Wei Yan

The date-brown giant of Yiyang bursts onto the page cutting down Xiangyang's gate guards and dropping the bridge - 'come in, Uncle Liu Bei, and slay these traitors!' Liu Bei refuses to enter over a fight, Wen Ping battles him through the middle of the day until his men are gone, and he rides off alone to Changsha to shelter with Governor Han Xuan.

Cuts down the executioner's blade over Huang Zhong's neck - 'Huang Zhong is our bulwark!' - raises the crowd, kills Han Xuan on his own wall, and carries the head out to Guan Yu with the city behind it. Liu Bei, grateful, makes him a Van Leader beside the man he saved.

Strikes the retreating pursuers at the second point of the shore ambush, completing the rout that sends Zhou Yu bleeding to his ship.

Fourth column of the convergence that springs Zhuge Liang's hidden hook on the borrowed-road army.

Commands the rearguard of the western expedition.

Wei Yan; performs the sword-dance meant to bring down Liu Zhang; foiled by Liu Bei's intervention.

Talks down the 'too old' Huang Zhong, steals a night march to grab both camps for himself — and is beaten, unhorsed, and a spear-length from death when Huang Zhong's arrow saves him. Redeems the fault by ambushing and capturing the fleeing Ling Bao, and warns (rightly) that releasing him means never seeing him again.

Captures Ling Bao in the storm-night sortie — vindicating his ch62 warning against releasing him — then survives Pang Tong's disaster only as the kernel of a nut: trapped between Zhang Ren's road-block and the Luocheng sally until Huang Zhong cuts him free once more.

Left wing of the night raid, then leads the thousand spearmen in the sedge who stab the riders at the Golden Goose Bridge trap.

Takes five hundred light horse ahead of Zhang Fei, routs Yang Bo — then, greedy for Zhang Fei's share of the glory, chases into Ma Dai's line and takes an arrow in the left arm; Zhang Fei's arrival saves him at the Pass.

Delivers the fifty vessels of wine, commands a wing in the straw-dummy night battle (taking the Mengtou and Dangshi camps with Lei Tong), breaks Zhang He's ambush parties into the burning valley in the revenge-trick, and mounts the frontal attack while Zhang Fei takes Wakou Pass from the rear. Han Hao also names him as Changsha's other betrayer.

Named in passing — marches with Zhang Fei for the Hanzhong expedition, Yan Yan relieving their posts.

Takes Nanzheng with Zhang Fei and raids the supply roads, then earns his place in legend: summoned to surrender he answers with abuse, feigns retreat on order, doubles back to the hill crying 'Wei Yan is here!' — and puts an arrow full in Cao Cao's lip, knocking out two front teeth, charging in to finish it before Pang De beats him back.

Made Governor of Hanzhong and entrusted with holding the East River Land when the Prince returns to Chengdu.

Ordered to hold Hanzhong against Wei with Ma Chao and Ma Dai while the Emperor marches east.

Marches his troops in and out of the southwest hills — seen, vanished, seen again — until the brave but doubt-prone Mangs refuse to advance into the unknown.

His marching-and-vanishing troops perplex the Mangs into retreat, per the spies' four-army report.

Baits E Huan into the three-general pincer, shares Zhao Yun's wounded pride and the freelance night raid that breaks the Three Ravines — and waits with five hundred men in the blind valley where Meng Huo, horseless and climbing, falls into his hands.

Closes the second jaw of the trap on Meng Huo's night raid — and delivers the last taunt of the gauntlet from the frontier hills: 'next time you are caught, you will be quite destroyed.'

The trap's teeth: steps from the wood as the Mang horsemen tumble into the hidden pits, hauls them out one by one into their bonds, and brings King Meng Huo to the tent — the fourth capture is his.

Absorbs the campaign's worst job and its finest hour: repelled by Three Rivers' ten-bolt poison crossbows, the abuse-shouting bait that finally stings Lady Zhurong into Ma Dai's ropes — and then FIFTEEN staged defeats and seven abandoned camps in half a month ('not a little hipped at the prospect'), dragging Wutu Gu's invincible rattan army step by step into the Coiled Serpent Valley before slipping out as the fires close.

