Zhang Liao 張遼

He was originally a descendant of Nie Yi, but changed his surname to escape a feud. At the end of the Han, Ding Yuan, Inspector of Bing Province, summoned him as an Assistant Officer (congshi) because his martial strength surpassed that of other men, and He Jin sent him north of the Yellow River to recruit troops, and he raised more than a thousand men. On his return he found that He Jin had fallen, so he placed his troops under Dong Zhuo, and when Dong Zhuo fell he placed them under Lü Bu and became Chief Commandant of Cavalry. When Lü Bu was defeated by Li Jue, Zhang Liao followed him to Xu Province and concurrently served as Chancellor of Lu; he was twenty-eight at the time. Records, Wei 17 §2–3

When Cao Cao crushed Lü Bu at Xiapi, Zhang Liao surrendered at the head of his men and was made General of the Household (zhonglang jiang) and Marquis Within the Passes, and after repeated feats in battle he was promoted to Assistant General (pi jiangjun). In the 5th year of Jian'an (200), Cao Cao put Zhang Liao and Guan Yu in the vanguard at Baima, and they slew Yuan Shao's general Yan Liang. When Cao Cao, sensing that Guan Yu had no intention of staying long, had Zhang Liao sound him out as a friend, Zhang Liao asked, and Guan Yu replied that he would leave only after repaying Cao Cao with a deed of merit. Records, Wei 17 §3Records, Wei 1 §61Records, Shu 6 §4–5

He besieged Chang Xi at Donghai together with Xiahou Yuan, but after several months their provisions ran out. Zhang Liao, noting that Chang Xi kept fixing his eyes on him and that his arrows had grown sparse, judged that he was wavering and called out to him to talk. When Chang Xi came down and agreed to surrender, Zhang Liao went up Mount Sangong alone, entered his house, and bowed to his wife and children. Cao Cao rebuked him, saying, "This is not the way of a senior general," and Zhang Liao apologized, saying he had judged that, in awe of his illustrious lord's majesty and good faith, Chang Xi would not dare to harm him. Records, Wei 17 §3–5

He joined the campaign against Yuan Tan and Yuan Shang and served as acting General of the Firm Center (zhongjian jiangjun); after Ye fell he campaigned through Zhao State and Changshan, bringing about the surrender of Sun Qing of the Heishan and others, and campaigning along the seacoast he defeated the Liaodong bandit Liu Yi and others. When he returned to Ye, Cao Cao came out in person to greet him, had him ride in his own carriage, and made him General Who Sweeps Away Bandits (dangkou jiangjun). When Cao Cao attacked Yuan Shang at Liucheng and they suddenly ran into the barbarians, Zhang Liao urged battle in high spirits, and Cao Cao handed him the command banner he himself was holding. In the end they won a great victory and beheaded the Chanyu Tadun. Records, Wei 17 §5–6

Just as he was setting out to garrison Changshe, men plotting rebellion in the army raised a disturbance at night. Saying that the whole camp could not have rebelled, Zhang Liao ordered those not involved to stay seated where they were, and stood in the middle of the formation with a few dozen of his personal guards; once the disturbance died down, he seized the ringleader and put him to death. When Chen Lan and Mei Cheng rebelled and built fortifications on top of Mount Tianzhu, Zhang Liao advanced in command of Zhang He, Niu Gai and others. When the generals said their troops were few and the road was steep, he said, "When it is one against one, the brave will get ahead," and took the heads of Chen Lan and Mei Cheng; his fief was increased and he was granted the tally of authority (jiajie). Records, Wei 17 §7–9

