Three Kingdoms: The Sima Clan Usurps Cao Wei's Realm from the Start

The chaos of the Three Kingdoms eventually gave way to the Jin dynasty. In the first year of the Taikang era, Sima Yan raised an army to attack Eastern Wu. The ruler of Wu, Sun Hao, surrendered, bringing the turmoil of Wei, Shu, and Wu to an end and unifying the land.

After unifying the realm, Sima Yan pressured and bribed Cao Huan, ruler of Wei, into abdicating. With the auspicious day at hand, the founding emperor of Great Jin was respectfully invited to ascend the abdication platform and receive Heaven's mandate, seizing the realm of Cao Wei in one stroke.

Sima Rui was originally a prince of Western Jin, ennobled as the Prince of Langya. Forced to take part in the War of the Eight Princes, he saw the emperor held hostage by powerful ministers, indirectly plunging the realm into chaos.

Sima Rui crossed south to Jiankang and allied himself with the Wang clan of Langya, drawing the powerful gentry families of Jiangnan to his side. When the emperor met an untimely end, Sima Rui raised the banner of Jin anew and took the throne.

To reclaim the lost lands, Sima Rui ruled under the arrangement that "the Wang and Sima clans share the realm." As power slipped from his grasp, resentment grew within him. Rivalry for influence at court led Wang Dun to raise an army in the name of purging the emperor's wicked ministers. With little strength of his own, Sima Rui could only beg and yield.

After this conflict, Sima Rui's prestige plummeted. From then on, he was powerless to restrain Jiangnan's four great aristocratic clans or rule the court alone. In the end, he died in bitterness...

This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to actual people or events is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.