He Jin’s assassination and the palace purge turn a contested succession into a collapse of order at the center of the Han government. He Jin, the empress’s brother and the emperor’s maternal uncle, is killed after entering the inner court alone; Yuan Shao and Cao Cao then force their way into the palace, where the struggle leaves the imperial family displaced and the court exposed to military intervention. The crisis dramatizes how factional control of the succession has made the state vulnerable to the very armed power summoned in its defense.

Succession Crisis and the Eunuchs’ Power

The episode grows out of the question of who will succeed the dying Emperor Ling. He Jin’s position is precarious: as the brother of Empress He and uncle of Prince Bian, he is caught between competing claims to the throne. Cao Cao speaks at a council meeting against the eunuchs, arguing that their longstanding control of the court must end, but that any plan against them must be kept secret to protect its authors and their families. The danger is immediate when word arrives that the eunuchs intend to conceal the emperor’s death until they can secure the succession for their preferred candidate, Prince Xie.

Cao Cao responds by declaring Prince Bian the heir, and Yuan Shao joins him. Yuan offers to lead five thousand soldiers in an assault on the palace, presenting military force as the means to kill the eunuchs and restore order. Yet the effort to resolve the succession by force is already poised to deepen the crisis: the court’s factions are not acting through a stable process of succession but through competing plans, family ties, and control of troops.

He Jin’s Death and the Palace Assault

Dong Zhuo’s arrival intensifies the turmoil. Yuan Shao and Cao Cao want to attack the palace and eliminate the Ten Imperial Attendants, but He Jin again misjudges the danger. Summoned by his sister, Empress He, to visit her in the court, he enters the inner palace alone, while Yuan Shao and Cao Cao are left waiting outside. The invitation is a trap: supporters of the Ten Imperial Attendants kill him, and when Yuan Shao calls to learn whether he is ready to leave, He Jin’s head is thrown over the palace gate.

His death converts factional confrontation into an assault on the palace. Furious, Yuan Shao and Cao Cao lead their men through the gates and kill four of the Ten Imperial Attendants. The palace catches fire amid the ensuing disorder. Some surviving eunuchs try to use the emperor, his brother Prince Xie, and the empress as protection, but the attempt fails and the eunuchs are killed. The attack removes some of the court’s dominant figures without restoring a reliable authority: the palace itself is in flames, and the ruling family is caught within the conflict.

The Emperor’s Flight and the Court’s Exposure

Zhang Rang, the leading eunuch, and Duan Gui seize the fifteen-year-old Emperor Shao and his nine-year-old brother, Prince Xie, and smuggle them out of the palace. Soldiers surprise them in nearby hills. Recognized as a traitor, Zhang Rang throws himself into a stream and drowns; Duan Gui is captured. The two young princes, frightened and unsure whom to trust, hide and evade discovery until they can leave their hiding place and find safety.

Their flight gives the succession struggle a further consequence: the emperor is no longer securely at the center of his court, but a fugitive amid the armed disorder. In a nearby farmhouse, a master finds the boys and hears Prince Xie identify his companion as the emperor. The farmer bows to the sovereign, then takes the brothers into his home, where they are warmed, fed, and comforted. The episode thus contrasts the disintegrating palace with an ordinary household that provides the protection the court has failed to guarantee.

Political Consequences and Narrative Significance

The purge does not settle the question of who controls the Han government. Rather, it demonstrates that the imperial household, succession, and palace security have become subject to rival factions and armed force. The larger account places this crisis within a longer decline: the Ten Imperial Attendants, led by Zhang Rang, had taken control while the emperor retreated into the palace, and public feeling had turned toward rebellion. The killing of He Jin and the flight of the emperor’s family carry that institutional breakdown from court politics into visible upheaval.

The episode also prepares the way for Dong Zhuo’s ascent. In the later political reckoning described by Kong Ming, the collapse is traced back to Dong Zhuo’s rise, while Cao Cao is identified as a northern power who commands a vast army and controls the emperor. Those later judgments make the palace purge a decisive threshold: the court’s vulnerability is not simply that its officials have fallen into conflict, but that military leaders can turn the emperor’s compromised position into a basis for wider political control.

The novel’s account combines historical events with dramatic presentation. Its introduction describes the real events as the historical skeleton of the work, while emphasizing the epic retelling that gives them heroes, villains, and human stakes. It also notes how anonymous poems can function like theatrical summaries, and how the novel brings together historical records, storytelling and theatre, and a novelist’s shaping. Within that form, He Jin’s death, the palace assault, and the princes’ escape make a complex institutional crisis legible as a chain of reversals: the attempt to purge the court destroys its security, and the emperor’s own household must seek refuge beyond the palace walls.