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“Dong Zhuo, Imperial Protector of Xizhou.”

“Have you come to protect the Chariot or to steal it?” said Prince Xian.

“I have come to protect,” said Dong Zhuo.

“If that is so, the Emperor is here; why do you not dismount?”

Dong Zhuo hastily dismounted and made obeisance on the left of the road. Then Prince Xian spoke graciously to him. From first to last the Prince had carried himself most perfectly so that Dong Zhuo in his heart admired his behavior, and then arose the first desire to set aside the Emperor in favor of the Prince of Chenliu.

They reached the Palace the same day, and there was an affecting interview with Empress He.

But when they had restored order in the palace, the Imperial Hereditary Seal, the special seal of the Emperor, was missing.

Dong Zhuo camped without the walls, but every day he was to be seen in the streets with an escort of mailed soldiers so that the common people were in a state of constant trepidation. He also went in and out of the Palace careless of all the rules of propriety.

Imperial Commander Bao Xin spoke of Dong Zhuo's behavior to Yuan Shao, saying, “This man harbors some evil design and should be removed.”

“Nothing can he done till the government is more settled,” said Yuan Shao.

Then Bao Xin saw Minister of the Interior Wang Yun and asked what he thought.

“Let us talk it over,” was the reply.

Bao Xin said no more but he left the capital and retired to the Taishan Mountains.

Dong Zhuo induced the soldiers of the two brothers He Jin and He Miao to join his command, and privately spoke to his adviser Li Ru about deposing the Emperor in favor of the Prince of Chenliu.

“The government is really without a head; there can be no better time than this to carry out your plan. Delay will spoil all. Tomorrow assemble the officials in the Wenming Garden and address them on the subject. Put all opponents to death, and your prestige is settled.” So spoke Li Ru and the words pleased Dong Zhuo mightily.

So the next day Dong Zhuo spread a feast and invited many guests. As all the officers went in terror of him, no one dared be absent. Dong Zhuo himself rode up to the garden last of all and took his place with his sword girded on. When the wine had gone round several times, Dong Zhuo stopped the service and the music and began to speak.

“I have something to say; listen quietly all of you.”

All turned towards him.

“The emperor is lord of all; and if he lacks dignity and behaves in an unseemly manner, he is no fitting inheritor of the ancestral prerogatives. He who is now on the throne is a weakling, inferior to the Prince of Chenliu in intelligence and love of learning. The Prince is in every way fitted for the throne. I desire to depose the Emperor and set up the Prince in his place. What think you?”

The assembly listened in perfect silence, none daring at first to utter a word of dissent. But one dared; for suddenly a guest stood up in his place, smote the table and cried.

“No! No! Who are you that you dare utter such bold words? The Emperor is the son of the lawful consort and has done no wrong. Why then should he be deposed? Are you a rebel?”

The speaker was Ding Yuan, Imperial Protector of Jingzhou.

Dong Zhuo glared at Ding Yuan, roaring, “There is life for those who are with me, death for those against.”

Dong Zhuo drew his sword and made for the objector. But the watchful Li Ru had noticed standing behind Ding Yuan a particularly dangerous looking henchman of his, who was now handling his halberd threateningly, and whose eyes were blazing with anger. So Li Ru hastily interposed, saying, “But this is the banquet chamber, and state affairs should be left outside. The matters can be fully discussed tomorrow.”

His fellow guests persuaded Ding Yuan to leave, and after his departure Dong Zhuo said, “Is what I said just and reasonable?”

“You are mistaken, Illustrious Sir,” said Lu Zhi. “Of old Emperor Tai Jia of the Shang Dynasty was unenlightened. Wherefore the sage Minister Yi Yin immured him in the Tung Palace till he reformed. Later Prince Changyi ascended the throne, and in twenty-seven days he committed more than three thousand categorical faults. Wherefore Regent Marshal Huo Guang declared in the ancestral temple that Prince Changyi was deposed. Our present Emperor is young, but he is intelligent, benevolent, and wise. He has not committed a single fault. You, Sir, are an imperial protector of a frontier region and not a metropolitan official and have had no experience in state administration. Neither have you the pure intentions of Yi Yin and Huo Guang which qualified their actions. Without that justification such an act is presumption.”

Dong Zhuo angrily drew his sword to slay the bold Lu Zhi, but two other officials remonstrated.

“Minister Lu Zhi is the cynosure of the whole country, and his violent death would stir the hearts of all humans,” said Court Counselors Cai Yong and Peng Bo.

Dong Zhuo then stayed his hand.