Battles of Hefei 合肥之戰

For the 12th month of the 13th year of Jian'an (208), the Annals of Emperor Wu record that when Sun Quan attacked Hefei on behalf of Liu Bei, Cao Cao, on his way from Jiangling to attack Liu Bei, sent Zhang Xi from Baqiu to relieve it, and Sun Quan fled on hearing that Zhang Xi was coming. The Biography of the Lord of Wu places this siege after the Red Cliffs, saying that Sun Quan besieged Hefei in person and sent Zhang Zhao to attack Dangtu in Jiujiang, but could not take the city for over a month and withdrew before Zhang Xi arrived. Records, Wei 1 §105Records, Wu 2 §14

According to the biography of Jiang Ji, the main army had met with pestilence in Jing Province at that time, so Zhang Xi led only a thousand horsemen, and they too were suffering from pestilence. Jiang Ji, the Attendant Officer with Separate Carriage, secretly advised the Inspector to pretend to have received a letter from Zhang Xi saying that 40,000 infantry and cavalry had already reached Yulou; of the three groups of messengers, only one got into the city and two were captured, and Sun Quan, believing it, hastily burned his siege camp and fled. The biography of Liu Fu records that after Liu Fu, Inspector of Yang Province, died in the 13th year of Jian'an, Sun Quan's host of 100,000 besieged the city of Hefei for more than a hundred days, and when continuous rain threatened to bring down the walls, the city was covered with the straw mats and rain capes he had prepared and oil was burned at night to light up the area outside the walls, and so the enemy was held off. Records, Wei 14 §113–114Records, Wei 15 §4–6

According to the biography of Zhang Liao, Cao Cao, returning from his campaign against Sun Quan, stationed Zhang Liao, Yue Jin and Li Dian at Hefei with more than 7,000 men, and when he set out against Zhang Lu he left with the Protector of the Army Xue Ti a box inscribed "Open when the enemy comes." When Sun Quan besieged Hefei with a host of 100,000 in the 8th month of the 20th year of Jian'an (215), the instruction in the box was that if Sun Quan came, Zhang Liao and Li Dian should go out and fight, while Yue Jin should guard the Protector of the Army and not fight. Zhang Liao said that only by striking back before the enemy had completed the encirclement and breaking their momentum could they hold the city, and the biography of Li Dian records that Li Dian, who had never been on good terms with Zhang Liao, went along with him, saying that he would not let a private grudge make him forget the public good. Records, Wei 17 §10–11Records, Wei 1 §149Records, Wei 18 §7–8

Zhang Liao gathered 800 men willing to follow him that night and slaughtered oxen to feast them, and at dawn the next day, in armor and with halberd in hand, he led the charge into the enemy lines, killed several dozen men and cut down two generals, and, shouting his own name, reached the foot of Sun Quan's banner. Sun Quan, who had fled to the top of a high mound, saw how few Zhang Liao's men were and surrounded him several layers deep, but Zhang Liao broke out of the encirclement and then went back in to rescue the men left behind. After fighting until midday the men of Wu lost heart, and Sun Quan, after besieging Hefei for some ten days without taking it, withdrew. Records, Wei 17 §11–13

What happened during the withdrawal is detailed in the Records of Wu. According to the biography of Gan Ning, pestilence had broken out and the army had already left, and only a thousand-odd tiger guards and Lü Meng, Jiang Qin, Ling Tong and Gan Ning remained with Sun Quan north of Xiaoyao Ford, when Zhang Liao, having spied this out, swooped down on them. The biography of Ling Tong records that Ling Tong charged into the encirclement with 300 of his close followers and got Sun Quan out, that Sun Quan whipped his horse across a bridge of which only two planks remained, and that Ling Tong went back to fight until all his followers were dead and he himself was wounded. The biography of Pan Zhang says that in this battle Chen Wu was killed fighting and Song Qian and Xu Sheng broke and fled. Zhang Liao very nearly captured Sun Quan, and Cao Cao made him General Who Conquers the East. Records, Wu 10 §64 · 74–75 · 91Records, Wei 17 §13

In the time of Emperor Ming, Man Chong, General Who Conquers the East, proposed in the 1st year of Qinglong (233) that, since the city of Hefei bordered on rivers and lakes and the enemy could easily use the water to their advantage, a new city should be built at a strategic spot 30 li to the west; despite Jiang Ji's opposition, this was approved. That year Sun Quan tried to besiege the New City, but because it was far from the water he could not leave his boats for twenty days, and when he landed to display his strength, several hundred of his men were cut down by Man Chong's 6,000 men in ambush. The following year, in the 5th month of the 2nd year of Qinglong (234), taking advantage of Zhuge Liang's advance to Wugong, Sun Quan marched on the New City with a force he claimed was 100,000 strong. Man Chong had several dozen strong men set fires from upwind to burn the siege engines and shot dead Sun Quan's nephew Sun Tai, and in the 7th month, when Emperor Ming set out east in person aboard a dragon boat, Sun Quan fled while the emperor's army was still several hundred li away. Records, Wei 26 §17–20Records, Wu 2 §68 · 77–78Records, Wei 3 §37–38

In the 5th month of the 5th year of Jiaping (253), when Wu's Grand Tutor Zhuge Ke besieged the New City of Hefei, Wei had the Grand Commandant Sima Fu resist him. According to the Biography of Zhuge Ke, Zhuge Ke levied a host of 200,000 intending to sweep through Huainan, but on his generals' advice he besieged the New City instead, and while he attacked it for several months without taking it, more than half his soldiers fell ill from drinking water in the heat. He wanted to behead the officers who reported that there were many sick, calling it a lie, and the Chief Commandant Cai Lin fled to Wei; when Wei sent a relief army, he withdrew in the 7th month, and his sick soldiers collapsed along the road or were captured. Guanqiu Jian reported to the throne that Liu Zheng and Zheng Xiang, soldiers from inside the city who had been captured while slipping through the siege lines to carry messages, never yielded. Records, Wei 4 §35 · 39–41Records, Wu 19 §43–45