Gongsun Kang
The battle was decisive — in one single engagement, Cao Cao had broken the back of Wuhuan resistance. With a few thousand horses, the Yuan brothers and the surviving Wuhuan leaders, Supuyan (), Louban, Wuyan and others, fled east to Liaodong (遼東; eastern Liaoning), where the warlord Gongsun Kang enjoyed some degree of independence from the Han imperial court due to Liaodong's distance from the capital and the chaotic state in China. In October or early November, Cao Cao continued his march into Liucheng, and there he halted, making no intention to attack Liaodong despite the urging of his subordinates. "I shall arrange that Gongsun Kang cuts off the heads of Yuan Shang and Yuan Xi and sends them to me. No need to bother with soldiers," he said. He later explained that applying pressure to Liaodong may bind Yuan Shang and Gongsun Kang against him, but if he left them to their devices, they would quarrel.