On the dawn when Li Jue's (李傕) four roads of army beat against the four gates of Chang'an, above the tower of the Xuanping Gate (宣平門) a single shadow leapt downward.

After Jia Xu's (賈詡) single line of counsel, Li Jue, Guo Si (郭汜), Zhang Ji (張濟), and Fan Chou (樊稠) adopted one further stratagem. Li Jue held the main camp at Rengukou (任谷口), luring Lü Bu out daily to fight. From behind, Guo Si cut Lü Bu's rear and withdrew — the old method by which Peng Yue (彭越) had harassed Chu (楚) from behind. Drum to advance, gong to retreat. When Lü Bu's halberd pursued a strand, that strand had already withdrawn a breath.

This beat repeated for several days. Lü Bu could neither fight when he meant to fight nor stop when he meant to stop.

Meanwhile, Zhang Ji and Fan Chou's two roads drove directly at the rear gates of Chang'an. An urgent report flew to Lü Bu: "The armies of Zhang Ji and Fan Chou are already driving into Chang'an. The capital is in peril." Lü Bu hastily drew his men and turned back toward Chang'an. Yet behind that turning, the armies of Li Jue and Guo Si gave great pursuit.

By the time he reached the foot of Chang'an's walls, enemy soldiers had gathered like clouds and heaped like rain around the city and its moat. Among Lü Bu's soldiers many feared his violent temper; one by one, men defected to the enemy. For the first time that dawn, Lü Bu's heart settled heavy.

Some days later, two old partisans of Dong Zhuo who had been hidden within Chang'an — Li Meng (李蒙) and Wang Fang (王方) — became inside respondents and opened a gate. The four roads of Li Jue, Guo Si, Zhang Ji, and Fan Chou poured in together and flooded the four quarters of the city in a single breath. Flames rose at the east, south, west, and north gates, burning the sky as one.

Lü Bu struck left and thrust right, yet could open no road. With some hundred riders he broke out past the Blue-Chained Gate (青瑣門). Upon its tower stood Wang Yun with Emperor Xian. Lü Bu cried out from his horse. "The case is desperate. Minister, mount a horse and go with me beyond the pass. Let us plot another plan."

Wang Yun slowly shook his head. "I have made it my lifetime meaning to stabilize the ancestral altars; that meaning has not, this day, been fulfilled. How should I spare my single body and flee this seat? Fengxian, go quickly beyond the pass. Serve the Son of Heaven and plot again with the frontier lords. This Wang Yun will remain at this seat. By staying, I wish to show that the seat of one great minister of all under heaven does not bend beneath the enemy's blade."

Lü Bu bowed his head deeply. Tears gathered in his eyes. Yet there was no time. He turned his horse and rode eastward. Behind him, the four fires of Chang'an burned the sky ever larger.

At the tower of the Blue-Chained Gate, Wang Yun knelt before Emperor Xian. "Your Majesty. Your subject has been disloyal; I could not keep the altars whole. For the Dragon Body of Your Majesty alone, plead with Li Jue to keep it safe. The body of your subject shall, at this seat, lay itself first upon the end of the altars." Emperor Xian wept deeply.

Wang Yun walked up to the tower of the Xuanping Gate. Upon the railing, facing west, he made a deep bow. "My Emperor. Your subject goes first." His body fell from the railing downward. Dust rose lightly upon the stone pavement below the tower.

On this dawn of Chang'an, at the railing of the Xuanping Gate, one Minister's leap bore first the end of a great altar. The armies of Li Jue and Guo Si poured into the middle of Chang'an, yet the weight of one body laid upon the stones of the Xuanping Gate lay quietly before that pouring.

The soldiers of Li Jue who first came upon that body did not step over it. They halted, removed their helmets, and bowed briefly before passing. Even men gathered under the banner of revenge could recognize the grain of a minister who had chosen his own end over a surrendered living. That small bow, unordered, was not recorded by any official historian; yet within the chronicle of this morning that bow carried the thinnest line of something that would, in later ages, keep the name of Wang Yun alive longer than the names of the four captains who rode over Chang'an. That was one of the long lessons of this dawn: a body laid down at the end of its altar sometimes outlasts the banners that came to raze the altar.

The twelfth dawn of Book 2 opened quietly upon the stones below the Xuanping Gate of Chang'an. The three characters Seonpyeongtu (宣平投, the leap at the Xuanping Gate) were planted as a seed: the posture on which the end of a great altar was borne first by a single body. The single line of Day 41's Gahueon had settled, this dawn, into four fires at Chang'an and a Minister's leap.

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