Emperor Shao and Liu Xie, who were taken out of the palace by the eunuchs during the chaos, were eventually found near the riverbank and saved by Lu Zhi and Min Gong (). As Lu Zhi and Min Gong were escorting the emperor and prince back to the imperial palace, they were intercepted by forces under the command of Dong Zhuo, one of the warlords initially summoned by He Jin to put pressure on Empress Dowager He. When Dong Zhuo met them, Emperor Shao was so shocked that he could not express his thoughts clearly. In contrast, Liu Xie had no difficulty in describing what happened and, in Dong Zhuo's impression, behaved more like an emperor than Emperor Shao. Dong Zhuo thus conceived the idea of deposing Emperor Shao and replacing him with Liu Xie.