Battle
Sima Yi's Liaodong campaign 魏滅燕之戰
About this event
This was the war in which, after Gongsun Yuan of Liaodong refused a summons from Wei in the 1st year of Jingchu (237) and made himself King of Yan, the Wei Grand Commandant Sima Yi attacked Liaodong the following year with an army of 40,000 and killed Gongsun Yuan. Gongsun Yuan ringed Liaosui County with trenches to hold him off, but Sima Yi bypassed them, rushed straight to Xiangping and surrounded the city. Records, Wei 3 §53–54 · 61–62Records, Wei 8 §46–47
When the grain inside the city ran out after more than thirty days of heavy rain, in the 8th month of the 2nd year of Jingchu (238) Gongsun Yuan and his son Gongsun Xiu were cut down while breaking through the siege and fleeing, and Liaodong, Daifang, Lelang and Xuantu were all brought under Wei. It was the end, after three generations and fifty years, of the hold on Liaodong that Gongsun Du had seized. Records, Wei 8 §48–50Records, Wei 3 §61
Chen Shou recorded this war in the record of Gongsun Yuan attached to the Biography of Gongsun Du in Records of Wei 8 and in the Annals of Emperor Ming in Records of Wei 3, and also left accounts in the biography of Guanqiu Jian and the Account of the Eastern Barbarians. The Romance depicts it in Chapter 106. Records, Wei 8 §44–50Records, Wei 3 §53–62Records, Wei 28 §14–15Records, Wei 30 §59Romance, Ch. 106 §1–27
Course of events in the Records
According to the record of Gongsun Yuan in the Records, when Sun Quan of Wu sent the envoys Zhang Mi and Xu Yan to set up Gongsun Yuan as King of Yan, Gongsun Yuan, judging that Sun Quan could not be relied on and coveting the goods, beheaded the envoys and sent their heads to Wei, and Emperor Ming made him Grand Marshal and Duke of Lelang. But Gongsun Yuan received the Wei envoys with armored troops arrayed in battle formation and repeatedly spoke ill words before guests within his domain. Records, Wei 8 §44–46
According to the Annals of Emperor Ming, when Sun Quan sought to cross the sea, make contact with Goguryeo and attack Liaodong, in the 7th month of the 1st year of Jingchu (237) Emperor Ming had Guanqiu Jian, Inspector of You Province, lead the Xianbei and Wuhuan and station himself on the southern border of Liaodong, and summoned Gongsun Yuan with a sealed edict. Gongsun Yuan raised troops and fought Guanqiu Jian at Liaosui County, and when ten days of continuous rain swelled the Liao River, Guanqiu Jian returned. Gongsun Yuan at last made himself King of Yan, set up the hundred offices and proclaimed the 1st year of Shaohan, and he lent a seal to the Xianbei chanyu and harassed the north. Records, Wei 3 §53–54Records, Wei 8 §46Records, Wei 28 §14–15
In the 1st month, spring, of the 2nd year of Jingchu (238), Emperor Ming had the Grand Commandant Sima Xuanwang (Sima Yi) attack Liaodong. When his ministers said that 40,000 men were too many and the cost hard to bear, Emperor Ming said that for a campaign of four thousand li one could not count the costs bit by bit, and sent him with 40,000. When the army reached Liaodong in the 6th month, Gongsun Yuan gave his generals Bei Yan and Yang Zuo (楊祚) tens of thousands of infantry and cavalry to hold Liaosui County behind more than twenty li of encircling trenches. Records, Wei 3 §57 · 61–62Records, Wei 8 §47
Sima Xuanwang sent the general Hu Zun and others to defeat Bei Yan, who came out to meet him, then broke through the encirclement and, feigning a move to the southeast, swung sharply to the northeast and rushed straight to Xiangping. Bei Yan and the others, afraid that Xiangping was undefended, fled by night, made a desperate stand again at Mount Shou but were badly defeated. The Wei army reached the foot of the city and dug siege trenches. According to the Account of the Eastern Barbarians, the Goguryeo king Wei Gong (位宮) also sent several thousand men to aid Sima Xuanwang's army. Records, Wei 8 §47–48Records, Wei 30 §59
