Battle of Xiaoting 夷陵之戰

In the 24th year of Jian'an (219), when Sun Quan attacked Guan Yu, Lu Xun separately took Yidu, gained Zigui, Yidao and other places, and then garrisoned Yiling to guard against Shu. Liu Bei, who took the imperial throne in the 4th month of the 26th year of Jian'an (221), was angered by Sun Quan's surprise attack on Guan Yu and meant to march east. Huang Quan remonstrated that the men of Wu were fierce fighters and that a fleet going downstream would find it easy to advance but hard to retreat, offering to lead the vanguard himself, but Liu Bei did not listen. In the 6th month Zhang Fei, who was to lead 10,000 men and join up at Jiangzhou, was murdered on the eve of departure by his subordinate generals Zhang Da and Fan Jiang. Records, Wu 2 §27Records, Shu 2 §65 · 68Records, Shu 13 §5Records, Shu 6 §22–23

In the 7th month of autumn, when Liu Bei attacked Wu, Sun Quan sent a letter suing for peace, but Liu Bei was furious and refused. Zhuge Jin too sent a letter, asking how the bond with Guan Yu compared with that to the late emperor, and which was greater, Jing Province or the whole realm. Wu's Lu Xun (whom the Biography of the First Sovereign records under his original name, Lu Yi), Li Yi and others were stationed at Wu County and Zigui, and when Shu's Wu Ban and Feng Xi defeated Li Yi and the others at Wu County and encamped at Zigui, the Man and Yi of the Wuxi in Wuling sent envoys asking for troops. Sun Quan made Lu Xun Grand Commander and had him oppose Liu Bei at the head of 50,000 men, including Zhu Ran, Pan Zhang, Song Qian, Han Dang, Xu Sheng, Xianyu Dan and Sun Huan. Records, Shu 2 §68–69Records, Wu 7 §55–56Records, Wu 13 §1 · 17Records, Wu 2 §39

In the 1st month of the 2nd year of Zhangwu (222), Liu Bei's army returned to Zigui, and the fleets of Wu Ban and Chen Shi were stationed at Yiling, flanking both banks of the river. The Biography of the Lord of Wu records that in the same month Song Qian and others broke five Shu encampments. In the 2nd month Liu Bei advanced along the mountains, cutting across the ridges, and set up camp at Xiaoting in Yidao, and sent the Palace Attendant Ma Liang to win over the Man and Yi of the Wuxi. Huang Quan, General Who Guards the North, commanded the armies north of the river; the Biography of the First Sovereign records that he faced the Wu army on the Yiling road, while the Biography of Huang Quan records that he was set to guard against the Wei forces. The Biography of Lu Xun says that Liu Bei set up dozens of encampments from the Wu Gorge and Jianping to the border of Yiling, making Feng Xi chief commander and Zhang Nan leader of the vanguard. Records, Shu 2 §70Records, Wu 2 §41Records, Shu 13 §5Records, Wu 13 §17

When Liu Bei had Wu Ban build a camp on the flat ground with several thousand men to provoke a fight, Lu Xun stopped his generals, saying there was some trick, and Liu Bei came out of a valley leading 8,000 men who had been lying in ambush. Lu Xun memorialized that Yiling was the gateway of the state and that losing it would put Jing Province in danger, and said that since Liu Bei had abandoned his boats and advanced on land, pitching camps everywhere, there would be no other surprise. When Sun Huan, surrounded after attacking Liu Bei's vanguard at Yidao, asked for help, Lu Xun did not relieve him, saying that his city was strong and his provisions ample, and when old generals from Sun Ce's time and nobles of the ruling house would not follow his orders, he gripped his sword and told them not to violate military orders. Records, Wu 13 §17–19 · 23–25

When the generals said that since they had let the enemy come in five or six hundred li and had held out for seven or eight months, attacking now would bring no advantage, Lu Xun said that Liu Bei's soldiers were exhausted and dispirited and that now was the time to strike. When an attack on one camp first failed, he had each soldier carry a bundle of thatch and took the camps with fire, then attacked with all his armies at once, beheading Zhang Nan, Feng Xi, the Hu king Shamoke and others and breaking more than forty camps, and Liu Bei's generals Du Lu and Liu Ning, driven into a corner, asked to surrender. The Biography of the First Sovereign records this as happening some ten days after a yellow vapor appeared at Zigui in the 6th month of summer, while the Biography of the Lord of Wu says that they fought from the 1st month to the intercalary month and won a great victory. The Annals of Emperor Wen in the Records of Wei record it under the intercalary month and relate that Cao Pi, on hearing earlier of the camps strung out over more than 700 li, had said, "Liu Bei does not understand warfare." Records, Wu 13 §20–21Records, Shu 2 §71Records, Wu 2 §41Records, Wei 2 §32

Liu Bei climbed Mount Ma'an and drew up his troops around himself, but when Lu Xun urged on his armies and closed in from all sides, his forces collapsed and the dead numbered in the tens of thousands. Fleeing under cover of night, he barely made it into Baidicheng thanks to the post-station men who burned gongs and armor to cut off pursuit behind him, and he lost almost all his boats and military supplies. Zhu Ran broke his vanguard and cut off his line of retreat, and Sun Huan cut the upper Kui road. The Biography of the First Sovereign records that Liu Bei gathered his scattered troops at Zigui, then abandoned his boats, returned overland to Yufu and renamed it Yong'an. Ma Liang also met his death at this time, and Fu Tong, holding the rear, berated those who told him to surrender as "Wu dogs" and died fighting. Records, Wu 13 §21–22Records, Wu 11 §15Records, Wu 6 §49Records, Shu 2 §71Records, Shu 9 §16Records, Shu 15 §75

Huang Quan, north of the river, was cut off and unable to return when Lu Xun came downstream and cut through the camps and the army south of the river was defeated, so he surrendered to Wei with the troops under him. When it was proposed to arrest his wife and children, Liu Bei said, "I failed Huang Quan; Huang Quan did not fail me," and treated them as before. The Annals of Emperor Wen record his surrender under the 8th month, and that month Liu Bei withdrew his troops and returned to Wu County. Xu Sheng, Pan Zhang, Song Qian and others asked to attack Liu Bei again, but Lu Xun, together with Zhu Ran and Luo Tong, said that Cao Pi was gathering a great army and they should return, and in the 9th month Wei sent Cao Xiu, Cao Ren, Cao Zhen and others to attack Wu on three fronts. Records, Shu 13 §6Records, Wei 2 §33Records, Shu 2 §72Records, Wu 13 §28Records, Wu 2 §42

Sun Quan, hearing that Liu Bei was staying at Baidi, was greatly afraid and asked for peace, and Liu Bei accepted and sent Zong Wei in reply. The Biography of the Lord of Wu records that in the 12th month Sun Quan sent Zheng Quan to Baidi and relations were at last restored, and that this year Wu renamed Yiling as Xiling. Zhuge Liang lamented that had Fa Zheng been alive he would have kept the sovereign from going east, and Liu Bei died at Yongan Palace in the 4th month of the 3rd year of Zhangwu (223). In his assessment in the Biography of Lu Xun, Chen Shou marveled at the strategy of Lu Xun, a man whose fame had not yet spread, in overcoming Liu Bei, whom the realm called a hero, and admired Sun Quan's eye for talent. Records, Shu 2 §72 · 73Records, Wu 2 §47–48Records, Shu 7 §34Records, Wu 13 §91