After Cao Cao’s sweeping victory over Lü Bu at Dingtao, Lü Bu gathered his shattered forces along the coast. His officers pressed him for one final showdown with Cao Cao, but his strategist Chen Gong counseled caution: “Cao Cao’s strength grows daily; now is not the time to challenge him. Let us first secure a friendly refuge, then strike later.” Lü Bu suggested, “Why not seek out Yuan Shao?” Chen Gong replied, “First dispatch scouts to Jizhou to learn his intent; only then should we commit.” Lü Bu agreed.
Meanwhile, in Jizhou, Yuan Shao heard that Cao Cao and Lü Bu were at a standoff. His adviser Shen Pei urged, “Lü Bu is like a ravenous tiger—if he holds Yanzhou, he will threaten Jizhou next. Better to aid Cao Cao against him, and we shall be safe.” Yuan Shao dispatched Yan Liang with fifty thousand troops to reinforce Cao. A spy quickly brought word of this to Lü Bu, who was alarmed and consulted Chen Gong. Chen Gong urged, “Liu Xuande (Liu Bei) has just assumed Xuzhou—why not throw in your lot with him?” Lü Bu accepted the plan and rode for Xuzhou.
News of Lü Bu’s arrival soon reached Liu Bei. He exclaimed, “This man is a hero of our age—go out to welcome him!” Mi Zhu warned, “Lü Bu is a treacherous tiger; to harbor him is to invite disaster.” Liu Bei replied, “He only attacked Yanzhou to relieve Cao’s siege of Tao Qian. Now that he is cast down, he has nowhere else to turn but to us. He cannot betray us twice.” Zhang Fei growled, “My brother is far too trusting. Even so, we must be ready for his betrayal.”
Liu Bei rode thirty li beyond Xuzhou to greet Lü Bu and escorted him, on horseback, back into the city. They dismounted before the provincial hall, exchanged formal greetings, and took their seats. Lü Bu spoke earnestly: “Since our plot to slay Dong Zhuo, I have drifted east of the Huan River, finding no refuge among the warlords. When Cao the Usurper pressed Xuzhou, you came to aid Tao Qian; I took Yanzhou to divide his forces, only to fall into a trap and suffer defeat. Now I come to you in ruin—what would Your Excellency have me do?” Liu Bei answered, “Tao Qian is gone and Xuzhou lacks leadership. By imperial edict I have been entrusted to govern. Now that you have lent me your strength, it is only right to share power with you.” He pressed the tally and seal into Lü Bu’s hand. Surprised, Lü Bu moved to rise—but behind Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei bristled with wrath. Lü Bu forced a smile: “I—Lü Bu—am but a warrior. How could I fill the role of provincial governor?” Liu Bei insisted again, and Chen Gong interceded: “A guest should never outshine his host. Please, General Lü, believe no ill.” At last Lü Bu bowed and sat. A great banquet followed, and Lü Bu was quartered in honour.
The next day, Lü Bu invited Liu Bei into the inner hall. Over wine, he asked his soldiers to bear arms in salute. When his wife and daughters came forth to pay homage to Liu Bei, Zhang Fei flew into a rage. “My brother is of imperial blood, and yet you call him ‘elder brother’! What are you to compare him to? Come, I’ll fight you three hundred exchanges!” Liu Bei leapt between them: “Brother, enough. He is our honored guest—let not hot blood cost us all.” Zhang Fei glowered but stood down. At parting, he vaulted onto his steed and urged Lü Bu, “I still challenge you to those three hundred strokes!” Only Guan Yu’s calm intervention prevented disaster.
The following morning Lü Bu thanked Liu Bei and declared, “I would remain in your debt forever, but I fear my temperament offends your brothers. Let me find another refuge.” Liu Bei pleaded, “If you leave, I shall bear the greatest guilt. Just rest your horses at Xiaopei, where I once stationed my troops. Your needs will be cared for.” Grateful, Lü Bu withdrew his troops to Xiaopei and made camp there. Liu Bei returned to Xuzhou, still fuming at Zhang Fei’s hotheadedness.
In Chang’an, the court had long suffered under the tyrannical rule of Li Jue, self-styled Grand Marshal, and Guo Si, self-styled General-in-Chief—two former generals of Dong Zhuo who now ruled by fear. No minister dared reproach them. The Grand Commandant Yang Biao and Chief Agriculturalist Zhu Jun secretly petitioned Emperor Xian: “General Cao commands over two hundred thousand troops and scores of brilliant advisers. If the Court entrusted him to eliminate these robbers, the realm would rejoice.” The Emperor wept: “For too long I have been abused by these villains. If only they could be purged, it would be a great blessing.” Yang Biao proposed: “Let these two warlords fight one another, then summon Cao Cao to destroy the victor.” The Emperor approved and commissioned Yang Biao to set the plan in motion.
