Zhang Fei

Wine seller, butcher, and Zhuo farmer; overhears Liu Bei's sigh at the recruiting notice and proposes raising troops together. Hosts the Peach Garden oath, fights with the Serpent Halberd, kills Deng Mao at first pass, and has to be physically restrained from cutting down Dong Zhuo after the latter slights the brothers.

Erupts at the inspector's demand for a bribe and the threats against the locals - ties him to a hitching post and whips him bloody with a willow switch. Has to be talked down from finishing him off.

Saves Gongsun Zan's life with a roar of 'Stay, O twice bastard!' as Red Hare closes in, then trades fifty even bouts with Lü Bu before his brothers join the famous three-against-one melee. When Lü Bu escapes, Zhang Fei spots Dong Zhuo's umbrella and charges the Pass itself - 'seize the chiefest rebel and pluck up the evil by the roots!'

Opens the chapter charging Tiger Trap Pass alone under a rain of stones and arrows, and later occupies the Pass with his brothers when Dong Zhuo's army abandons it.

Charges with his brothers at the Pan River; relieves Gongsun Zan.

Zhang Fei; rides with Liu Bei on the Beihai relief and the Xuzhou intervention.

Bristles at Lü Bu from the first - 'what sort of a man are you that dares call our brother younger brother?' - and twice tries to force the three-hundred-bout duel, until Lü Bu prudently removes to Xiaopei.

Left holding Xuzhou on a no-wine oath, he throws a farewell banquet, forces a cup on the abstaining Cao Bao, then flogs him fifty strokes for refusing a second - the insult that opens the gates to Lü Bu at midnight. Half-drunk, he cuts his way out with eighteen riders (leaving Liu Bei's family behind), kills the pursuing Cao Bao at the moat, and at Xuyi draws his sword to kill himself under Guan Yu's rebuke.

Zhang Fei; with Liu Bei at Xuyi; tries to take his own life from shame over losing Xuzhou before being talked down by Liu Bei's famous 'brothers are as hands and feet' speech.

Steals a hundred and fifty of Lü Bu's newly bought horses in brigand's guise - then owns it to his face: 'you did not say anything when you stole my brother's Xuzhou!' He trades a hundred bouts with Lü Bu before the gongs recall him, and leads the van in the moonlit breakout to Xuchang.

Holds the east gate and sallies out at Zhang Liao, itching to pursue until Guan Yu explains why an honorable man is walking away.

Snaps up the escort commander He Meng in the first bout of the night interception - the capture that betrays the whole marriage scheme to Cao Cao.

Cuts down Ji Ling in the tenth bout of the vanguard clash, then - once inside Xuzhou - exterminates Che Zhou's family before Liu Bei can weigh the consequences.

Defeats Liu Dai by feigning retreat then ambushing him; captures Liu Dai alive and brings him back to camp.

Author of the night-raid plan - Liu Bei praises the strategist he's becoming - and its chief victim: the lights flash, eight ambush points close, his ex-Cao Cao soldiers desert back to their old master, and he cuts free with barely a dozen riders for the Mangdang Hills.

Invoked at the moment of triumph: Guan Yu waves off the Yan Liang feat - his brother Zhang Fei takes heads 'in an army of a hundred legions as easily as picking something from his own pocket'. Cao Cao has his officers note the name on their robe-flaps.

Zhang Fei; has seized Gucheng during Guan Yu's exile; tries to attack Guan Yu on suspicion of defection; demands the brother prove loyalty by killing Cai Yang. Once it's done, embraces him.

Entrenches southwest and joins the first-day victory; rides to rescue Gong Du's supply train, beats off Xiahou Yuan (who has killed Gong Du) - and is himself surrounded by Yue Jin until Guan Yu finds him.

Kills the rebel Chen Sun with one thrust when he chases Zhao Zilong for the Dilu horse; his festival counsel is the shortest on record - 'banquets are no good; gatherings are no better; it is best not to go.'

