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Li Jue, courtesy name Zhiran, was a native of Niyang County, Beidi Commandery. He was a warlord and powerful minister during the late Eastern Han Dynasty.

Li Jue was originally a colonel under Niu Fu, Dong Zhuo's son-in-law. In the third year of the Chuping era of Emperor Xian of Han (192 AD), after Wang Yun and others assassinated Dong Zhuo, Li Jue, following the advice of his strategist Jia Xu, joined forces with other Liangzhou generals such as Guo Si and Fan Chou to lead an army to attack Chang'an.

After capturing Chang'an, Li Jue appointed himself General Yangwu and executed Wang Yun and other ministers. In September of the same year, Li Jue appointed himself General of Chariots and Cavalry, enfeoffed himself as Marquis of Chiyang, concurrently served as Commandant of the Capital Region, and was granted the authority to act on behalf of the emperor. He then shared control of the government with Guo Si and Fan Chou.

In February of the first year of Xingping (194 AD), General Ma Teng led his troops to attack Li Jue and others. Fan Chou led his troops to defeat Ma Teng's army and then made peace with Ma Teng.

In the second year of Xingping (195 AD), Li Jue suspected Fan Chou of colluding with Ma Teng and plotted to kill him. Soon after, Li Jue and Guo Si turned against each other and raised troops to attack each other, with Li Jue appointing himself Grand Marshal.

Li Jue kidnapped Emperor Xian of Han, Liu Xie, while Guo Si detained high-ranking officials. In July of the same year, General Zhang Ji, the General Who Guards the East, persuaded Li Jue and Guo Si to make peace, and the two then allowed Emperor Xian and his officials to move east to Luoyang.

After Emperor Xian and his entourage left, Li Jue and Guo Si changed their minds and joined forces to pursue them. In December of the same year, their armies caught up with Emperor Xian at Caoyang, forcing him and his entourage to cross the Yellow River to the north.

In July of the first year of Jian'an (196 AD), Emperor Xian of Han arrived in Luoyang under the protection of Generals Yang Feng and Han Xian. Cao Cao personally led a large army to welcome Emperor Xian of Han and moved the capital to Xuchang.

In the third year of Jian'an (198 AD), Cao Cao sent Pei Mao, the Attendant-in-Ordinary, to lead an army to attack Li Jue, killing him and exterminating his three clans.

Liu Ai, a minister at the end of the Han Dynasty, believed that Li Jue and Guo Si were superior to Sun Jian in terms of military strategy. However, Zhu Jun, a famous general at the end of the Han Dynasty, believed that Li Jue and Guo Si were both mediocre lackeys with no profound foresight.

Ju Jun, the Colonel of the Archers at the end of the Han Dynasty, believed that Li Jue and others, who kidnapped the emperor and persecuted the ministers, were traitors and rebels unprecedented in history.

When Li Jue was in power, he allowed his sons and brothers to plunder the people, which led to great chaos in the Guanzhong region. For the next two or three years, Guanzhong was deserted.

In the first month of the third year of the reign of Emperor Xian of the Eastern Han Dynasty (192 AD), Niu Fu, Dong Zhuo's son-in-law, was appointed as a General of the Household and stationed in the Shanxian area.

Li Jue, Guo Si, and Zhang Ji served as colonels under Niu Fu. Niu Fu dispatched the three men with tens of thousands of infantry and cavalry to attack Chenliu, Yingchuan, and other places, plundering the prefectures and counties.

In April of the same year, Minister Wang Yun, together with Minister of the Imperial Secretariat Shi Sunrui, General of the Household Lü Bu, and others, conspired to assassinate Dong Zhuo.

After Dong Zhuo's death, Lü Bu sent his general Li Su with an army to Shanxian County, intending to execute Niu Fu on the emperor's orders. Li Su fought against Niu Fu and his men, but was defeated and fled. As a result, Lü Bu executed Li Su.

Soon after, a riot broke out in Niu Fu's army; Niu Fu thought his soldiers had rebelled, so he fled in the night and was killed by his attendant Hu Chier and others.

When Li Jue and his men returned to Shanxian with their troops, Dong Zhuo had already been killed and Niu Fu was dead. Having lost their support, the group decided to return to their hometowns.

However, the imperial court did not issue an edict to pardon their crimes, and there were rumors that all the Liangzhou soldiers brought by Dong Zhuo would be killed in Chang'an. Everyone was worried and at a loss.

The strategist Jia Xu suggested that if the army were disbanded and everyone returned to their hometowns, they would be captured by a local official on the way. The better course of action would be to lead the troops to attack Chang'an under the pretext of avenging Dong Zhuo.