Cao Cao had Zhang Liao, Yue Jin, Li Dian and others garrison Hefei with over 7,000 men, and on setting out to attack Zhang Lu he left with the Protector of the Army Xue Ti a written instruction marked "Open when the enemy arrives." In the 20th year of Jian'an (215), when Sun Quan besieged Hefei with an army of 100,000, they opened the instruction, which said that Zhang Liao and Li Dian were to go out and fight and Yue Jin was to guard the Protector of the Army. Zhang Liao said that they could hold the city only if they struck before relief came, while the enemy had not yet completed the encirclement, and broke their momentum. According to the biography of Li Dian, the three generals had never been on good terms, but Li Dian, asking how he could forget the public good for a private grudge, went out with him. Records, Wei 17 §10–11Records, Wei 1 §145 · 149Records, Wei 18 §7–8

That night Zhang Liao recruited 800 men willing to follow him and slaughtered oxen to feast them; at dawn, clad in armor and wielding a halberd (ji), he led the charge, killing dozens of men and beheading two generals. Shouting his own name, he reached the foot of Sun Quan's banner; Sun Quan, who had fled to the top of a high mound, could not move, but on seeing how few men Zhang Liao had, he surrounded him several layers deep. Zhang Liao broke through the encirclement, but at the cry of the men left behind, "General, are you abandoning us?", he plunged back in and rescued them. Sun Quan withdrew after more than ten days, and Zhang Liao pursued him and very nearly captured him, for which he was made General Who Conquers the East (zhengdong jiangjun). Records, Wei 17 §11–13

In the 21st year of Jian'an (216), Cao Cao came to Hefei, toured the places where Zhang Liao had fought, and sighed for a long time. When Guan Yu besieged Cao Ren at Fancheng, Zhang Liao was summoned to relieve him, but before he arrived Xu Huang had defeated Guan Yu. When Cao Pi became King of Wei, Zhang Liao was made General of the Front (qian jiangjun), and when Sun Quan turned against Wei again he returned to Hefei and was raised to Marquis of a Chief Village (duxiang hou). Cao Pi sent Zhang Liao's mother to his garrison. When Cao Pi ascended the imperial throne, Zhang Liao became Marquis of Jinyang, and his fief reached 2,600 households. Records, Wei 17 §13–15

In the 2nd year of Huangchu (221), when Zhang Liao came to court at the Luoyang palace, Cao Pi asked him in person how he had defeated Wu and sighed, "This man too is a Shao Hu of old," and he made all the recruited foot soldiers who had followed Zhang Liao in battle into Rapid as Tigers guards (huben). When Zhang Liao fell ill at Yongqiu, Cao Pi sent the Palace Attendant Liu Ye with the imperial physician to see him, and when he did not recover, Cao Pi brought him to the imperial traveling lodge, visited him in person, took his hand, and bestowed imperial clothing on him. Records, Wei 17 §15–16

Once his illness had eased a little, he returned to his garrison. When Sun Quan turned against Wei once more, Cao Pi had Zhang Liao board a ship and go with Cao Xiu to Hailing to face the Yangtze, and Sun Quan ordered his generals, "Though Zhang Liao is ill, he cannot be withstood. Be careful!" That year Zhang Liao, together with the other generals, defeated Sun Quan's general Lü Fan. The biography of the Sovereign of Wu dates the campaign of Cao Xiu, Zhang Liao and the others to the 9th month of the 1st year of Huangwu (222). Zhang Liao's illness became critical and he died at Jiangdu; Cao Pi wept for him and gave him the posthumous title Marquis Gang. His son Zhang Hu succeeded him. In the 6th year of Huangchu (225), Cao Pi issued an edict declaring that Zhang Liao and Li Dian's defeat of 100,000 enemies with 800 foot soldiers had no precedent since ancient times, and granted one son of each the rank of Marquis Within the Passes. Records, Wei 17 §16–18Records, Wu 2 §41–42

In his assessment, Chen Shou said that when Cao Cao achieved his military successes, five of the fine generals of the time stood foremost. He wrote that the deeds of Yu Jin, Zhang He and Yue Jin did not live up to their reputations, and that perhaps there were omissions in the records, so that theirs were not as detailed and complete as those of Zhang Liao and Xu Huang. Records, Wei 17 §74