Gongsun Yuan
Soon after Gongsun Yuan came to power in Liaodong, China was, for the most part, split into three: Cao Wei in the north, Shu Han in the southwest, and Eastern Wu in the southeast. Of these, Liaodong's chief concern was its immediate neighbour Cao Wei, who had once contemplated an invasion of Liaodong in response to Gongsun Yuan's coup. In this situation, the Eastern Wu lord Sun Quan attempted to win Gongsun Yuan's allegiance in order to establish two fronts of attack against Cao Wei, and several embassies made their way from Wu to Liaodong by taking the difficult journey across the Yellow Sea. Cao Wei eventually got wind of the embassies and made one successful interception in Chengshan (), at the tip of the Shandong peninsula, but Gongsun Yuan had already sided with Sun Quan. Upon the confirmation of Gongsun Yuan's goodwill, an elated Sun Quan sent another embassy in 233 to bestow Gongsun Yuan the title of King of Yan () and various insignia to trade for warhorses. By then, however, Gongsun Yuan had changed his mind about allying himself with a distant state over the sea and making himself an enemy of a powerful neighbour. When the Wu embassy arrived, Gongsun Yuan seized the treasures, killed the leading ambassadors, and sent their heads and a portion of their goods to the Wei court to buy himself back to favour. Some of the envoys from Wu somehow escaped the carnage and found a potential ally to the east of Liaodong — the state of Goguryeo.