Battle of Fancheng The Battle of Fancheng was fought between the warlords Liu Bei and Cao Cao in 219 in the late Eastern Han Dynasty . It was named after Fancheng ( 樊城 ; also known as Fan Castle or Fan City ) , an ancient fortress situated in present - day Fancheng District , Xiangyang , Hubei . Background . In October 218 , Cao Cao ' s general Hou Yin ( 侯音 ) and his deputy Wei Kai ( 衛開 ) of Wan ( 宛 ; present - day Nanyang , Henan ) rose in rebellion with several thousand troops , and they requested Guan Yu for assistance . It would take four months for Cao Ren to finally crush the rebellion by killing both Hou Yin and Wei Kai , but Guan Yu did not respond to the rebels throughout the duration . After taking Hanzhong by defeating Cao Cao in May 219 , Liu Bei further expanded his gains in June 219 by sending Meng Da and Liu Feng to take Fangling ( 房陵 ; present - day Fang County , Hubei ) and Shangyong ( 上庸 ; north of present - day Zhushan County , Hubei ) . Cao Cao was temporarily forced to be on the defensive after a continuous setback and Sun Quan of Jiangdong decided to take the opportunity to attack Cao Cao while their newly defeated men were regrouping and resting . Realizing the imminent attacks of Liu Bei and Sun Quan , Cao Cao planned to launch a preemptive strike on Jing Province ( 荊州 ; covering present - day Hubei and Hunan ) , the eastern part of Liu Bei ' s territory defended by Guan Yu . The plan reasoned that Liu Bei could not continue his offensive in the north due to the need to consolidate his new gains , and so an attack into Jing Province would not be hindered by Liu ' s invasion elsewhere . However , the plan was called off because Cao Cao ' s troops still needed time to recover , regroup and re - supply from the campaign to suppress the rebellion of Hou Yin and Wei Kai , as well as from earlier setbacks in the struggles for Hanzhong . The worn - out troops were not ready for another campaign . Battle . Initial stages . In July , 219 , Sun Quan mobilized his forces in preparation to attack Hefei , and Cao Cao ' s forces were redeployed to the region to the south of the Huai River to fend off the possible invasion . Seizing the opportunity , Guan Yu decided to launch an offensive of his own against Cao Cao . Mi Fang , Administrator of Nan Commandery ( 南郡 ; present - day Jiangling County , Hubei ) was ordered to stay behind to guard Jiangling ( 江陵 ) city of Nan Commandery , while general Shi Ren was ordered to stay behind to guard Gong ' an ( 公安 ; northwest of present - day Gong ' an County , Hubei ) . Liu Bei ' s main force in the region was led by Guan Yu himself to attack Cao Cao ' s strongholds in the north . The campaign ' s objective was not clearly stated , but Guan Yu led his army along the Han River northward until he laid siege to Fancheng ( present - day Fancheng District Xiangyang , Hubei ) . From the advance route and the fact that Guan chose to concentrate his main forces on Fancheng , his primary objective was believed to be the conquest of Nanyang commandery . Initially , the cities being attacked were not heavily guarded , as Cao Ren at Fancheng and Lü Chang ( 呂常 ) at Xiangyang ( 襄陽 ; present - day Xiangzhou District Xiangyang , Hubei ) were both surrounded . Therefore , Cao Cao ordered Yu Jin to aid Cao Ren . After pitching camp on a lower ground about 4 km north to Fancheng , Yu Jin started to prepare a counteroffensive . Eager to prove his loyalty as he was suspected by others , general Pang De voluteered to lead a detachment to engage Guan Yu , successfully forcing the latter to retreat several times . On one occasion , Pang De shot an arrow that became embedded in Guan Yu ' s helm . Since then Pang De was widely known and feared among the enemy as General White Horse , from the white steed he rode into battle . Although Guan Yu could not surpass Pang De in battle , he nevertheless held firm control over the water routes around the area and maintained the encirclement of Fancheng . A few setbacks were far from enough to discourage Guan Yu . Turning of the tide . In August , heavy rain caused the Han River to flood . Forces under the command of Yu Jin and Pang De were completely annihilated by the natural disaster , suffering at least 40 , 000 fatalities , and another 30 , 000 were captured by Guan Yu ' s navy . Pang De and Yu Jin were both captured ; Yu begged for his life and surrendered , while Pang refused to surrender and was executed . Cao Ren , with several thousand of his surviving troops were forced on the defensive by staying behind the safety of the walls . At the time , Xu Huang , who stationed in Wancheng with his force purely consisted of new recruits , could only put up a defensive