Sima Zhao takes the emperor on a buddy road trip to put down another insurgence in a particularly troublesome part of the kingdom.

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Welcome to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms Podcast. This is episode 143.

Last time, Sima Zhao was secretly entertaining thoughts of usurping the throne, but that stirred up a rebellion in the southeastern corner of the kingdom of Wei, led by the general Zhuge Dan (4). Zhuge Dan (4) also asked for and received help from the kingdom of Wu, so now he set himself to preparing for a showdown against Sima Zhao.

Meanwhile, a memorial that Zhuge Dan had sent to the emperor arrived in the Wei capital. This memorial was a justification for Zhuge Dan’s rebellion, and it included a long laundry list of Sima Zhao’s offenses. Sima Zhao was naturally ticked off and wanted to go put down this upstart himself. But his adviser Jia Chong (1) said, “My lord, you have inherited your father and brother’s work, but your own virtue and kindness have yet to be felt throughout the realm. If you leave the capital and the emperor now, something might happen at court, and it will be too late for regrets. Why don’t you have the empress dowager and the emperor accompany you on your campaign. That will ensure nothing goes wrong.”

Now, it made sense to take the emperor along since, after all, he was the symbol of authority. But the empress dowager? Really? Well, remember how Sima Zhao’s own father seized power at court. While the then emperor was out of the capital, Sima Yi went to the empress dowager and basically forced her to give his coup her blessings. So Sima Zhao was not going to take any chances. He went and told the empress dowager, “Zhuge Dan is rebelling. Your servant and the other officials have discussed the matter and decided that we must ask you and his majesty to personally lead a campaign against the rebels.”

The empress dowager was of course afraid of Sima Zhao, so she had no choice but to tag along. The next day, Sima Zhao told the emperor Cao Mao (2) that he needed to come along for the campaign. Cao Mao said, “Regent-marshal, you command all of our troops and you may deploy them as you see fit. What need is there for me to go in person?”

“Not so,” Sima Zhao replied. “Our kingdom’s founding emperor Cao Cao marched across the realm. His successors Cao Pi and Cao Rui also possessed the will to defend the state and the ambition to conquer the entire realm. Whenever there was a strong enemy, they always personally led the campaign. Your majesty should follow their example and sweep clean the rebels instead of worrying about your own safety.”

Well, Cao Mao was very much worried about his own safety, not so much from rebels in the provinces but from his own regent-marshal. So he acquiesced. Sima Zhao now gave the order to mobilize 260,000 men. He appointed the general Wang Ji (1) as the vanguard and began marching south.

 

As Sima Zhao’s vanguard approached, he ran into the vanguard of the army that the kingdom of Wu had sent to help Zhuge Dan. The Wu vanguard general Zhu Yi (4) came out to take on the Wei vanguard general Wang Ji (1). After just three bouts, Zhu Yi (4) fell back in defeat. His lieutenant then tried his luck, and he also fell back in defeat after three bouts.