Yang Biao’s wife discreetly delivered a warning to Guo Si’s wife: “It is said the General’s wife is jealous. Seek to cut off her liaison with Li Jue’s household, lest she suffer harm.” Alarmed, Guo Si’s wife resolved to poison Li Jue—so when Li Jue come to dine, she slipped poison into his wine. Suspicious, he had a dog sample it first and watched it die. Fearing for his own life, Li Jue confronted Guo Si: “How dare you plot against me?” With mutual recrimination, both raised armies and marched on each other’s camps. In the fields before Chang’an, tens of thousands clashed in a ferocious melee, and the city’s residents were plundered and forced into servitude.
In the chaos, Li Jue’s nephew Li Xian laid siege to the imperial palace with two carriages—one bearing the Emperor, the other the Empress. He entrusted Jia Xu and the eunuch Left Intendant to guard them. As Guo Si’s forces approached, volley after volley of arrows cut down palace servants by the hundreds. Li Jue’s troops then stormed the palace, driving the Emperor’s party into the street, looting and burning the halls. The next day Guo Si rallied his men to reclaim the Emperor. Both sides fought at the palace gates, terrorizing the Emperor and Empress.
A later chronicler wrote of the carnage:
“In the Han’s great founding, twelve emperors rose, But Huan and Ling’s tyranny dragged the line to dust. Eunuchs seized the reins, and warlords vied for power, Until the Court itself lay in ruin’s bloody wake…”
As Guo Si’s forces pressed, Li Jue transferred the imperial carriages to Mei Fort, cutting off all supplies and starving the courtiers. When the Emperor begged for grain, he was offered only foul scraps. The eunuch Yang Qi pleaded mercy, but Li Jue refused. Tears streaming, the Emperor lamented, “We have left one den of wolves only to enter another.”
Then, unexpectedly, a cry arose at dawn: Guo Si’s banners appeared on the horizon—coming to “rescue” the Emperor. Alarmed, Li Jue swore they would settle their feud in single combat: “No troops—just you and me. The victor takes the Emperor!” As they clashed steel, the Emperor was left in their contempt.
At this crisis, Yang Biao arrived with sixty court officials, imploring peace. Guo Si seized and imprisoned them all. Only at Jia Xu’s intercession was Yang Biao spared; Zhu Jun, returning home in despair, died of grief. Meanwhile, Li Jue and Guo Si continued their savage battles for over fifty days, leaving countless corpses across Chang’an’s plains.
Seeing the carnage, Yang Biao secretly persuaded the Qiang auxiliaries to defect; Li Jue’s druidic superstitions and lack of reward for his officers drove many away. With his ranks shattered, Li Jue could no longer oppose Guo Si’s major assaults. When Zhang Ji, governor of Youzhou, sent envoys offering to escort the Emperor back to Luoyang, both Li Jue and Guo Si consented.
As the imperial procession neared Hanyin County, hundreds of troops blocked the road. The eunuch Yang Qi raised the curtain and proclaimed, “The Emperor himself stands here—make way!” Two officers, however, demanded to see the imperial edict. At the cost of two lives, the Emperor’s party passed through. Infuriated, Guo Si executed the two officers.
Farther on, Guo Si, fearing the Emperor might slip from his grasp, urged Li Jue to slay him at Hongnong. Li Jue demurred; instead, he proposed they join forces, kill the Emperor on the way, then divide the realm. Guo Si agreed, and both fell into lawless brigandage, plundering the road eastward.
But at Dongjian, Yang Feng and Dong Cheng, commanding loyalist troops, intercepted them. Though outnumbered, they fought desperately to shield the Emperor, driving the rebels from the field. As night fell, the rebels recaptured the palace and pressed their attack, trapping the Emperor, Yang Feng, and Dong Cheng by the Yellow River. In trembling fear, the Emperor prepared to surrender—but at that moment, a trumpet blast heralded the arrival of a thousand horsemen under Dong Cheng’s kinsman Dong Gong.
The rebels broke and fled. Dong Cheng and Yang Feng escorted the Emperor north to Hongnong, then onward in secret to Jiyuan, each step fraught with peril. Thus, twice over, Yang Feng and Dong Cheng snatched the Emperor from the jaws of usurpers, preserving the Han line against overwhelming odds—yet the realm lay shattered, its people starving, its princes at each other’s throats, and the imperial house a puppet between warlords’ hands.
