Fu Shou

Emperor Xian's empress, dragged through the whole flight: hostage in Li Jue's camp, shivering beside her husband at the Yellow River bank, lowered down the cliff wrapped in salvaged silk and carried into the boat on her brother Fu De's back.

Hears her weeping husband out after the hunt and asks the question that starts the conspiracy - 'in a whole court full of nobles, is there not one who will save his country?' - then sews the blood decree into the purple lining of the jade girdle with her own hands.

Sits with the Emperor and Consort Dong wondering why the decree has borne no fruit - when Cao Cao bursts in armed. She can only join the lament as the pregnant consort is led to the white cord.

The chapter's martyr: 'if life is to be like this, one were better dead' — she sends the plot letter to her father in Mu Shun's hair, hides in the hollow wall when it breaks, is dragged out by the hair by Hua Xin, parts from the Emperor ('my doom is sealed' — 'and I know not when my turn will come'), and is beaten to death, her two sons poisoned.

Named in Liu Bei's parley indictment — 'you have dared to lift up your hand against Empress Fu' — the ch66 murder flung back at Cao Cao before both armies.

Her death is charged to Cao Cao in the memorial — 'he dared even to accomplish the death of the Empress and the destruction of her sons.'

First among the bloodstained phantoms whispering for Cao Cao's life in the dark — and the vision that fells Xiahou Dun at the doors: the slain Empress and her children.

Her murder is the first count in Liu Bei's altar indictment — 'Cao Cao, powerful and cruel, slew the Empress.'