In the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Zhao Yun and Xu Chu fought twice, and interestingly, both of these encounters took place during the Battle of Huangshan between Cao Cao and Liu Bei:
After the Battle of Guandu, Yuan Shao was not willing to accept defeat and reorganized his men and horses to go south again, but he was defeated again by Cao Cao with a ten-sided ambush strategy in Cangting, and could only flee back to Hebei in a hurry.
At this time, Cao Cao also received an urgent letter from Xun Yu, saying that after Liu Bei won Runan, he had tens of thousands of horses. He saw Cao Cao leading an army on a campaign, so he took advantage of the void to take Xuchang. Cao Cao hurriedly left Cao Hong to garrison the Yellow River, and personally led his army south to meet Liu Bei, and when he arrived at the boundary of the Yong Mountains, he happened to meet Liu Bei.
Before the two armies, Cao Cao scolded Liu Bei for being ungrateful, but Liu Bei took out his clothes and said that he was commanded to beg for thieves, Cao Cao was furious and ordered Xu Chu to fight, Liu Bei's side Zhao Yun stepped forward to stop him, and the two fought for thirty rounds without winning or losing. At this time, Guan Yu led the army from the southeast to kill, Zhang Fei led the army from the southwest conflict, the Cao army could not resist the defeat and left, Xu Chu naturally had no intention of fighting with Zhao Yun again, and was defeated with the army.
Zhao Yun and Xu Chu fought this time, Cao Cao was of course in a hurry to return to the rescue, but Liu Bei's surprise attack on Xuchang must have been rushed all the way, so when the two sides encountered Yongshan, the physical exertion should be similar, and Zhao Yun and Xu Chu basically fought under fair conditions. After thirty rounds of fighting, the two were still drawn, and xu Chu also had to follow the defeat because of the great defeat of the Cao Army, so this battle can be regarded as a draw.
Cao Cao saw that Liu Bei's morale was strong, so he ordered him not to hold out, and on the other hand, he ordered Xiahou Yuan and Le to go in and cut off Liu Bei's grain routes, and ordered Xiahou Huan to take Runan and seize Liu Bei's base. When Liu Bei received the news, he was shocked and ordered Zhang Fei to go to receive the grain and grass, and Guan Yu to save Runan.
However, both roads were surrounded by Cao Jun, and Liu Bei did not dare to fight again, and secretly withdrew his troops overnight. Cao Cao had already taken precautions and laid down an ambush to intercept him, but fortunately Zhao Yun fought to the death and killed a bloody road to ensure that Liu Bei was able to kill the siege. However, Xu Chu immediately came from behind and struggled to defeat Zhao Yun. When the two were fighting, Yu Ban and Li Dian also caught up, and Liu Bei saw that the situation was not good, so he could only flee first.
The speech does not say what the situation and result of Zhao Yun's confrontation with Xu Chu, Yu Ban, and Li Dian were, but only mentions that Liu Bei fled alone to the dawn of the day, and met Liu Pei, Sun Qian, Jian Yong, Mi Fang, and others who escaped from Runan. Shortly after the two sides converged, they were surrounded by Zhang Gao and Gao Lan.
While Liu Bei was panicking, Zhao Yun killed him from Gao Lan's rear army, and with one shot he was taken under his horse, killing gao Lan's Cao army, and then killing Zhang Gao in more than thirty years. Zhang Gao retreated to the pass with his military horses before he could barely block Zhao Yun. At this time, Guan Yu arrived with Guan Ping, Zhou Cang, and others, and Zhao Yun killed Zhang Guo from both sides, and Liu Bei was able to escape from danger.
Although the fight process between the two did not clearly state in the speech this time, from the description, it should be Zhao Yun who was better.
It is clearly written in the speech that Zhao Yun had just covered Liu Bei's siege, and Xu Chu had caught up. Moreover, after the two fought for a while, later because Yu Ban and Li Dian arrived, Liu Bei left Zhao Yun and fled alone. Therefore, Xu Chu, Yu Ban, and Li Dian should have all seen the direction in which Liu Bei fled at that time.
Liu Bei was the commander-in-chief and Cao Cao's sworn enemy, and if he could be captured, it would certainly be a great achievement. If it were possible, Xu Chu, Yu Ban, and Li Dian would certainly not tangle with Zhao Yun, but would go after Liu Bei, at least one person should be separated to chase Liu Bei. However, in the end, none of Xu Chu and the other three went after Liu Bei and let him escape safely. There was only one possibility in this situation, that is, Zhao Yun single-handedly stopped the three generals Xu Chu, Yu Ban, and Li Dian.
Moreover, judging from the description later, after Zhao Yun caught up with Liu Bei and killed Gao Lan and defeated Zhang Gao, Xu Chu, Yu Ban, and Li Dian still did not arrive. Obviously, Xu Chu, Yu Ban, and Li Dian joined forces to besiege Zhao Yun, not only making him retreat with his whole body, but also daring not to continue to pursue, and sat and watched Zhao Yun leave.
Therefore, in this battle, Xu Chu, Yu Ban, and Li Dian not only did not take advantage, but also may have suffered some losses.
During the subsequent Battle of Xiangfan, Li Dian fought with Zhao Yun for more than a dozen rounds, and felt that he could not fight and took the initiative to retreat. According to the results, if Li Dian and Zhao Yun were to really divide the victory and defeat, it would take at least twenty rounds. This performance is not bad, at most worse than Zhang Gao and others, at least it can be regarded as close to the first-class level.
Yu Ban was slightly worse, he lost to Zhang Fei several rounds at the Battle of Xuzhou, and later met Ma Chao at the Battle of Tongguan, and he was also defeated in eight or nine rounds. However, these two times can be completely withdrawn from the ban, so it can also be regarded as a second-rate level.
Such a quasi-first-class, second-rate martial artist and Xu Chu joined forces, and not only failed to take advantage of Zhao Yun, but may have suffered some losses. Moreover, after Zhao Yun and the three of them fought a big battle, there was still a residual gun to pick up Gao Lan and defeat Zhang Guo, which showed that he was still at ease in this battle.
Therefore, Xu Chu and Zhao Yun are still inferior compared to each other, if the two have no other interference to single out, the last laugh will definitely be Zhao Yun.