Three Kingdoms

by Luo Guanzhong (Moss Roberts trans. )

  Zhao Zilong was galloping toward Steepslope Bridge when a soldier hailed him. "Where to, General Zhao?" "Who are you?" Zhao Zilong countered, reining up. "I was escorting our lord's wives," the man replied, "when an arrow knocked me down." Zilong asked for details. "Just now," the soldier said, "I saw Lady Gan, disheveled and barefoot, fleeing south with a group of women, commoners." At once Zhao Zilong turned away and raced south. He passed hundreds of civilians, men and women, helping each other make their way. "Is Lady Gan among you?" Zilong cried. To the rear of the crowd Lady Gan spotted Zilong and called out. Zilong dismounted and planted his spear in the ground. "Letting you slip from my sight was a dreadful crime," he said tearfully. "Where are Lady Mi and the young master?" "When Cao's troops chased us," Lady Gan said, "we quit the escort and fell in with these refugees. Another troop attacked us. We scattered, and I was separated from them. Somehow I escaped alive."

  At that instant a fresh outcry announced another troop charging the crowd. Zhao Zilong flourished his spear and remounted to observe. In front of him was Mi Zhu, a prisoner in bonds. Just behind him, at the head of a thousand men, was Chunyu Dao, Cao Ren's corps commander, waving his sword. He had captured Mi Zhu and was going to claim his reward. With a short, sharp cry Zilong, spear leveled, went straight for Chunyu Dao. Chunyu Dao, unable to counter, was lanced and thrust under his horse. Zhao Zilong then rescued Mi Zhu and made off with two horses. He sat Lady Gan on one and, cutting a bloody swath, brought her to Steepslope Bridge.

  Zhang Fei, poised on the bridge with leveled sword, confronted him. "Zhao Zilong!" he called at the top of his voice, "explain why you betrayed our brother!" "I couldn't find our mistresses or the young master," Zilong answered, "so I dropped back. What do you mean by 'betrayed'?" "If Jian Yong had not already vouched for you, you would not pass!" Zhang Fei said. "Where is our lord?" Zilong asked. "Ahead, not far," Zhang Fei replied. Zhao Zilong turned to Mi Zhu and said, "Go on with Lady Gan. I'm going back to look for Lady Mi and the young master." He took a few riders and left.

  Along the way Zilong saw a captain with an iron spear in his hand and a sword strapped to his back. Behind him a dozen horsemen advanced at a gallop. Without wasting words, Zilong challenged the leader and dropped him in a single engagement. The dozen riders fled. The slain man was Xiahou En, Cao Cao's personal attendant and sword bearer.

  Now, Cao Cao had two swords of exceptional value. One was called Heaven's Prop, the other Black Pommel. Cao wore the first himself, Xiahou En the second. Its blade could slice through iron as if it were mud, and its point was dagger sharp. Before he crossed Zhao Zilong, Xiahou En had let himself become separated from Cao Cao, for he never doubted his skill. Intent only on what he and his men could plunder, Xiahou En had little expected to lose his life, let alone the treasured weapon. Zhao Zilong, examining the sword, saw the words "Black Pommel" engraved in gold on the handle and realized the value of the weapon. He thrust it into his belt, raised his spear, and resumed his assault on the enemy ranks. Looking back, he could no longer see his riders behind him.

  Undaunted, Zilong continued searching for Lady Mi, questioning any civilian he passed. Finally, someone pointed ahead, saying, "The mistress has the child. Her left leg is wounded, and she can't walk. She's sitting there in a crevice in the wall." Zhao Zilong hastened to the spot and found a dwelling with an earthen wall that had been damaged by fire. Lady Mi was sitting at the base, near a dry well, weeping. Zilong dismounted and pressed his palms and head to the ground.

  "With you here, General," Lady Mi said, "I know Ah Dou will live. I pray you, pity the father who, after half a lifetime of being tossed hither and roaming thither, has nothing in this world but this scrap of blood and bone. Guard him well, General, that he may see his father once again—and that I may die without regret." "My negligence is responsible for the ordeals you have suffered," Zhao Zilong said. "Say no more, but take this horse. I intend to fight on, on foot and bring you safely through the enemy's lines." "I will not have it that way," Lady Mi responded. "You must keep the horse. You are the child's only protection. My wounds are heavy, and my death is of no moment. I pray, General, take the child on ahead, and quickly. Do not delay for my sake." "I hear pursuers," Zhao Zilong said. "Mount the horse." "No," she said. "Do not lose two lives." She held Ah Dou out to Zhao Zilong and added, "His life is in your hands." Steadfastly, she refused his offers. The enemy was closing in. Their shouts were everywhere. Zilong's tone grew more anxious. "My lady, what will you do when they come?" Without answering again, Lady Mi set Ah Dou on the ground, turned, and threw herself into the well. A poet of later times honored her sacrifice in these lines:4

  The embattled captain had to have his steed;

  On foot he could not save the little prince.

