jiankang and killed the imperial uncle who held the regency, then with the military power in his hands, countless people would whisper at his back and urge him down the path of treason.]
[Or else, even if he harbored no such thought, his act of breaking into Jiankang would already stand as ironclad proof.]
[Some will ask: would Wang Gong listen to such words?]
[The answer is that he would. Because within the ranks of Wang Gong's own rising, hearts were not of one mind; there would always be those who would rather see the imperial uncle hold power than see Wang Gong become a new powerful minister.]
They wanted balance within the court and across the realm, not one faction crushing the other and taking total victory.
[Facts proved this judgment entirely correct.]
[Wang Gong himself could not make up his mind, and within his army there were those who urged him to withdraw. The final result was that Wang Gong watched Sima Daozi kill Wang Guobao, then turned his army about and left without setting a single foot inside Jiankang, offering only, beneath the walls, the courtesies of a loyal subject to the fool of an emperor.]
[In this absurd scene, two more men of great importance appear.]
[The one who had given Sima Daozi his advice was called Yu Kai, of the Yu clan of Yanling.]
[And the one who urged Wang Gong to withdraw was called Wang Xun, of the Wang Clan of Langya.]
Wang Xun's face changed drastically. "...!!!"
He had never imagined that his own name would appear on the Heavenly Screen in such a way.
Even if... even if it did seem exactly the sort of thing he would do.
The voice of the Heavenly Screen was full of mockery.
[What an absurd scene! With the advantage in both troops and position, needing only one vigorous push to break the enemy, and yet at the last step short of it, he settled for the result of "killing one treacherous minister" and sauntered away!]
[He came in thundering might, as though he would swallow Jiankang whole and turn the sky itself, and he left in thundering might too, and all he left behind was the meaningless name of a loyal subject!]
Yes, how absurd.
Truly absurd!
The smile that had frozen on Wang Shen'ai's face had melted entirely into a coldness between her brows.
The banners on the Heavenly Screen, set against the slanting sun, could not melt the hard ice in her eyes.
But then, perhaps what she really wanted was to laugh.
Noble Lady Zhang's mad laughter that day, for instance, would have suited this moment best: laughing at a battle that had begun in thunder and ended as a joke.
How ridiculous...
Wang Shen'ai bit down hard on her back teeth, for fear that she might curse aloud.
More than anyone she could feel for that "Yong'an Emperor" who fought for survival step by step, and so more than anyone she was stricken.
Up on the Heavenly Screen, that other self of hers had worked so painstakingly to eliminate two major threats at once, and this was the result she got!
[Wang Gong withdrew.]
[No one knows what Yong'an was thinking, standing on the city wall, watching that army come and go, leaving Sima Daozi still in control of the court and still bringing ruin upon the people's livelihood.]
[The future Emperor Yong'an, who would witness the people's hardships firsthand and truly make "Yong'an" (lasting peace) a reality for them after reclaiming the realm, could neither weep nor laugh at that moment.]
[From all that followed, one conclusion could not be clearer:]
[Yong'an had lost all faith in the great clans.]
Perhaps she had once retained a sliver of hope for the great clans, a childish impression she had always carried; now, in this instant, it all turned to ash.
Watching Wang Gong withdraw, a voice rang ever more clearly in her mind.
To save herself, to save this age, she must never seek power from the great clans, much less trust in their conscience.
And one thing more.
One day, she would never let these people off either!
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