The far anvil of Shan Fu's plan: three miles behind the rout he stands in the road, spear levelled - 'Zhang Fei is waiting!' - and Lü Xiang dies without striking a blow.

Falls on Cao Ren's broken army at the river bank as it waits for boats - most of the soldiers drown in the stream.

Grumbles through both failures - 'send and tell him to come', the snow journey is 'useless', the scholar talks 'wild ravings' - and is twice told to be silent, once with Mencius quoted at him.

Threatens to fetch the villager 'with a hempen rope', promises politeness, and spends the visit smothering the urge to let off a bomb behind the cottage while his brother stands waiting on a sleeping man.

Sneers 'send the Water!' and laughs at a strategist who fights from an armchair - then executes his Anlin Forest ambush to the letter, cuts down Xiahou Lan at the baggage train, and dismounts to bow to the man in the little carriage: 'Zhuge Liang is really a fine strategist!'

Proposes killing the envoy and storming Xiangyang to finish the Cai tribe - overruled - then takes his thousand men to the slow water at Boling Ferry, where the half-drowned fugitives find him waiting: 'you Cao Cao brigands! Come and receive your fate!'

Cuts his brother out of the night attack and fights till dawn, half-believes the slander against Zhao Zilong ('if I run against him, I will kill him!') - then takes twenty riders to Long Slope Bridge, ties tree branches to their horses' tails to raise an army's dust in the wood, and plants himself on the bridge, spear set, facing west.

Alone on Long Slope Bridge, serpent spear in hand: three bellows of 'I am Zhang Fei of Yan! Who dares fight with me?' kill Xiahou Jie outright and stampede Cao Cao's whole vanguard. Then the blunder - he demolishes the bridge, and Liu Bei reads it instantly: 'brave as you are, you are no strategist' - a standing bridge said ambush; a broken one says fear.

Zhang Fei; with Liu Bei at Jiangxia.

Brings fifty ships downriver on his own initiative, fearing even Guan Yu's arm might not be enough - and escorts the brothers home.

Sent with three thousand across the river to the Hulu Valley: wait for the rain to stop and the cooking smoke to rise, then fire the hillside on the refreshing army.

Answers the second laugh at the Hulu Valley cooking fires - 'whither would you flee, O rebel?' - taking on Xu Chu, Zhang Liao, and Xu Huang at once while the half-dressed army stampedes.

Occupies Jingzhou City the moment its guards march out to 'rescue Cao Ren' on Zhuge Liang's forged commission.

Loses the Guiyang command to Zhao Zilong by lot and sulks through the chapter - until the news of the widow refusal and the rewards is too much: 'just give me three thousand soldiers, and I will take Wuling and bring you the Governor!' Zhuge Liang's one condition is the cliffhanger.

Signs the same written guarantee Zhao Zilong gave, takes his three thousand to Wuling, and wins with a shout - Jin Xuan panics at the thunder of his voice and is dead under his own wall before the day ends.

Named in Zhou Yu's warning letter as one of the reasons Liu Bei will not stay caged - 'the aid of such great leaders as Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, and Zhao Zilong.'

Closes on Zhou Yu with Guan Yu, Huang Zhong, and Wei Yan in the four-sided convergence at the wall.

Sent to inspect the drunken magistrate and ready to dismiss him on the spot - until Pang Tong disposes of a hundred days' arrears by midday, and Zhang Fei crosses the hall: 'you are indeed a marvel, Master.' His report undoes his brother's mistake.

Assigned four territories along the river in the Jingzhou defense while Liu Bei marches west.

Cuts off the flight at River Yu with a string of ships, boards, and lays Zhou Shan dead on the deck with one sweep — hanging the head at Lady Sun's feet; then with Zhao Yun decides they cannot force their lord's wife to a shameful death: they keep the boy and let her sail on.

