On the night Hua Xiong was cut down, inside a tent upon the Huzhao Pass, Dong Zhuo set his cup down. Li Ru (李儒) beside him offered a low line. “Your Lordship. Hua Xiong was no more than a frontier captain. The Guandong alliance is knocking at the Huzhao Pass; send out Fengxian (奉先). Before Fengxian’s Sky-Piercing Halberd, several of the alliance’s spears will break.”

Dong Zhuo nodded. The next morning, the gate of the Huzhao Pass opened wide. The vanguard cavalry flowed downward. At the very front stood a red horse — Red Hare. Upon it stood a captain: Lü Bu (呂布), style Fengxian. At his waist the Sky-Piercing Halberd (方天畵戟) flashed red.

The lords of the alliance sent their men forward. Fang Yue (方悅), vanguard captain of Wang Kuang (王匡), grand administrator of Henei, went out first. Before five exchanges had passed, Fang Yue fell in two pieces beneath the halberd. Mu Shun (穆順), under Zhang Yang (張楊) of Shangdang, went out next. In a single exchange, Mu Shun’s head fell upon the ground.

Next, Wu Anguo (武安國), under Kong Rong (孔融) of Beihai, mounted his horse with a great mace. He endured over ten exchanges, yet in the end his right arm was cut beneath the halberd. One-armed Wu Anguo turned his horse’s head back toward the alliance. Gongsun Zan (公孫瓚) went out himself with a spear. When twenty exchanges had passed, Gongsun Zan’s breath shook. The halberd touched the top of his helmet lightly. Gongsun Zan turned his horse’s head. Lü Bu, upon Red Hare, began to chase him.

At that very moment, from a corner of the alliance camp, a fellow shouted loudly. “We shall not lose our Administrator Gongsun to Red Hare’s hooves.” The voice was like thunder. Upon a black horse a fellow sprang forward. It was Zhang Fei. The Sky-Piercing Halberd and the Serpent Spear met for the first time at the middle of the plain before the Huzhao Pass.

One breath, two, three breaths passed, yet the contest was not decided. Ten exchanges passed. Twenty passed. Thirty passed, yet the two shafts had not bent each other’s grain. The eyes of the alliance’s lords widened all together. In their lives, no single captain had ever drawn Lü Bu’s exchanges as far as thirty.

When fifty exchanges passed, Zhang Fei’s breath shook slightly. At that very moment, another horse sprang forward. It was Guan Yu with the Green Dragon Crescent Blade. “Yide. Let this elder brother aid you.” The two shafts met the two tips of the halberd together.

Twenty more exchanges passed. The two shafts had not yet bent Lü Bu’s grain. At that very moment, a third horse sprang forward. It was Liu Bei with the twin-hilt blade. Two blades in one hand entered at Lü Bu’s flank.

Three shafts and one halberd turned a full circle at the middle of the plain before the Huzhao Pass. One exchange, two, three. The tip of the halberd shook slightly. At the third exchange, Lü Bu turned his horse’s head. Red Hare’s hooves went back inside the gate of the Huzhao Pass. The gate closed large behind them.

Upon the plain three shafts stood side by side. The breath came back to the men. The gaze of the alliance’s lords settled heavy upon the seat of the three. The only seat in the plain before the Huzhao Pass this morning that had made Lü Bu’s halberd step back was this single seat of three shafts.

Among the onlookers, Cao Cao’s eye did not leave the three figures. Within his thirty-five years, he had seen many grains of courage; yet the grain of three men who did not speak to each other as they stood side by side was a grain he had not met before. He did not call out; he did not raise his cup. Only, at his waist, a small smile folded inward. That small smile set down a seat in his chest that would, years afterward, carry a name: a name he would not be able to place, and for long, beside his own.

Yuan Shao upon the altar stayed silent. Yuan Shu upon the altar stayed silent. The silence of the altar was different from the silence of the plain. Upon the plain the three shafts had shared a breath; upon the altar, one lord’s grain and another’s had, for the first time today, refused to breathe together. The alliance was still, by name, one; yet upon the altar the weight of a single name had begun to tilt unevenly above the shoulders of its lords.

The twenty-third afternoon of Book 1 deepened, quietly, above three shafts upon the plain before the Huzhao Pass. The three characters Samyeonghoe (三英會, the seat of three heroes) were planted as a seed: the breath in which three shafts shook the grain of one halberd. The two characters “Guan Yu” of Day 22’s Jusangon had, today, extended into the three-name seat of “Liu, Guan, Zhang.”

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