On the morning after Lü Bu's Red Hare crossed into Dong Zhuo's bosom, Dong Zhuo rose from his seat and looked quietly around the center of the court. He knew well that the edge of a blade alone could not seize every seat of a court. He had known, from early on, that only when silver (銀) and gold (金) were laid beside the blade would the seats of a whole court be converted into prices.

In the first seat sat Minister over the Masses (司徒) Wang Yun (王允). Dong Zhuo raised Wang Yun's seat, and the rank of Grand Commandant (太尉) was laid upon his shoulder. Wang Yun bowed deeply, yet the tip of his beard trembled quietly. It was a seat received and yet not received within the heart. Inside that beard, a small sigh lay buried.

In the second seat sat the scholar Cai Yong (蔡邕). Cai Yong had long before been cast out of the court and had been living in a hut in his hometown, writing. Dong Zhuo sent a carriage and summoned him. Within three days, Cai Yong's seat climbed to Palace Attendant (侍中). Had he refused, the threat of extermination of his clan would have followed. He accepted. As the carriage wheel turned along the streets of Luoyang, the brush in Cai Yong's hand was trembling.

In the third seat stood Zhou Bi (周毖) and Wu Qiong (伍瓊). The two gathered the names of the gentry (士大夫) and recommended them to Dong Zhuo. "Your Lordship. Send these names of the gentry as grand administrators of the regions, and open their mouths by price. If the seat of each regional grand administrator is tied by Your Lordship's silver, the voice of resistance that might rise at the center of the court will be halved."

Dong Zhuo nodded. He sent Yuan Shao (袁紹) as grand administrator of Bohai (勃海), Han Fu (韓馥) as pastor of Jizhou (冀州), Liu Dai (劉岱) as governor of Yanzhou (兗州), Kong Zhou (孔伷) as governor of Yuzhou (豫州), Zhang Zi (張咨) as grand administrator of Nanyang (南陽), and Zhang Miao (張邈) as grand administrator of Chenliu (陳留). All were seats that carried the name-worth of the gentry, and upon each neck the weight of Dong Zhuo's silver had been hung.

A new custom began to grow at the center of the court: when the seat of an office was handed down, the price of that office was written down beside it. The name of an office lay beside a price, and the price was read louder than the name. If the sale of offices in the age of the Ten Regular Attendants had been carried out in dark corners, Dong Zhuo's sale of offices was carried out openly, at the bright center of the court.

That night, five elder ministers gathered quietly in the small sitting-room of Wang Yun's modest house. Not a cup of wine was brought out. No grand speech came forth. The five only looked long upon each other's faces. Within that single looking lay the five names that had not, this day, been tied by price.

Wang Yun stroked the tip of his beard. He spoke one low line.

"Gentlemen. Openly today, loyalty (忠義) bought with silver (銀) has been placed at the center of this court. Loyalty bought with a price is the kind of loyalty that will be sold again before another price. Yet one thing remains: within the faces of these five, a loyalty unbought by any price still endures. Let us not forget the faces of these five. Even if tomorrow morning our five footsteps each go their different ways, let us not forget each other's faces of this night."

Each of the five bowed their heads deeply. The lamp of the sitting-room trembled. While the two characters Gachung (價忠, loyalty bought with a price) were being planted at the center of today's court, a small seed of Jagya-bulmae (作夜不賣, the seat not sold this night) was being planted, quietly, at the center of this sitting-room.

The fourteenth night of Book 1 deepened quietly across two seats: the center of the Luoyang court, and Wang Yun's small sitting-room. The two characters Gachung were planted as the seed of a custom by which a price came down written beside the name of an office. The grain of Red Hare's price of Day 13 (赤兎價) had today been extended into the price of the entire court. Outside that extension, the faces of five men unbought by any price remained.

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