posture instead of venturing out to relief Cao Ren . Sensing the swift change , the Inspector of Jing Province ( the position that had the authority to raise troops from within the entire Jing Province ) , Hu Xiu ( 胡修 ) , and Cao Cao ' s Administrator of Nan Town ( Nan Town was located southeast of present - day Xichuan County , Henan ) , Fu Fang ( 傅方 ) , both defected to Guan Yu . The rebel leaders of Liang ( 梁 ) , Xia ( 郟 ) , and Luhun ( 陸渾 , located southeast of present - day Song County , Henan ) also officially accepted Guan Yu ' s command . Guan Yu ' s threat to Cao Cao after his initial success was so immense that Cao Cao once considered relocating the capital . As Cao Cao asked his subjects for input , Sima Yi and Jiang Ji ( 蔣濟 ) strongly opposed . They pointed out that the alliance between Liu Bei and Sun Quan was shaky at the best due to the feuding of the control of Jing Province , and Sun Quan would definitely be unhappy to see Guan Yu ' s success . They suggested that Cao Cao should send an emissary to Sun Quan to recognize the latter ' s control over Jiangnan should Sun Quan agree to flank Guan Yu ' s rear . Initially , Sun Quan sent an emissary to Guan Yu relating his wish for a marriage be arranged between his own son and Guan ' s daughter . However , Guan Yu insulted the emissary and rejected the marriage proposal , infuriating Sun Quan , an ally Liu Bei could not afford to lose . The initial victory also proved to be the prelude to catastrophe for Guan Yu because it had made him overconfident . At the outbreak of the battle , Liu Bei controlled three commanderies of Jing Province : Nan , Lingling , and Wuling , albeit the most among all three powers , Guan Yu lacked the experience to handle a huge army , especially one with the size under his command at the time , when his force nearly doubled as 30 , 000 troops captured in his earlier victory joined his army . In order to feed his army , Guan Yu sent out troops to confiscate grains stored by Sun Quan in the local border region . This further irritated Sun Quan , and coupled with Guan Yu ' s rejection of Sun Quan ' s marriage proposal and insult , Sun Quan made up his mind to sever the alliance with Liu Bei . Stalemate . After the confiscation of Sun Quan ' s food supply , Guan Yu further ordered reinforcement from Jiangling and Gong ' an to lay siege to the now flooded Fancheng . With only several thousand troops left , Cao Ren was also harassed by low food supplies , so he considered abandoning the city . However , the Administrator of Runan , Man Chong , convinced Cao Ren to stay put by indicating that the flood was only temporary and would not last long . Man Chong also noted that Guan Yu ' s vanguard had already advanced to Jia ( 郏 ) County yet his main force dared not to follow , because he was afraid of being cut off from behind and attacked from both sides . The strategic strongholds Fancheng and Xiangyang were still in Cao Cao ' s hands , which posed a serious threat to the advancing enemy force that bypassed the two cities . Man Chong argued that if the two fortresses were abandoned , the entire region to the south of Yellow River would be in danger of being overrun by the enemy , because not only the region Guan Yu attacked would be lost , the vast region in the east would be lost to Sun Quan since Cao Cao ' s force deployed there would risk being cut off should Guan Yu decide to strike in that direction . Hence , Man Chong concluded , these two citadels must be held at all costs and the defenders must fight to the very last man . Cao Ren agreed and strengthened the defense , and boosted his troops to over 10 , 000 by drafting every available man in the city . As Xu Huang was ordered to reinforce Cao Ren , Cao Cao sent two generals , Xu Shang ( 徐商 ) and Lü Jian ( 呂建 ) to lead additional reinforcements to join Xu Huang , ordering the latter that he should never attack until all of the reinforcement sent to him had arrived . To wait for further reinforcements , Xu Huang pushed toward Yangling ( 陽陵 ) Slope , 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 , and coupled with the earlier victory , he thus completely ignored Xu Huang ' s threat and committed a serious blunder by dividing his force by sending another army to Xiangyang , because he mistakenly believed that Fancheng would easily fall into his control . However , due to the defenders ' strong resolute , the city remain defiant . Guan Yu made further strategic blunders in allowing his vanguard advancing too far ahead of his main force and not linking up with the vanguard promptly in a time he could not afford to split his force . As a result , the vanguard was around three miles to the north of