In April 189, Emperor Ling of Han died, and Liu Wei ascended the throne as Emperor Shao of Han, after which Empress He was changed to Empress He. Due to the young age of Emperor He, Empress He assisted Emperor Shao in taking charge of the imperial court, and from then on, the power of the imperial government fell into the hands of Empress He's elder brother, the general He Jin. However, at this time, the eunuchs still held power in their hands, and in order to compete with them for power, He Jin hoped that Empress He would issue an edict to remove these eunuchs, but Empress He did not agree at that time. In desperation, He Jin had no choice but to issue an edict to Dong Zhuo, the governor of Hezhou, hoping that Dong Zhuo would bring troops into Luoyang to help him get rid of the eunuchs, and Dong Zhuo saw an opportunity from it, so Dong Zhuo, after receiving the edict, immediately led three thousand and state iron horses and hurried to Luoyang. Although Dong Zhuo received repeated orders from He Jin on the road to withdraw his troops, Dong Zhuo was reluctant to leave, so he camped at sunset pavilion twenty miles away from Luoyang City, waiting for news from Luoyang City.
Unfortunately, Before He Jin's plan could be put into practice, he was killed by eunuchs, and a coup d'état in the palace officially broke out, so Yuan Shao took the opportunity to enter the palace. For a time, there was chaos in the palace, and Zhang Rang and others had no choice but to hold the Young Emperor Liu Wei hostage and Liu Xie, the King of ChenLiu, and others to escape from Luoyang City and go up the Northern Mountains. Dong Zhuo saw the smoke billowing in Luoyang City, learned that there was an accident in the city, and when he inquired about the reason for the incident and learned that the Shao Emperor and others were not far away from the Beiqi Mountain, Dong Zhuo immediately led his army to welcome the Shao Emperor and others into Luoyang. After this, Dong Zhuo took advantage of the chaos to absorb the armies of the former general He Jin and the Cheqi general He Miao, and at the same time he lured Lü Bu to kill Ding Yuan and annex the armies of Zhang Liao and others, so that Dong Zhuo had all the military power in Luoyang.
After holding military power, Dong Zhuo began his monopoly of power, he directly asked the emperor to depose Sikong Liu Hong, so that he could make himself Sikong, after that, he even proposed the abolition of the emperor in the court, intending to abolish the young emperor Liu Xie, and establish liu xie as emperor, at that time no one above the court dared to disobey Dong Zhuo's intentions, after this, Dong Zhuo reported the abolition to the taifu Yuan Kui, Yuan Kui agreed, Dong Zhuo abolished the Han Shao Emperor, and supported the Han Emperor as emperor. To know that Dong Zhuo had just taken control of the imperial court, at this time, he needed to stabilize the imperial program and then stabilize the power he held, why did he have to abolish the Young Emperor at this juncture, was Dong Zhuo planning to use this incident to show that he held great power?
In fact, the reason why Dong Zhuo wanted to abolish the Young Emperor was mainly because at this time he already had plans to usurp the Han Dynasty. It should be known that after the death of the Han Ling Emperor, the court was divided into three major forces, namely, foreign forces, eunuch forces and family clan forces. And the people behind these forces are different, for example, in the foreign forces, Empress Dong and the general Dong Zhong supported Liu Xie, after all, Liu Xie was raised by Empress Dong, and the objects of support of the foreign forces were also different, at that time, Jian Shuo was appointed by Emperor Han Ling as one of the eight lieutenants of the West Garden, and the military lieutenant had great power in his hands, he supported Liu Jie, and Zhang Rang and others were jealous of Jian Shuo, and there was something wrong with Jian Shuo.
However, due to He Jin's own cowardice, he was unwilling to kill the eunuchs with the strength of his own troops, but hoped to suppress the eunuch clique through external forces, so that he was careless, and was killed by the eunuchs, after which Dong Zhuo's brother Dong Min was then a lieutenant of Fengche, and jointly attacked and killed the Che general He Miao with He Jin's general Wu Kuang and others, and the He family in the other forces was destroyed. But even so, the foreign forces headed by Empress He were still there, and she still had a powerful force in her hands, and she could defeat Dong Zhuo at any time, on the contrary, the forces that supported Liu Xie, Empress Dong, Dong Zhong, and Jian Shuo died successively, so that Liu Xie had no foundation in the dynasty, and as long as Dong Zhuo supported Liu Xie as emperor, he could get an emperor with no background and no foundation. In this way, Dong Zhuo was able to smoothly blackmail the Son of Heaven to order the princes, thus gradually expanding his power, and when conditions permitted, he abolished the Han XianDi and established himself as emperor
The author believes that Dong Zhuo wanted to abolish the Young Emperor, not to show his own strength, but to follow up and usurp the Han Dynasty as emperor.