Jinting Han people

Chapter 81 Sima Wei in the Imperial Guard (4k)

Zhou Xi’s suggestion was indeed very good. If possible, Liu Xian really wanted to be a transparent person in the Secretariat.

What was the most comfortable life in the Western Jin Dynasty? The answer was the life of a newly appointed official.

Since he had just entered the officialdom, he did not have any important tasks in the court. He just copied books and wrote some words every day, visited various departments, and made some new friends.

When you are tired, you can stroll around the palace and enjoy the royal scenery. When you are sleepy, you can just fall asleep in the inner room without being criticized by your superiors.

After one year of experience, you will naturally be promoted and transferred.

It can be said to be a fairy-like life, and if you miss it, you will never have it again.

But unfortunately, Liu Xian missed it before entering the palace.

On the second day, Liu Xian entered the palace from Sima Gate and was admiring the transplanted Guangzhou banana trees in front of Jiuzhang Temple when he suddenly heard a familiar voice behind him. The voice shouted to him from a distance, "Ah, isn't this Huai Chong?"

Liu Xian was very familiar with this voice. He turned around and saw that it was indeed Sima Wei, King of Shiping.

Unlike the casually dressed Prince Shiping seen in the palace, Sima Wei, despite his imposing build, possessed a more approachable personality, giving him a more benevolent demeanor. Once inside the palace, Sima Wei wore dazzling fish-scale iron armor, a three-foot-long sword at his waist, and a tiger-patterned iron helmet. Following him were several guards. As he walked along the palace path, the armor clashed like waves of iron, creating a formidable, unapproachable presence.

Liu Xian squinted his eyes and looked at him for a while. When Sima Wei came up to him, he bowed and said, "Greetings, Your Highness."

"How is your stay in the Secretariat? Is everything going well?"

"I just arrived yesterday and I'm unfamiliar with the place. How could I have any worries?"

"Haha, that's right." Sima Wei patted Liu Xian's shoulder and pointed to the northeast, saying, "You're mine. If anything goes wrong, you can come directly to Qianqiumen to find me. I'll help you out!"

Sima Wei's words were spoken lightly, but the passing officials heard them clearly. Within two days, Liu Xian hadn't said or done anything, but almost everyone in the palace knew that the Fifth Prince had already extended his influence to the Secretariat. This made many of his colleagues in the Secretariat look at Liu Xian with skepticism.

In a sense, this wasn't an injustice to Liu Xian. After all, he had been Sima Wei's study partner, and he had followed Sima Wei's path, passing the imperial examination and entering the government. Liu Xian himself admitted to being Sima Wei's cronies.

But what Liu Xian didn't expect was that after entering the palace, the presence of this so-called "Prince of Shiping Party" was a little too strong.

Once, Liu Xian was running errands for the Minister of Internal Affairs, Hua Gong, to retrieve a rejected criminal case document. On his way, he passed through the Qianqiu Gate, the Shenhu Gate, and the Xizhonghua Gate. At each gate, guards greeted Liu Xian, but he didn't recognize them at all. He awkwardly returned the greetings while memorizing their faces and returning to ask Zhou Xi.

Zhou Xi was surprised to hear this and asked, "Aren't those all the Fifth Prince's confidants? How could you not recognize them?"

Liu Xian thought, "How could I possibly recognize him, having only been in the palace for so long?" But his expression remained impassive as he asked calmly, "Why? I usually just accompany the Fifth Prince to study, so I really don't understand these things. Does he have a lot of influence in the palace?"

Zhou Xi sighed, "It's more than just big! He's already causing quite a bit of criticism among the court officials! This Fifth Prince isn't content to be a wealthy prince, hanging out with the Imperial Guards every day and spending lavishly at every turn."

"It's fine if he just holds banquets and gatherings every day, but he also treats this family's illness and buys clothes for that family. Most of the guards are under his patronage. What is this? This is Wu Qi's way of winning people over! If this continues, what will he do?"

Liu Xian already knew that Sima Wei had a very high prestige in the imperial guards, but after hearing Zhou Xi's words, he couldn't help but feel surprised.

As the saying goes, hearing about someone is believing. Liu Xian originally thought that his "high prestige" was just a group of close friends among the imperial guards. But now that he saw it with his own eyes, he realized that he had underestimated the efforts of Qi Sheng and others.

It turns out that the kindness they had shown to the Imperial Guards for so long was not limited to their close associates, but had almost influenced the entire Imperial Guards. This was unimaginable.

But this didn't seem right. After a moment's contemplation, he quickly realized his doubts. He asked Zhou Xi, "Since even Bo Ren knows about this, surely it can't be hidden from Your Majesty, the General of Chariots and Cavalry (Yang Jun), and the other princes! Are they all keeping silent about this?"