Fancheng , leaving a huge gap between itself and the main camp . Seizing the opportunity , Xu Huang faked the digging of a long trench , giving the false impression of cutting off Guan Yu ' s vanguard , which fell for the trick and retreated . Xu Huang ' s army therefore took the abandoned Yan ( 偃 ) City and pressed further toward Guan Yu ' s main army . By this time , Xu Huang ' s force was large enough to pose a threat to Guan Yu , because the 10 , 000 strong army , which consisted of battle hardened veterans led by Yin Shu ( 殷署 ) and Zhu Gai ( 朱蓋 ) , had joined Xu Huang . Strategies . As the stalemate was reached again , Cao Cao ' s emissary returned to the capital Luoyang with a letter from Sun Quan , which informed Cao that Sun planned to attack Guan Yu from his rear , Jing Province . Sun Quan asked Cao Cao to keep this secret so that Guan Yu would not be prepared , and most of Cao Cao ' s advisors agreed with the plan . However , Dong Zhao objected , pointing out that Liu Bei and Sun Quan would also be the two adversaries of Cao Cao despite the temporary subjection of Sun Quan to Cao Cao . For the long term goal , it would be in the best interest of Cao Cao to weaken both adversaries , instead of letting one adversary become too strong in the long run . In the short run , if Guan Yu knew about Sun Quan ' s attack in his rear , he would certainly withdraw his army to reinforce his home base in Jing Province , and the siege of Fancheng would be lifted . In addition , Fancheng was under siege for some period of time , and the morale of Cao Cao ' s forces was low . If this critical information was not passed along to the defenders , some people inside Fancheng might turn their back on Cao Cao ' s side , because the food supplies were running out and they knew nothing about the secret agreement with Sun Quan . Furthermore , Dong Zhao pointed out that even if Guan Yu knew Sun Quan ' s intention , he would not retreat swiftly because of his stubbornness and his confidence on the two cities of Jiangling and Gong ' an . Cao Cao and others were convinced by Dong Zhao and did exactly what he had proposed : copies of Sun Quan ' s letter was tied to arrows , which were then shot into Fancheng and Guan Yu ' s camp by Xu Huang ' s archers . The defenders ' morale increased , while Guan Yu was in a dilemma : he neither wanted to abandon the assaults on Cao Cao , because he believed that Jiangling and Gong ' an , his rear bases , would not easily fall . Furthermore , if he ( Guan Yu ) succeeded in defeating the enemy defenders , Sun Quan would certainly exploit the opportunity to attack Cao Cao ' s weakened defenses instead of attacking the three commanderies under Liu Bei , because it seemed to Guan Yu that Sun Quan had much more to gain in taking the vast region in the eastern region downstream the Yangtze River from Cao Cao . As it turned out , things did not go as Guan Yu had planned . As Guan Yu was hesitating , Cao Cao had personally led another reinforcement army on his way , and had already reached Mo Slope ( 摩陂 ; southeast of present - day Jia County , Henan ) . Conclusion . The bulk of the forces under Guan Yu ' s command was camped in Weitou ( 圍頭 ) , while the remaining camped in Sizhong ( 四冢 ) . Xu Huang spread word of an imminent attack on Weitou , but instead , he led his forces to strike Sizhong unexpectedly . Fearing the Sizhong camp would be lost , Guan Yu led 5 , 000 troops for the rescue , but the attack of Sizhong was only a decoy , as Guan Yu became ambushed by Xu Huang ' s men when he was on his way for the rescue mission . The defeated Guan Yu withdrew to his main camp , but Xu Huang ' s force followed closely behind and charged into Guan ' s main camp , successfully killing the defectors Hu Xiu and Fu Fang . With his camp overrun by the enemy , Guan Yu was forced to concede defeat by lifting the siege of Fancheng and retreating southward . All of Cao Cao ' s commanders at the frontline believed that they should take advantage of the situation and pursue Guan Yu , except Army Advisor Zhao Yan ( 趙儼 ) , who pointed out that they should not pursue Guan Yu because Guan ' s force should be left alone so that they could fight Sun Quan , thus weakening both Cao Cao ' s adversaries . Cao Ren agreed with Zhao Yan and did not pursue Guan Yu , and sure enough , when news of Guan Yu ' s retreat reached Cao Cao , he sent an emissary to Cao Ren , prohibiting Cao Cao ' s force from giving a chase for exactly the same reason Cao Ren and Zhao Yan believed in . Aftermath . When Guan Yu returned south , he discovered that his rear bases in Jiangling and Gong ' an had both surrendered to Lü Meng , the commander of Sun Quan ' s westward army . Lü Meng held hostage the wives and children of Guan Yu ' s men , but treated them and the citizenry of Jing Province with the utmost care . Guan Yu ' s soldiers , hearing that Jing Province had fallen to Sun Quan and their families were in good hands , lost their will to fight and deserted . Guan Yu , with only a handful of men left , became isolated in Maicheng ( 麥城 ; southeast of present - day Dangyang , Hubei ) with Sun Quan ' s forces on three sides and Cao Cao ' s at the north . As Guan Yu attempted to escape , he and his surviving followers , including his son Guan Ping , his Commandant Zhao Lei , were captured in an ambush in Zhang ( 章 ) Town ( east of present - day Anyuan County , Hubei ) by Sun Quan ' s generals Zhu Ran and Pan Zhang . Guan Yu was later executed by Sun Quan at Linju ( 臨沮 ) , along with Guan Ping and Zhao Lei . Analysis . Guan Yu ' s campaign failed because Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang did not give enough support to Guan Yu ( or were unable to give their support ) , and Guan had overestimated his own capabilities . After Guan captured Yu Jin , he could have declared victory by restating his military goal as destroying the enemy reinforcement , or he could ' ve continued besieging Fancheng . To return to Jiangling was not a bad option for Guan , because he would have consolidated the gain of the campaign , and avoid the risks involved in a prolonged war . Amongst the alternatives , Guan chose to continue the siege , which also was a reasonable choice for him at the time , if the siege would not be a long one . Although the initial success was brought to him by a natural flooding , it did indeed crush the morale of the defenders , and Guan attempted to capitalize on that . Guan ' s blunder was not in continuing the siege , but severing ties with Sun Quan . At the beginning of the campaign , he had sent an emissary to Sun to ask for help , and Sun did so , though the reinforcement he sent arrived at the battlefield very slowly . Guan should have realized that he was not deemed trustworthy by Sun at the time ; however , instead of strengthening the alliance , he chose to insult Sun ' s emissaries and rejected his marriage proposal , then confiscated Sun ' s food shortage on the border without prior notice . At this point , it should not be hard for one to see that Sun would retaliate . However , Guan was overconfident on his signal towers , which were erected on high grounds along the Yangtze River to watch over the movement of Sun ' s forces . This move had a devastating effect on Guan ' s fate ( as can be seen in Lü Meng ' s invasion of Jing Province ) , but only had limited effect on the battle of Fancheng , because Guan was not affected by the news Sun attacked his rear ( Guan Yu set up fortifications to fight Xu Huang instead ) . The first mistake that Guan did relating directly to his military operations was the misconception of a quick capture of Fancheng . He did not realize that the flood was only temporary , and that Cao Cao could still send reinforcement after reinforcement if he failed to take the city in a short period of time . There is a strategic mistake which contributed to the mistake mentioned — Guan divided his forces into at least three parts : the vanguard in Jia County , the detachment besieging Xiangyang , and the main army he directly controlled . In doing so , he violated the law of force concentration , and the siege on any single point would be longer than if he concentrated his forces . Then , when Xu Huang arrived the battlefield with some untrained and weak soldiers , Guan should have delivered a crushing blow to his old friend before Xu could even get prepared , but he instead focused on building fortifications and attempted to mimic what Zhou Yu did in the Battle of Jiangling . The last operational mistake is that Guan underestimated his old acquaintance ( perhaps Guan actually did a fair evaluation on Xu Huang , as the latter was not highly regarded before the siege of Fancheng ) . Besides setting up two camps , Guan had 10 layers of barricades facing the direction of Xu ' s army , but the latter still ordered an attack after he received some elite troops and successfully conquered Guan ' s camps . Other historians took a more sympathetic stands for Guan because at the outbreak of the battle , he faced the dilemma of an unfavorable result regardless the offensive was launched or not . In the west , although Liu Bei successfully gained the strategic stronghold , Hanzhong , Liu Bei could not continue his momentum because the population of Hanzhong was drastically reduced as 80 , 000 residents were relocated into Cao Cao ' s territories when the latter