If the great undertaking succeeds, they can serve the emperor and rectify the world; if it fails, they can still escape. Li Jue and others adopted Jia Xu's plan.

Li Jue and Guo Si held their troops in Shanxian County and defended themselves. To prevent trouble from arising, Minister Wang Yun sent Liangzhou officials Hu Wencai and Yang Zhengxiu to persuade and stop them.

However, Wang Yun looked down on the two men and spoke in a very forceful tone; Hu Wencai and Yang Zhengxiu went there, but instead of persuading Li Jue and others to stop their troops, they joined their ranks and led troops to attack Chang'an.

Li Jue and his men gathered many scattered soldiers along the way, and by the time they reached the walls of Chang'an, they had more than 100,000 men.

Afterwards, Li Jue and others joined forces with Dong Zhuo's former subordinates Fan Chou, Li Meng, and Wang Fang to besiege Chang'an. Ten days later, Chang'an fell.

The rebel generals clashed with Lü Bu in the city, and Lü Bu was defeated and fled. After Li Jue and Guo Si entered Chang'an, they stationed their troops at the South Palace Gate and then allowed them to plunder and massacre the city's inhabitants.

Meanwhile, Li Jue and others ordered the arrest and execution of the high-ranking officials and ministers who had participated in the assassination of Dong Zhuo. They successively executed Lu Kui, Grand Master of the Palace; Zhou Huan, Grand Herald; Cui Lie, Commandant of the City Gates; and Wang Qideng, Commandant of the Yue Cavalry. Corpses littered the streets of Chang'an; the number of dead officials, soldiers, and civilians was countless.

Situ Wang Yun led Emperor Xian of Han, Liu Xie, to the Xuanping city gate to escape the chaotic soldiers. Li Jue and others prostrated themselves at the city gate. Liu Xie rebuked Li Jue and his men for allowing their soldiers to commit atrocities within Chang'an, asking what their intentions were.

Li Jue and others said they dared not rebel, but Dong Zhuo was loyal to the court and was killed for no reason by Wang Yun, Lü Bu and others. They did this to avenge Dong Zhuo and then let the court punish them.

Wang Yun, outnumbered and outmatched, was forced to meet Li Jue. In June of the same year, Li Jue appointed himself General Yangwu, Guo Si as General Yanglie, and Fan Chou and others as Generals of the Household.

Initially, Wang Yun appointed Song Yi, a fellow townsman, as Left Fengyi, and Wang Hong as Right Fufeng. Li Jue and others wanted to kill Wang Yun, but feared that the two prefectures would rebel, so they first summoned Song Yi and Wang Hong to the court.

Wang Hong sent an envoy to Song Yi, saying that because the two of them were currently in an outlying prefecture, Li Jue and his men dared not harm Wang Yun. If they accepted the summons, their entire clan would likely be slaughtered the next day.

Song Yi believed that fortune and misfortune were unpredictable, but the king's command could not be disobeyed. Wang Hong suggested that since Dong Zhuo had been killed, his followers would not be difficult to subdue. Now the morale of the Guandong rebels was high, and if they raised an army to join forces with the Guandong rebels to attack Li Jue, they might be able to turn misfortune into fortune.

However, Song Yi did not listen, and Wang Hong could not accomplish anything independently, so the two had no choice but to accept the conscription together.

On the seventh day of the sixth month of the third year of Chuping (192 AD), Li Jue arrested and executed Wang Yun, Song Yi, Wang Hong, and more than ten people including Wang Yun's wife and clan. Li Jue also displayed Wang Yun's corpse in the street and collected Dong Zhuo's remains, burying them in Mei County.

In September of the same year, Li Jue appointed himself General of Chariots and Cavalry, enfeoffed himself as Marquis of Chiyang, and concurrently served as Commandant of the Capital Region, with the authority to act on behalf of the emperor. Guo Si was appointed General of the Rear and enfeoffed as Marquis of Meiyang; Fan Chou was appointed General of the Right and enfeoffed as Marquis of Wannian. Li Jue, Guo Si, and Fan Chou jointly controlled the government.

The Longxi generals Han Sui and Ma Teng surrendered to the imperial court and led their troops to Chang'an. The court appointed Han Sui as General Who Guards the West and stationed him in Liangzhou; and appointed Ma Teng as General Who Conquers the West and stationed him in Mei County.