"Why would he keep silent?!" Zhou Xi had clearly given this some thought. He analyzed, "His Highness the Fifth Prince is not only highly respected within the Imperial Guards, but also among the princes. The Ninth, Thirteenth, and Fifteenth Princes all support him and are willing to make him their leader. Furthermore, His Majesty and the King of Runan also admire him, praising his benevolence and filial piety, and tacitly allow him to win over the hearts of the Imperial Guards."

"If only the General of Chariots and Cavalry is dissatisfied, what can he do to the Fifth Prince?"

So that's how it is! Liu Xian realized that the government was now completely controlled by the Three Yangs. In order to check and balance the power of the Three Yangs and prevent them from expanding too much, the emperor had to keep the power of the imperial guards in the hands of the royal family.

The current leader of the royal family is Sima Liang, King of Runan, but he is separated from the emperor by a layer, so it is hard to say whether he is willing to fight for the imperial power.

Sima Yan then secretly supported his son Sima Wei, King of Shiping, and won the hearts of the imperial guards. In this way, he formed a political balance with the Three Yangs, which was indeed a relatively clever balancing act.

But in this way, he found himself in the political party struggle even though he had done nothing, which made Liu Xian feel both amused and helpless.

Zhou Xi also advised Liu Xian, "I'm not afraid of you telling His Highness the Fifth Prince that for the stability of the country, the most important thing is for everyone to stay within their proper place. Although he is a wise king, the country does not need a wise king who interferes in other people's affairs."

"If every prince behaves like this, then where does that leave the Crown Prince? Instead of dwelling on this, he should think more about how to govern his realm. This is the right path."

Liu Xian certainly agreed with Zhou Xi's suggestion, but he would definitely not do so.

Although he was considered Sima Wei's man, he was far less close to him than Gongsun Hong and Qi Sheng.

They had worked hard for several years and finally achieved such a good situation. They were just waiting for the crown prince to succeed to the throne. With the truth just around the corner, how could they be willing to give up? Now, even if Sima Wei didn't want to fight for it, it would be impossible.

Seeing that he did not give a positive reply, Zhou Xi was quite disappointed for a moment, so he turned to read the books himself.

Liu Xian also fell into deep thought. He was not thinking deeply about his future path. After all, the current party struggles were not fierce, and could even be said to be very calm. There was still plenty of time to wait and see how the situation would develop.

With the idea of making the best of things, Liu Xian was now very curious. He really wanted to know what kind of people Sima Wei had under his command given his influence in the imperial guards. No matter whether they were powerful or not, he wanted to broaden his horizons.

He didn't need to look for this opportunity; in April, Sima Wei arrived uninvited. Besides the officials within the Secretariat, the four palace guards also took turns on duty daily, and the palace also had night guards patrolling. When the patrol passed by the Secretariat that day, King Shiping Sima Wei took advantage of the situation and broke into the Secretariat, searching for Liu Xian.

Liu Xian was browsing documents in the library. The Secretariat preserved all official documents from the Wei and Jin dynasties onwards, including many authentic works by the Seven Sages of the Jian'an Period and even the Three Caos. Liu Xian wanted to see if there was an original copy of "The Turtle's Longevity" written by Cao Cao himself.

At this moment, he suddenly heard someone calling him from outside the door. Turning back, he saw Sima Wei rushing in and said with a smile, "Huai Chong, you are here!"

Then he said as a matter of course: "I have a party here, come with me."

Liu Xian went out and checked the clock. Wasn't it only the 4th hour? There was still a full hour until noon. Wasn't it too early for the banquet?

Also, today doesn't seem like a holiday. Why is there a banquet all of a sudden?
Liu Xian was very confused for a moment and asked Sima Wei, "Your Highness, is it necessary to go?"

Sima Wei said, "What's the big deal? Is there something important going on for you?"

This was true. Although Liu Xian was a writer in the Secretariat, he was not responsible for writing imperial edicts. It made no difference whether he did it today or tomorrow. However, Liu Xian wanted to decline, but Sima Wei took him to greet Hua Yi, who actually agreed.

Liu Xian was dragged to Yunlong Gate by Sima Wei.

Located northwest of the Luoyang Palace, Yunlong Gate was built by Cao Rui, Emperor Ming of Wei. As its name suggests, the gate tower features two stone archways, both front and back of which are carved with images of blue dragons flying through the clouds.

Legend has it that fifty-five years ago, during the reign of Cao Rui, a blue dragon appeared in the water well of Mobei in Jia. Cao Rui personally led all his officials to see it. They actually saw a blue dragon, and he was so overjoyed that he first ordered his officials to compose poems and couplets, then ordered craftsmen to draw and carve, and finally built the Cloud Dragon Gate in the Luoyang Palace.

In addition to the Yunlong Stone Archway, the Yunlong Gate tower is also taller than the other towers.