The Bazhou masterpiece: after days of refused challenges and an arrow off his helmet, he baits Yan Yan with a fake night march — a decoy 'Zhang Fei' on the road and gongs for drums — snatches the old Governor off his horse by the armor-lace, then unties him with his own hands, bows, and wins the man: every garrison on the road ahead will open at Yan Yan's word. Marches under Zhuge Liang's admonition against plunder, and keeps it.

Arrives FIRST — forty-five garrisons opened by Yan Yan's word ('it was not my own merit at all') — and in the nick of time: his charge saves Liu Bei from Zhang Ren's sortie. Nearly trapped himself by the feigned flight, he is freed by Zhao Zilong, and in the hill ambush it is he who takes Zhang Ren prisoner.

Signs Zhuge Liang's written pledge to earn the command, dismisses Ma Dai in ten bouts — then the duel of the book: a hundred bouts, a hundred more bare-headed in a turban, and twenty by the light of a thousand torches, dodging the copper mace by an ear's breadth. 'I will die and not come back!' Neither man wins; Liu Bei's chivalry ends it.

Named in Liu Ye's warning — the bold warriors who will head Shu's army if Cao Cao waits.

Holds Baxi with Lei Tong — the defender Zhang He boasts, in writing, that he will capture: 'I look upon him as a mere nobody.'

The famous Wakou campaign: fifty days of theatrical drinking in front of Zhang He's hill camps, a straw dummy in the lamp-light for Zhang He's spear, and all three camps taken in the night battle. Avenges Lei Tong by meeting Zhang He's ambush trick with a fire-valley of his own, then takes Wakou Pass itself by the herdsmen's back path over the Zitong Mountains — and is named van leader, with Zhao Yun, for the great march.

Named in passing — he and Wei Yan march for the Hanzhong expedition, Yan Yan taking over their posts.

Captures Nanzheng with Wei Yan behind Cao Cao's back, spears the drunken Xu Chu off his horse at Baozhou and carries off the entire grain train, and bars the flight road in the triple attack that savages the retreat to Yangping Pass.

Roars that his brother should take not the princedom but the throne itself — 'all sorts of people with all sorts of names are making themselves rulers!' — and is named among the Five Tiger Generals.

Off-stage at Langzhong — Liu Bei's messenger rides for him the night the news breaks.

Named in passing — the surviving brother of the Peach Garden oath in the First Ruler's vengeance pronouncement.

The third brother goes: made General of the Flying Cavalry and Lord of Xixiang, he clasps the Emperor's feet at the drill ground and overturns Zhuge Liang's dissuasion in one weeping speech — then rides home past Liu Bei's own warning about wine and the lash. At Langzhong he orders white mourning for the whole army in three days, flogs Fan Jiang and Zhang Da bloody for calling it impossible, and dies at fifty-five under their daggers in his drunken sleep — eyes open to the last, as always.

Comes home a head in a sandalwood box, features still fresh — wailed over by his brother, avenged on the altar by his son.

Stands beside Guan Yu's shade at the dying Emperor's candles — and his daughter, prudent and seventeen, becomes the young Emperor's Empress Zhang.

Named in Zhao Yun's eulogy as the other of the pair — 'In wit and valor he was fitting mate for Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, his exploits rivaling even theirs.'

Named in passing only, and long dead - but the mention is load-bearing. Watching Zhang He fight his way clear and then go back for Dai Ling, Zhuge Liang says 'I have heard that soldiers stood aghast when Zhang Fei fought his great fight with Zhang He. Now I can judge Zhang He's valor for myself', and decides from it that Zhang He has to be removed. His son Zhang Bao dies in the same chapter.

Named in passing only, and long dead, as the descent of one of the Mianzhu defenders: 'Chair of the Secretariat Zhang Zun---Zhang Fei's grandson'. The last of his line dies in the same city as the last of Zhuge Liang's.

Named in the elegy for Zhuge Liang, as one of the two whose deaths his is compared with - 'His hapless death compared with Zhang Fei's and Guan Yu's' - the three of them gone and the kingdom with them.