Defender of Hefei. Read the sealed letter, picked eight hundred men who dared to die, and rode at their head to the king's banner. In Wu, his name quieted crying children.
In Wu, when children would not stop crying, their parents had only to frighten them with Zhang Liao's name — and they were quiet.Sanguozhi, Wei shu 17, Biography of Zhang Liao
Appears in
Three Kingdoms 6 · panel 4Three Kingdoms 6 · panel 5Three Kingdoms 6 · panel 7Three Kingdoms 6 · panel 8Three Kingdoms 6 · panel 9Three Kingdoms 6 · panel 10Three Kingdoms 6 · panel 13Three Kingdoms 6 · panel 16
Relations
- Cao Cao general — The sealed letter at Hefei was Cao Cao's; the dawn sortie that justified it was Zhang Liao's. In 216 Cao Cao walked the battlefield and stood sighing a long while.
- Li Dian feuding colleagues — Blood stood between them; on the morning that mattered, Li Dian set it down and rode out with him.
- Sun Quan opponents — Hefei and Xiaoyao Ford, 215 CE. He rode to the foot of the king's banner; the king of Wu did not dare come down from the mound.
Myth vs record
The story you may know
The children-of-Wu story is a folk invention of later ages.
What the sources say
It is in the official history itself: Chen Shou closes the account of the battle by noting that in Wu, when children would not stop crying, their parents frightened them with Zhang Liao's name, and they were quiet.