Just then heavy rain fell for more than thirty days and the Liao River rose, so that the transport boats came straight from the mouth of the Liao up to the foot of the city. At court some said that Gongsun Yuan could not be defeated soon and that Sima Xuanwang should be recalled, but Emperor Ming said, "Sima Yi meets danger by adapting to change; the capture of Gongsun Yuan can be awaited by counting the days." When the rain cleared, the Wei army raised earthen mounds and towers and shot into the city with stone-throwers and repeating crossbows. Inside the city the grain ran out until people ate one another, and the general Yang Zuo and others surrendered. Records, Wei 8 §48Records, Wei 3 §62
On the night of the bingyin day of the 8th month, a great meteor several tens of zhang long fell from northeast of Mount Shou to southeast of the city of Xiangping. On the renwu day, when Gongsun Yuan's forces collapsed, Gongsun Yuan, with his son Gongsun Xiu and several hundred horsemen, broke through the siege and fled southeast, but the main army pursued them and cut down father and son on the very spot where the meteor had fallen. When the city fell, the heads taken from the Chancellor of State down numbered in the thousands, and Gongsun Yuan's head was sent to Luoyang. Records, Wei 8 §49Records, Wei 3 §61
Liaodong, Daifang, Lelang and Xuantu were all pacified, and the commanderies east of the sea came under Wei. In the 11th month Emperor Ming reckoned the merits of the campaign against Gongsun Yuan and added fiefs and ranks for Sima Xuanwang and those below him, and Guanqiu Jian was raised to Marquis of Anyi. Chen Shou records that after Gongsun Du seized Liaodong in the 6th year of Zhongping (189), his house perished after three generations and fifty years. Records, Wei 8 §49–50Records, Wei 3 §61Records, Wei 28 §15
In the Romance
In Chapter 106 of the Romance, Gongsun Yuan usurps the position of his uncle Gongsun Gong, beheads Sun Quan's envoys and receives from Wei the posts of Grand Marshal and Duke of Lelang, but, not satisfied, proclaims himself King of Yan and changes the era name to the 1st year of Shaohan. When his deputy general Jia Fan and his Military Adviser Lun Zhi try to stop him, saying that he cannot beat Sima Yi and that strange events have been frequent within the state, he beheads the two in the marketplace, makes Bei Yan commander-in-chief and Yang Zuo leader of the vanguard, and sets out toward the Central Plains with 150,000 men. Romance, Ch. 106 §1–5
Summoned by Cao Rui, Sima Yi says that 40,000 men are enough: if Gongsun Yuan abandons his city and flees, that is his best plan; if he holds Liaodong, his middle plan; if he sits and defends Xiangping, his worst plan, and he will surely be captured; and the round trip will take a year. When Bei Yan and Yang Zuo ring Liaosui with trenches with 80,000 men and plan a war of attrition, Sima Yi leaves them and heads for Xiangping by a byway. Bei Yan, following in alarm, is cut down by Xiahou Ba, who lies in ambush on the bank of the Liao River, and Gongsun Yuan enters the city of Xiangping and shuts the gates. Romance, Ch. 106 §6–13
When autumn rain falls for a month and the camps are flooded, Sima Yi beheads Qiu Lian, who proposes moving the camp, and lets the people of the city gather firewood and graze their livestock. When Chen Qun asks how this differs from the time he attacked Meng Da at Shangyong, he answers that then the enemy had much grain and they had little, but now the enemy is starving. Cao Rui, too, rejects his ministers' advice to recall Sima Yi. Romance, Ch. 106 §14–18
