The Minister Who Killed Dong Zhuo by the Chain-Link Scheme
Minister over the Masses of the Eastern Han, who — seeing Dong Zhuo throw the court into chaos and unable to match him by force — secretly devised history’s most famous chain-link scheme: using his ward Diaochan to divide Dong Zhuo and Lü Bu, adoptive father and son, and at last killing Dong Zhuo by Lü Bu’s hand, for a moment hailed as the loyal minister who turned the tide. But after removing the tyrant he handled Dong Zhuo’s old officers too harshly, driving Li Jue and Guo Si to counterattack Chang’an, and died in the ensuing war — winning the most perilous round, but losing at the close.
Knowing he could not topple the heavily armed Dong Zhuo head-on, Wang Yun laid a chain-link scheme, using his ward Diaochan to move between Dong Zhuo and his adopted son Lü Bu and turn them against each other. In the end he persuaded Lü Bu to assassinate Dong Zhuo with his own hand, removing at a stroke the tyrant who had thrown the court into chaos for years — and made his name in that one blow, hailed as the last savior of the Han house.
After killing Dong Zhuo, Wang Yun refused to pardon Dong Zhuo’s old officers Li Jue and Guo Si, so hard-line that he would not spare even the subordinates who came to plead. Left with no way out, Li Jue and Guo Si led their troops to counterattack Chang’an; on the day the city fell, Wang Yun refused to flee, choosing to stay and share the emperor’s fate, and was killed with his whole family. The merit of removing Dong Zhuo could not be held, and Chang’an fell once more into an even more chaotic warlord melee.
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