The day after the East Hall Banquet, all of Luoyang became somewhat different.
The two eminent scholars of the Xun Family shot to fame, and Sima Yan's affair also became a favorite topic of conversation.
The scholars suddenly came to their senses. Rather than let others build their reputations this way, why couldn't they do it themselves? Rich water should not flow into outsiders' fields. And so, within every clan, chickens flew and dogs leaped as everything descended into chaos.
Under the impact of Xuanxue thought, the elders' authority over the younger generation had weakened considerably.
And although Great Wei's Imperial Academy Students also came from the Great Clans, perhaps because they were still young, they had yet to abandon their ambition to govern the realm.
Scholars always had some higher pursuit, something that stood above their tangible interests.
The scholars of Wei and Jin were unrestrained and scorned ritual propriety. To Cao Mao, these, too, were strengths he could draw upon.
Although the ministers could not readily suppress them outright, they remained unmoved by their remonstrances. They were not afraid of these scholars. After all, they were merely talking and building their reputations.
What truly concerned them were the great affairs of the realm.
The suppression of rebellions across the regions proceeded smoothly. After reinforcements arrived in Hebei, the troops swept forward like a blade splitting bamboo, and the rebels fled in all directions, unable to withstand them.
The man who displeased the court ministers, however, was Hu Zun, Military Governor of Qingzhou and Xuzhou.
The situation in Xuzhou was exceedingly strange. Large-scale unrest had broken out in Hebei, so many county towns had fallen and the Great Clans had suffered. That was something the Great Clans could understand.
But very few county towns in Xuzhou had fallen, and