Aaron.K wrote:Whenever troops are lead in an action, the bios are quite consistent in mentioning the troops. And so when Guan Yu is mentioned singularly, and not as leading troops, based on the consistency with other biographies, it only makes sense to me to view his action as one that he did alone, by himself (though that's not to say that troops were not with him in the attack. Simply that when he charged forward and killed Yan Liang, he was not leading anyone, and he went on his own initiative).
That I'm inclined to agree with. I think that Guan Yu, as soon as he spotted the banner, charged himself without alerting others (he probably wanted to be the one to kill Yan Liang and was determined to do this- possibly for glory or simply for the thrill/challenge). I still think his retainers may have followed him (their duty to) but he likely didn't rally them or order them to.