CHAPTER 42. Screaming Zhang Fei Stops The Enemy At Long Slope Bridge; Defeated Liu Bei Goes To Hanjin.
As related in the last chapter two generals appeared in front of Zhao Yun, who rode at them with his spear ready for a thrust. Zhong Jin was leading, flourishing his battle-ax. Zhao Yun engaged and very soon unhorsed him. Then Zhao Yun galloped away. Zhong Shen rode up behind ready with his halberd and his horse's nose got so close to the other's tail that in Zhao Yun could see in his armor the reflection of the play of Zhong Shen's weapon. Then suddenly, and without warning, Zhao Yun wheeled round his horse so that he faced his pursuer and their two steeds struck breast to breast. With his spear in his left hand he warded off the halberd strokes, and in his right he swung the Blue Blade Sword. One slash and he had cut through both helmet and head; Zhong Shen fell to the ground, a corpse with only half a head on his body. His followers fled, and Zhao Yun retook the road toward Long Slope Bridge.
But in his rear arose another tumultuous shouting, seeming to rend the very sky, and Wen Ping came up behind. However, although the man was weary and his steed spent, Zhao Yun got close to the bridge where he saw standing, all ready for any fray, Zhang Fei.
“Help me, Zhang Fei!” he cried and crossed the bridge.
“Hasten!” cried Zhang Fei, “I will keep back the pursuers.”
About seven miles from the bridge, Zhao Yun saw Liu Bei with his followers reposing in the shade of some trees. He dismounted and drew near, weeping. The tears also started to Liu Bei's eyes when he saw his faithful commander.
Still panting from his exertions, Zhao Yun gasped out, “My fault — death is too light a punishment. Lady Mi was severely wounded; she refused my horse and threw herself into a well. She is dead, and all I could do was to fill in the well with the rubbish that lay around. But I placed the babe in the breast of my fighting robe and have won my way out of the press of battle. Thanks to the little lord's grand luck I have escaped. At first he cried a good deal, but for some time now he has not stirred or made a sound. I fear I may not have saved his life after all.”
Then Zhao Yun opened his robe and looked; the child was fast asleep.
“Happily, Sir, your son is unhurt,” said Zhao Yun as he drew him forth and presented him in both hands.
Liu Bei took the child but threw it aside angrily, saying, “To preserve that suckling I very nearly lost a great commander!”
Zhao Yun picked up the child again and, weeping, said, “Were I ground to powder, I could not prove my gratitude.”
From out Cao Cao's host a tiger rushed,
His wish but to destroy;
Though Liu Bei's consort lost her life,
Zhao Yun preserved her boy.
“Too great the risk you ran to save
This child,” the father cried.
To show he rated Zhao Yun high,
He threw his son aside.
Wen Ping and his company pursued Zhao Yun till they saw Zhang Fei's bristling mustache and fiercely glaring eyes before them. There he was seated on his battle steed, his hand grasping his terrible octane-serpent spear, guarding the bridge. They also saw great clouds of dust rising above the trees and concluded they would fall into an ambush if they ventured across the bridge. So they stopped the pursuit, not daring to advance further.
In a little time Cao Ren, Xiahou Dun, Xiahou Yuan, Li Dian, Yue Jin, Zhang Liao, Xu Chu, Zhang He, and other generals of Cao Cao came up, but none dared advance, frightened not only by Zhang Fei's fierce look, but lest they should become victims of a ruse of Zhuge Liang. As they came up they formed a line on the west side, halting till they could inform their lord of the position.
As soon as the messengers arrived and Cao Cao heard about it, he mounted and rode to the bridge to see for himself. Zhang Fei's fierce eye scanning the hinder position of the army opposite him saw the silken umbrella, the axes and banners coming along, and concluded that Cao Cao came to see for himself how matters stood.
So in a mighty voice he shouted: “I am Zhang Fei of Yan ((an ancient state)); who dares fight with me?”
At the sound of this thunderous voice, a terrible quaking fear seized upon Cao Cao, and he bade them take the umbrella away. Turning to his followers, he said, “Guan Yu had said that his brother Zhang Fei was the sort of man to go through an army of a hundred legions and take the head of its commander-in-chief, and do it easily. Now here is this terror in front of us, and we must be careful.”
As he finished speaking, again that terrible voice was heard, “I am Zhang Fei of Yan; who dares fight with me?”
Cao Cao, seeing his enemy so fierce and resolute, was too frightened to think of anything but retreat; and Zhang Fei, seeing a movement going on in the rear, once again shook his spear and roared, “What mean you? You will not fight nor do you run away!”
This roar had scarcely begun when one of Cao Cao's staff, Xiahou Jie, reeled and fell from his horse terror-stricken, paralyzed with fear. The panic touched Cao Cao and spread to his whole surroundings, and he and his staff galloped for their lives. They were as frightened as a suckling babe at a clap of thunder or a weak woodcutter at the roar of a tiger. Many threw away their spears, dropped their casques and fled, a wave of panic-stricken humanity, a tumbling mass of terrified horses. None thought of ought but flight, and those who ran trampled the bodies of fallen comrades under foot.
Zhang Fei was wrathful; and who dared
To accept his challenge? Fierce he glared;
His thunderous voice rolled out, and then
In terror fled Cao Cao's armed soldiers.
Panic-stricken Cao Cao galloped westward with the rest, thinking of nothing but getting away. He lost his headdress and his loosened hair streamed behind him. Presently Zhang Liao and Xu Chu came up with him and seized his bridle; fear had deprived him of all self-control.
“Do not be frightened,” said Zhang Liao. “After all Zhang Fei is but one man and not worthy of extravagant fear. If you will only return and attack, you will capture your enemy.”
That time Cao Cao had somewhat overcome his panic and become reasonable. Two generals were ordered back to the bridge to reconnoiter.
Zhang Fei saw the disorderly rout of the enemy but he dared not pursue. However, he bade his score or so of dust-raising followers to cut loose the branches from their horses' tails and come to help destroy the bridge. This done he went to report to his brother and told him of the destruction of the bridge.
“Brave as you are, Brother, and no one is braver; but you are no strategist,” said Liu Bei.
“What mean you, Brother?”
“Cao Cao is very deep. You are no match for him. The destruction of the bridge will bring him in pursuit.”
“If he ran away at a yell of mine, think you he will dare return?”
“If you had left the bridge, he would have thought there was an ambush and would not have dared to pass it. Now the destruction of the bridge tells him we are weak and fearful, and he will pursue. He does not mind a broken bridge. His legions could fill up the biggest rivers that we could get across.”
So orders were given to march, and they went by a bye-road which led diagonally to Hanjin by the road of Minyang.
The two generals sent by Cao Cao to reconnoiter near Long Slope Bridge returned, saying, “The bridge has been destroyed; Zhang Fei has left.”
“Then he is afraid,” said Cao Cao.
Cao Cao at once gave orders to set ten thousand men at work on three floating bridges to be finished that night.