Zhang Bao

Zhang Bao, the son of Zhang Fei, enters the later war against Wu as an heir to his father’s cause and the sworn brotherhood that bound Zhang Fei to Xuande and Guan Yu. Initially impatient to claim command and eager to prove himself against Guan Xing, he is taught to treat Guan Xing as a brother; thereafter they fight side by side. Zhang Bao becomes a recurring rescuer in the campaign, helping Xuande escape encirclement and coming to Zhao Zilong’s aid in a later battle. His death from head wounds ends that rising military partnership and brings Kong Ming to grief.

Identity and Introduction

Zhang Bao is identified as Zhang Fei’s son. He appears after Zhang Fei has been murdered, when Xuande is marching against Wu. The news of the murder has already reached Xuande, who collapses in grief; the next day Zhang Bao and Guan Xing arrive with separate groups of soldiers, determined to avenge their fathers and stand with their uncle. Their arrival reunites the younger generation with the older men’s oath of brotherhood, but it also makes private bereavement a cause of military action.

The narrative presents Zhang Bao as a capable young fighter, but his first defining scene is not simply a display of skill. When Xuande gives him the authority seal to lead the army, Guan Xing protests, and the two young men dispute who is worthy of command. The succession of the seal turns their shared purpose into a contest for precedence. Zhang Bao asserts that he has trained as a warrior since childhood and that his arrows do not miss; Guan Xing answers with a claim of his own skill. Their competition threatens to become a fight before Xuande intervenes.

Rivalry and Brotherhood with Guan Xing

Xuande resolves the immediate dispute by proposing a test of archery. A banner with a red target is set a hundred yards away, and Zhang Bao fires three arrows, all of which strike it. Guan Xing then selects the third goose in a passing flight and brings it down with one arrow. The test establishes that neither young man can easily be dismissed, but does not settle the deeper question of how they should relate to one another.

When Zhang Bao leaps onto his horse with a spear and Guan Xing accepts the challenge with his sword, Xuande stops them. He invokes the vow he and their fathers made long ago: because the older generation had bound itself as brothers, the two sons must respect each other as brothers and avenge their fathers together. Since Zhang Bao is older, Xuande orders Guan Xing to acknowledge him as the elder brother. The decision redirects their rivalry rather than erasing it. The army then resumes its march against Wu with the two young men aligned in a common purpose.

The Campaign Against Wu

Zhang Bao and Guan Xing fight together during the invasion. When Wu’s Sun Huan confronts the Shu forces, Xuande sends his two nephews against him but warns them to be careful, unable to bear the thought of losing them. Sun Huan taunts Zhang Bao by recalling Zhang Fei’s death and predicting that his son will share his fate. Zhang Bao charges in anger. He defeats Xie Jing, then faces Li Yi; when Zhang Bao is thrown from his horse and Li Yi moves in to kill him, Guan Xing intervenes and kills Li Yi with a single stroke. Guan Xing’s timely rescue turns their imposed brotherhood into action on the battlefield, and the two help drive Sun Huan’s force to a major defeat.

Later, when Lu Xun’s attack sets fire to the Shu camps, Xuande is trapped amid the disorder. Zhang Bao breaks through the fighting, takes Xuande’s horse, and gets him away with the Royal Guard to Ma An Hill. The refuge is itself besieged. The next morning, Wu’s troops set fire to the hill, and Guan Xing joins Zhang Bao to lead Xuande toward safety at Baidi. Their rescue does not end the danger: the party is pursued across the plain, and Xuande’s escort is reduced to roughly a hundred men before Zhao Zilong breaks through the Wu force and escorts him to safety. Zhang Bao’s place in these scenes is as a direct protector of Xuande, not merely a claimant to his father’s legacy.

Service and Death

Zhang Bao continues to serve as a field commander in the northern campaigns. During Zhao Zilong’s battle against Wei, Zhao becomes trapped on a hillside as the enemy closes in. Zhang Bao arrives in his rescue, already bloodstained from the fighting that brought him there. He and Zhao force their way through the Wei troops; when the enemy then sees Guan Xing’s force approaching, its disarray gives the rescuers an opening. Instead of pausing over his rescue, Zhao immediately proposes going after Xiahou Mao, and the three commanders continue the operation. Zhang Bao’s arrival thus belongs to a recurring pattern: he is sent to support an endangered commander and helps turn a threatened retreat into renewed action.

Zhang Bao’s own military career ends after another campaign against Wei. Kong Ming returns home after defeating the Wei troops and begins planning a further invasion, but news arrives that Zhang Bao has died from wounds to his head. The report breaks Kong Ming’s heart; he weeps until he makes himself ill. The narrative’s brief account of the death contrasts with the substantial military and family roles Zhang Bao has accumulated: the young combatant who first competed with Guan Xing has become his brother-in-arms, a rescuer of Xuande and Zhao Zilong, and a commander whose loss is felt by the army’s chief strategist.

Narrative Role

Zhang Bao’s story links two generations of the campaign. His father’s murder draws him into the invasion of Wu, while Xuande’s appeal to the fathers’ oath shapes the relationship that makes him and Guan Xing allies. The narrative repeatedly gives that inherited bond practical consequences: Guan Xing saves Zhang Bao from Li Yi, and the two together rescue Xuande from the burning hill. Their shared service carries the old brotherhood into the next generation without making their initial rivalry disappear from the story.

His later rescues and eventual death also give the campaign a recurring rhythm of exposure, intervention, and loss. Zhang Bao arrives when Zhao Zilong is cornered, just as he had reached Xuande in the crisis at Ma An Hill; his own death then brings the cost of continued campaigning into focus through Kong Ming’s grief. The account does not describe the circumstances of Zhang Bao’s fatal injury in detail, but it makes the consequence unmistakable: the loss of a valued commander wounds the strategist who had returned to planning another invasion and closes the arc of the young warrior introduced through vengeance and a contest for command.