No examples were needed. Everyone knew that the Sima Clan's princes seemed to have something of a tradition of infighting.
Add to that the fact that the Empress Dowager now ruled from behind the curtain and held the mantle of legitimacy, while the Young Emperor was only a little over two years from marriage and a little over one year from his coming-of-age hair-binding, and it invited all manner of speculation. Sima Yu really could not help letting his thoughts run wild.
Even Liu Acheng's "edict hidden in a robe sash" had simply stumbled into it.
As Liu Cheng asked his questions, the Prince of Kuaiji gave a brief account, allowing the former to gain some understanding of the situation.
Prince of Wuling Army Provisioning Officer Xi was only four years older than Sima Yu, who had been born after his father's death, and was now in his prime. Yet from birth, his fate had stood in stark contrast to Sima Yu's. His mother had not been favored, so as soon as he was born, he had been adopted into the relatively distant Prince of Wuling's branch to continue its ancestral sacrifices.
Yet he and Sima Yu happened to be among Emperor Yuan's few biological sons, born to him late in life, giving them an exceptionally senior place in the family hierarchy. When the Yu Clan wielded power and forcibly appointed an Imperial Heir Apparent despite Army Provisioning Officer Yan, Great Jin's third emperor after the Southern Migration, having several sons, placing Chu Suanzi's husband Army Provisioning Officer Yue on the throne, they inevitably had to bring these two princes out to lend support and proclaim the succession's legitimacy.
Thus, when the current Empress Dowager's husband Army Provisioning Officer Yue first ascended the throne, our Prince of Wuling, like the