Sima Yue

He soon died of illness, and without his leadership, Han forces annihilated the Jin imperial army before sacking the capital Luoyang and capturing Emperor Huai in the Disaster of Yongjia.

[9] Sima Yue also took part in Jia Nanfeng's coup against Emperor Hui's first regent Yang Jun, and was made a marquis, with a fiefdom of 5000 households.

As Sima Ying continued to remotely control the government from his stronghold of Yecheng (鄴城, in modern Handan, Hebei) as both regent and crown prince, the officials in Luoyang tired of the situation.

Subsequently, however, Sima Ying was defeated by Wang Jun, the commander of the forces of You Province (幽州, modern Beijing, Tianjin, and northern Hebei) and fled to Luoyang without his troops.

The warlords of the empire were forced to take sides, but eventually they generally fell into line behind Sima Yue because they were disgusted with Zhang's cruelty.

Sima Teng, the second brother, was appointed Prince of Xincai, and was made Chief Controller of Si and Ji Provinces, while being garrisoned at Ye.

Sima Lüe, the third brother, was made General who Attacks the South, Chief Controller of Jing Province and was garrisoned at Xiangyang.

Sima Mo, the youngest brother, was appointed Grand General who Conquers the West and Chief Controller of Qin, Yong, Liáng and Yi provinces.

[14] Later that year, on 25 August,[15] at the urging of his wife Princess Pei,[16] he issued an order that appeared insignificant at the time but would turn out to be important later on—making Sima Rui the Prince of Langye in charge of Yang Province (揚州, modern Zhejiang and southern Jiangsu and Anhui), at the post of Jianye (建業, in modern Nanjing, Jiangsu); this was the post from which Sima Rui would later, after the fall of Luoyang and Chang'an to Han-Zhao, claim the Jin imperial title.

Sima Teng was killed by rebels in Ye, while Mo, Lüe and Rui were not as cooperative as Yue had expected them to be, being more interested in consolidating their own territories.

Meanwhile, Sima Yue continued to alienate other generals and officials, and when Liu Kun, the military commander of Bing (并州, roughly modern Shanxi) proposed to him the plan of an attack on the Han capital Pingyang (平陽, in modern Linfen, Shanxi) in conjunction with the powerful Xianbei chieftain Tuoba Yilu the Duke of Dai, Sima Yue was fearful of backstabbing attack by some of these warlords and therefore unable to accept Liu's plan.

Sima Yue became uncertain of himself, and late in 310 left Luoyang with virtually all of the central government's remaining troops, along with a large number of officials, effectively stripping Luoyang and Emperor Huai bare of their defenses, except for a small detachment commanded by Sima Yue's subordinate He Lun (何倫), intended as much to monitor as to protect Emperor Huai.

The generals and officials in his army, led by Wang Yan, instead of returning to Luoyang, headed east toward Sima Yue's principality of Donghai (roughly modern Linyi, Shandong) to bury him there.