Battle of Xiapi 下邳之戰

In the 1st year of Jian'an (196), Lü Bu took advantage of Liu Bei's absence on a campaign against Yuan Shu to seize Xiapi, and styled himself Inspector of Xu Province. The next year, when Yuan Shu proclaimed himself emperor and sought a marriage alliance, Lü Bu, heeding Chen Gui, seized the envoy and sent him to the court, but in the 3rd year of Jian'an (198) he again sided with Yuan Shu and sent Gao Shun to attack Liu Bei at Pei. Xiahou Dun, sent by Cao Cao, also failed to rescue Liu Bei and was defeated by Gao Shun, and Gao Shun captured Liu Bei's wife and children and sent them to Lü Bu. Records, Wei 7 §16 · 19–20 · 25Records, Wei 1 §48Records, Shu 2 §13

In the 9th month Cao Cao marched east against Lü Bu, and in the 10th month, in winter, he massacred Pengcheng and captured the Chancellor of Pengcheng, Hou Xie. When he reached Xiapi, Lü Bu came out to meet him at the head of his cavalry in person, but Cao Cao heavily defeated him and captured his valiant commander Cheng Lian. The biography of Lü Bu records that when Cao Cao reached the foot of the walls and wrote to Lü Bu setting out where fortune and misfortune lay, Lü Bu wanted to surrender, but Chen Gong and others, believing their own guilt to be deep, prevented him. Lü Bu asked Yuan Shu for help and went out to fight in person at the head of more than a thousand horsemen, but was defeated, returned to the city and did not dare come out again, and Yuan Shu too was unable to rescue him. Records, Wei 1 §48Records, Wei 7 §25–26

When the soldiers were worn out by continuous fighting, Cao Cao wanted to go back. Xun You and Guo Jia said that Lü Bu was brave but without strategy and had lost all three battles, so his keen spirit had waned, and that Chen Gong was clever but slow, so they must attack quickly before Lü Bu's spirit recovered and Chen Gong's plans were settled. Cao Cao drew off the Yi River and the Si River to flood the city. The biography of Lü Bu says that when Cao Cao dug trenches and besieged him for three months, those above and below became estranged, and records that Lü Bu, lacking strategy and full of suspicion, could not control his followers, and that his commanders each harbored their own intentions. Records, Wei 1 §49Records, Wei 10 §57Records, Wei 7 §26

A little over a month later, Lü Bu's commanders Hou Cheng, Song Xian and Wei Xu tied up Chen Gong and surrendered at the head of their men. Lü Bu climbed the White Gate Tower with his followers and came down and surrendered when the siege grew desperate. When the bound Lü Bu asked for his bonds to be loosened because they were too tight, Cao Cao said that one cannot bind a tiger without binding it tight, and when Lü Bu said that if His Excellency commanded the infantry and he the cavalry, it would not be hard to pacify the realm, Liu Bei asked whether Cao Cao had not seen how Lü Bu served Ding Jianyang and Grand Preceptor Dong. Cao Cao had Lü Bu strangled, and the heads of Lü Bu, Chen Gong, Gao Shun and the others were cut off, sent to Xu and displayed, and then buried. Records, Wei 1 §49Records, Wei 7 §26–27

Cao Cao supported Chen Gong's old mother until her death and married off his daughter. Zhang Liao surrendered at the head of his men, became General of the Household and received the rank of Marquis Within the Passes. Cao Cao generously took in Zang Ba, Sun Guan, Wu Dun, Yin Li and Chang Xi of Taishan, who had followed Lü Bu, entrusted to them the coastal lands of Qing and Xu Provinces, and split Langya, Donghai and Beihai to set up the commanderies of Chengyang, Licheng and Changlü. Chen Deng, who had pinned down Lü Bu from front and rear, was given the added title of General Who Calms the Waves, and Liu Bei, having recovered his wife and children, followed Cao Cao back to Xu and became General of the Left. Records, Wei 7 §29 · 31Records, Wei 17 §3Records, Wei 1 §49Records, Shu 2 §14