Guan Yu at Huarong Road

Also called: Huarong Trail

A scene invented by a historical novel. It differs from the recorded history.

A scene from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms in which Guan Yu, remembering past kindness, lets the defeated Cao Cao escape at Huarong Road. It is not in the official history.

A scene invented by the novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Fleeing Red Cliffs with a remnant of his army, Cao Cao finds Guan Yu barring the Huarong Road; when Cao Cao pleads by the favours he once showed him, Guan Yu cannot bring himself to strike and lets him pass. The episode also appears in the Korean pansori Jeokbyeokga.

That Cao Cao retreated by the Huarong Road is recorded in the Shanyang Gong Zaiji quoted by Pei Songzhi: with his ships burned, he withdrew on foot, and the road was so muddy that weak soldiers were made to carry grass to fill it, and many were trampled into the mud. No record says Guan Yu was there.