This page lists some of the warlords who were vanquished or subdued in their struggle for power and domination.

Dong Zhuo   Dong Zhuo Full Name : Dong Zhongying Life Span: 53 years (AD 139-192) Sons: Lu Bu(foster) Warlords Served: Nil Officers Executed: Cause of Death: Slain by his foster son Lu Bu.

Regarded as perhaps the worst villian by many. Although he had a part in helping to suppress the Yellow Scarves Rebellion, he was an ungrateful scorn who did not offer a word of thanks to Zhang Fei who rescued him on the battlefield from the Yellow Scarves. Thereafter he was able to escape punishment for his incompetence in suppressing the Yellow Scarves through bribery with the corrupted eunuches in the court.

He Jin's summoning of warlords to the capital to assist in eliminating the eunuches is a disaster as it marks the start of Dong Zhuo's blatant tyranny. With the death of He Jin, the imperial court has a power vacuum which Dong Zhuo wasted no time to seize. Impressed by Emperor Xian's wits on the outskirts of the capital, Dong Zhuo swopped in swiftly to consolidate his power by dethroning Emperor Shao and installing his personal choice, Prince of Chenliu - Emperor Xian upon reaching the capital.

Shortly after, Dong Zhuo managed to turn his most feared enemy Lu Bu into his right hand man with the famed stead, the Red Hare. With Lu Bu by his side, Dong Zhuo grew even bolder in his tyrannical ways. When Cao Cao fled back to Chenliu to organize a coalition army to dispose Dong Zhuo after his failed assassination, many warlords responded and led their armies to confront Dong Zhuo.

Dong Zhuo's initial success in holding off the Alliance Army at Sishui Pass was short lived when Hua Xiong was slain by Guan Yu. With Hua Xiong slain, Dong Zhuo sent Lu Bu to Hulao Pass to prevent the Alliance Army in advancing any further toward the capital Luoyang. However the Alliance Army proved too much to handle. With no other alternative, Dong Zhuo adopted Li Ru's advice of shifting the capital to Changan where it is easier to defend. As if that wasn't enough, Dong Zhuo plundered the capital of Luoyang and burning it to ruins. With much of the imperial capital in ashes, the morale of the Alliance Army was shattered with many warlords seeing no purpose in pursuing Dong Zhuo any further since the capital has been captured and in ruins. Thus the Coalition Alliance against Dong Zhuo disintegrated.

Never would anyone expect that Dong Zhuo would not be overthrown by an army but by a beautiful maiden. Wang Yun's plot to use the gorgeous Diao Chan to stir up jealously between Dong Zhuo and Lu Bu to the point that either one will kill the other to possess the woman. With the beautiful Diao Chan driving a wedge between the two men, Lu Bu's lust triumphed over his trust and loyalty for the Dong Zhuo. Greatly depended upon to help consolidate his power in the court and thawrt the enemy on the battlefield, Dong Zhuo never expected that he would be slain by the very person he so greatly depended upon.

Yuan Shu   Yuan Shu Full Name : Yuan Gonglu Life Span: 44 years (AD 155-199) Father: Yuan Feng Brother: Yuan Shao (half brother) Warlords Served: Nil Officers Executed: Cause of Death: Died of anguish due to a crushing defeat by Liu Bei's forces while enroute to the north to meet up with Yuan Shao.

Half brother of Yuan Shao (same father different mothers). Yuan Shu was one of the warlords responding to the call to form the Coalition Army to dispose Dong Zhuo. His half brother assigned him to be in charge of the army supplies. However in his selfish bid to prevent Sun Jian from achieving a resounding victory over Dong Zhuo's forces at Sishui Pass, he purposely held back the food supplies to Sun Jian's forces at the last moment resulting in the shattering of morale for Sun Jian's troops. Sun Jian's demoralised troops were easily defeated. Back at the base camp Yuan Shu refused to admit to his dispicable actions and shifted the blame onto one of his men.

Ironic it would be but Sun Jian's son Sun Ce would be serving under him after his father's death on the battlefield. Initially refusing to lend troops to Sun Ce, Sun Ce's offer of using the imperial jade seal his father left him to exchange for troops is an offer Yuan Shu simply cannot resist. Having possess the imperial jade seal, Yuan Shu put his sights on becoming an Emperor. This ultimately proved to be a fatal disaster when he declared himself an Emperor as Cao Cao, Liu Bei, Lu Bu and Sun Ce launched a punitive war against Yuan Shu. Incapable of fending off the attacks from all sides led to his utter defeat.

