History of Three Kingdoms 6
The Chaos in Chang'an
In April,192A.D., Dong Zhuo（董卓） was killed by Lyu Bu（吕布）. Wang Yun（王允），the Chancellor of Masses（司徒）,took charge of the Imperial secretariat（录尚书事）, began to take over the government.
After grasping power, Wang Yun was like a different person, he became proud of his achievements, and even the court officials and military generals were not in his eyes.
Before, when Dong Zhuo was alive, Wang Yun was always frank and open with everyone, discussing strategies. But now every time he discussed with the officials , Wang Yun puts on a superior appearance, full of contempt, and the officials are gradually alienated from him because of this!
At this point, Wang Yun and Deng Ai (a mighty General of Wei,destroyed Shu)are very similar, before success, they can be modest and patient, treat people with sincerity, in front of the difficulties to sharpen the nature of the heart, not arrogant and not manic. But once they have achieved fame and success, they immediately forget themselves and personally create their own life tragedy!
In particular, on the issue of arranging and dealing with Dong Zhuo's former troops, Wang Yun was capricious and careless in his attitude.
The Liangzhou(凉州the Province in the northwest) soldiers are Dong Zhuo's direct troops, not only are they strong in battle, but they're also loyal to Dong Zhuo.
When Dong Zhuo was in charge, he gave important positions to Wang Yun, Yuan Shao, and Yuan Shu, these so-called "famous scholars", in order to attract the scholars, and didn't promote his subordinates too much, but these people, although they didn't have high official positions,they all held powerful armies.
Therefore, after Dong Zhuo's death, how to properly dispose of these Liangzhou generals became a top priority for the stability of the country. On this crucial issue, Wang Yun was even inferior to Lyu Bu
Lyu Bu had repeatedly suggested that Wang Yun should pardon Dong Zhuo's men, and Wang Yun initially agreed but later backtracked.
Lyu Bu also suggested that Wang Yun should take out some of Dong Zhuo's belongings and reward these generals. Instead of forbidding it, Wang Yun attempted to deprive the Liangzhou generals of their military power and outlaw all Liangzhou soldiers. Rumors spread for a while, and there was even a message thatWang Yun wants to killed all the Liangzhou soldiers !
With the death of Dong Zhuo, these people were already scared birds, deeply worried about their future, but now they are even more terrified!
Speaking of which, let's take a look at the composition of the forces of Dong Zhuo's group,they were: Dong Zhuo's younger brother Dong Min(董旻）, his son-in-law Niu Fu（牛辅）, his relative Dong Yue（董越）,were all his close subordinate . Duan Wei（段煨）, Hu Zhen（胡轸） and Yang Ding（杨定）, who were from the big clans in Liangzhou,also held important positions.
Together, these relatives and the members from powerful clans formed the base of Dong Zhuo's power.
After Dong Zhuo's death, Dong Min was also killed at the same time. Duan Wei, Hu Zhen, and Yang Ding submitted to the imperial court, while Lyu Bu, a general from the province of Bingzhou(并州a northern Province,with many Minority), Li Su(李肃),and Xu Rong(徐荣,a mighty General had defeated Cao Cao& Sun Jian), a general from the province of Youzhou(幽州the Province inthe northeast), who were not part of Dong Zhuo's direct line because they were not from Liangzhou at all, also submitted to the imperial court after Dong Zhuo's death.
Fan Chou(樊稠）, on the other hand, was a vassal of Dong Zhuo, and although he was a direct general, his status was lower.
Li Jue(李傕), Guo Si(郭汜), and Zhang Ji (张济)were all generals of Niu Fu's army, while Jia Xu(贾诩)was a commandant in Niu Fu's army, and none of these four men belonged directly to Dong Zhuo.
In addition, there were also surrendered Yellow Turban general like Yang Feng(杨奉), who were temporarily under Li Jue's command.
In fact, Niu Fu had become the supreme leader of the Liangzhou army by this time. So Lyu Bu sent Li Su to conquer Niu Fu in the name of the emperor. After fighting, Niu Fu won and the defeated Li Su,Li Su was beheaded by Lyu Bu.
