Cheng Kuang 程曠

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 Cao Jie, who had been secretly watching, made it known to those around him, and Cai Yong was charged with a crime on another matter and 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 emperor revered and trusted Zhang Rang, going so far as to call him 'Father', and the government of the state went from bad to worse, so that 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 3, when He Jin sends envoys bearing secret edicts to the garrisons, Zhang Rang and the others, learning that outside troops are coming, say that unless they strike first they will all be exterminated with their clans; they hide fifty assassins armed with swords and axes inside the Jiade Gate of the Changle Palace and ask Empress He to summon the General-in-Chief to the palace and dissuade him. Receiving the empress dowager's edict, He Jin goes in alone while Yuan Shao and Cao Cao are held back outside the palace gate, and at the gate of the Jiade Hall he is upbraided by Zhang Rang and cut in two by the hidden assassins. Romance, Ch. 3 §1 · 6–11

When Zhang Rang and the others throw He Jin's 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 as Yuan Shao and Cao Cao also break through the gates and enter, Cheng Kuang, together with Zhao Zhong, Xia Yun and Guo Sheng, is driven to the front of the Cuihua Tower and hacked into a mass of flesh. Zhang Rang, Duan Gui, Cao Jie and Hou Lan seize the empress dowager, the Heir Apparent and the Prince of Chenliu and flee to the Northern Palace, and 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 §13–14 · 16