Sun Ren

Sun Jian's daughter by his second wife, named in the family roll - the girl who will one day be Liu Bei's Lady Sun.

The bait who becomes the bride: 'a tough lady, whose women guards number many hundreds, all armed' - and who has sworn to wed no one unknown to fame. Her brother offers her as Zhou Yu's decoy, her mother makes the offer real, and the wedding night finds the bridegroom staring at chambers hung with spears and sword-girded waiting-maids.

Laughs at her husband's fear of the bedroom weapons ('afraid of a few weapons after half a lifetime of slaughter!'), sees through his first lie, and chooses him over her house. Twice she rolls up the carriage curtains and breaks pursuing generals with her voice alone - 'so you fear Zhou Yu and not me! Think you that if he slays you, I will not slay him?' - and holds the rearguard with Zhao Zilong while her husband rides for the river.

Her marriage is the chapter's lever: 'now that you are the husband of a daughter of Wu' opens Lu Su's claim, and 'Sun Quan's sister is now Liu Bei's wife' is the news that makes Cao Cao drop his pen.

Lady Sun; called home by her brother Sun Quan via a forged-illness letter from Lady Wu; tries to take Liu Shan with her and is forced to surrender him to Zhao Yun on the river. Returns to Wu without her husband - the marriage effectively ends.