late in the year, however, the young emperor grew gravely ill, and eunuchs loyal to prince bao, led by sun cheng (孫程), formed a conspiracy to overthrow the yans. as soon as the emperor died, the eunuchs overthrew the yans in a coup d'état and made prince bao emperor (as emperor shun). the yans were slaughtered, except for empress dowager yan, who was however rendered powerless.