Yang Ling 楊陵

In Chapter 92 of the Romance, when Zhao Yun, Guan Xing and Zhang Bao attack from three directions and, with Deng Zhi coming up in support, crush the Wei army, Xiahou Mao, who has no strategy and has never seen battle, flees to Nan'an Commandery with a hundred or so of the bold generals under his tent and shuts the city gates fast. After ten days of siege the city still has not fallen, and Zhuge Liang, arriving in person, says that with its deep moat and high walls it cannot easily be taken, and asks who are the administrators of Tianshui Commandery to the west and Anding Commandery to the north. Romance, Ch. 92 §22–26

Zhuge Liang has one of his trusted men pose as Pei Xu, a general of Xiahou Mao, to lure Cui Liang, Administrator of Anding, out of his city, and in the meantime Wei Yan seizes Anding. When Cui Liang, seeing Shu troops on every side, surrenders, Zhuge Liang asks whether he is on close terms with the Administrator of Nan'an, and Cui Liang answers that the man is Yang Ling, a younger clansman of Yang Fu, and that because their commanderies are neighbors they are very close friends. To send Cui Liang into the city and persuade Yang Ling to seize Xiahou Mao, Zhuge Liang has his forces on every side fall back twenty li and pitch camp. Romance, Ch. 92 §28–34 · 43

Cui Liang rides alone into the city, and after the formalities are done he explains the matter in detail; Yang Ling says that they have received great favor from the lord of Wei and how could they bear to betray him, and proposes to turn the scheme against itself. Yang Ling takes Cui Liang to Xiahou Mao and tells him everything, and when asked what plan they should use, he proposes to pretend that he is handing over the city gate, trick the Shu troops into coming in, and kill them inside the city. Cui Liang leaves the city and tells Zhuge Liang that Yang Ling will open the city gate and let the main army in to capture Xiahou Mao, and that Yang Ling had meant to seize him himself but had not dared to act rashly because he had few brave men under him. Romance, Ch. 92 §35–36

Zhuge Liang tells Cui Liang to take Shu generals hidden among the hundred or so men who surrendered with him and to arrange secretly with Yang Ling to open the city gate in the middle of the night, and he sends Guan Xing and Zhang Bao along with him. When they reach the walls of Nan'an at dusk, Yang Ling sets out a board hung out from the wall, leans on the breast-high railing, and asks whose troops they are. Tied to the signal arrow that Cui Liang shoots up onto the wall is a secret letter saying that Zhuge Liang is sending two generals ahead to lie in wait inside the city and that they should be dealt with once they are inside the residence; Yang Ling reports this to Xiahou Mao, who tells him to hide a hundred or so swordsmen and axemen in the residence, behead the two generals, and then light a fire on the walls to lure Zhuge Liang into the city. Romance, Ch. 92 §36–39

His preparations made, Yang Ling goes back up on the wall and says that if they are the troops of Anding they should be let into the city, then comes down from the wall and receives them by the gate. Guan Xing, riding ahead with Cui Liang, raises his hand and brings down his blade, and Yang Ling is cut down from his horse; Cui Liang too, fleeing, is speared from his horse by Zhang Bao. Guan Xing climbs the wall and sets a fire, the Shu troops pour in from every side, and Xiahou Mao, breaking out through the south gate, is captured by Wang Ping. Zhuge Liang later reveals that he had secretly told the two generals to deal with them at the foot of the city gate. Romance, Ch. 92 §40–43