"Your Majesty? Here to visit the Empress Dowager again? I'm afraid you won't be seeing her today."
Guo Li spoke with a genial smile.
Cao Mao sank into thought. How would Sima Shi kill these people?
First, he certainly would not take them both along on the campaign against Guanqiu Jian. Or rather, he would leave one behind and take the other.
If Sima Shi went on campaign, he would most likely take Sima Fu and leave Sima Zhao to hold Luoyang.
If the fighting went smoothly for Sima Shi, then when Guanqiu Jian was close to defeat, the two fools before Cao Mao would probably receive orders to have him die of illness.
Perhaps they would force poisoned wine down his throat?
Once he died, Sima Zhao would be shocked and immediately launch a thorough investigation.
That investigation would reveal that Cao Mao's killers were members of the Guo Family, acting on the Empress Dowager's instructions. There was even a ready motive: the emperor had married a daughter of the Sima Family as his empress, greatly displeasing the Empress Dowager. She had wanted to depose and replace him, but could find no fault in his conduct, so she had ordered her own kinsmen to poison him.
What followed would be simple: arrest the Empress Dowager, execute the entire Guo Family, hold a grand funeral for him, give him a decent posthumous name, and find a young member of the Imperial Clan-preferably an infant-to adopt as his son. Then Sima Yue could become Empress Dowager and preside over court.
With that, the Imperial Palace would be pacified, Guanqiu Jian outside would be gone, and Sima Shi would hand power to Sima Zhao. All Sima Zhao needed to do was prepare to accept the abdication.
Because the emperor was too young