defeated Zhang Lu years ago . Although the Hanzhong region was still possessed of a sizable population , Liu Bei would face logistic problems had he continued his campaign against Cao Cao , because the latter had asked one of his officers to relocate 50 , 000 households of Di tribes to Liang Province . Eliminating his reliable platform to Guanzhong , Cao hindered Liu ' s offensive in the north . Therefore , Guan led his army north in order to keep pressure on Cao , at the same time buying Liu the time to consolidate his gain . However , the unexpected flood had changed Guan ' s original goal into conquering northern Jing Province , which is a goal that requires Liu Bei ' s reinforcement from the west , and Sun Quan ' s entry from the east . Had Guan Yu not made the blunder of destroying the alliance between Liu Bei and Sun Quan , but instead , strengthened it , he might have a chance of succeeding what he started . The biggest winner of the conflict was Sun Quan , who not only took back Jing Province from the hand of Liu Bei , but also received Yu Jin and his 30 , 000 elite troops , and most importantly , Sun Quan had secured Nan Commandery , which was very vital for the survival of the future Eastern Wu regime ( it took a short time to travel from Jing Province to Yang Province downstream , if Jing Province was not controlled by the same power that controlled Yang Province , the power controlling Yang Province would be facing probable threat from the other party everyday ) . Cao Cao also secured his domain in Jing province by successfully fending off Liu Bei ' s attack , but he was more pleased that the alliance between Liu Bei and Sun Quan melted down , however , Cao Cao would die shortly after the war , and was not able to capitalize on that . In fiction . In Luo Guanzhong ' s historical novel " Romance of the Three Kingdoms " , the flooding of the Han River was not a natural occurrence , but instead , was pre - planned by Guan Yu . Guan had the rivers dammed and the dam opened when it was full , thus drowning Cao Cao ' s armies in the lower plains . This event was known as the " Drowning of the Seven Armies " ( 水淹七軍 ) . Pang De put up firm resistance and attempted to escape by swimming , but was captured by Guan Yu ' s subordinate Zhou Cang . In contrast , Yu Jin was depicted pleading for his life and surrendering to Guan Yu . Several weeks later , Sun Quan , who had secretly allied with Cao Cao , attacked Guan Yu ' s army at Jiangling . Sun Quan surprised and defeated Guan Yu ' s forces there , forcing Guan to lift the siege on Fancheng and retreat . Guan Yu and his son , Guan Ping , while fleeing to Yi Province ( covering the Sichuan Basin ) , were caught and executed by Sun Quan ' s soldiers . In the novel , the strength of Guan Yu was greatly exaggerated for dramatic effect , and the most obvious example was that the entire Jing Province was depicted as under Liu Bei ' s control . In reality , the state was divided into three parts at the time , controlled separately by the three powers , with Liu Bei controlling the least portion , both in terms of population and area , and could only field 25 , 000 troops at any one time from the region it controlled , with Guan Yu leading only 15 , 000 troops at the start of the battle . Other important historical facts not mentioned in the novel included the fact that it was Cao Cao who originally planned a preemptive strike against Guan Yu , but failed to materialize because of the need to crush the rebellion first . Logistic support , another deciding factor of the result of the battle , was not mentioned either in novel . Though Guan Yu in real life certainly deserves some credits for the his bravery of leading a token force attacking an enemy that was almost ten times of his strength , as well as achieving an astonishing victory during the initial stage , his exploits were exaggerated in the novel because the author , Luo Guanzhong , personally adored Guan Yu , the most eulogized and glorified character in his work . Modern references . In Koei ' s video games " Dynasty Warriors 4 " and " Dynasty Warriors 5 " , Guan Yu is depicted as simultaneously defending the lands of Jing Province and besieging Fan Castle ( Fancheng ) . The second location is the focus of the stage . Cao Ren is the defending commander , and Sun Quan ' s forces later appear as reinforcements for Cao Ren . Notably , Pang De takes a prominent role , and proves to be a dangerous opponent for Guan Yu and his allies in this stage . In " Dynasty Warriors 7 " , the defense of Fancheng is focused on Wei ' s side , the invasion of Jing Province is focused on Wu ' s side , and retreating to Maicheng is focused on Shu ' s side .