Cui Yi 崔毅

In Chapter 3 of the Romance, while Yuan Shao had his soldiers kill the families of the Ten Regular Attendants, Cao Cao put out the fires in the palace and at the same time sent troops to pursue Zhang Rang and the others and search for the young emperor. Zhang Rang and Duan Gui, holding the young emperor and the Prince of Chenliu, fled through the night to Mount Beimang, and when Min Gong, Clerk of the Central Division of Henan, came after them, Zhang Rang threw himself into the river and died. The emperor and the Prince of Chenliu lay hidden in the thick grass on the riverbank. Romance, Ch. 3 §16–17

Having lain there until the fourth watch, the two tied their clothes together, crawled up the riverbank, and found their way by the light of hundreds and thousands of fireflies. At the fifth watch, their feet too sore to walk any farther, they lay down beside a haystack at the foot of a hill, and in front of the haystack stood a farmstead. That night the owner of the farmstead dreamed that two red suns fell behind it; waking with a start, he saw a red glow shooting up into the sky above the haystack behind his house, and when he went to look he found the two lying there. Romance, Ch. 3 §18–19

When the owner asked whose sons they were, the emperor could not answer, and the Prince of Chenliu, pointing to the emperor, explained that this was the present emperor, who had fled here from the disorder of the Ten Regular Attendants, and that he himself was the emperor's younger brother, the Prince of Chenliu. Greatly startled, the owner bowed twice and said that he was Cui Yi, younger brother of Cui Lie, Minister over the Masses under the former emperor, and that, seeing the Ten Regular Attendants sell offices and resent worthy men, he had been living here in seclusion. He then helped the emperor into his house and, kneeling, served him wine and food. Romance, Ch. 3 §20

Meanwhile Min Gong caught Duan Gui and asked where the Son of Heaven was, and on hearing that he had lost him on the way, killed Duan Gui and hung his head from his horse's neck. Min Gong divided his troops to search in all directions and set out alone on horseback along the road; when he happened to reach Cui Yi's farmstead, Cui Yi saw the head hanging from the horse and asked the reason, and when Min Gong told him everything in detail, Cui Yi led him to the emperor. Sovereign and subject embraced and wept bitterly. Romance, Ch. 3 §21

When Min Gong asked the emperor to return to the capital, saying that the state cannot be without a sovereign for a single day, Cui Yi, whose farmstead had only one scrawny horse, prepared it for the emperor to ride, and Min Gong rode one horse together with the Prince of Chenliu. Before they had gone three li from the farmstead, a company of several hundred men and horses, including the Minister over the Masses Wang Yun, the Grand Commandant Yang Biao, the Colonel of the Left Army Chunyu Qiong, the Colonel of the Right Army Zhao Meng, the Colonel of the Rear Army Bao Xin and the Colonel of the Central Army Yuan Shao, met the imperial carriage, and surrounding the emperor, who had been given a good horse in exchange, they returned to the capital. On that road they met the troops of Dong Zhuo, Inspector of Xiliang. Romance, Ch. 3 §22–24