Records of the Three Kingdoms
Zhang Liao, courtesy name Wenyuan, was from Mayi in Yanmen. He served Ding Yuan and Dong Zhuo, and after Dong Zhuo’s death he served Lü Bu. When Cao Cao took Lü Bu at Xiapi, Zhang Liao surrendered and was made a general. He fought at Guandu and in the campaigns against the Yuans and the Wuhuan.
In 215 Sun Quan besieged Hefei with a large army. Inside were Zhang Liao, Li Dian, Yue Jin, and about seven thousand men. Cao Cao’s written order said that if Sun Quan came, Zhang Liao and Li Dian should go out and Yue Jin should hold the wall. Zhang Liao recruited about eight hundred volunteers overnight and at dawn struck the Wu army, pressing as far as Sun Quan’s standard. After more than ten days Wu withdrew and was ambushed at Xiaoyao Ford. Sun Quan nearly was captured. The battle made Zhang Liao’s name feared in Jiangdong. The story that parents used his name to hush crying children is later lore. The biography stops at the fear itself.
In 222, on a campaign with Cao Xiu toward Hailing, he fell ill at Jiangdu and died at fifty-four. Cao Pi wept for him.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms
The novel makes Xiaoyao Ford the height of his fame in Jiangdong. Sun Quan gallops for the bridge, finds it half destroyed, and whips his horse across the gap, with Zhang Liao coming up behind.
The book also has Zhang Liao, earlier, urge Guan Yu to stay for a time in Cao Cao’s camp, so the two have a history. Hefei is the chapter in which he stands above most Wei generals.
Reference: Wikipedia · Zhang Liao