Revolt of Li Jue and Guo Si 李郭之亂

Dong Zhuo's son-in-law, the General of the Household Niu Fu, was stationed separately at Shan County and sent out the colonels Li Jue, Guo Si and Zhang Ji to plunder the counties of Chenliu and Yingchuan. In the summer, in the 4th month of the 3rd year of Chuping (192), when Wang Yun killed Dong Zhuo together with Lü Bu, Lü Bu sent Li Su to Shan County to execute Niu Fu by imperial command. But Li Su was defeated by Niu Fu and fled to Hongnong, and Lü Bu executed Li Su. Later, when some soldiers in Niu Fu's camp deserted at night, Niu Fu thought everyone had turned against him; taking gold and treasure, he went over the city wall and crossed the Yellow River with five or six men, including his friend Hu Chi'er, and was beheaded by Hu Chi'er and the others, who coveted the treasure. Records, Wei 6 §19Records, Wei 1 §21

By the time Li Jue and the others returned, Niu Fu was already dead and the troops had no one to rely on. With no letter of amnesty, and with word going around that in Chang'an they intended to kill every man of Liang Province, they each wanted to scatter and go home. Jia Xu, who was in Niu Fu's army, said that if they abandoned their troops and went off alone, a single precinct chief could tie them up; better to lead their troops west, gathering soldiers along the way, and attack Chang'an to avenge Dong Zhuo, and if that failed it would not be too late to flee then. Li Jue and the others followed this and gathered troops wherever they went, so that by the time they reached Chang'an they numbered more than a hundred thousand. Records, Wei 6 §20Records, Wei 10 §70–71

Li Jue and the others joined forces with Dong Zhuo's former followers Fan Chou, Li Meng, Wang Fang and others to surround the city of Chang'an, and when the city fell after ten days they fought Lü Bu inside it and put him to flight. The biography of Lü Bu says that after killing Dong Zhuo, Lü Bu feared and hated the men of Liang Province, who all resented him, and that this was why Li Jue and the others joined together and came back to attack Chang'an. Defeated sixty days after Dong Zhuo's death, Lü Bu led several hundred horsemen out through the Wu Pass, intending to go to Yuan Shu. Records, Wei 6 §20Records, Wei 7 §6

Li Jue and the others let their troops loose to plunder and kill the old and young of Chang'an, leaving corpses strewn everywhere, executed those who had killed Dong Zhuo, and exposed Wang Yun's body in the marketplace. The biography of Wang Yun's nephew Wang Ling records that Li Jue and Guo Si killed Wang Yun and destroyed his whole family, and that only the young Wang Ling and his brother escaped over the city wall. Dong Zhuo was buried at Mei County, but a great wind and violent rain shook his tomb, water flowed in, and his inner and outer coffins were washed away. Records, Wei 6 §21Records, Wei 28 §2

Li Jue became General of Chariots and Cavalry and Marquis of Chiyang, concurrently Colonel-Director of Retainers, and was granted the tally; Guo Si became General of the Rear and Marquis of Meiyang, and Fan Chou General of the Right and Marquis of Wannian, and the three men ran the government of the court as they pleased, while Zhang Ji became General of Agile Cavalry and Marquis of Pingyang and was stationed at Hongnong. Li Jue and the others wanted to enfeoff Jia Xu as a marquis for his merit, but Jia Xu declined, saying it had only been a plan to save their lives, so what merit was there? Afterward the several hundred thousand households of the Three Adjuncts, through the plundering of Li Jue and the others and through famine, ate one another until within two years they were almost all gone. Records, Wei 6 §21 · 23Records, Wei 10 §71