Outside the main south gate, the Court Assembly began another session.
The Grand General once again did not appear.
Minister over the Masses Gao Rou presided over this Court Assembly.
The ministers sat on either side. Apart from the Three Excellencies and the Inspector of the Capital, who sat separately, the other ministers sat together.
General Who Conquers the West Sima Zhao sat among the ministers, looking at them as he continued to ponder what his elder brother had instructed him to do.
Secretariat official Fu Gu was not there. He had already left Luoyang for Heyin and other places to investigate whether local officials had killed innocent people and passed them off as enemies to claim military merit.
The ministers had gathered this time primarily to discuss matters concerning the Wu Kingdom.
From its founding to the present, the Wu Kingdom had suffered no fewer internal problems than Wei. Now, like Cao Wei, it had fallen into the grip of a powerful minister who controlled the government.
First there had been Zhuge Ke; now there was Sun Jun.
Zhuge Ke had been decent enough. As Marquis Wu's nephew, he was quick-witted, tall, and handsome. He had subdued the Shanyue and later received an imperial decree to assist the emperor. At the Battle of Dongxing, he had smashed Cao Wei's army so thoroughly that even Guanqiu Jian and the others had fled without a fight.
What a pity. Of all the people he could have emulated, he had insisted on following a certain great emperor's example and personally leading a vast army against Hefei.
He had taken two hundred thousand troops to attack Cao Wei, only to suffer countless casualties at Hefei without capturing the city, then be beaten into a panicked retreat by Sima Fu.
Later, Sun Jun had