Hu Hua 胡華

In Chapter 27 of the Romance, Guan Yu told his two sisters-in-law about Cao Cao's gift of a battle robe and urged the carriage onward, and when night fell he stopped to rest at a farmstead in a village. The master of the farm, whose beard and hair were all white, came out and asked his name, and when Guan Yu said he was Guan, the younger brother of Liu Xuande, the old man asked whether he was not the Lord Guan who had slain Yan Liang and Wen Chou and, greatly pleased, invited him into the manor. On hearing that there were also two ladies in the carriage, the old man called his wife and daughter to go out and greet them. Romance, Ch. 27 §14–15

When the two ladies came up into the thatched hall, Guan Yu, saying that he could not presume to sit while his sisters-in-law were above him, stood beside them with his hands clasped. The old man had his wife and daughter take the two ladies into the inner quarters to be entertained, while he himself entertained Guan Yu in the thatched hall. When Guan Yu asked his name, the old man said that his surname was Hu and his given name Hua, that he had been a Gentleman Consultant in the time of Emperor Huan but had retired from office and returned to his home district, and that his young son Hu Ban was now serving as an Attendant Officer under Wang Zhi, Administrator of Xingyang. He then said that if Guan Yu was going to pass that way, he had a letter for his son, and Guan Yu agreed to take it. The next morning, after breakfast, Guan Yu took Hu Hua's letter, bade him farewell and set out on the road toward Luoyang. Romance, Ch. 27 §15–17

In the same chapter, when Guan Yu reached Xingyang, the Administrator Wang Zhi welcomed him with smiles and lodged him at the post station, then secretly summoned his Attendant Officer Hu Ban and ordered him to surround the post station with a thousand troops, set it on fire at the third watch and burn everyone inside to death. Hu Ban, who had long heard the name of Guan Yunchang but did not know what he looked like, went to the post station to steal a look; seeing Guan Yu reading by lamplight, he sighed that this was truly a man come down from heaven. When he said that he was Hu Ban, an Attendant Officer under the Administrator of Xingyang, Guan Yu asked, 'Are you not the son of Hu Hua who lives outside the city of Xudu?', and on being told that he was, had an attendant take the letter out of the baggage and give it to him. Romance, Ch. 27 §33–35 · 37–38

Having read the letter through, Hu Ban sighed that he had very nearly killed a loyal and virtuous man by mistake, and secretly told Guan Yu that Wang Zhi had surrounded the post station and arranged to set it on fire at the third watch, and that he would go ahead and open the city gate. Guan Yu put his two sisters-in-law in the carriage and slipped out through the open gate, and Hu Ban went back and set the fire. Romance, Ch. 27 §38–39

Chapter 73 records that before this, Hu Ban, the son of Hu Hua, had come to Jing Province and surrendered to Guan Yu, and that Guan Yu, mindful of how Hu Ban had once saved him, held him in great affection and had him go with Fei Shi into Shu to see the King of Hanzhong and receive office. The Romance does not record Hu Hua's own later life or death. Romance, Ch. 73 §36