Cao Ren

Cao Ren; the other of Cao Cao's two cousins arriving at Qiao.

Cao Ren; part of Cao Cao's pursuit force at Xingyang.

Left facing Lü Bu's storm, he fights battle after losing battle for Yanzhou and sends the courier whose news turns Cao Cao's army around; on the return he is assigned to besiege Yanzhou city while Cao Cao makes for Puyang.

Cao Ren; serves under Cao Cao in the Puyang counter-attack.

Cao Ren; with the escort force.

Left holding the capital while the one hundred seventy thousand march south against Yuan Shu.

Detached with three thousand troops to take Xiaopei while the main army closes on Lü Bu.

Given the main force at Guandu - the position around which the coming war will turn - when Cao Cao returns to Xuchang.

Cao Ren; serves under Cao Cao.

Cao Ren; named in passing in Cao Cao's command.

Cao Ren; commands part of the Cao Cao army at Guandu.

Camped at Fancheng with thirty thousand troops to threaten Jingzhou: he grants the Lü brothers their fatal expedition, then refuses Li Dian's hold-and-reinforce counsel - 'Xinye is but a crossbow-slug of a place' - brands him traitor for doubting, and marches twenty-five thousand across the River Yu for revenge.

Nearly executes Li Dian for counselling retreat, loses his Eight Docked Gates array to a formation-reading he cannot fathom, loses his night raid to a camp already ablaze, loses most of his army in the river - and reaches Fancheng to hear Guan Yu shout from its wall. He crawls back to Xuchang weeping his faults on the ground.

Waves Xu Chu past the flag ruse - 'those troops are only make-believe' - beds his hundred thousand down in the deserted city, dismisses the first fire report as careless sparks, and leads the scorched survivors into the White River shallows just before Guan Yu's dam breaks.

Rallies the flood-battered remnants at Xinye; it is his troops, under Chunyu Dao, who parade the captured Mi Zhu.

Cao Ren; with Cao Cao.

Cao Ren; with Cao Cao.

Meets the forty-seven survivors outside Jiangling - 'I thought I would never see you again' - pours the wine of consolation, and receives the region's defense along with a sealed plan to open only when hard-pressed.

Rescues Niu Jin twice from the melee with his own horsemen, opens Cao Cao's guide-letter when Yiling falls - and plays its script: the emptied city, the wide gates, the crossbow ambush that puts a poisoned bolt in Zhou Yu's side. Then he swallows the counter-ruse whole: 'deserters' report Zhou Yu dead, the night raid marches into four ambushes, and he flees past Ling Tong and Gan Ning to Xiangyang - which Zhuge Liang's forged dispatches have already emptied.

Warns that the short-tempered Cao Hong cannot hold a pass and is sent to reinforce him; he rescues Cao Hong from Pang De's pursuit, holds the camps through the defeat, and counsels the stockade-first approach to the Pass.

Cao Ren; with Cao Cao.

First to answer the summons from the frontier — and turned away at the door by Xu Chu for presuming on kinship while Cao Cao slept drunk.

Commands the rear division of the three-part march on the East River Land.

Left in charge of Hefei with Zhang Liao when Cao Cao marches home.

Talked off the defensive by Zhai Yuan and Xiahou Cun against Man Chong's advice — and pays for it: drawn seven miles at a time by feigned defeats, trapped by the detonation in his rear, cut off from Xiangyang by Guan Yu's green-dragon saber, half his men drowned in River Xiang. Confesses the error to Man Chong from inside Fancheng and sends to Xuchang for rescue.

Ready to abandon the drowning city by boat until Man Chong's harangue turns him — then pledges from the wall, on pain of death for any who mention retreat, to hold Fancheng to the last. His order to shoot the unarmored rider puts the crossbow bolt in Guan Yu's arm.

Sallies out the moment Guan Yu falls from the saddle, is beaten back by Guan Ping, and returns to holding the drowned city while Xu Huang's relief gathers.

Reads the moment from inside the walls — his sortie into the routed Jingzhou rear finishes what Xu Huang began and raises the siege at last. Comes to Cao Cao in tears expecting punishment and receives 'it was the will of heaven, and no fault of yours.'

Cao Ren; commands one of the three Wei armies invading Wu.

Cao Ren; commands a Wei army against Wu; loses to Zhu Huan.

Gone — the great council 'lacked the presence of Regent Marshal Cao Ren and Grand Commander Jia Xu, who had both died.'