The Last Backbone of Shu Han: Liao Hua Will Not Die

Everyone says, “When Shu has no great generals, Liao Hua becomes the vanguard.”

Those words nailed him to history's pillar of shame for a thousand years. Everyone laughed at him as a mere stopgap, an expedient choice made when Shu Han was nearing its end.

Liao Hua never defended himself.

He had lived through the Yellow Turban Rebellion, witnessed Guan Yu's defeat and death, watched Zhuge Liang's star fall at Wuzhang Plain, and bid farewell to Jiang Wei as he marched north to reclaim the Central Plains.

He had lived long enough to see all his comrades pass away.

At the Battle of Duangu, the Shu army suffered a crushing defeat, and Jiang Wei gave his life for his country. Liao Hua, past seventy, crawled out of a mountain of corpses and fought his way through the encirclement with the great general's body on his back. When he returned to Chengdu, he found the surrender petition already laid out on the table.

“Your Majesty,” Liao Hua knelt, his voice hoarse. “The great general faced north until his dying breath, and not one soldier cast aside his weapon. I am seventy-three this year. I can still defend the Han for a little longer.”

Liu Shan took back the surrender petition.

For the next ten years, a white-haired old general held up a kingdom teetering on the brink of collapse.

When the southern tribes rebelled, he went into the wilderness with his sword in hand and won their submission without killing a soul.

When enemies invaded the border, he stood firm at the front despite his age and illness.

Everyone said he was old and should rest.

He replied, “As long as I am still standing, Shu Han has not fallen.”

At ninety-three, beneath the walls of Luoyang.

He raised his blade one last time. Before him stood an army of a hundred thousand; behind him was the name of the kingdom he had guarded all his life.

This battle was not about victory or defeat.

It was to prove that the old soldier mocked for a thousand years had fought for his dynasty until he was the last man standing.

In a nutshell:

A joke for a thousand years, yet the last pillar holding everything up. One old man spent his life writing the most tragic final chapter for Shu Han.