Atop the two-meter-high city gate, four tiers of eaves soared, like a giant towering above the earth, overlooking the tiny crowd. In the entire city of Luoyang, only the Hundred-foot Tower beside Jinyong City rivaled it in height. Pasted on the red walls and pillars in front of the Yunlong Gate were poems and songs written by prominent officials of the Cao Wei Dynasty to congratulate the visit of the Azure Dragon.

The military quarters for the palace guards were also located northwest of Yunlong Gate.

It can be said that Yunlong Gate is the defense center of Luoyang Palace today.

When Liu Xian arrived with Sima Wei, the imperial guards had already set up an open-air banquet at the small lake on the north side of Yunlong Gate under the hospitality of Gongsun Hong.

The feast wasn't particularly sumptuous; to be precise, it didn't include delicacies like bear paws or leopard fetuses. But there was plenty of meat, and it was a spectacular sight. A huge crowd of about three hundred people gathered, each sitting on a hut, roasting venison around a bonfire. Salt, pepper, vinegar, fermented black beans, dogwood sauce, mustard, and other condiments were placed beside the venison. There were also plates of large flatbreads for wrapping the meat, and ripe melons were placed around it.

When Liu Xian got closer, he found that there were two large eagles among them. Their wings were very full and they were half a person's height when standing up.

Some soldiers were surrounding the eagle, cutting off a few pieces of unroasted venison and throwing them on the open ground to feed them.

The two eagles spread their wings and fluttered, rushing forward to grab the food. Heavy iron weights hung from their legs, allowing them to fly only nine feet high. As the two eagles fluttered and fought for the food, the wind they created was like a whirlwind, blowing up the dry grass, dust, and gravel on the ground.

Sima Wei naturally led Liu Xian into the banquet hall, leading them to the bonfire in the center. He then laughed to the crowd, saying, "Everyone, this is my tutor, Liu Xian, Liu Huai Chong. He's a writer in the Secretariat, and the latest to reach the rank of Second Rank! A recognized talent as a royal assistant!"

At first glance, most of these people were over 30 years old and seemed to be officers in the imperial guards.

After hearing Sima Wei's words, their expressions shifted slightly, and their gazes simultaneously turned towards Liu Xian, but they didn't betray any overt admiration or jealousy. Clearly, simply having the title "Zhuoran Second Rank" wasn't enough to win their approval.

Liu Xian had no problem with this. If everyone here were just sycophants, he wouldn't be interested in interacting with them. So he said modestly, "Your Highness, thank you for the compliment. Lord Yan Fu is simply showing me some kindness."

He was just about to listen to Sima Wei's introduction of his subordinates when a tender young girl's voice suddenly rang out from among the men:

"It's not easy to win the favor of Lord Yanfu."

Liu Xian was stunned at first, then he looked closely and found a pretty girl standing next to Sima Wei. She was wearing a light yellow pleated fairy skirt and holding a peony round fan, which mostly covered her face. She blinked at Liu Xian and then said to her brother with a smile, "Fifth brother, I have been waiting for a long time. When will the banquet start?"

It was Princess Yingchuan Sima Xiuhua.

This surprised Liu Xian very much. Although he had heard long ago that the current emperor doted on the princess and had allowed her to move freely in the palace, it was still beyond Liu Xian's imagination that she would disregard the strict rules between men and women and openly walk in front of the imperial guards.

But this is obviously a normal situation. The surrounding imperial guards did not even look at it, as if they did not hear it. They were obviously used to it.

Sima Wei smiled dotingly, took her hand and asked, "Didn't I ask you to call your ninth and eleventh brothers? Are they all here?"

Sima Xiuhua pouted and glanced behind him.

Sima Wei reacted immediately and looked back. Sure enough, his brothers, the emperor's other princes, Sima Yun, Sima Xia, and Sima Yi were all standing at the table, all smiling at him.

The Ninth Prince, Sima Yun, rolled up his sleeves and asked with a grin, "Hey, Fifth Brother, what day is it today? Why are you making such a big scene?"

As soon as he finished speaking, Sima Yi hit him on the head. He couldn't help but turn around and complain, "What's going on? Is today really some big day? I really don't know!!"

Sima Yi showed an expression that said "You are doomed", took two steps back, and did not say anything else.

When Sima Yun looked back, he saw Sima Xiuhua's face flushed red. She stood with her hands on her hips in front of everyone, staring at him angrily.

Liu Xian was also very curious. What day was today? What did it have to do with the princess?
He patted his head and recalled his itinerary in April in recent years. Suddenly, he remembered that last April, he seemed to have discussed how to give a gift to the princess at Sima Wei's house.

Oh! Today is Princess Yingchuan’s birthday! Liu Xian suddenly realized.

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(End of this chapter)