On the night the rain stops, a great star falls from northeast of Mount Shou to southeast of Xiangping, and Sima Yi says that five days later he will behead Gongsun Yuan on that spot. He beheads the envoys who come to surrender and rebukes Wei Yan (衛演), who offers to send a hostage, saying that one who cannot fight should defend, one who cannot defend should flee, one who cannot flee should surrender, and one who cannot surrender has only to die. Gongsun Yuan and his son, fleeing by the south gate, are blocked by Sima Yi and his sons, dismount and surrender but are beheaded, and Sima Yi enters Xiangping, kills the officials who plotted with Gongsun Yuan, and raises the graves of Jia Fan and Lun Zhi in their honor. Romance, Ch. 106 §19–27
Where the Romance differs
The start of the rebellion: In Chapter 106 of the Romance, Gongsun Yuan proclaims himself King of Yan and sets out first toward the Central Plains with 150,000 men. In the Annals of Emperor Ming and the record of Gongsun Yuan in the Records, when Emperor Ming sent Guanqiu Jian in the 1st year of Jingchu to summon Gongsun Yuan, Gongsun Yuan resisted and drove off Guanqiu Jian at Liaosui County, and only after that did he become King of Yan. Guanqiu Jian's first expedition is not in the Romance. Romance, Ch. 106 §3 · 5Records, Wei 3 §53–54Records, Wei 8 §46
The fighting at Liaosui: In the Romance, when Sima Yi bypasses Liaosui and heads for Xiangping, Bei Yan, following him, falls into Xiahou Ba's ambush and is cut down. The record of Gongsun Yuan says only that Hu Zun and others defeated Bei Yan and that Bei Yan and the others were again badly defeated at Mount Shou; there is no mention of Bei Yan's death. As for the troops Gongsun Yuan stationed at Liaosui County, the Romance gives 80,000 and the Records tens of thousands. Romance, Ch. 106 §9–13Records, Wei 8 §47–48
Events during the siege: The more than thirty days of heavy rain, the transport boats, and Emperor Ming's trust in Sima Yi and refusal to recall him are the same in both. The beheading of the general who proposed moving the camp and the exchange with Chen Qun appear only in the Romance; in the Records, after the rain cleared they attacked the city with earthen mounds, towers and stone-throwers, and when the city starved, Yang Zuo and others surrendered. Romance, Ch. 106 §14–18Records, Wei 8 §48Records, Wei 3 §62
Gongsun Yuan's end: In the Romance, on the renshen day five days after the star fell, Gongsun Yuan and his son, blocked by Sima Yi, dismount and surrender, then are beheaded. In the record of Gongsun Yuan, the meteor fell on the bingyin day of the 8th month, and on the renwu day, when his forces collapsed, Gongsun Yuan and his son broke through the siege with several hundred horsemen and were cut down while fleeing on the spot where the meteor had fallen; they did not surrender. Romance, Ch. 106 §19 · 24–26Records, Wei 8 §49
Jia Fan, Lun Zhi and the strange events: In the Romance, the dog that wore a headcloth and climbed onto a roof, the child in the steamer, and the lump of flesh in the Xiangping marketplace appear in Lun Zhi's remonstrance, and Jia Fan and Lun Zhi are executed. In the record of Gongsun Yuan, the same strange events are recorded only as omens of ruin, and Jia Fan and Lun Zhi do not appear. Romance, Ch. 106 §3–5Records, Wei 8 §50
Written by 3KDEX (not yet reviewed) — The tags at the end of each paragraph link to the exact passage in the Records volume or Romance chapter it is based on.
Belligerents
| Item | A | B |
|---|---|---|
| Factions | Wei | Gongsun Yuan faction |
| Commanders | Sima Yi, Guanqiu Jian, Hu Zun | Gongsun Yuan, Bei Yan, Yang Zuo |
| Strength | 遂以四萬人行 | 步騎數萬 |
| Casualties | 斬相國以下首級以千數 |
Factions, commanders, strength and casualties are checked against the source texts (3KDEX). Strength and casualties show only figures stated in the sources. Source: Wei 8 §49