Guo Tu

Guo Tu (onyomi: Kaku To) is a politician and general who first served Yin Xiu. He eventually served Yuan Shao and Yuan Tan. He ordered Zhang He and Gao Lan to attack Cao Cao's main camp rather than save Wuchao, resulting in an unrecoverable loss to Yuan Shao's forces.

Role in Games
In Dynasty Warriors 4, Guo Tu appears in the Ji Province. Yuan Shao orders Yuan Tan and Yuan Shang to guard Ji together against Cao Cao's forces. Guo Tu and Xin Ping push for Yuan Tan to forsake his brother and claim himself as the rightful heir. Cao Cao has the option to convince Yuan Tan to follow Guo Tu's advice and cause their defection.

Guo Tu has an oddly high War rating in the very first Romance of the Three Kingdoms —clocking in to be stronger than Wen Chou— and a dwarfish Intelligence stat. This is likely caused due to a programming error since War and Intelligence are adjacent to one another within the character menu. Although this has since been corrected, the "physically strong" Guo Tu became infamous with the Japanese fanbase due to Koei trying to cover up the mistake as intentional. Within most titles of the series, he has an above average Intelligence and is average with all other stats.

Historical Information
During the Battle of Guandu, Guo Tu confidently advised Yuan Shao to attack Cao Cao's main camp rather than follow Zhang He's suggestion of reinforcing Wuchao where their food supply was located. His plan proved to be a disaster when the undermanned granaries at Wuchao were raided by the enemy. Chunyu Qiong, the defender of Wuchao, was executed for Guo Tu's mistake. Fearing punishment himself, Guo Tu blamed Zhang He and Gao Lan for the failed attack and convinced his lord of their "treachery". This resulted in the two aforementioned officers defecting for real.

In the year 202, Guo Tu became an adviser under Yuan Tan after the latter's father passed away due to illness. He was sent to win over his lord's younger brother Yuan Shang whom Yuan Shao chose for succession as family head. To do this, he made efforts to separate two of Yuan Shang's advisers from one another in order to manipulate him further. One of the advisers saw through the deception and was killed by Yuan Tan for warning his lord. Tensions between the two siblings festered even more as Cao Cao made several in-roads to their territory.

To solve the succession crisis, Guo Tu and Yuan Tan made plans to assassinate Yuan Shang by inviting him to a victory banquet. Their target discovered the ruse and had five companies of soldiers accompany him to surround his brother's domain. With no hope of resisting, Yuan Tan surrendered to Cao Cao on Guo Tu's advice. Later, Yuan Tan betrayed the alliance and was besieged at Nanpi. Following Yuan Tan's death, Cao Cao entered the city and ordered the execution of Yuan Tan's leaders, including Guo Tu and his family.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms
Romance of the Three Kingdoms has him first appear in chapter 22. In the middle of their war against Cao Cao's army, Guo Tu instructed Yuan Shao to form a joint alliance with either Liu Bei or Sun Ce only for his advice to be left unheeded. After lying to his lord of Zhang He and Gao Lan's desire to defect, he sent a message to warn the two and had them leave the army alive. This compassionate side of his resurfaces once more when he advised Yuan Tan to spare Yuan Shang's adviser so that their alliance did not break.

Despite his best efforts to keep Yuan Shang in check, Guo Tu was unable to use his tactics effectively enough to dissuade Cao Cao from invading, which resulted in Yuan Tan's demise. His attempts to escape from Nanpi ended in failure as Cao Cao's officer Yue Jin killed him with a rain of arrows.