The Rebellion of the Eight Kings was seen as a far-reaching civil war during the Wei and Jin dynasties. After seven years of hard fighting, Sima Yue, the king of the East China Sea, became the final winner and took control of the elite soldiers of the Western Jin Dynasty in one fell swoop. However, despite his strength, Sima Yue was defeated in the game of power, which eventually led to the fall of the Jin Dynasty and was unable to stop the Wuhu from entering the Central Plains. Why did Sima Yue win the Rebellion of the Eight Kings? Why did he lose power and humiliate the country after taking charge of the army? What kind of conflicts and contradictions are hidden in this seemingly victorious but actually defeated Eight Kings Rebellion? Let's find out.
The rise of the Gate Valve Clan
Since the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the gate valve clan has grown stronger and stronger in the Central Plains, and by the early Western Jin Dynasty, they have become an important force on the political map that cannot be ignored. In order to prevent the royal family from being too dominant, the royal family of the Western Jin Dynasty wantonly canonized the clan relatives as princes and kings, in order to maintain the authority of the royal family and prevent the dominance of the family through mutual checks and balances.
However, this approach is counterproductive. The canonized princes and brothers were arrogant and rude, acting recklessly in the local area, overriding the local people and prefectures and counties, forming a powerful rebel force. What's more serious is that they also colluded with the local gate lord clans, formed alliances, and built a power network controlled by the kings and clans on the entire Western Jin Dynasty territory.
The center of this net is the Sima family, one of the several major lords in the Western Jin Dynasty. As a member of the Jin clan, the Sima clan has the unique advantage of controlling the political lineage. Through alliances with local clans, they have gained access to many resources such as personal connections, economy, culture, and education, which have strengthened their political foundation.
In addition to the Sima family, there are also several families such as the Wang family, the He family, and the Miao family who can be arrogant in the local area just by virtue of their family status. They not only monopolized the channels for cultivating intellectuals and cultural education, but also took all the three major powers of politics, economy, and culture into their own hands by virtue of the massive annexation of land and the acquisition of economic power.
For a time, the power of the gate valve developed rapidly, forming an invisible "political force" in the Western Jin Dynasty, and then confronted the imperial court and escalated the confrontation. The Rebellion of the Eight Kings was the direct trigger for the outbreak of this contradiction. In this war, the clan and the princes and kings took positions and attitudes, intrigued with each other, and staged a fierce political competition.
The rotten foundation of the Sima Yue Group
After the end of the Rebellion of the Eight Kings, Sima Yue, the king of the East China Sea, ruled the Central Plains and his power was supreme. He could have taken this opportunity to reinvigorate the authority of the Jin family, but he failed to do so. On the contrary, Sima Yue's approach made the foundation of the Jin dynasty's rule even more shaky.
Sima Yue was not a brilliant politician, he was just an opportunist who was good at taking advantage of the chaos. In the early days of the Eight Kings Rebellion, he wandered between the kings' camps left and right, and finally betrayed Sima Yi, the king of Changsha, who represented the central authority. After that, he took advantage of the military power of Sima Nan, the governor of Qingxu, and imprisoned the latter. It can be said that Sima Yue took advantage of the loopholes step by step, and finally won the fruits of victory with the despicable means of the villain.
However, it is easy to seize power, but difficult to govern. Sima Yue's staff team is extremely bad, and most of them are some disciples of the gate valve who have been bewitched by metaphysics. They only know how to covet pleasures and pursue personal gain, but they do not care about state affairs. They formed the corrupt foundation of the rule of the Sima Yue clique.
These staff members form Sima Yue's core decision-making team, is it reassuring? On the contrary, their incompetence will only cause chaos in the world. At that time, the territory of the Western Jin Dynasty had been destroyed in the war, and the social order was in chaos. What's more serious is that the Hun Liu Yuan established a secession regime in the Bingzhou area, and there were Hu riots in the northwest, and Shu was also looted by local tyrants. The entire Jin Dynasty was in jeopardy, and there was an urgent need for a capable central power to coordinate the overall situation and reorganize the mountains and rivers.