Reports the storm that stops the army at the River Lu, which is what sets the sacrifice in motion. Appointed Front Army Commander of the Northern Expedition.

Proposes the Ziwu Valley plan — the most famous rejected strategy in the novel. Five thousand men out by Baozhong, east along the Qinling Mountains, north through the Ziwu Valley, at Changan in ten days; Xiahou Mao, 'a child of a wealthy family, soft and stupid', will abandon the city and flee by Royal Gate, and everything west of Changan falls in one move. Zhuge Liang only smiles: it gambles on there being no northerner worth considering at Changan, and one force blocking the mountain exit costs five thousand men and the army's elan. Wei Yan presses — by the high road you will never reach the Middle Land — and withdraws 'gloomy and dissatisfied', the first crack in a resentment that runs to chapter 105. Later takes Anding outright, his men disguised as Anding soldiers beguiling the gate wardens open in the dark, and is sent on toward Tianshui.

Given the feint that breaks Jiang Wei: march on Jicheng, and when Jiang Wei comes up, let him in. Makes a show of defence, retreats — and then takes the city behind him, so that Jiang Wei fights his way back to find Shu ensigns on his own walls. Warns that Cao Zhen 'is a man of experience and will be on the lookout' before the night attack, which is exactly what Zhuge Liang is counting on, and holds the approach to the hill in the plan that follows.

Sent into ambush with Zhao Zilong against Cao Zhen's pursuit. Stops Cao Zun with 'Stop! You rebels!' and kills him in the third encounter when he refuses, then comes up again to complete the rout.

Objects to being posted behind Jieting — 'As Leader of the Van, I should go first against the enemy. Why am I sent to a place where there is no fighting?' — and is told he is the chief keeper of the throat of Hanzhong. Proves the posting right: stops Zhang He's pursuit of Ma Su ten miles out and drives him fifteen miles back toward Jieting, which walks him into Sima Yi and Sima Zhao closing from both sides and Zhang He turning about to make three. Cut out by Wang Ping, finds the Jieting camps already taken, is driven to Liliu, proposes nothing and joins the night attempt that fails, and finally makes for Yangping Pass for fear Wei pours into Hanzhong.

One of 'the four unfortunate leaders Ma Su, Wang Ping, Wei Yan, and Gao Xiang' called to render account, and otherwise appears only inside Wang Ping's narration of Jieting — the man he went to for help, and whom he later saw hemmed in with Gao Xiang and turned back to rescue.

A bad chapter for him: leads the first division to Chencang, is sent to surround and take it, spends days failing, and comes back to report it impregnable — at which Zhuge Liang is angry enough to have him put to death, and only Jin Xiang stepping forward with an alternative saves him. Offers to fight Wang Shuang and is refused ('you are our Van Leader. We must test Wang Shuang first'). Left behind to guard the way from Chencang when the army pivots to Qishan.

Left on the Chencang road to hold off Wang Shuang, he gets Zhuge Liang's secret order, breaks camp by night toward Hanzhong, leaves thirty men hidden beside Wang Shuang's camp to fire it once its owner rides out, and kills Wang Shuang himself at the first stroke when the pursuit turns back. Then sent with Jiang Wei to take the leaderless Chencang after Hao Zhao's death, arrives to find the city already Zhuge Liang's and drops out of the saddle to prostrate himself — 'Really, you are supernatural, O Prime Minister!' — and is sent straight on without unarming to storm San Pass, which falls easily. Finally beats Zhang He's relief force in the field.

Still nursing the rejected Ziwu Valley plan, and says so out loud: 'If he had listened to me and gone out through Ziwu Valley, not only Changan but Luoyang too would be ours. Now he is bent on taking Qishan. What is the good of it?... Truly the orders are confusing.' Then rides in and cuts Chen Shi out of the trap his own grumbling helped encourage, and answers straight at the apology - 'Chen Shi disobeyed orders and rushed into the valley.' Chen Shi is beheaded and Wei Yan is spared, but the verdict passed on him behind his back is the one that matters: 'Wei Yan has been disposed to disobey and resent. However, I value his valor and dedication, and so I have employed him. But he will do real harm some day.'

