When he became old enough to work, he got a job at a stable in an inn, where he became familiar with many bandit gangs operating in Manchuria at the time. As early as 1896 (aged 21) Zhang himself was a member of a well-known bandit gang. In one version of his beginnings as a warlord, during a hunting trip he spotted a wounded bandit ("Honghuzi") on horseback, killed him, took his horse and became a bandit himself. By his late 20s he had formed a small personal army, acquiring something of a Robin Hood reputation. His bandit career was euphemistically referred to as his experience in the "University of the Green Forest", as he was illiterate.