With the loss of his territories, Yuan Shu made an attempt to head north to join up with his half brother, Yuan Shao and hand over the imperial jade seal to him. Unfortunately, Liu Bei's army intercepted his army enroute and defeated Yuan Shu's last remaining forces. Yuan Shu eventually died of anguish due to his defeat at his camp.

Yuan Shao   Yuan Shao Full Name : Yuan Benchu Life Span: 48 years (AD 154-202) Father: Yuan Feng Uncle: Yuan Wei Brother: Yuan Shu(half brother) Wives: Sons: Yuan Tan(173), Yuan Xi(176), Yuan Shang(179) Nephew: Gao Gan Warlords Served: Nil Officers Executed: Cause of Death: Died of anguish

Of noble birth, Yuan Shao was elected to be the commander-in-chief of the alliance forces gathered to overthrow the tyrant Dong Zhuo. The alliance army though managed to recapture the imperial capital of Luoyang, failed to get rid of Dong Zhuo and his minions.

The alliance quickly fell apart when most of the warlords who formed the alliance do not intend to continue the pursue on Dong Zhuo. On his way back to his homestead, Yuan Shao's armies met with food shortages and one of his advisors suggested capturing the province of Jizhou from Han Fu instead of relying on him. Thus this marks the beginning of Yuan Shao's conquest. His triumph over Gongsun Zan brought the northeast of China under his control thus becoming a power to be reckon with.

Yuan Shao's biggest mistake is by giving up the golden opportunity to destroy Cao Cao and instead decided to attack Cao Cao after his son has recovered from his illness. Cao Cao could have been destroyed at that time due to the many battle fronts he have to commit forces to curb the advances of Lu Bu, Zhang Xiu, Liu Bei and Yuan Shu. An attack from the rear at that time by Yuan Shao could have overcome Cao Cao easily. By the time Yuan Shao's son had recovered from illness, Cao Cao had already eliminated the warlords Lu Bu and Yuan Shu and seriously weakened Liu Bei thus he was able to consolidate on his defense. His adviser Tianfeng advised him about launching an attack against a prepared Cao Cao but Yuan Shao ignored his advise and threw him into jail. The resulting battle resulted in Yuan Shao losing his two best generals, Yan Liang and Wen Chou to Guan Yu's blade who temporarily surrendered to Cao Cao.

A second invasion against Cao Cao was launched shortly after with 700,000 troops. This time round another advisor by the name of Ju Shou advised fighting a prolong battle to drain Cao Cao's army supplies and defeating Cao Cao in one fell swop when his supplies have run out. Again Yuan Shao wanted a quick battle and locked Ju Shou up together with Tian Feng. Cao Cao led 70,000 elite troops to engage the vast enemy forces and the two forces met near Guandu. The two armies engaged in a statemate for a month and Cao Cao's forces began having supply problems. Xu You proposed the idea of splitting the army into two and send a detachment to attack Xuchang thereby forcing Cao Cao to rush back to its defense and then launching the main strike on Cao Cao's retreating army. The proposal was not accepted and Xu You felt it was pointless to continue to serve Yuan Shao and went to surrender to Cao Cao instead. Cao Cao accepted his proposal of destroying Yuan Shao's grain supplies at WuChao to cripple Yuan Shao's vast army with a surprise raid.

Yuan Shao was caught off-guarded and his defensive countermoves proved totally ineffectual to Cao Cao's prepared army. Yuan Shao withdrew in defeat and went back to consolidate his forces again to have another battle. The battle at Cangting resulted in defeat again and in a state of anguish, Yuan Shao vomitted blood and fainted. It was no long before it was Cao Cao's turn to try to eliminate Yuan Shao. Yuan Shao's son Yuan Shang volunteered to go to battle in place of his father who have not fully recovered from his illness to confront Cao Cao. However Yuan Shang was badly defeated by the vanguard forces commanded by Zhang Liao. Yuan Shao had another relapse of anguish and died upon hearing news of his son's defeat.

Tao Qian   Tao Qian Full Name : Tao Gongzu Life Span: 62 years (AD 132-194) Sons: Warlords Served: Nil Officers Executed: Cause of Death: Ailing health at old age.

Governor of Xuzhou as well as one of the warlords who responded to Cao Cao's call to overthrow Dong Zhuo. He incurred Cao Cao wrath's when his subordinate Zhang Kai masscared Cao Cao's father Cao Song and his family members. Never would Tao Qian dream that his intention extending kind hospitality to Cao Cao's father and escorting them through Xuzhou to gain Cao Cao's favor would end up bringing disaster to the population of Xuzhou.

