On the yiwei day, the fourteenth day of the tenth month in the first year of Xian'an under the Jin emperor Sima Yu, Lu Song, leader of the Way of the Celestial Masters, who styled himself Libationer of the Great Way, gathered more than four hundred followers. Over a hundred of them had slipped into Jiankang before nightfall. By the time Lu Song led his followers outside Guangmo Gate, darkness had fallen completely. He ordered everyone to shout together, "A secret edict from the Empress Dowager! We are escorting the Prince of the Eastern Sea back to the capital to ascend the throne once more! Anyone who dares obstruct us may be killed on the spot!"
The Way of the Celestial Masters followers inside Guangmo Gate also raised an uproar, falsely claiming that the Prince of the Eastern Sea, Sima Yi, had returned to the capital. Assailed from within and without, the hundred-odd capital troops guarding Guangmo Gate were stunned and had no idea what to do. Blazing torches lit up Lu Song's imposing broad face. The leader of the Way of the Celestial Masters was so famous in Jiankang that almost everyone knew him, so when the capital troops saw him, they really thought the deposed emperor Sima Yi had returned. While they hesitated in astonishment, the followers wielding blades and staves wounded several of them, and the hundred-odd capital troops were soon scattered. Among Eastern Jin soldiers, only those belonging to the military commands of frontier regional inspectors had any fighting strength. Soldiers under the other commanderies and counties served merely to maintain public order and were extremely poor at responding to an enemy. These capital troops under Lu Shi, Minister of the Five Armies, were no different: a disorderly rabble actually broke through Guangmo Gate in the