In February of the first year of Xingping (194 AD), Ma Teng sought Li Jue's help with a private matter, but Li Jue refused. Ma Teng was furious and wanted to send troops to attack Li Jue. Emperor Xian of Han sent an envoy to mediate, but Ma Teng refused.

Han Sui led his troops to mediate between Ma Teng and Li Jue, and soon allied with Ma Teng. Attendant-in-Ordinary Ma Yu, Grand Counselor Zhong Shao, and General of the Left Liu Fan secretly plotted to have Ma Teng lead his army to launch a surprise attack on Chang'an, with them acting as inside agents in the city to jointly eliminate Li Jue and his forces.

Just as Ma Teng's troops advanced to Changpingguan, north of Chang'an, Ma Yu and his men's plan was exposed, and they fled in panic to Huaili County.

Fan Chou led his troops to meet Ma Teng, who was defeated and retreated to Liangzhou. Fan Chou then took advantage of the situation to attack Huaili, killing Ma Yu and others. When Dong Zhuo died, there were still hundreds of thousands of households in the Sanfu region surrounding Chang'an. Later, Li Jue and others allowed their soldiers to plunder the people, and coupled with famine, within two years, the people fled, leaving the area deserted.

At that time, the imperial court had just moved the capital to Chang'an, and many palace women had no clothes to wear. Emperor Xian of Han, Liu Xie, wanted to take out a batch of imperial cloth to reward the palace women and ministers for making clothes, but Li Jue refused.

Emperor Xian of Han then issued an edict to sell over a hundred horses, and the Grand Minister of Agriculture also contributed 20,000 bolts of cloth, intending to distribute the money and cloth to high-ranking officials and the poor.

However, Li Jue, citing insufficient reserves, moved all of these items to his own military camp and appropriated them for himself.

In the first month of the second year of Xingping (195 AD), Li Jue, Guo Si, and Fan Chou repeatedly tried to attack each other in order to seize credit and power.

Jia Xu advised them to consider the bigger picture. Although they didn't want to reconcile, they still tolerated each other on the surface.

When Fan Chou attacked Ma Teng and Han Sui, Li Jue's nephew, Li Li, performed poorly in battle and was reprimanded by Fan Chou. After Ma Teng and Han Sui were defeated and fled, Fan Chou pursued them. Han Sui told Fan Chou that what the two were fighting over was a matter of the royal family, and as fellow townsmen, they should negotiate.

So both sides withdrew their troops, but talked arm in arm on the battlefield for a long time before parting. After returning, Li Li reported to Li Jue that Han Sui and Fan Chou had talked for a long time on horseback and were very close, which made Li Jue suspicious of Fan Chou.

Fan Chou then wanted to lead his troops eastward out of the pass and requested reinforcements from Li Jue. In February of the same year, Li Jue invited Fan Chou under the pretext of discussing the military campaign, plotted to kill him, and then annexed his troops. After this, the soldiers became suspicious of each other.

Li Jue frequently hosted banquets for Guo Si at his home and often invited him to stay overnight. Guo Si's wife worried that her husband would fall in love with Li Jue's concubines, so she began to try to sow discord between the two.

Just then, Li Jue sent someone to deliver food, and Guo Si's wife claimed that the fermented black beans were poison, showing them to Guo Si. She also said that a chicken coop could not hold two roosters, and that Guo Si should not completely trust Li Jue.

Later, Li Jue hosted another banquet, during which Guo Si became extremely drunk and suspected the wine was poisoned. This led to a rift between Li Jue and Guo Si, who then raised troops and attacked each other within Chang'an.

Emperor Xian of Han sent people to mediate between Li Jue and Guo Si, but the two refused to listen. Guo Si even planned to bring Emperor Xian into his own military camp, but someone escaped that night and informed Li Jue of the plot.

Li Jue then dispatched his nephew Li Xian to lead troops to besiege the palace and preemptively detain the emperor in his own military camp as a hostage.

In addition, Li Jue moved all the gold and silk in the imperial palace, as well as Emperor Xian's carriages, horses, and clothing, to his own camp, and set fire to the palace, destroying countless government offices and civilian residences.

Emperor Xian of Han once again sent his ministers to try to mediate between Li Jue and Guo Si, but Guo Si directly detained the ministers who came as hostages.

Li Jue and Guo Si launched attacks on each other. Li Jue kidnapped the emperor's carriage and moved it to Beiwu. He sent a captain to guard the gate, cutting off the inside from the outside. All the courtiers looked hungry.

Emperor Xian of Han asked Li Jue for five dou of rice and five ox bones to give to his attendants. Li Jue refused and even gave Emperor Xian a rotten ox bone.