  Her death preserved the Liu dynastic line:

  For bold decision mark this heroine.

  To prevent the enemy from taking his mistress's corpse, Zhao Zilong pushed over the earthen wall, burying the well. He then loosened his armor straps, lowered his breastplate, and placed Ah Dou against his bosom. Hefting his spear, Zilong remounted.

  By this time one of Cao Hong's corps commanders, Yan Ming, had brought up a body of foot soldiers. Wielding a two-edged sword with three prongs, he set on Zhao Zilong. After a brief clash Zilong ran him through. He dispersed Yan Ming's squad, killing several, and broke open a path. But another unit—commanded by a general—arrived and blocked Zilong. Their standard bore the words, large and clear, "Zhang He of Hejian." Without a word, Zilong raised his spear and joined battle. After more than ten passes Zilong had to break off the contest. He fled, and Zhang He gave chase.

  Zhao Zilong applied the whip, but unfortunately his horse went crashing into a ditch, and Zhang He approached for the kill. Suddenly, a beam of reddish light formed an arc from the ditch, and the horse, as if treading on thin air, leaped out of the hole. The rescue of the prince is described in this verse of later times:

  The cornered dragon bathed in red took wing

  And cleaved the enemy lines by Steepslope Bridge.

  In two score years and two the babe will reign;

  Zhao's superhuman might thus earned his fame.

  Zhang He fell back at the miraculous sight.

  Zhao Zilong was in full flight when he heard two voices behind him: "Halt, Zhao Zilong!" Two more commanders before him, displaying weapons, blocked his way. Bringing up the rear were Ma Yan and Zhang Yi; blocking the way in front were Jiao Chu and Zhang Nan: all four had served Yuan Shao before surrendering to Cao Cao. Zhao Zilong fought them mightily. Cao Cao's men came trooping up. Zilong drew the sword Black Pommel and began slashing wildly. Wherever he struck, the blade cut through the armor, drawing blood. In this manner he slowly drove back the swarm of commanders and got through the encirclement.

  From his vantage on Scenic Mountain, Cao Cao observed the general whom none could best and asked his attendants who it was. Cao Hong sped down the hill to find out, shouting: "Let the fighter speak his name!" "Zhao Zilong of Changshan!" was the instant reply. Cao Hong relayed the news to Cao Cao, who said, "There's a tiger-warrior for you! Try and get him here alive." He sent swift riders to inform various stations: "If Zhao Zilong comes your way, deliver him to the prime minister alive. No potshots!" And so, Zhao Zilong was able to get away. Was this too not the result of Ah Dou's good fortune?

  After cutting through the encircling troops, the baby prince still on his breast, Zhao Zilong downed two standards and captured three spears. The sum total of noted captains speared or slashed by Zilong amounted to more than fifty. His exploits are remembered in these lines written long after the events:

  In bloodsoaked battle gown and armor bloody red,

  He faced down every foe at Dangyang town.

  Of all who ever fought to keep a king from harm,

  Who excels Zhao Zilong, hero of Changshan?

  Zhao Zilong, his surcoat drenched in blood, had brought Ah Dou safely away from the main battleground when two armed companies intercepted
him by the foot of the slope. They were led by two brothers, Zhong Jin and Zhong Shen, corps commanders under Xiahou Dun. Zhong Jin was wielding a giant axe; Zhong Shen, a figured halberd. "Dismount and submit, Zhao Zilong!" they shouted. Here was an instance, indeed,

  Of facing the waves in the dragon's pool

  Moments after escaping from the tiger's lair.

  Would Zhao Zilong manage to get free?

  Read on.

  42

  Zhang Fei Makes an Uproar at Steepslope Bridge;

  Xuande, Defeated, Flees to the Han River Ford

  Zhao Zilong worked his spear against the two attackers. Zhong Jin came on first, swinging a giant battle-axe. The riders tangled. Zilong downed his man neatly and rode on. Zhong Shen gave chase, halberd in hand, drawing close enough for his horse to touch the tail of Zilong's mount. The reflection of his halberd flashed in the back of Zilong's armor. Suddenly Zilong pulled up short and lurched around, confronting his pursuer: to the left, Zilong's spear checked the halberd; to the right, he swung Black Pommel, cutting through Zhong Shen's helmet and cleaving his skull in two. Shen's escort quickly vanished.

