Battle of Dongxing 東興之戰

In the 2nd year of Huanglong (230) Sun Quan built an embankment at Dongxing to dam the waters of Chao Lake, but after his defeat in the campaign against Huainan he left it abandoned. In the 10th month of the 1st year of Jianxing (252), after Sun Quan had died and Sun Liang had taken the throne, the Grand Tutor Zhuge Ke gathered his forces at Dongxing, built a great embankment again and built two forts leaning against the hills on either side; he had Quan Duan guard the western fort and Liu Lüe the eastern fort, each with a thousand men, and then returned. Records, Wu 19 §28Records, Wu 3 §4

Wei regarded the entry of Wu troops into its territory as an insult. According to the Annals of the Three Young Emperors, in the 11th month of the 4th year of Jiaping (252) an edict ordered the Senior General Who Conquers the South Wang Chang, the General Who Conquers the East Hu Zun, the General Who Guards the South Guanqiu Jian and others to attack Wu. In the 12th month Zhuge Dan, Hu Zun and others surrounded Dongxing with 70,000 infantry and cavalry, while Wang Chang headed for Nan Commandery and Guanqiu Jian for Wuchang. Hu Zun and the others laid a pontoon bridge, deployed on the embankment and attacked the two forts, but the forts were high and steep and could not be taken quickly. Records, Wei 4 §34Records, Wu 3 §4Records, Wu 19 §28–29

Zhuge Ke raised 40,000 troops and hurried day and night to the rescue. The commanders said that when the enemy heard the Grand Tutor himself had come they would flee, but Ding Feng said that since Wei had mobilized all the troops of Xu and Luo, it would not go back empty-handed. Ding Feng had the slow-moving armies give way, led his own 3,000 men, raised sail with the north wind and in two days seized Xutang. Records, Wu 19 §29Records, Wu 10 §99–100

The weather was cold and snowy, and the Wei commanders had gathered to drink. Ding Feng had his soldiers take off their armor, keep only their helmets and carry short weapons, and Liu Zan, Lü Ju, Tang Zi and others likewise, equipped with only helmets, swords and shields, climbed the embankment with bare bodies. Seeing how few they were, the Wei troops laughed at them and made no preparations. The Wu troops who reached the top of the embankment beat their drums, shouted and cut about them wildly, breaking the Wei forward camp, and when Lü Ju and the others arrived, the Wei army collapsed. Records, Wu 10 §100–101Records, Wu 19 §29–30

The fleeing Wei troops rushed to cross the pontoon bridge, and when the bridge broke they threw themselves into the water and trampled one another. Huan Jia, Administrator of Le'an, and others were killed, and the dead numbered tens of thousands; Han Zong, a former Wu traitor who had become Wei's Commander of the Vanguard, was also beheaded. The Wu army captured thousands each of carts, oxen, horses, donkeys and mules. In the 1st month of the following year Wang Chang and the others attacking Nan Commandery also withdrew. In Wei, Zhuge Dan, who had been defeated at Dongguan, and Guanqiu Jian exchanged posts. Records, Wu 19 §30Records, Wu 3 §5–6Records, Wei 22 §9Records, Wei 28 §19

Zhuge Ke was promoted in his enfeoffment to Marquis of Yangdu and given the additional post of Governor of Jing and Yang provinces, but this victory bred in him contempt for the enemy, and rejecting the remonstrances of the high ministers he sent out troops again the following spring. He besieged Hefei Xincheng, lost more than half his troops to an epidemic and returned, and that winter he was killed by Sun Jun. Wei's Wang Ji later warned against carelessness after a great victory, citing how Zhuge Ke, riding on his victory at Dongguan, had attacked Xincheng and lost more than half his men. Records, Wu 19 §30–31Records, Wu 3 §6Records, Wei 27 §69