Jin Yi 金禕

In Chapter 69 of the Romance, when Guan Lu says that there will be a fire in Xudu the following spring, Cao Cao stays in Ye Commandery, has Xiahou Dun patrol Xudu, and gives the Chief Clerk Wang Bi command of the troops and horses of the Imperial Guard, stationing him outside the Donghua Gate of Xudu. In the 1st month of spring in the 23rd year of Jian'an, the Privy Treasurer Geng Ji, resentful that Cao Cao has been raised to the rank of king and uses the Son of Heaven's carriages and robes, consults secretly with the Director of Rectitude Wei Huang, and Wei Huang says that he has a trusted confidant surnamed Jin and named Yi, a descendant of the Han minister Jin Midi, who has long harboured the wish to strike at Cao Cao and is also on very close terms with Wang Bi. Romance, Ch. 69 §23–26

When the two men visit Jin Yi's house and sound him out, saying that the King of Wei will soon receive the abdication and that when he and Chief Clerk Wang rise high they hope he will help them up, Jin Yi rises with a flick of his sleeve and pours onto the ground the tea his attendant has brought. In a great rage he says that he befriended them warmly because they were descendants of great ministers of the Han court, and that now that they wish to help a rebel he could not face being their friend. When Geng Ji and Wei Huang reveal the truth, saying that what they said before was only a test, Jin Yi says that he, whose family has served the Han for generations, could never follow a traitor, and proposes acting together from inside and outside to kill Wang Bi, seize his command and uphold the Son of Heaven's carriage, and joining hands with the Imperial Uncle Liu Bei as an outside ally. Romance, Ch. 69 §27–30

Jin Yi suggests using as their wings the two sons of the Imperial Physician Ji Ping, whose father Cao Cao had killed: the elder, Ji Miao (courtesy name Wenran), and the younger, Ji Mu (courtesy name Siran). The two sons had escaped disaster by fleeing to a distant countryside at the time of the affair of Dong Cheng's girdle edict, and had secretly returned to Xudu. When the two, secretly summoned, swear to kill the traitor of the state, Jin Yi lays out a plan: on the night of the fifteenth of the 1st month, taking advantage of the lanterns of the Lantern Festival, Geng Ji and Wei Huang will lead their household servants to storm the front of Wang Bi's camp, while the Ji brothers will set fires outside the city as a signal and fight their way in; after killing Wang Bi they will have the Son of Heaven mount the Wufeng Tower and command the officials to strike at the traitor. The five men swear an oath to Heaven and seal their covenant by drinking blood. Romance, Ch. 69 §30–32

Ahead of the appointed day Jin Yi visits Wang Bi and tells him that, now that the realm is somewhat settled and the might of the King of Wei shakes the world, lanterns should be lit at the Lantern Festival to show an air of peace and prosperity; Wang Bi thinks this right and has the residents throughout the city hang up lanterns. On the night of the fifteenth of the 1st month, after the second watch, a fire breaks out behind the camp; Wang Bi hurriedly mounts and goes out through the south gate, runs into Geng Ji, is struck in the shoulder by an arrow and flees toward the west gate. Romance, Ch. 69 §33–34

Pursued, Wang Bi abandons his horse and goes on foot to knock at Jin Yi's door. Jin Yi had sent men to set fire inside the camp and had himself led out his household servants to join the fighting, leaving only the women at home. Thinking Jin Yi has returned, his wife asks from behind the door, 'Have you killed that fellow Wang Bi?', and only then does Wang Bi realize that Jin Yi is one of the conspirators; he runs straight to Cao Xiu's house to report it. Amid the confused fighting that lasts until daybreak, word comes that Jin Yi and the two Ji brothers have all been killed, and Geng Ji and Wei Huang are captured by Xiahou Dun's main army and beheaded in the marketplace. Xiahou Dun puts to death the old and young and all the kin of the five households. Romance, Ch. 69 §35–39 · 41