The Li Jue–Guo Si conflict is the cycle of rebellion, rivalry, and renewed alliance that follows Dong Zhuo’s death. Li Jue and Guo Si exploit the weakness of the court, fight over power, and repeatedly place the emperor in danger; even when their armies pause, the imperial household remains a prize to be seized rather than an authority capable of ending the violence.

Background and Failed Settlement

After Dong Zhuo is killed, Wang Yun rejects the pleas of his former generals, fearing that they will remain a threat. His refusal turns them into enemies. Led by Li Jue and Guo Si, the generals advance on the capital, while Lü Bu rides out with Li Su to oppose them. Li Su is sent ahead to check the rebels but fails; Lü Bu responds by executing him and displaying his head at the camp entrance. The punishment does not improve the military position. Li Jue and Guo Si attack and withdraw in turn, tiring Lü Bu while he pursues them away from the capital.

When Lü Bu hears that the city itself is under attack, he turns back but cannot enter: the rebels have surrounded it, and supporters of Dong Zhuo have risen inside. Wang Yun refuses Lü Bu’s appeal to escape and join him, saying that he hopes to restore peace and, if he cannot, will make his own body the final sacrifice. He advises Lü Bu to go east and seek Yuan Shu. Insurgents open the gates to the rebel army, leaving Lü Bu outside to flee and his family exposed to the victors. The returning rebels loot and destroy, and officials and ministers are killed.

The emperor’s appearance on the palace wall briefly checks the rampage. The rebels demand that Wang Yun be handed over to avenge Dong Zhuo. Wang Yun says that his actions were intended for the throne but had brought only turmoil, and surrenders himself. The crisis therefore does not end with Dong Zhuo’s death: the attempt to remove a tyrant gives way to a contest in which the court cannot protect its own ministers.

Rivalry Inside the Rebel Alliance

The conflict is sustained not only by armies but by suspicion deliberately cultivated within the alliance. Yang Biao recognizes that Guo Si’s wife is jealous and that Li Jue and Guo Si usually meet over dinner to discuss their affairs. He sends his wife to suggest to Lady Guo that Guo Si is having an affair with Li Jue’s wife. Lady Guo, angered by the insinuation, persuades Guo Si to stay home when he is due to meet Li Jue.

Li Jue sends over the meal prepared for Guo Si. Lady Guo suspects that it is a means of betraying her husband, puts poison in it, and tests it on their dog; the animal dies. Guo Si thereafter distrusts Li Jue. On another occasion, after Guo Si drinks too much and suffers indigestion, Lady Guo persuades him that Li Jue has poisoned him. Guo Si plans an attack, but Li Jue learns of the threat and decides to strike first. Domestic suspicion thus becomes military action: private grievances and strategic rivalry reinforce one another until the two commanders’ forces clash.

During the fighting, Li Jue’s nephew Li Xian secretly captures the emperor and empress and takes them to Li Jue’s camp. Guo Si, having seized the palace, discovers that the imperial couple has been taken and burns the palace. At Meiwu, Li Xian dismisses almost all of the couple’s staff and reduces them to extreme poverty, with barely enough food to survive. For two months the forces of Li Jue and Guo Si fight, while mediation efforts fail and bloodshed continues. Control of the emperor has become one of the conflict’s central stakes, but possession of him offers no peace or security.

The Emperor Between Competing Forces

The emperor’s supporters weaken Li Jue’s position by persuading tribal troops that the emperor has given them permission to return home. Resentment also grows among Li Jue’s generals: women shamans whom he consults in trances receive the credit for his military successes. Yang Feng and Song Guo, who have served Li Jue, plan to kill him and rescue the emperor. Their attempt is discovered. Song Guo is seized inside the city and executed; Yang Feng, waiting outside with his men, escapes when Li Jue confronts him.

Zhang Ji then arrives with a large army, determined to end the war and reconcile the rivals. Li Jue’s forces have largely melted away, and Guo Si has too little influence to control events. Zhang Ji negotiates a settlement and presents the emperor with a memorial proposing that he move to Hongnong, where he would be safer. Under the arrangement, Li Jue is to provide carriages and a couple of hundred guards for the imperial couple, while Guo Si is to release the imprisoned court officials. The agreement briefly appears to give the court a route out of the struggle.

Guo Si breaks his promise. His order to stop the imperial party at Baling Bridge is frustrated when his own guards allow the emperor to cross; Guo Si then sets out personally with armed men to intercept him. Near Huayin County, the frightened emperor sees the pursuers closing in. Yang Feng arrives with troops bearing a banner declaring them the men of Yang Feng the Mighty Han. Having taken refuge in the Zhongnan mountains after escaping Li Jue, Yang Feng intervenes and drives Guo Si’s men away. Guo Si attacks once more, but Yang Feng defeats him again, aided this time by Dong Cheng, a relative of the emperor.

Renewed Alliance and the Cost of Disorder

The changing alignments do not produce a stable settlement. Fearing that Zhang Ji’s authority at Chang’an and Yang Feng’s movement toward Hongnong will leave them powerless, Li Jue and Guo Si join forces again and ride toward Hongnong, intent on killing the emperor. Their alliance is therefore tactical: shared fear of losing power temporarily overrides the distrust that had brought their armies into conflict.

They overtake the imperial convoy at Dongjian, where Yang Feng and Dong Cheng are resting. The loyal troops cannot hold off the rebel army. Yang Feng and Dong Cheng manage to get the emperor and empress out before the city falls, but the remainder of the convoy is captured. Dongjian is looted and destroyed, and the emperor escapes to Shanbei with Li Jue and Guo Si close behind. The attempt to move the court to safety has instead exposed it to another pursuit and left its attendants and escort at the rebels’ mercy.

The account presents the conflict as part of the broader fragmentation of the Han world: after Dong Zhuo’s removal, the men who claim to act around the throne repeatedly turn its weakness into an opportunity for their own power. Li Jue and Guo Si alternate between rivalry and cooperation, while the emperor’s authority serves as both a source of legitimacy and a hostage in their struggle. Their war thus extends the political disorder it was supposed to overcome, leaving the imperial court dependent on shifting military protectors rather than in control of its own fate.