Battle of Jiangling

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict=Battle of Jiangling
partof=the wars of the Three Kingdoms


caption=
date=Winter 208 - 209
place=Jiangling (Modern-day Jingjiang 荆江)
casus=
territory=
result=Allied victory
combatant1=Sun Quan, Liu Bei
combatant2=Cao Cao
commander1=Zhou Yu
commander2=Cao Ren
strength1=32,000
strength2=10,000
casualties1=Low
casualties2=HeavyThe Battle of Jiangling (江陵之战) was an integral part of the Red Cliffs campaign during late Han Dynasty China, fought immediately after the Battle of Yiling after the major engagement of Wulin (乌林, located within modern day Honghu) where Cao Cao’s navy was defeated. The commanders of the battle were the same commanders who directed the earlier Battle of Yiling, and after some fierce conflicts at the first, the battle turned to a siege that lasted around a year, finally resulting in Sun Quan’s victory.

Prelude

During the major engagement of the Battle of Red Cliffs at Wulin, the allied forces of Sun-Liu alliance divided their tasks by assigning Liu Bei to destroy Cao Cao’s encampment on land while Zhou Yu was tasked to destroy Cao Cao’s navy, and both objectives were achieved. The allies immediately carried out their next step of their strategy by attempting to take Jiangling (江陵, located in modern day Jingjiang 荆江, not to be confused with modern day Jiangling) from Cao Cao by chasing the retreating enemy toward Jiangling.

Order of battle

Cao Cao's force
*General Subduing the South (征南将军) Cao Ren stationed in Jingling (江陵, located in modern day Jingjiang 荆江, not to be confused with modern day Jiangling)
**Hengye General (横野将军) Xu Huang
**Senior Minister (长史) Chen Jiao (陈矫)
**General Niu Jin (牛金)
Sun Quan's force
*General in the Center Protecting the Army (中护军将军) Zhou Yu was named as commander-in-chief of the allied force
**Captain Praising the Army (赞军校尉) Lu Su was named as Zhou Yu’s deputy
**Viceroy on the Right (右都督) Cheng Pu
**Danyang Protector - Supervisor (丹阳都尉) Huang Gai was named as the vanguard of the allied navy
**Hengye General of the Imperial Garrison (横野中郎将) Lü Meng
**Dangkou Governor (当口令) Gan Ning
**General of the Imperial Garrison (中郎将) Han Dang
**Yichun Mayor (宜春长) Zhou Tai
**General Subduing Barbarians (征虏将军) Sun Ben
**Captain of Strong Might (竞威校尉) Lu Xun
**Captain of Military Ferocity (武猛校尉) Pan Zhang
**Protect-Supervisor Inheriting Fierceness (承烈都尉) Ling Tong
Liu Bei's force
*General on the Left (左将军) Liu Bei was the vanguard of the allied ground force
**Major General (偏将军) Guan Yu was the commander-in-chief of Liu Bei’s navy
**General of the Imperial Garrison (中郎将) Zhang Fei
**Linju Mayor (临沮长) Xiang Lang

First stage

As the allies gave chase to the retreating enemy, Liu Bei was commanding his 16,000 strong land force on the northern bank of the Yangtze River while Zhou Yu was leading his 30,000 member strong navy going upstream. Zhou Yu was worried about Cao Cao’s unscathed northern thrust totaling over 120,000, locating not too far in the north of the Yangtze River. Zhou Yu ordered Liu Bei to withdraw back from the northern bank of the Yangtze River to the southern bank, and Liu Bei agreed. Liu Bei asked and obtained Zhou Yu’s permission to cover the rear and the flank of Zhou Yu’s navy by taking the remaining four commanderies to the south of the Yangtze River from Cao Cao. There were hardly any troops left to defend the region, so all of the administrators of Cao Cao’s four commanderies, including Jin Xuan at Wuling (武陵), Han Xuan at Changsha, Zhao Fan at Guiyang (桂阳), and Liu Du at Lingling (零陵) all surrendered without a fight. More importantly, Liu Bei’s conquest of these commanderies was an integral portion of the Red Cliffs campaign as part of the goal of the allies. Liu Bei finally had a base of his own and he named Zhuge Liang as Counselor – General of the Imperial Garrison (军师中郎将) to oversee the general affairs of Changsha (长沙), Guiyang (桂阳), Lingling (零陵).

The biggest gain for Liu Bei; however, was that he was joined by Lei Xu (雷绪) and his troops, which almost doubled Liu Bei’s force instantly. As soon as the news of Cao Cao’s defeat at Wulin was heard, Lei Xu (雷绪) at Lujiang (庐江, located within modern day Chaohu) rebelled. Cao Cao’s earlier strategy of keeping his veteran force in a separate force in the north to prepare for possible rebellions had paid off as he was able to summon the force to suppress the rebellion quickly by putting Xiahou Yuan in charge, but the victory was not complete: though defeated and lost his turf, Lei Xu’s force was largely unscathed; he led them to Liu Bei, strengthening the latter.

