Liao Hua

Liao Hua's debut - Yellow Turban remnant bandit who offers his services to Guan Yu and Liu Bei's wives but is politely refused (Guan Yu doesn't want to mix his column with bandits). Will reappear under Liu Bei's banner later.

Recalled in Lady Gan's argument against taking on Zhou Cang's whole band: 'you refused the service of Liao Hua - why suffer this crowd?'

Arrives with his troops to offer service just as the expedition starts — and is attached to Guan Yu's Jingzhou command, not the march.

Named to Guan Yu's military staff for the defense of Jingzhou.

Liao Hua; with Liu Bei.

The new van's decoy: twice feigns defeat and pulls Zhai Yuan and Xiahou Cun seven miles at a stretch, springing the trap that costs Cao Ren the field and Xiangyang.

Sent to press the assault on Fancheng while Guan Yu rides out to answer Pang De's challenge.

Holds Sizhong until it falls behind him, helps pull Guan Yu out of the dusk encirclement, then carries the appeal through the siege lines to Shangyong — where he kowtows until his forehead bleeds, is refused with a proverb about cups of water, and rides west to Chengdu cursing the men who shut the gate.

Liao Hua; arrives in Chengdu to report Liu Feng and Meng Da's refusal to relieve Guan Yu.

Throws himself weeping to the earth before the Prince: Liu Feng and Meng Da were the true cause of Guan Yu's death, and both deserve to die.

Liao Hua; with Zhuge Liang's northern expedition.

Leads three thousand men digging the tunnel under the Chencang ramparts, which Hao Zhao defeats with a counter-trench inside the city. Then one of the three sent to check Wang Shuang, and part of the force that pulls the wounded Zhang Ni out.

Holds the silken bag with Jiang Wei on the hill above the battle, and rides with him against Sima Yi's undefended camp when it is opened - the move that turns Sima Yi around and collapses the Wei pursuit into a rout.

In the van with Guan Xing. Blocks Qin Liang's line of retreat and then kills him in single combat when he rides out to fight. Rides in the disguised raid on Cao Zhen's camp.

Rear division of the River Wei crossing with Zhang Yi, and then the second half of the chapter's last ambush: five thousand men to check Sima Yi if he comes out for the convoy, bursting on him at the most precipitous point of the road with bombs and the Han General Liao Hua banner, so that 'panic seized upon his army, and they ran like winds'.

Comes within a sword's length of ending the war in the opening paragraph. Pursues the unhorsed Sima Yi into a wood, gets close enough to strike, and buries the blade in a tree instead - 'before he could pull his sword out of the wood, Sima Yi had got clear away'. Then picks up the golden helmet lying to the east and rides east after it, which is exactly the wrong way. Presents the helmet as proof of his prowess and is given the first grade of merit, which is what sets Wei Yan sulking.

One of the five veterans Zhuge Liang names on his deathbed as dependable to the death and asks Yang Yi to keep in the public service, and part of the column that withdraws in order to the Plank Trail.

One of the two Leaders of the Van. Loses to Xu Zhi's ax in a few bouts and feigns the flight, then takes half of the double ambush on the burning road that destroys his army, and finally cuts off Sima Zhao's retreat when the disguised raiders break into the Wei camp and drive him onto the Iron Cage Mountain.

Leader of the Van with Zhang Yi, and the man who names the trap before it is sprung: asked what lies behind Deng Ai's second challenge, he answers 'While they engage your attention in this competition, they intend to attack our rear.' Sent to lie in wait behind the hills with ten thousand men, and kills Zheng Lun in the first encounter when the flanking column comes round the corner.

Argues for disobeying the recall - 'A leader in the field is independent and need not obey even the command of his prince' - and is overruled by Zhang Yi's argument about the country's exhaustion. Later Leader of the Van for the Ziwu Valley column of the three-pronged march on Qishan, and sent with Zhang Yi to take Qishan while the Yunshan Valley trap is sprung.

Gives the warning that the expedition is one too many, and is snapped at for it: 'I dare not presume to advise you, General. For years we have been fighting and giving the people no rest. In Deng Ai we find a most formidable and resourceful opponent and an extraordinarily capable man, so that you must exert yourself to the very utmost.' Left in charge of the base at Hanzhong for the campaign.

Sent to hold the Yinping Bridge in Jiang Wei's memorial, marches to relieve Hanzhong instead when no orders come, and then finds Jiang Wei. Twice argues the case that decides the rest of the war: 'We are attacked all round, and the grain transportation is blocked. It seems to me wisest to retire on the Saber Pass', and then 'This country of White Water is laced with by-roads and is too narrow and difficult to fight in with any hope of success... If we loss that pass, all paths will be closed to us.' Jiang Wei consents the second time.

At Saber Pass with Jiang Wei and Zhang Yi, admitted through Dong Jue's lines at the start of the chapter, and holding the front that Deng Ai's march makes irrelevant.

Dies of grief, and so does Dong Jue with him: when the captive Latter Ruler is sent to Luoyang, 'Liao Hua and Dong Jue made illness an excuse not to go. They died of grief soon after.' The veteran who has been in the field since ch27 outlives the kingdom by weeks.