
Dong Zhuo (董卓), style name: Zhongying (仲穎), is a historically warlord who while originally was subjugating other lands as an officer, managed to seize power in the Han capital Luoyang during its time of chaos. He would rule with an iron grip for war as a cruel and wicked tyrant before the his own death via an assassination.
In the most fictional media, he is usually a main antagonist in the early chapters of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms novel and game as well as the early stages of the Dynasty Warriors video game series. This status of his has been played up further via his portrayals in the Knights of Valour game series in both the third installment and the PS4 installment. However, which thought about that Dong Zhuo is the mostly ruthless villain from the original novel and all the adaptations.
History[]
During the events of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Dong Zhuo stepped in to assume guardianship of the child emperor Xian - his parents having previously died in the Yellow Turban Rebellion. Dong Zhuo had been an advisor and land-owner, but with no official guardian assigned for the young emperor, Dong Zhuo's claim could not be legally challenged and he became pseudo-emperor (the true emperor, too young to oppose him or understand the importance of rule). Dong Zhuo kept the emperor in his palace at Louyang, the royal Han guards and vassals obligated to obey the ambitious tyrant while acting on behalf of the emperor. Virtually no one wanted to serve Dong Zhuo, but all official members of the Han were required to due to Dong Zhuo's insidious loop-hole in guardianship. Yuan Shao - the leader of a militia force that had recruited conscripts for the previous Yellow Turban rebellion, had a massive army still, among them Liu Bei and Cao Cao, as Yuan Shao's troops were not offically part of the Han military, they were under no obligations of duty and could act independently without it affecting their honor and quite the contrary, Cao Cao, Liu Bei Sun Jian, and Yuan Shao all considered Dong Zhuo's abduction of emperor Xian very dishonorable and thus they mounted an assault on Hulao Gate in Luoyang. The united militia forces arrived at Luoyang to forcefully remove Zhuo from power and lay siege to Luoyang. Dong Zhuo was sends many officers out including his own foster son Lu Bu, a man said to be the strongest warrior in the land and rumored to be invincible.
The Han forces meet with heavy casualties from Lu Bu especially over the other troops and generals but eventually are able to make their way passed him to Dong Zhuo's palace. The capture of Luoyang is a significant step for the Han as it represents the empire's renewed steps to clean up it's territories, removing implications of weakness and dishonor for the kingdom.
Fall Out[]
The one to show-up and physically save emperor Xian was Cao Cao. While all the forces of Yuan Shao's militia would be rewarded, the cunning Cao Cao benefited the most by endearing himself to young emperor Xian as his personal savior. Cao Cao would become imperial general under the Han and start his own kingdom of Wei under the blessing of emperor Xian and with such influence Cao Cao would begin removing every potential rival he had, starting with the one who had lead the siege against Dong Zhuo, Yuan Shao, Liu Bei, and Sun Jian has would follow shortly and found their own kingdoms of Shu and Wu in opposition. Though his play to kidnap the emperor and become emperor himself by proxy was doomed to fail, Dong Zhuo had inadvertently set in motion a chain of events which would go on to become China's biggest on-going war, the Battle of The Three Kingdoms.