"Alas, Minister Fu remained unconscious. Elder Uncle ordered Father to stand before his bed, holding his medicine and tending to him personally."
"Elder Uncle's illness had only just improved a little, and now something like this has happened. Alas, it truly pains the heart."
Sima Yan recounted what had been happening outside.
Cao Mao pondered.
Although Fu Gu was utterly loyal to Sima Shi, at least he was a normal person, rather different from those madmen who knew only how to drink and take mineral powders.
He knew how to bring peace to the realm, how to let the common people survive, and that he had to preserve his own side's rule.
As for the other madmen, what did they care about the state or the people? What did they care about ruling? All they thought about each day was how to squeeze more fat and marrow from the people, expand their own influence, and live in greater luxury and wealth.
The Western Jin had managed to maintain a certain momentum of prosperity at its founding precisely because the normal people had not yet all died out.
Sima Yan still had Yang Hu, Du Yu, Chen Qian, Ren Kai, Yu Chun, Lu Qin, Zhang Hua, and others left to him by his father... At least these men knew to preserve their own side's rule without destroying its foundations.
They had put forward proper-looking strategies to counterbalance the great aristocratic clans, begun drafting laws to restrict their conduct, and done their utmost to preserve the Western Jin dynasty's rule. But once these normal people had all died out, the entire Western Jin had become a carnival for madmen.
Fu Gu's collapse was undoubtedly a devastating blow to Sima Shi.
"What about the officials who killed the innocent to claim merit?"
"Executed.