Zhang Fei Stands at Changban Bridge — The Voice and the Calculation That Stopped an Army Single-Handed

From Chapters 41 and 42 of Romance of the Three Kingdoms

Read the Comic

Zhang Fei at Changban Bridge

The Pursuit at Changban

The Contrivance of Dust Clouds

The Three Shouts

Breaking the Bridge

The Difference from the Historical Record

Conclusion

Read the Text

Zhang Fei at Changban Bridge

At Changban Bridge, Zhang Fei stood alone on the bridge. Bearing down on him was Cao Cao's great army. His allies were only about twenty horsemen. Yet Cao's army could not come a single step closer. Zhang Fei's shout had stopped the army. But that shout was not momentum alone.

There was the contrivance of dust clouds, and a reading of the opponent's heart. Zhang Fei tends to be thought of as a man of a loud voice and a serpent spear. But read the text, and the Zhang Fei of this scene is thinking carefully.

The Pursuit at Changban

The story is in the 13th year of Jian'an — the year 208. Driven from Jing Province, Liu Bei was fleeing south toward Jiangling. The common folk who followed Liu Bei numbered more than 100,000. With many carts, the army could advance only a little more than ten li a day. Cao Cao did not let that pass. The military supplies sleeping in Jiangling could not be handed to Liu Bei.

Abandoning his baggage train, Cao Cao pursued at the head of 5,000 picked cavalry. In a day and a night, they are said to have ridden more than 300 li. At Changban in Dangyang, he finally caught up. Liu Bei's army collapsed, and the battle became a one-sided pursuit. Liu Bei left his wife and children behind and fled with Kongming, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, and a few dozen horsemen.

Amid that, Zhao Yun turned back into the midst of the fighting to search for the missing Lady Mi and the infant Adou. The lady, after entrusting Adou to him, lost her life. Zhao Yun held Adou to his breast and cut his way out of the encirclement. Brandishing his spear, he broke through the heavy ring — Zhao Yun, heading for Changban Bridge.

From behind, Wen Pin's army pressed in. Both men and horses were already utterly exhausted. Zhao Yun, having reached the bridge, called to Zhang Fei on the bridge:

Zhao YunYide, help me.

Zhang Fei answered: Zilong, go quickly.

Zhang FeiI will take on the pursuers.

The Contrivance of Dust Clouds

The force left to Zhang Fei was only about twenty horsemen. Zhang Fei placed those twenty horsemen behind the woods east of the bridge. He had branches tied to the horses' tails and had them ride back and forth behind the woods. The branches dragged along the ground, and a great dust cloud rose. It was a contrivance to make it look as if a great army were hidden beyond the woods.

A “feint force” is a device to make it appear that a great army exists where there is none. Zhang Fei had set it up before fighting. And Zhang Fei himself stood alone on the bridge the whole time. That figure, neither fleeing nor hiding, deepened the opponent's suspicion. Wen Pin, who had pursued him, reined in his horse in front of the bridge.

On the bridge stood Zhang Fei alone, spear at the ready. Beyond the bridge, in the woods, a dust cloud was rising. There might be an ambush. Wen Pin gave up approaching. In time, Cao's generals arrived one after another: Cao Ren, Li Dian, Xiahou Dun, Xiahou Yuan — and further Yue Jin, Zhang Liao, Zhang He, and Xu Chu.

The famed generals were assembled. Yet none tried to cross the bridge. They feared it might be Zhuge Kongming's stratagem. The generals formed their lines west of the bridge and sent a fast horse to report to Cao Cao. Receiving the report, Cao Cao himself advanced on horseback. Zhang Fei, seeing to the rear a blue canopy and a line of banners, understood:

Cao Cao suspects something, and has come to see for himself, he thought.