However, what is chilling is that Sima Yue and his staff did not make any efforts for this, on the contrary, after they took power, they only knew how to form factions up and down the government and the opposition, arbitrarily purge dissidents, weaken the authority of the imperial court, increase the burden on the people, and make the people's hearts more percolated.
What is even more terrifying is that there is still an extremely insidious force in the Sima Yue group - they secretly contact other races, and even try to use external forces to support their rule. This practice is undoubtedly a complete betrayal of the Han people, a desecration of national sovereignty, and is destined to lead to a catastrophe.
In the face of such a sinister power group, Emperor Sima Chi of Jin Huai naturally would not sit idly by, so he launched a counterattack to seize power. In the following five years, the Jin Dynasty staged a ruthless drama that tore apart the dynasty and shook the national foundation, which eventually led to the Jin dynasty being powerless in the face of foreign invasion.
Emperor Jin Huai's counterattack
In the face of the corruption and incompetence of the Sima Yue group, Emperor Sima Chi of Jin Huai was secretly determined to regain the power that should have belonged to the royal family. He first set out to seize power in the DPRK and China, and began to lay out behind his back.
At that time, the most important military force in the imperial court was the Forbidden Army. Sima Chi knew that controlling the forbidden army was equivalent to controlling the imperial power, so he secretly recruited a group of generals of the forbidden army and secretly paved the way for himself. Once the time is ripe, he can use the power of the forbidden army to forcibly defeat Sima Yue's shogunate forces.
In addition, Emperor Huai of Jin also supported a group of prestigious warlords in the local area as future supporters. One of the most famous is Gou Xi. Gou Xi was originally a brave and resourceful border general, and made great achievements during the Eight Kings Rebellion. After that, he was entrusted with the important task of guarding Qishan, Huatai and other places. When Emperor Huai of Jin prepared to attack, Gou Xi's army would become the most solid force in the imperial court.
In this way, Emperor Huai of Jin not only controlled the lifeblood of power in the court, but also laid a heavy line of defense on the periphery, making all preparations for the seizure of power. It can be described as an "internal and external attack", so that Sima Yue has nowhere to escape.
However, it is not enough to rely solely on the strength of the government and the opposition. Emperor Huai of Jin was a wealthy statesman, and he knew that in order to truly consolidate his authority, he had to do something about diplomacy. So, he secretly went to Goguryeo and visited the King of Jiuzhen, trying to use foreign force to quell the civil strife.
This may seem like a violation of loyalty, but it is actually a helpless move. At that time, the Jin Dynasty was already seriously injured, and in the face of Sima Yue's domineering, it was difficult to make a painful decision on its own. With the help of external forces, it is an expedient measure to take advantage of the trend.
However, in the end, Emperor Huai of Jin still failed to achieve his wish. Although his move brought great pressure and threat to the shogunate, it failed to completely turn things around. On the contrary, he exposed his ambitions and laid the foundation for the later civil war.
From this series of actions, it can be seen that although Emperor Huai of Jin was once very determined to seize power and made many layouts, he lacked decisiveness and action after all. In the process of his rebellion, he was sometimes cautious and sometimes hasty, which inevitably undermined the plan. However, the determination and courage of this grasshopper to shake the tree was, after all, one of the few clear streams in the power struggle at that time.
The dismal performance of the Sima Yue Group
Although Emperor Huai of Jin's counterattack was unsuccessful, the rule of the Sima Yue clique had exposed many serious problems.
The first is the practice of brutal internal purges. In order to completely eliminate dissent, Sima Yue's shogunate wantonly cut down the feudal domain in the government and the opposition, disregarded people's lives, and rectified the dynasty. This practice has undoubtedly exacerbated civil strife and hindered the re-establishment of social order. Worse still, the violence demoralized the people and created a deep fear and resentment towards the new generation of rulers.
Second, Sima Yue's foreign policy is narrow-minded and short-sighted, often impulsive, reckless, and arrogant. At that time, Liu Yuan, a Xiongnu, established a secession regime in the north and conquered the Hu people and Liu Yuan and Li Yun. But Sima Yue mishandled it and sat idly by. What's more, he was arrogant and pretended to be arrogant to Liu Yuan, and tried to subjugate the annexed states with a strong suppressive attitude, but the result not only failed to achieve his goal, but deepened the contradictions between the two sides.