Drives the third decoy chariot, sent east of the city. One of the four corner ambushes at Lucheng. Then the principal bait in the long running fight that kills Zhang He: out of a wood ten miles from the city, ten passes and flight, round by side roads to do it again, then the taunt that finishes it - 'Rebel! I have despised fighting you, but you have kept pursuing me. Now we will fight to the death!' - followed by throwing aside weapons, armour and helmet and leading his 'defeated' company up the Wooden Path with Zhang He behind him. Attacks the Wei rear with Guan Xing once the boulders come down.

Leads the Beiyuan attack with Ma Dai, finds the camp abandoned, realises he is expected, and is caught between Sima Yi and Guo Huai on the way back - 'many of the soldiers of Shu fell into the river and drowned' - until Wu Yi pulls what is left out. Then one of the two who break Sima Yi's reserve on the night of the false letter, coming down on his flank with Jiang Wei. Later covers the recaptured convoy at Beiyuan with Jiang Wei and drives Guo Huai off it. He is also the subject of the chapter's other prophecy, from Sun Quan of all people: 'A man brave enough, but ambitious. One day he will work a mischief unless Zhuge Liang is present.' Zhuge Liang's answer is that he knows, and values him anyway, and 'I have a scheme of my own.'

The bait for the Gourd Valley - five hundred men, a few passes with Sima Yi, then a bolt straight for the seven star flags - but that is only a third of his chapter, and the last part matters most. He opens it 'angry and discontented' that Liao Hua got the first grade of merit for Sima Yi's golden helmet, which Zhuge Liang notices and says nothing about; then rides up to the Wei camp to taunt them with that helmet. And he closes the chapter by destroying the prayer: Xiahou Ba's reconnaissance brings him bursting into the tent on the sixth night with 'The Wei soldiers are upon us!', and 'in his haste Wei Yan had knocked over and extinguished the Lamp of Fate'. Jiang Wei draws a sword on him; Zhuge Liang throws his own down and says 'Life and death are foreordained. No prayers can alter them.'

Spared for the lamp in the first sentence. Then he drives Sima Yi's probing party seven miles and is sent back to his own camp. Dreams two horns growing out of his head and gets a flattering reading from Zhao Zhi that is the opposite of the true one. And when Fei Yi brings him the rearguard order, the refusal is the whole of ch105 in embryo: 'Though the Prime Minister is dead, I am yet alive. Counselor Yang Yi is only a civil officer and unequal to this post… If the Prime Minister had listened to me, we should now have been at Changan. I am the Van Leader, General Who Conquers the West, and Lord of Nanzheng. I am not going to act as rearguard for any civil official.' Sends Ma Dai to find out why Fei Yi has not come back, learns the army has gone without him — 'How dare he play with me, the pedantic blockhead?' — and marches south.

Dies here. Ma Dai talks him out of going over to Wei and into seizing Hanzhong first and then attacking the West River Land. His army does not stay with him — He Ping shames it away from him in a speech ('you soldiers are Shu people. Your fathers and mothers, wives and children, and your friends are still in the land'), after which 'more than a half ran away' and he cuts down his own departing officers without stopping the rest; Ma Dai's men are the only ones who hold. He burns the Plank Trail, files memorial after memorial accusing Yang Yi of rebellion, and dies on his own boast: told that if he can shout 'Who dares kill me?' three times Hanzhong is his, he answers 'Listen, you old fool! While Zhuge Liang lived I feared him somewhat. But he is dead and no one dares stand before me. I will not only shout the words thrice, but a myriad times.' He gets through it once. 'Behind him someone shouted savagely, "I dare!"' Liu Shan orders him honourably buried in consideration of his former services.