The Three Shouts

Zhang Fei opened his eyes wide and raised his voice: I am Zhang Yide of Yan. Is there anyone who will challenge me to a fight to the death? The text relates that his voice was like thunder. Cao's soldiers all trembled. Cao Cao had the canopy removed, avoiding being targeted in a conspicuous figure.

And he said to the generals at his sides: I have heard it before from Yunchang — Yide is a man who, even amid an army of a million, takes a senior general's head as easily as taking something from a bag. Today, we must not engage him rashly. Cao Cao's single remark became a restraint on the whole army. Zhang Fei raised his second shout.

Zhang Yide of Yan is here. Is there anyone who will challenge me to a fight to the death? Cao Cao, seeing Zhang Fei's spirit, was inclining toward withdrawal. Zhang Fei did not miss the movement beginning in Cao's lines. He loosed his third shout: you neither fight nor withdraw, and you neither retreat nor retreat — why is that? Just after that shout, the general Xiahou Jie, attending at Cao Cao's side, fell from his horse and lost his life.

So great was his shock that his liver and gall were shattered — so the text relates. Cao Cao turned his horse and galloped off. If the commander-in-chief withdrew, the army could not hold. Cao's army fled west all at once. Those who threw away spears and dropped helmets were beyond counting, it is related. Zhang Fei did not pursue.

To pursue on momentum would, on the contrary, be dangerous.

Breaking the Bridge

Zhang Fei called back his twenty horsemen and had the branches tied to the horses' tails untied. And he broke the bridge. Now the pursuers could not cross the river. Zhang Fei returned to Liu Bei and reported that he had broken the bridge. But Liu Bei's reaction was stern: younger brother, your courage is courage, but breaking the bridge was a miscalculation.

Had you not broken it, Cao Cao would have suspected an ambush and not advanced. By breaking it, he has learned that we have no great army here, he said. Zhang Fei talked back: they fled in such fright.

Zhang FeiThey will not come pursuing again.

But Liu Bei's reading proved right. Cao Cao had Zhang Liao and Xu Chu scout the state of the bridge. The two saw the broken bridge. Cao Cao decided: the enemy is weak. Resume the pursuit, he ordered. As Liu Bei's army was being pursued again, from beyond the mountains, with the sound of drums, a body of troops appeared.

It was Guan Yu. He had come to meet them at the head of 10,000 troops borrowed from Jiangxia. Seeing Guan Yu's figure, Cao Cao judged that he had fallen for Kongming's stratagem again. Cao Cao stopped the pursuit and ordered the whole army to withdraw. Liu Bei was finally able to escape to Hanjin.

The Difference from the Historical Record

Here, let us make the difference from the historical record clear. The scene at Changban Bridge also has a short record in the Biography of Zhang Fei in Records of the Three Kingdoms, the historical record: that he guarded the rear with twenty horsemen, broke the bridge by the water, opened his eyes wide and held his spear across, called out “I am Zhang Yide — come and fight me to the death,” and that no enemy came near.

The very figure of Zhang Fei standing on the bridge has a skeleton in the historical record as well. On the other hand, the three shouts, the feint force of dust clouds, and Xiahou Jie's death are not written in the historical record. The scene in which Cao Cao grows cautious, quoting Guan Yu's words, is also an embellishment the Romance created. The writing of the name differs, too.

The historical record writes Zhang Yide (益徳); the Romance writes Zhang Yide (翼徳). It can be said that the Romance wrote Zhang Fei's calculation and voice into the historical record's short account.

Conclusion

The reason Zhang Fei's shout worked was not the loudness of his voice alone. With dust clouds he suggested a great army, and with the reputation Guan Yu had vouched for, he made the opponent cautious. Even the fact that Cao Cao was a suspicious general was inside his reading. However, his judgment in breaking the bridge missed the mark.

Even the Zhang Fei who used his head had misreadings. Even so, the scene in which he stopped a great army with twenty horsemen and one man's voice remains. The Zhang Fei of Changban Bridge was a man of calculation as well as a man of strength.