In the seventh month of autumn in the first year of Taihe, an imperial edict appointed Sima Yu, the Prince of Langya and Situ, as prime minister and Director of the Department of State Affairs. He was permitted to enter court without quickening his steps, to be announced at ceremonial audiences without being called by his personal name, and to ascend the palace hall with his sword and shoes. By then, apart from command of the regional armies, Sima Yu had assumed control of all affairs within and outside the court. Yet precisely because he held no military power, he was often beset by fear and anxiety, helpless before Huan Wen's dominance. Huan Wen had stationed his troops at Gushu and recently mobilized the people of Xu Province and Yan Province to build the walls of Guangling, where he intended to relocate his headquarters. Thus, both upstream and downstream of Jiankang would fall under the Huan Clan's control. The Huan Clan's ambitions were plain to every passerby-
Chen Caozhi had carried the imperial credentials on a mission to Di Qin, yet the man he brought back was the Xianbei envoy Huangfu Zhen. Moreover, Chen Caozhi had been abducted by the Xianbei and then released. There were many suspicious points in all this. Sima Yu suspected that Chen Caozhi had made some secret bargain with the Xianbei Murong Clan on Huan Wen's orders, so as soon as he heard that Chen Caozhi had returned to Jiankang, he hastened to summon him-
Chen Caozhi followed his Third Brother, Chen Shang, to the Elegant Speech Teahouse in the western courtyard of the Prince of Langya's Residence. Beside the courtyard wall, a clump of Qinsi Bamboo glowed crimson in the autumn sunset, a delightful sight. Chen Caozhi had barely paused when he heard a