Guan Xing

Visits the camp after the victory and is sent up to Chengdu carrying the dispatch of every officer's services and the request for their promotions.

Arrives in Chengdu with the last good tidings — the drowning of the seven armies — before the messengers of disaster overtake him.

His weeping entrance is what fells Liu Bei a second time — the living reminder of the dead.

Answers Zhang Bao's three bullseyes by dropping the third goose of a passing flock, and half-draws on him before the Emperor's rebuke — then bows to him as elder brother and breaks the arrow of the new oath, taking his place in the imperial escort.

The red flash: beheads Li Yi mid-axe-swing to save his sworn brother, drives Sun Huan from the field after thirty bouts, drags Tan Xiong the treacherous archer back as a prisoner for the blood libation, and silently kills Zhu Ran's warning messenger to keep the counter-ruse alive.

The revenge chapter: cuts down Zhou Ping in the array, chases Pan Zhang into the hills and loses him — then midnight brings his enemy to the same farmhouse where a shrine to Guan Yu burns. He kills Pan Zhang before the picture, pours his heart-blood in libation, and takes back the green-dragon saber curved as the young moon. Nearly dies under Ma Zhong's three hundred before Zhang Bao's rescue — and it is his hand that strips and hews the turncoats Mi Fang and Fu Shiren at his father's altar.

Cuts an alley up the burning Saddle Hill with a dozen riders to reach his Emperor — 'I request you to try to reach Baidicheng' — leads the night flight, and is wounded with Zhang Bao trying to break Zhu Ran's block before Zhao Yun arrives.

Posted with thirty thousand at a hinge-point, ready to reinforce whichever front cracks — the quiet insurance behind the five deflections.

Left behind with Zhang Bao and reserve forces to reinforce any home front that cracks while the Prime Minister is south.

Appointed Left Guard of the Northern Expedition, paired with Zhang Bao on the right.

The second relief column, five thousand men, arriving with Dong Xin's head. Holds the road ahead of Cui Liang's march while Zhang Bao closes from behind. Goes into Nanan among the disguised escorts and cuts down Yang Ling at the gate the instant he comes near — 'who fell headless' — then climbs the wall and lights the signal fire that brings the army in.

Escorts Zhuge Liang out of the failed night assault, then identifies the torchlit column winding 'like a huge serpent' as Jiang Wei's. Holds the high road with Zhang Bao in the counter-ambush. Closes the net on Jiang Wei himself — the company that appears out of the heavy-foliaged trees on the Changan road, leaving him nothing behind and the chariot in front.

Scouts the iron chariots from a hill with a hundred horse and comes back 'quite at a loss to think how to overcome them'. Commands the centre and is the one the chariots surround when both wings give way; driven to a gully, his horse killed under him by Yue Ji's mace and himself thrown into the water, he braces to fight in the stream and is saved by Zhang Bao and Ma Dai. Catches Yue Ji's abandoned horse, rides it back into the battle, and at the end of the chapter kills Yue Ji himself in the first encounter.

Sent with three thousand to the Wugong Hills with orders NOT to fight — beat drums, raise a hubbub, make the enemy hesitate, and let them retire unpursued. Comes out under the banner 'Dragon General of the Left Guard' after Zhang Bao, and between them they panic Sima Yi's army into flinging away armour and abandoning its baggage. They obey the order not to pursue and gather the spoils instead. Sima Yi learns afterwards they had only a few men.

Guan Xing; with the expedition.

One of the two ambushes that finish Fei Yao — breaking out at the signal fire with Zhang Bao while arrows and stones come down from the hilltops, turning what Fei Yao took for Jiang Wei's rising into the trap itself.

Set with Zhang Bao to lie on either side of the outermost Wei camp - 'seize it when they have left' - and takes it the moment Zhang Hu and Yue Chen ride off after the fire, so the returning garrison is met by its own walls and arrows thick as locusts. Later part of the concealed second force that marches on Chencang by double stages while Wei Yan and Jiang Wei are still counting out their three days.

Rides on Zhuge Liang's left at the ambush of Guo Huai and Sun Li. Then held back as the hinge of the whole pursuit battle: five thousand men hidden in the valleys with the order to wait for a red flag, loosed at the moment the Wei horses are spent, and still in the field at the end 'helping in the rout wherever there appeared a chance to strike.'

In the van with Liao Hua, and in three separate actions. Blocks Qin Liang's retreat so that 'more than half did surrender'. Rides in the disguised party - Wei uniforms and Wei weapons taken from the prisoners - that walks into Cao Zhen's camp and burns it. Then held back for the array battle and loosed from the southwest with drums rolling the moment Sima Yi attacks in his temper, which is the first of the three converging attacks that cost Wei six or seven men in ten.

One of his best chapters. He is dressed as the God of Clouds and walks in front of Zhuge Liang's chariot carrying a black seven-starred flag, the lead figure of the apparition that routs Sima Yi's army all the way back to Shanggui. Then he takes his turn as bait in the running fight down the Wooden Path, riding out of the trees with 'Zhang He, do not run away!', losing to him by design after ten passes, cutting round by side roads again and again to renew the chase. Ends the chapter attacking the Wei rear with Wei Yan while the crossbows do their work.

Where he dies. Zhuge Liang is at Hanzhong making the final arrangements for the march when 'he received the unexpected news of the death of Guan Xing. He was greatly shocked, and fainted', and on coming round says 'How pitiful! Why does Heaven deny long life to the loyal and good? I have lost a most able general just as I am setting out and need him most.' The chapter gives him four lines of verse.