Yao, Ling, and Chien Po

Chien-Po is the largest, in both height and size, of the trio. However, he is also very gentle and cares a great deal about food (especially beef, pork, and chicken). He wears a blue uniform. Some of his character traits appear to have been taken from Buddhist imagery, which makes sense as Chien-Po is the most soft-spoken and zen of the group. When Yao is about to fight Mulan when they first met, Chien-Po successfully calms him down with a relaxing chant. Unfortunately, this did not last long because Mushu counter-insulted Yao when the latter was about to leave Mulan alone. After the camp turns on 'Ping', Chien-Po is the only one of the trio to not try to make life difficult for Mulan, although at no point during the sequence does he show her any support. However, when Yao is about to punch Mulan on the first day of training, he was about to stop him until Shang restored control. Apart from defending China from the Huns, Chien-Po does not possess a negative bone in his body; when the soldiers tease Chi-Fu's demand for order by asking for food, Chien-Po innocently asks for food as well and shows confusion when the others reveal it to only be a joke. At times, he seems to demonstrate super-human strength, able to lift and hug Mulan and both his friends combined, as well as pick up his entire army unit while pulling Khan, Mulan, and Shang to safety with no visible effort. This makes him the strongest of the trio, and arguably of all Shang's soldiers—beating out even Yao.

Yao is the shortest of the trio and the bruiser of the group. He wears a red uniform and also has one bruised black eye as well as a mustache and thick sideburns. He has a hot temper, which can be cooled by Chien Po's calming chant. He is also sarcastic, referring to Li Shang as "pretty boy" and teasing his macho demeanor. Despite his strength, he can be rather clumsy. Yao initially dislikes Mulan, in part due to a perceived insult (which actually came from Mushu), even threatening to "feed" Ping (Mulan's alias) a "knuckle sandwich" before the formal start of training, but later becomes her friend. Despite Yao's temper, he is incredibly sweet, loyal and cheerful amongst his friends. He even took it upon himself to fill Mulan in on in-jokes during "A Girl Worth Fighting For". Yao is also a natural born leader, as he takes charge of his unit in place of Shang several times throughout the movie. During training, Yao talks back to Shang, and as a result is picked out as the first to try to retrieve the arrow, deliberately humiliated in front of the other recruits, making him the most aggressive of the bunch. This aspect is furthered by the fact that Yao is constantly seen fighting with others, and his temper is usually the cause of it. Even so, his great strength proves to be beyond impressive, leading to him emerging from his constant scuffles victorious.

Ling is of medium height and slender build. He is usually seen in a yellow uniform. He appears to be the clown of the group and often has a joke ready. Like the others, he initially hated Ping largely because of "his" role in instigating a massive fight at the camp, with his even sarcastically asking on the first day of training if Ping was hungry (with Yao proceeding to claim in response that he prepared for Ping a "knuckle sandwich" in an unsubtle threat to her). During training he slyly kicks the support from 'Ping's' rocket, resulting in her becoming charred and Chi-Fu's tent (and Chi-Fu) to be incinerated by the wayward rocket. When Mulan proves her worth, he is the first to intend to start over (unfortunately this is during her bathing scene). He nearly discovers her secret, but Mushu bites him on his backside, causing a panic among the trio that allows Mulan to get away. Contrasting Yao and Chien Po, he is somewhat weaker than the two physically, as he knocks himself out during a block breaking task in training (in his lyric of "I'll Make a Man Out of You", he claims this is because he used to cut gym class at school, something he comes to regret at the moment). Ling is also rather cowardly and accident-prone compared to Yao and Chien-Po. He tries to compensate his shortcomings by feigning bravado, but his ego is teasingly knocked down by Yao more often than not. Ling does grow more capable, though, as, near the end, he is able to use the move to incapacitate one of the Elite Huns.