The Great Battle Axe is the weapon that marks Xu Huang’s martial presence in Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Its broad cutting head gives him a different outline from the many spear and sword bearers around him.
Chapter 14 shows Xu Huang killing Li Yue with an axe while protecting the emperor’s flight. Later he exchanges blows with Xu Chu for more than fifty bouts without a decision. Cao Cao’s admiration for this performance leads to an attempt to recruit him.
The axe therefore introduces both fighting ability and a change of allegiance. Great Battle Axe is a descriptive English title, not a secret personal name or an excavated historical identification; the novel makes the warrior’s skill, rather than magic in the weapon, decisive.