After that, the secession regime intensified, and the Jin Dynasty's control in the north gradually weakened. However, Sima Yue and his staff were completely unaware of this, ignoring the seriousness of the external trouble, and still fell into the quagmire of the gate valve infighting.
At the same time, in order to maintain the huge centralized government expenditures, the Sima Yue group imposed heavy taxes on the people. Taxes are increasing day by day, making life difficult for the people. In addition, the war and chaos have interrupted normal production and operation, and the people's lives have fallen into dire straits. However, Sima Yue and his staff were unaware of it, living a life of extravagance, ignoring the suffering of the Li people.
This arrogant, lascivious, blind and selfish way of ruling has further aggravated the people's dissatisfaction and hatred against the ruling clique. Once there is an invasion by external forces, it will inevitably lead to the tragic situation of losing the will of the people and the national strength being weakened.
Sure enough, all of this finally came true during the Wuhu Chaos. The Xianbei and Qianren people in the north took the opportunity to go south, and the Yongjia Rebellion broke out, and the Jin Dynasty, which was weak in national strength, lost the heart of the Central Plains. Since then, the territory of China has been divided by barbarians, the government and the opposition have been in turmoil, and the people have fallen into deep disasters. This is the inevitable result of the mediocre rule of the Sima Yue clique.
Chaos is coming
Under the corrupt rule of the Sima Yue clique, the Jin Dynasty had gradually declined, and the people were struggling to make a living. Just as the country's strength was in decline, a catastrophe struck.
First of all, the people in the north took advantage of the situation and marched south, directly attacking the hinterland of the Central Plains. At that time, they had already gained a foothold in the north for a long time, and with the help of the great cause of unifying the north, they had accumulated a heavy number of troops. On the side of the Jin Dynasty, due to the long civil war, the army has long been hollowed out. In order to fight against the powerful Qiang, the Jin Dynasty had to piece together the remnants of the remnants of the army from all walks of life, and temporarily put together a so-called "Pingxian Army".
Regrettably, this clumsy provisional army was soon crushed on the battlefield. One defeat after another caused the Jin army to retreat, and it was soon driven out of the Hebei region by the Qianren. At this critical juncture, an even more cruel scene happened. The Xianbei tribe in the northwest territory of the Jin Dynasty actually took the opportunity to invade the south, echoing the Qianren from afar, and attacking back and forth.
For a time, the entire Jin army collapsed, and the vast territory north of the Yellow River was lost. Hundreds of thousands of refugees fled in panic and poured into the area south of the Yellow River. Even Luoyang had to evacuate most of the population. All this is a bloody tragedy caused by the tyrannical and corrupt Sima Yue clique.
However, at the same time as the external troubles were serious, a fierce civil strife also broke out within the Jin Dynasty - the Yongjia Rebellion. This unrest was caused by the cronies led by Ye Wei, a henchman who controlled the forbidden army at the time. As early as the Eight Kings Rebellion, he had betrayed Sima Yi, the king of Changsha, and took refuge in Sima Yue, the king of the East China Sea, thus forming a Liangzi. Later, in the Sima Yue regime, he launched this rebellion in an attempt to overthrow the shogunate regime.
Unfortunately, the rebellion lacked sufficient military strength to support it, and it was quickly suppressed by Sima Yue's cronies. Ye Wei was killed, and his henchmen also scattered. But this civil war undoubtedly further exacerbated the loss of the Jin Dynasty's national strength.
Just when the Jin dynasty was in a catastrophe due to internal and external troubles, the Donglin party in the south also made trouble, trying in vain to seize power. The Donglin Party has always been deeply influenced by the clan and the gate lords, and behind them are the gate valve forces that strongly supported the Eight Kings Rebellion. Therefore, they also harbored great dissatisfaction with the rule of the Sima Yue group.
So, taking advantage of the collapse of the country's strength, the Donglin Party set off a wave of armed resistance in various places, calling for the overthrow of the shogunate. Their actions were undoubtedly the last fuse. Since then, the Jin Dynasty has been caught in the vortex of civil war between large and small armed factions. The government was in chaos, and the barbarians also took the opportunity to invade the south, and there was a lot of mourning, which was very tragic.