  Riding unhindered, Zilong headed for Steepslope Bridge. Suddenly he felt the ground trembling behind him. Wen Ping was leading a company in pursuit. Man and mount spent, Zilong reached the bridge and saw Zhang Fei upon it, lance raised, horse steady. Zilong hailed him: "I need help, Yide!" "Hurry across!" Zhang Fei said. "Leave the pursuers to me!" Zilong guided his horse over the bridge and rode another twenty Zi. Finally he found Xuande resting under a tree, surrounded by a group of men. Zilong dismounted and placed his head and hands to the ground. Lord and vassal wept.

  Still breathing hard, Zilong said, "Ten thousand deaths could not redeem my offense. Lady Mi was wounded so badly that she refused my horse and threw herself down a well. I could do nothing but knock over an earthen wall to cover her body. Then, holding the young master on my chest, I broke through the enemy's lines, and by the favor Heaven bestows on you, my lord, I survived. A moment ago the young master was crying. But he's stopped moving now, and I fear ..." Zilong untied his armor and looked inside. The infant was asleep. "Safe and sound," he announced happily. "Fortune smiles." He handed Ah Dou carefully to Xuande, who flung him to the ground the instant he received him. "For the sake of a suckling like you," Xuande cried, "I risked losing a great commander!"1 Zilong swept the child off the ground and prostrated himself, saying through his tears, "If I cut my heart out here, I could not repay your kindness to me." A poet of later times described the scene:

  The tigers sprang from Cao Cao's fighting line;

  Safe on Zhao Yun's breast the little dragon curled.

  How did the liege requite his liege man's love?

  Down before the horse, Xuande his own son hurled!

  Wen Ping, meanwhile, had tracked Zilong to the bridge. There he found Zhang Fei, tiger-whiskers upcurled, eyes two rings of fury, snake-lance in hand. Mounted and poised, Zhang Fei looked out from the bridge. Wen Ping spotted dust rising out of the adjacent copse to the east. Suspecting an ambush, he reined in. Soon Cao Cao's leading generals joined him—Cao Ren, Li Dian, Xiahou Dun, Xiahou Yuan, Yue Jin, Zhang Liao, Zhang He, Xu Chu, and others. Cao's commanders contemplated Zhang Fei's menacing glare and leveled lance. And, too, they remembered Kongming's clever traps. They dug in west of the bridge, therefore, and posted a man back to Cao Cao. News of the standoff decided Cao Cao to hurry to the scene.

  Zhang Fei's probing eye made out Cao Cao's blue silk umbrella in the distance, his feathered battle-axe and fringed banner. "So he came to see for himself," Zhang Fei thought. He called out: "I am Zhang Fei of Yan! Have you a man who'll fight it out to the death?" The power of Zhang Fei's voice unnerved Cao Cao's men. Cao Cao ordered the command umbrella removed. Turning to his attendants, he said, "Once Lord Guan told me that Zhang Fei had taken the head of a chief general before the eyes of his own legions as easily as removing an object from a sack. Today we have crossed his path and must take care." As Cao Cao spoke, Zhang Fei widened his eyes and shouted again: "Here he stands! Zhang Fei of Yan, who'll fight to the death any man that dares!" But Cao Cao, daunted by the warrior's indomitable spirit, was content to draw back.2

  Zhang Fei watched the rear lines of Cao Cao's army shuffling about. He lifted his spear and bellowed: "What's it to be? Don't want to fight? Don't want to leave?" The mighty voice still commanded the air when Xiahou Jie, right beside Cao Cao, collapsed and fell from his saddle, panic-stricken. Cao Cao turned and rode back, followed by his commanders. Indeed, what suckling babe can bear the peal of thunder; what injured woodsman can stand the roar of tigers and leopards? At that moment Cao Cao's soldiers threw down their spears and helmets and trampled one other as they fled—a tide of men, an avalanche of horses. Later a poet expressed his awe:

  Zhang Fei's war blood rose at Steepslope Bridge:

  Spear leveled, horse poised, eyes round-fixed.

  With a single thunderous cry that shook the ground,

  Alone he turned Cao's mighty host around.

