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Battle of Changban

The Battle of Changban (长板之伇) took place at Changban (near the modern-day city of Yichang in Hubei Province), China during the Three Kingdoms period in the year 208. It was fought between Liu Bei, who later founded the Kingdom of Shu and Cao Cao, the de facto ruler of northern China.

In fiction

In the novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the battle was romanticized into a showcase for the power and bravery of Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun.

Liu Bei lost the battle and was pursued by Cao Cao. Liu Bei had been leading around the civilians who journeyed with him, and many of them were lost in this battle. Also, Liu Bei's wife was caught up in enemy lines, with his infant son Liu Shan. Being recognized only by Liu Bei and his brothers, Zhao Yun greatly frightened the whole army of Cao Cao by attempting to retrieve Liu Bei's wife and son. He managed to get to Liu's wife, who placed the young Liu into his breast armor so as to keep the baby from harm, then killed herself. Zhao Yun then raced back to Liu Bei's side, still fighting, with a child in his bosom. Cao Cao, seeing Zhao's bravery, wanted him captured with the hopes of turning him to his side, and so ordered pursuit. They followed him all the way to Changban Bridge, where Cao Cao's troops were halted when Zhang Fei stood alone at the bridge of Chang Ban and made his famous yell "I am Zhang Fei. Who wants to fight me to deathω!" Supposedly, Cao Cao ordered his troops to take a detour, remembering Guan Yu's comments on the fearsome Zhang. Zhang later destroyed the bridge to regroup with Liu Bei. It is rumored that at the sight of Zhao Yun and his son, Liu Bei took his son and threw him to the ground because he had endangered Zhao Yun. This lead to speculation that because Liu Shan hit his head on the ground, he grew up to be an incompetent leader. Liu Bei was able to escape to Xiakou (夏口).

Many legends have been added to the story of the battle. According to some, Zhang's yell broke the bridge, according to others, his yell frightened Cao Cao's general to death.

Aftermath

After the battle, Liu Bei formed an alliance with Sun Quan, ruler of Wu. This led to the Battle of Red Cliffs shortly after in the same year.

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