Zhang Song
Chen Gong's most brilliant, albeit fictitious, manoeuvre came during the Battle of Puyang, when Cao Cao's forces laid siege on Lü Bu in Puyang (). The incident was described in Chapter 12. Chen Gong, who was then serving Lü Bu, plotted to lure Cao Cao into the city by having a local send a letter to Cao Cao feigning to collude with the latter. The delighted Cao Cao personally led a force deep into the city before realising he had fallen into a trap. At a signal, fires were lit at all the city gates and Lü Bu's troops cut off the evasion routes. Cao Cao barely escaped with his life in the battle and had a narrow face-to-face encounter with Lü Bu, who did not recognise him and allowed him to slip away. Later in Chapter 60, when Zhang Song visited Cao Cao as an emissary from the warlord Liu Zhang, he mocked Cao Cao's past failures by mentioning the Battle of Puyang and other notable battles that Cao Cao lost.