  Zhang Fei's awesome presence had terrified Cao Cao. Dashing west, he let his cap and hairpin drop, and his hair streamed out behind him. Zhang Liao and Xu Chu overtook him and seized his horse's bridle. Cao Cao had lost control. "Do not panic, Your Excellency," Zhang Liao said. "Is one Zhang Fei so fearsome? Turn the army round again and fight. Liu Bei can be taken!" At these words Cao Cao got hold of himself and sent Zhang Liao and Xu Chu back to the bridge to find out what they could.

  Zhang Fei dared not pursue Cao Cao's withdrawing army. He summoned his original retinue of twenty riders, had them remove the branches from their horses' tails, and ordered them to pull down the bridge. He then reported back to Xuande. Xuande said, "Your bravery, brother, is beyond question, but not your tactics." Zhang Fei began to protest. "Cao Cao is a man of many schemes," Xuande continued. "You should have let the bridge stand. Now he's sure to be back." "If a single shout sent him reeling several li," Zhang Fei argued, "he won't be back for more." "Had you let it stand," Xuande explained, "fear of ambush would have continued to deter him from attacking. Now that it's down, he'll know we were afraid, having no troops around. His million-man host could ford the Han and the Great River simply by filling them in! How could razing one bridge stop him?" With that, Xuande set out at once on the side roads, moving diagonally toward Mianyang by way of Hanjin.

  Zhang Liao and Xu Chu examined the bridge and reported back to Cao Cao: "Zhang Fei destroyed it and left." "So he was afraid," Cao Cao said and decided to cross the river that same night. He ordered ten thousand men to set up three floating spans. "This could be one of Zhuge Liang's tricks," Li Dian warned. "Do not be reckless." "Zhang Fei's a foolhardy warrior. He knows no tricks," Cao Cao retorted and commanded his men to advance swiftly.

  Approaching Hanjin, Xuande saw dust rising in the air behind him. Drumbeats filled the air, and war cries shook the ground. "The Great River lies ahead," he said, "the enemy behind. What can we do?" He ordered Zhao Zilong to prepare a defense.

  Cao Cao instructed his men: "Liu Bei's a fish in our pot, a tiger in our trap. If we don't take him, here and now, we'll be letting the fish back into the sea, setting the tiger free in the hills. Press forward and spare no effort." With renewed vigor Cao's men started off one by one to get their man. But suddenly they heard a burst of drumming as a body of men and riders dashed forth from behind a hill. "We've been waiting for you a long time," the leader called out. It was Lord Guan, sitting astride Red Hare and gripping his Green Dragon. He had borrowed ten thousand men from Liu Qi in Jiangxia. Hearing of the great battles at Dangyang and Steepslope Bridge, he had come to intercept Cao Cao's band of pursuers. The moment Cao Cao sighted Lord Guan, he cried in despair, "Another of Zhuge Liang's traps!" and called a swift retreat.

  Lord Guan chased Cao Cao's army for many li before he rode back to see Xuande safely to Hanjin, where boats had been readied. Lord Guan bade Xuande and Lady Gan seat themselves in one of them and had Ah Dou placed secur
ely inside. He asked, "Why don't I see my other sister-in-law?" Xuande told him of Lady Mi's death in Dangyang. "Had you let me kill Cao Cao on the hunting field at Xuchang," Lord Guan said with emphasis, "you might have spared yourself these woes." "I had to consider how such an act could injure us," Xuande replied.3

  War drums from the southern shore intruded on their conversation. Boats were swarming across, sails to the wind. On the lead craft Xuande saw a man in white battle gown and silvery armor standing on the prow. "Uncle," he called out, "have you been well since we parted? I fear I have failed to serve you as a nephew should." It was Liu Qi. He boarded Xuande's boat and, tearfully prostrating himself, said, "I heard Cao Cao was closing in, uncle, so I have come to relieve you." Xuande was overjoyed. He merged the forces and continued his journey by water.

  Xuande was describing the recent events for Liu Qi when a line of war-boats, stretching across the water from the southwest, came smartly up, borne by a full wind. "All my Jiangxia forces are here," Liu Qi said anxiously. "These must be Southland ships coming to cut us off—if they're not Cao Cao's! What are we to do?" Xuande surveyed the approaching craft. Seated in the front was Kongming, robed like a Taoist hermit with a band round his head. Behind him stood Sun Qian. Xuande excitedly hailed Kongming and asked how he had managed to turn up here. "As soon as I reached Jiangxia," Kongming explained, "I sent Lord Guan by land to meet you at Hanjin. I expected that Cao Cao would chase you, and that you, my lord, would cut over to take Hanjin rather than go on to Jiangling. That's why I had Master Qi here reinforce you. Then I went to collect the soldiers at Xiakou and lead them here."