서황
As Xu Huang was ordered to reinforce Cao Ren, Cao Cao sent two officers, Xu Shang () and Lü Jian () to lead additional reinforcements to join Xu Huang, ordering the latter not to attack until all of the reinforcement sent to him had arrived. To wait for further reinforcements, Xu Huang pushed toward Yangling (), located to the north of Fancheng. As the majority of Cao Cao's force under Xu Huang's command consisted of new recruits, Xu faithfully carried out Cao Cao's order to restrain from attacking. Guan Yu was well aware of Xu Huang's situation, but due to confidence from the earlier victory had ignored Xu Huang's threat and divided his forces, sending another army to Xiangyang, believing that Fancheng would fall into his control. However, Guan Yu was unsuccessful in breaking through the city's defence.