Zhao Cen 趙岑

In Chapter 5 of the Romance, when Sun Jian, Administrator of Changsha, volunteers to lead the vanguard of the lords and attacks Sishui Pass with his own troops, the officers and soldiers guarding the pass send a courier to the Chancellor's office in Luoyang to report the emergency. At the council that the greatly alarmed Dong Zhuo calls with his generals, when Lü Bu steps forward, a man behind him says in a loud voice, 'Why use an ox-cleaver to kill a chicken?', and that the Marquis of Wen need not go in person. He is Hua Xiong, a man from Guanxi. Romance, Ch. 5 §17–19

Dong Zhuo, greatly pleased, makes Hua Xiong Colonel of Valiant Cavalry, gives him 50,000 horse and foot, and has him race through the night to the pass together with Li Su, Hu Zhen and Zhao Cen to meet the enemy. In its account of the fighting at Sishui Pass that follows, the Romance does not mention Zhao Cen's name again. Romance, Ch. 5 §19

In Chapter 6, Dong Zhuo issues an order to move the capital to Chang'an, and before leaving he has fires set at the gates of Luoyang, burning the people's houses, the ancestral temples and the government offices, and then, taking the Son of Heaven, the empresses and consorts and others by force, sets out for Chang'an. Dong Zhuo's general Zhao Cen, seeing that Dong Zhuo has already abandoned Luoyang and gone, surrenders Sishui Pass, and Sun Jian drives his troops in first. Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei fight their way into Hulao Pass, and the lords too each lead their troops in. Sun Jian, racing to Luoyang, sees flames reaching to the sky and first sends his troops to put out the fires. This is the last appearance of Zhao Cen in the Romance. Romance, Ch. 6 §8 · 11–13