Huang Zhong

Sixty years old, bender of the three-hundred-pound bow: a hundred even bouts, then the stumbling horse and Guan Yu's mercy - repaid with two empty bowstring twangs and one perfect shot into the helmet plume. Han Xuan reads the mercy as treason and orders his head off; saved by Wei Yan's mutiny, he yields only when Liu Bei comes to his house in person - and his first request is leave to bury the master who condemned him.

Falls on the fleeing southern column at his appointed point in Zhuge Liang's covering plan - Zhou Yu's marines are cut up between him and Wei Yan.

Third of the four converging columns whose tramp 'shakes the heavens' around the trapped Commander-in-Chief.

Leads the van of the fifty-thousand-strong expedition into the West River Land.

Wins the commission Wei Yan tries to take from him, and when the young rival's cheating march goes wrong, his bowshot drops Deng Xian mid-thrust — saving Wei Yan's life — before he chases Ling Bao off and takes the camp gate. 'Old, am I?'

Rescues Wei Yan a second time — smashing the pincer at Luocheng's walls — and after the disaster gives the counsel that shapes everything after: stay on the defensive and send to Jingzhou for Zhuge Liang.

Proposes the night raid that burns Zhang Ren's camp outside Luocheng, then leads the swordsmen in the reeds who cut the horses at the Golden Goose Bridge trap.

Fights Li Yan fifty bouts to no decision, then plays the feigned defeat that lures him into the hills — and co-holds Mianzhu with Zhao Zilong while Zhuge Liang goes to Jiameng.

Roars up from the generals' ranks when Zhuge Liang's age-jabs land — snaps the stiffest bow on the wall to prove the point — then wins Tiandang by craft: three days of feigned retreats 'lending' his camps to Xiahou Shang and Han Hao, a second-watch night storm that takes all three back, Han Hao cut down in one encounter, and Yan Yan's fire ambush closing the trap. Ends the chapter demanding Dingjun Mountain and Xiahou Yuan with only his own three thousand.

The chapter's first hero: works Fa Zheng's Host-and-Guest ruse camp by camp toward Dingjun, captures Xiahou Shang in one bout, shoots him in the back at the prisoner exchange to enrage Xiahou Yuan — and on the red flag comes down the hill like an earthquake to cleave the Mountain Commander in two. Made General Who Conquers the West; then wins the grain-burning errand by lot, is surrounded at Northern Mountain by Zhang He and Xu Huang, and is cut free by Zhao Yun at noon.

Waits out Xu Huang until evening fatigue, then falls on him from the left while Zhao Yun takes the right — the defeat that drowns half the crossing force; later fires the hills against the supply line and presses the slaughter on the flank from Baozhou in the triple attack.

Named among the Five Tiger Generals — the ranking that stings Guan Yu into nearly refusing his seal: 'what sort of a man is this Huang Zhong that he is ranked with us?'

Named in passing — one of the heroes Zhang Zhao counts behind Liu Bei's coming vengeance.

Named Van Leader of the Army of Vengeance, with Feng Xi and Zhang Nan as his Marching Generals — the last Tiger General still riding to war.

Stung by the Emperor's chance remark that the old generals are 'aged, and thus no longer a big use' — and rides off toward the Wu front with a half dozen officers to prove otherwise. 'Huang Zhong is no traitor,' smiles the First Ruler, sending the two nephews after him.

The old lion's last hunt: rides to the Yiling camps at seventy-five to answer the 'old and useless' remark, cuts down Shi Ji in three bouts and fights Guan Yu's stolen saber in Pan Zhang's hands to a standstill — then chases the feint into the four-sided ambush, where Ma Zhong's arrow finds his armpit. Dies in camp that night under the Emperor's own hand on his shoulder: 'I am seventy-five, and I have lived long enough. Be careful of your own safety for the good of the state.'

Named once, as the man who killed Xiahou Yuan - the death that got Xiahou Mao his imperial marriage and now his army.