At this time, Niu Fu has Jia Xu,a great strategist, Li Jue, Guo Si, Zhang Ji, we're all power generals. If he has half of Dong Zhuo's level, with the power left behind by his father-in-law, it is more than enough to fight with Wang Yun, and even regain Dong Zhuo's splendor is possible, after all, Dong Zhuo's troops are still intact existence.
But this Niu Fu, is an unreliable guy.
After Dong Zhuo's death, Niu Fu was stationed in Shan County, but he couldn't figure out his own position,he had no idea what to do, and he was under a lot of mental pressure, clutched the military talisman in his hand all day long, but he didn't know what to do.
He also had a superstitious belief in sorcerer's divination, and whenever someone came, he would let the sorcerer read his face.
Dong Yue and Niu Fu were Dong Zhuo's direct line and relatives, and they often discussed things together.
But one day, the sorcerer said that Dong Yue's face was not auspicious and that he had the intention to rebel, so the suspicious Niu Fu killed Dong Yue at once!
Once Dong Yue died, the army was inevitably in turmoil, some individual soldiers fled, but the Niu Fu, who was under great mental stress, thought that the entire battalion had rebelled.
So Niu Fu packed up his belongings and fled with Hu Che'er(胡车儿) and other cronies, but in the process of climbing over the wall, Niu Fu was deliberately dropped dead by the money-hungry Hu Che'er.
Niu Fu died, his subordinates, Li Jue, Guo Si, Zhang Ji and so on, all became a headless fly, waiting apprehensively for the court's call.
Wang Yun, however, made a lot of mistakes, and some scholars, led by Cai Yong（蔡邕,a Confucian Master in late Han,Cai Wenji蔡文姬’s father), began to miss Dong Zhuo, and Wang Yun ordered Cai Yong to be arrested, and the poor Confucian master, died in prison.
When the news came, Li Jue and Guo Si's mood changed from apprehension to despair. “Wang Yun couldn't even tolerate a famous scholar like Cai Yong, so we can imagine what will happen to us!"
Li Jue and the others initially wanted to disband their troops and flee back to their hometowns, but they were persuaded to return by Jia Xu. With no other choice, Li Jue, Guo Si and Zhang Ji decided to fight to the death and attacked Chang'an with several thousand men.
Wang Yun, who feels good about himself, realized that he seems to be a high-ranking official, but in fact, he has no soldiers in his hands. When he really fights, he can rely on those who have returned to the court of Dong Zhuo's former troops.
So, Wang Yun hurriedly sent Hu Zhen, Yang Ding and Xu Rong to fight with Li Jue and Guo Si in Xinfeng, and it would of course be best if successfully making them surrender.
Hu Zhen and Yang Ding are both directly under Dong Zhuo's command and have a very high status in Dong Zhuo's group. Even Lyu Bu was Hu Zhen's subordinate when he was fighting against Sun Jian(孙坚）, so it's appropriate to send them to do pacification work.
But Wang Yun's contemptuous attitude after gaining power has long disappointed them to the extreme, and as a result, Hu Zhen and Yang Ding surrendered to Li Jue before the battle, while Xu Rong a mighty General,died in the battle for nothing.
Li Jue and the others took advantage of the victory to attack, collecting troops along the way, and meeting with Dong Zhuo's former troops, Fan Chou and the others, by the time they reached Chang'an, there were already more than 100,000 men. The result of the war was no longer in doubt, Chang'an city fell, Lyu Bu escaped, and Wang Yun's entire clan was exterminated!
When Dong Zhuo was executed and all the court celebrated, who would have thought that after only two months, the court would be back under the control of the Liangzhou warlords?
Dong Zhuo at least had political ideals, while Li Jue &Guo Si, or others, were purely military men.
After the city broke down, under the banner of vindicating Dong Zhuo, they went on a rampage to kill and loot the officials, innocent people died countless, the whole Chang'an instantly turned into a hell on earth!