เกาลัดHualiu

Hualiu (+1 horse): defensive mount. Other seats are 1 further away when targeting you — identical in effect to Shadow Runner. Only one defensive mount at a time.

Hualiu is not a Three Kingdoms horse at all — it is far older, one of the eight legendary steeds of King Mu of Zhou, the name later writers reached for when they wanted to say what a great horse looked like. At the table it is one of three defensive mounts with identical effect: everyone needs 1 more distance to name you. Which one you get is only a question of what you drew. It pays off most for a player nobody has placed yet, because surviving another round is worth more than landing one more hit.

There is only one defensive slot, so a second defensive mount is a dead card. If Hualiu turns up while you are already mounted, do not just discard it — it is still an ordinary hand card: feed it to Liu Bei's Benevolence, spend it as a skill cost, or hand it to a seat riding nothing at all.

Dismantle is the clean answer, because it ignores distance entirely. Steal is not: this mount puts even the seat next to the wearer at distance 2, and Steal is refused past 1. Otherwise sidestep distance altogether — Duel, Hail of Arrows and Barbarian Horde never check it.