Zhao Zhong 趙忠

Chapter 1 of the Romance relates that when ill omens followed one after another in the reign of Emperor Ling, the Gentleman-Consultant Cai Yong submitted a memorial saying that 'the falling rainbow and the hen turning into a cock are caused by women and eunuchs meddling in government', but was framed by Cao Jie, who had secretly read it, and was sent back to his home village. After that, ten men, Zhang Rang, Zhao Zhong, Feng Xu, Duan Gui, Cao Jie, Hou Lan, Jian Shuo, Cheng Kuang, Xia Yun and Guo Sheng, banded together and committed every kind of wrong, so that people called them the 'Ten Regular Attendants'; the government of the state went from bad to worse, the hearts of the people across the realm longed for upheaval, and bandits rose up like swarms of bees. Romance, Ch. 1 §5–6

In Chapter 2 the Ten Regular Attendants, holding great power, agree to kill anyone who does not follow them. Zhao Zhong and Zhang Rang send men to demand gold and silk from the generals who crushed the Yellow Turbans, and those who do not comply are reported to the throne and dismissed. When Huangfu Song and Zhu Jun both refuse to give anything, Zhao Zhong and the others have them both stripped of their offices, and the emperor further makes Zhao Zhong and others Generals of Chariots and Cavalry and enfeoffs Zhang Rang and others, thirteen men in all, as marquises. Romance, Ch. 2 §29

As the government of the court decays further and revolts break out in Changsha and Yuyang, urgent memorials fly in like snowflakes, but the Ten Regular Attendants hide them all and do not report them. When the Grandee Remonstrant Liu Tao weeps aloud that this calamity all stems from the Ten Regular Attendants selling offices, harming the people and deceiving their sovereign, the Ten Regular Attendants take off their caps, prostrate themselves before the emperor and beg for their lives. The emperor throws Liu Tao and the Minister over the Masses Chen Dan, who remonstrated on his behalf, into prison, and that night the Ten Regular Attendants kill the two men in prison. Romance, Ch. 2 §30–34

In Chapter 3, after Zhang Rang and the others kill He Jin at the gate of the Jiade Hall and throw his head over the wall, Yuan Shao cries out that the eunuchs have murdered a high minister, and He Jin's subordinate general Wu Kuang sets fire outside the Qingsuo Gate. Yuan Shu leads his troops into the palace and kills every eunuch in sight, high or low, and Zhao Zhong, together with Cheng Kuang, Xia Yun and Guo Sheng, is driven to the front of the Cuihua Tower and hacked into a mass of flesh. Yuan Shao then sends his troops out in groups to kill the families of the Ten Regular Attendants, old and young alike. Romance, Ch. 3 §10–11 · 13–14 · 16