Emperor Xian of Han was furious and wanted to question Li Jue, but Yang Qi, the Chamberlain, advised him to be patient, and the emperor gave up the idea. Zhao Wen, the Minister of Works, wrote a letter to Li Jue, saying that he had massacred the royal city, killed ministers, and disrespected the emperor, and that his crimes were heinous and that he would surely face annihilation. He suggested that Li Jue should reconcile with Guo Si.

Li Jue was furious and wanted to kill Zhao Wen, but he gave up the idea after being persuaded by his younger brother Li Ying.

In May of the second year of Xingping (195 AD), Emperor Xian of Han again dispatched Huangfu Li, the Attendant-in-Ordinary, to mediate between Guo and Li.

Guo Si obeyed the order, while Li Jue refused, believing that Guo Si, a former horse thief, could not be compared to himself.

Huangfu Li reported to Emperor Xian of Han that Li Jue refused to obey the imperial edict and spoke disrespectfully. Fearing that Li Jue would find out, Emperor Xian hurriedly ordered Huangfu Li to leave.

Li Jue dispatched his elite guard Wang Chang to recall Huangfu Li, intending to eliminate him. Wang Chang, knowing Huangfu Li's upright character and unwilling to harm him, replied to Li Jue that he could not catch up.

Soon after, Li Jue appointed himself Grand Marshal. Li Jue and Guo Si rebelled, attacking each other in Chang'an for months, resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands.

In June of the same year, Li Jue's general Yang Feng and military officer Song Guo conspired to assassinate Li Jue. After the plot was exposed, Yang Feng led his troops to flee. As more and more of his subordinates defected, Li Jue's power gradually weakened.

General Zhang Ji, the General Who Guards the East, came to Chang'an from Shanxian County, hoping to mediate between Li Jue and Guo Si and move the emperor's carriage to Hongnong. Emperor Xian of Han, longing for the old capital Luoyang, sent envoys to proclaim the proclamation, and Guo and Li finally agreed to reconcile.

The Qiang and Hu people in the army repeatedly peered into the palace gates, claiming that the emperor was inside and demanding the palace maids that Li Jue had promised them.

Emperor Xian of Han sent someone to seek help from General Jia Xu. Jia Xu hosted a banquet for the leaders of the Qiang and Hu peoples and promised them rewards. These people then left with their respective armies, and Li Jue's power was greatly reduced from then on.

In July of the second year of Xingping (195 AD), Emperor Xian of Han drove out of Xuanping Gate, thus escaping the control of Li Jue and Guo Si, and returned to Luoyang under the protection of Yang Feng, Dong Cheng and others.

Li Jue and Guo Si then changed their minds and joined forces to pursue the emperor's carriage. In December of the same year, Li Jue and his army caught up with Emperor Xian of Han at Caoyang.

Yang Feng and Dong Cheng, along with Han Xian and Hu Cai, leaders of the White Wave Army in Hedong Commandery, fought against Li Jue and Guo Si, but were defeated. Taking advantage of the situation, Li Jue unleashed his troops to massacre high-ranking officials and abduct palace women.

Amid the chaos, Emperor Xian of Han, under the protection of Dong Cheng, Grand Commandant Yang Biao, and others, crossed the Yellow River by boat to the north overnight.

Emperor Xian of Han temporarily stationed himself in Anyi County and sent Grand Master of the Palace Han Rong to negotiate peace with Li Jue and Guo Si. Only then did Li Jue release the captured officials and return the palace women and imperial carriages that had been looted.

In the first month of the first year of Jian'an (196 AD), Cao Cao sent Cao Hong with troops westward to welcome Emperor Xian of Han, but they were blocked by Dong Cheng and Yuan Shu.

He Yi and Liu Pi, leaders of the Yellow Turban Rebellion in Runan and Yingchuan counties, raised troops in support of Yuan Shu. Cao Cao then led his troops to quell the rebellion of He Yi and Liu Pi.

In July of the same year, Yang Feng and Han Xian escorted Emperor Xian of Han to Luoyang. The Luoyang palace had already been burned down, leaving only ruins. The officials were hungry and exhausted, and could not find peace.

Cao Cao then personally led his army to Luoyang to welcome Emperor Xian of Han and move the capital to Xuchang. In the third year of Jian'an (198 AD), Cao Cao dispatched Pei Mao, the Attendant-in-Ordinary, to lead the generals of Guanzhong to attack Li Jue. Li Jue was defeated and executed, and his entire clan was exterminated after his death. (End of this chapter)