The night was deep and still.
Sitting in his study, Sima Zhao could not help throwing back his head with a long sigh.
Since his elder brother's death from illness, all the pressure and heavy responsibilities had fallen on Sima Zhao's shoulders.
Everything had changed.
He had thought victory was firmly in his grasp, but only now did he discover that the ministers who had once obeyed his every word could turn on him just as quickly.
Even Hu Zun, a trusted aide among the Sima Family's most trusted aides, who had fought his way to prominence alongside his father, was now constantly pulling against him.
Sima Zhao had originally placed great hopes in him, believing he would surely stand on his side.
But after Hu Fen met with him, things had not gone as he had imagined.
Hu Zun had indeed expressed his support, but that support came with plenty of conditions.
He wanted Hu Fen to succeed him in his position.
He demanded that Sima Zhao negotiate with the ministers and do nothing that would delight their foreign enemies.
Sima Zhao knew these would certainly not be that old bastard's last two conditions.
Once he bowed his head, the man's conditions would only multiply.
Besides, was that second condition supposed to be support? Making him take the initiative to compromise with the ministers counted as support?
Hu Zun's conduct had deeply disappointed Sima Zhao, but he still had another pillar to lean on: Wang Chang, far away in Jingzhou.
Wang Chang was accomplished in both civil and military affairs, had dealt the Wu Kingdom a crushing defeat, and was even related to Sima Zhao by marriage.
Sima Zhao believed this man could be trusted.
Yet this man's conduct had proved just as disappointing.
He had not named his