and Yi provinces thought he was an exceptional talent. In comparison with officials from (Cao) Wei, if Pang Tong was akin to Xun Yu and Xun You then Fa Zheng should be comparable to Cheng (Yu) and Guo (Jia). Yang Xi wrote an appraisal on Pang Tong as follows: "The Military Adviser showed brightly, both extreme elegance and virtue. He devoted his life to clear his Master's path, loyal to his feelings and always delivered his opinion. But for all those righteousness actions, in response to virtue he received death." In Romance of the Three Kingdoms Pang Tong appears as a character in the 14th-century historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which romanticises the historical events before and during the Three Kingdoms period. In the novel, Pang Tong is portrayed as a brilliant military strategist who equals Zhuge Liang. Sima Hui recommends Pang Tong and Zhuge Liang as talents to aid Liu Bei by saying, "Hidden Dragon and Young Phoenix. If you can get either of them, you'll be able to pacify the empire." In Chapter 47, before the Battle of Red Cliffs, Jiang Gan recommends Pang Tong to Cao Cao. Pang Tong presents a "chain links strategy" (連環計) to Cao. The plan involves linking Cao Cao's battleships together with strong iron chains to make the ships more stable when they were sailing, as well as to reduce the chances of Cao's soldiers falling seasick due to excessive rocking. This leads to Cao Cao's defeat as his battleships are unable to separate from each other during the fire attack, and when one ship is set aflame, the other ships linked to it catch fire as well. Pang Tong's death during the war between Liu Bei and Liu Zhang is highly dramatised in Chapter 63. At the outset of the battle at Luo County, before Liu Bei and Pang Tong split forces for a two-pronged attack, Pang Tong's horse rears and throws him off its back. This is seen as a bad omen. Liu Bei then let Pang Tong borrow his famous steed, Dilu (的盧). However, Dilu is believed to bring bad luck to its rider despite having saved Liu Bei's life earlier. Liu Zhang's general Zhang Ren, who plans an ambush near Luo County, recognises Dilu and mistakes its rider to be Liu Bei, so he orders his archers to fire at the rider. Pang Tong is hit by