The giant on the bridge drew a great breath. It rose and swelled within his chest. Then his voice opened.

"Wo nai Zhang Yide ye! Shei gan yu wo jue si zhan!"

I am Zhang Yide. Who dares come to a fight to the death with me? That single shout scattered the center rhythm of the two thousand at the north end of the bridge. The front row of cavalry stepped back half a pace.

Cao Cao (曹操), at the rear of the main body, heard the shout. His horse turned its head to the north. Cao Cao murmured.

"The name Zhang Yide (張翼德) is a name I have heard before. The name of a general who could cut off a single head from within a million-man army, and come back out, has passed through the mouths of men."

A general beside Cao Cao added a word. He had once heard that the younger brother of Guan Yu (關羽) was named Zhang Yide. Cao Cao nodded. Then he fixed his gaze upon the direction of the vanguard's banners.

Zhang Fei (張飛), at the middle of the bridge, drew a second breath. The thunder in the hollow of his chest rose again, larger. His beard fluttered larger. Then his second shout opened.

"Zhan you bu zhan, tui you bu tui, que shi he gu!"

If you will fight, then fight; if you will withdraw, then withdraw. What, then, are you doing? That second shout shook the front row of the two thousand at the north end of the bridge, larger still. Xiahou Dun's (夏侯惇) face turned pale. Cao Ren's (曹仁) horse stepped back one pace.

Beside Cao Cao there was a general named Xiahou Jie (夏侯傑). One of several generals of Wei, he was assigned this day to one flank, behind the vanguard, of the two thousand. The second shout of Zhang Fei reached his ear. Xiahou Jie's heart shrank, large.

That shrinking shook his body atop the saddle. Xiahou Jie's two hands dropped the reins. His body tilted to the right of his horse. Then he fell from the horse.

Zhang Fei's third shout sounded before its words. In the short space of a breath after the second shout, the thunder in Zhang Fei's chest rolled larger still. That third thunder did not take the shape of words. With one great resonance alone, it shook the air before the front row of the two thousand at the north end of the bridge.

Xiahou Jie, where he had fallen on the earth, shrank further. Inside the hollow of his chest there was a rupture. After that rupture, the breath of Xiahou Jie was cut and for all. According to the Romance, his liver was broken by the resonance of the third shout.

Cao Cao, at the rear of the main body, watched this happen. He turned his horse's head. Then he gave one command to the generals of the vanguard.

"Withdraw. We do not cross this bridge this evening."

At Cao Cao's command, the front row of the vanguard's two thousand turned back. The turned-back front row pushed the rear rows backward, and the entire two thousand began at once to retreat northward.

Zhang Fei still stood alone at the middle of the bridge. The three shouts had ended, and the hooves of the two thousand were fading at the north end. The tip of Zhang Fei's Eight-Serpent Spear (八蛇矛) settled, quietly, at the middle of the bridge.

The evening wind passed again over the shoulder of the giant at the middle of the bridge, from north to south. Inside that wind, the long resonance of Zhang Fei's three shouts was still flowing. At the north end of the bridge, one layer of Cao Cao's army's dust still remained, yet the direction of that dust was now turning to the north.

One man's three shouts had turned, at once, the single step of two thousand cavalry. It was the second evening of Book 6.

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