Zhang Fei's Roar at Changban Bridge

Liu Bei (Liú Bèi) has just lost a battle and nearly everything else. His army is scattered, his people are strung out along a road east, and Cao Cao (Cáo Cāo), the strongest man in the north, is coming up behind him with a force nobody has counted.

One narrow bridge lies between the two of them. Liu Bei's sworn brother Zhang Fei (Zhāng Fēi) has been left to hold it with about twenty horsemen — not to win, only to buy the road behind him a little more time. The last of Liu Bei's riders, Zhao Yun (Zhào Yún), is still out there somewhere with the enemy at his back. Zhang Fei is known for two things: a voice that carries like thunder, and a story his own side has been telling for years, that he can ride into an army of a million and come out holding the commander's head.

An army in this war cannot see what it is facing. It reads the dust above a treeline, counts the flags, and guesses; a general who guesses wrong loses everything in an afternoon, so generals stop and think. Cao Cao's officers reach the bridge, look at the one man standing on it, and stop — and stopping is exactly what Zhang Fei needs from them.