Unable to repel the mighty forces Cao Cao have mustered for an all out assault on Xuzhou in a bid to avenge his father's death, Tao Qian requested reinforcements from other nearby warlords. However none of the warlords dared to lead troops to rescue Xuzhou given the immense size of the Cao army. The exception is Liu Bei and Kong Rong. With some troops borrowed from Gongsun Zan and a rendezvous with Kong Rong's troops, Liu Bei and his two brothers battled their way into the city to join up with Tao Qian. Although having a small puny force under him, Liu Bei's desire to stop the bloodshed in Xuzhou won the respect and admiration of Tao Qian that Tao Qian offered to give up his Xuzhou governorship to Liu Bei.

Not to be misunderstood that he came to the rescue of Xuzhou with the secret agenda of usurping Xuzhou, Liu Bei declined the offer amid the insistence of Tao Qian as well as his two sworn brothers.Because he was unable to persuade Liu Bei to take over as governor of Xuzhou, Tao Qian proposed that Liu Bei station his forces at Xiaopei for the time being to help protect Xuzhou against further attacks. However the old and ailing Tao Qian soon became bedridder at his deathbed and passed away shortly after. With the dismise of Tao Qian, Liu Bei took over the management of Xuzhou.

Liu Zhang   Liu Zhang Full Name : Liu Jiyu Life Span: ?? years (AD 167-???) Father: Liu Yan Sons: Warlords Served: Nil Officers Executed: Cause of Death:

Succeeded his father Liu Yan as the governor of Yizhou as well as a distant relative of Liu Bei. With Zhang Lu's impending encroachment on Yizhou and inadequate forces to mount a credible defense, Liu Zhang adopted his subordinate Zhang Song's suggestion of requesting Jingzhou's Liu Bei to lead troops into Xichuan to guard against Zhang Lu's incursion.

Though some of his officers opposed the idea of inviting Liu Bei into Xichuan, Liu Zhang extended his heartfelt thanks to Liu Bei with a trip to welcome Liu Bei's troops into Xichuan and a welcoming feast to show appreciation his was held for Liu Bei's troops. Liu Zhang would have lost his life during the feast if not for Liu Bei who prevented the sword dance among the generals from going out of control. The sword dance performed by Wei Yan was Pang Tong's scheme to slay Liu Zhang and thereby sieze control of Xichuan for Liu Bei.

However the amicable relationship with Liu Bei did not last long as Liu Zhang was swayed by the anti-Liu Bei faction of his officers into believing that Liu Bei had "other plans" than just simply defending Xichuan against Zhang Lu. In the meantime, Zhuge Liang's letter from Jingzhou informed Liu Bei about the return of his wife could be preparations for an invasion by East Wu. With this, Pang Tong suggested that Liu Bei request some 40000 troops and supplies from Liu Zhang to test Liu Zhang's resolve in aiding him in the defense of Jingzhou. Persuaded by the anti-Liu Bei faction among his staff, Liu Zhang delivered only 4000 old soldiers and a small fraction of the requested supplies to Liu Bei. This act effectively severs the mutual assistance between him and Liu Bei. With his back against the wall, Liu Bei captured Fu Pass to secure a route back to Jingzhou.

The fall of Fu Pass paved the way for Liu Bei's forces to advance toward Luocheng. As Luocheng is a strategic place between Chengdu and Liu Bei's forces, Liu Zhang despatached Zhang Ren, Liu Gui, Deng Xian and Leng Bao to reinforce Luocheng. Ironic but nevertheless Liu Zhang requested that Zhang Lu sent reinforcements to assist against Liu Bei's attacks at the same time. Liu Zhang's generals managed to hold off Liu Bei's army at Luocheng but the arrival of reinforcements from Jingzhou turned the tide of war against him. The defection of Ma Chao to Liu Bei's side further compounded the already bleak situation. In the end Liu Zhang came out of the city of Chengdu to surrender so as to avoid further bloodshed though a few of his officers still proposed fighting to the last man.

After his surrender, Liu Bei sent him to Nanjun in Jingzhou.

Ma Teng   Ma Teng Full Name : Ma Shoucheng Life Span: 55 years (AD 156-211) Sons: Ma Chao(176), Ma Xiu(178), Ma Tie(180) Nephew: Ma Dai(174) Warlords Served: Nil Officers Executed: Cause of Death: Slain by Cao Cao's troops in the capital.

One of the warlords who responded to Cao Cao's call to eradicate Dong Zhuo and later the governor of Xiliang. Ma Teng's life is a pretty short and tragic one. His life came to an abrupt and tragic end due to a large extent the signing of his name among the list of participants who swore to eliminate Cao Cao. The list whom Dong Cheng is gathering trusted supporters to overthrow Cao Cao who wields much control of the court and have little respect for Emperor Xian.

Cao Cao had him murdered along with his sons Ma Tie and Ma Xiu while they were in the capital.