Guo Tu

Guo Tu; Yuan Shao adviser pushing for war alongside Shen Pei.

With Shen Pei, brings Yuan Shao the news that Guan Yu killed Wen Chou too, and that Liu Bei 'pretends ignorance' - the denunciation that puts Liu Bei under the axe a second time.

Fails to stop the Liu Biao 'mission' - 'neither will ever return' - then redirects his master's anger: forget Liu Bei, ally with Sun Ce's six territories against Cao Cao. His letter goes south with Chen Zhen.

Guo Tu; encourages Yuan Shao toward the disastrous open-field battle; later shifts blame to Zhang He and Gao Lan, driving them to defect to Cao Cao.

Argues the succession council to a standstill - naming the youngest over the firstborn 'sows the seeds of turbulence'; settle the enemy first - and is sent with Xin Ping to follow Yuan Tan to Qingzhou after Cangting.

Yuan Tan's whole campaign is Guo Tu's: the reconnaissance visit to the new lord, the demand that cost Peng Ji his life, the banquet-assassination plot Wang Xiu is dismissed for opposing, the Xin Pi embassy that invites Cao Cao north - and the secret generals' seals for the Lü brothers, which go straight into Cao Cao's hands.

Author of Nanpi's last atrocity - peasants with swords forced into their hands, driven out the four gates as a human screen - and its first casualty of the rout: Yue Jin's arrow storm drops him into the corpse-filled moat.