As the allies reached Jiangling, they camped on across the Yangtze River on the southern bank. While Liu Bei was securing allies’ flank and rear, Zhou Yu was able to concentrate on attacking Cao Ren, who stationed at Jiangling. However, Cao Ren’s staunch resistance prevented the possibility of a quick victory as Zhou Yu had anticipated, so Gan Ning suggested a different strategy of taking Yiling upstream, to the northwest of Jiangling. As Jiangling was threatened from the rear, Cao Ren would be surrounded and his supply lines would be cut. If Cao Ren was to rescue Yiling, the force left to defend Jiangling would not be enough to resist Zhou Yu. After some initial hesitation, Zhou Yu eventually led his troops to support Gan Ning in carrying out this plan, which resulted in Eastern Wu’s victory. As the Battle of Yiling was carried out, the Jiangling front was quiet for more than a dozen days until the triumphant Zhou Yu returned to Jiangling and resumed his attack on the city.

econd stage

As the victorious Zhou Yu returned to his main camp at Jiangling from Yiling, he became overconfident and personally joined the attack on the city. Cao Ren was quick to capture this opportunity and ordered archers to concentrate their attack on Zhou Yu. Zhou Yu was severely wounded in this, with his right ribs broken by the arrows. Though the wound was not fatal, it was the illness developed from the infection of the wound that would eventually kill Zhou Yu. As Cao Ren attempted to further capitalize on the opportunity by venturing out of the city to engage the enemy, Zhou Yu prevented his troops’ morale from collapsing by personally leading his troops in wait and Cao Ren immediately retreated back to the city as he discovered Zhou Yu appeared to be fine. However, the attack on the city wall was called off by the allies in order to let Zhou Yu rest and recover.

After conquering Cao Cao’s remaining four commandaries to the south of Yangtze River, Liu Bei joined the fight at Jiangling. Liu Bei, not wanting to raise Zhou Yu’s suspicion, did not bring a large army because Zhou Yu already enjoyed numerical advantage over Cao Ren. Liu Bei only led 2,000 troops, commanded by Zhang Fei and Guan Yu, and Liu Bei suggested to let his 2,000 troop join the fight at Jiangling, while he volunteered to sever the vital transportation link between Xiangyang and Jiangling to prevent Cao Hong from resupplying Jiangling. Zhou Yu agreed and assigned Liu Bei's 2,000 troops to perform the task, and Liu Bei’s original 2,000 troops that came with him were all assigned to Guan Yu to prevent Cao Cao from resupplying Jiangling via the Han River. Guan Yu successfully accomplished his task, and until the fall of Jiangling, Cao Cao’s repeated attempts to provide naval support were beaten back by Guan Yu, despite numerous attempts by Yue Jin, Wen Pin and Li Tong. As Liu Bei successfully carried out his order by preventing Cao Hong from resupplying and reinforcing Cao Ren on land, Liu Bei placed his subject Xiang Lang in charge of Zigui (秭归), Yidao (夷道), Wushan (巫山), and Yiling (夷陵) commanderies, adding these four additional commanderies to his territory. Although the first three were taken from Cao Cao by Liu Bei, the last one, Yiling (夷陵) commandery was assigned to Liu Bei by Sun Quan.

To prevent morale from dropping further, Cao Ren organized a 300 hundred member strong assault force led by his general Niu Jin to attack the enemy vanguard outside the city wall, and the small detachment was immediately besieged by the enemy. Cao Ren ordered several dozen cavalry to be ready for the rescue and his Senior Minister (长史) Chen Jiao (陈矫) begged him not go, claiming that the enemy force was too strong and he should not risk his own life to attempt the impossible (saving the 300 troops besieged by thousands of enemy). Cao Ren ignored Chen Jiao’s plea and went out, charging directly into the enemy. As Chen Jiao lost sight of Cao Ren, he was certain that Cao Ren was dead. However, to everyone’s surprise, not only did Cao Ren rescue Niu Jin on the first attempt, he went back for the second time to save the remaining survivors. As Cao Ren and his troops safely returned to the safety behind the city wall, the total fatalities of combined forces of Cao Ren and Niu Jin were less than 10. The surprised Chen Jiao could only mutter one sentence: "General (Cao Ren) was truly a god." As Cao Cao learned this soon after, he rewarded Cao Ren the rank of Marquis of Anpingting (安平亭侯) for his bravery in this battle. After this battle, the confrontations between two sides ended and the battle turned into a siege which lasted until next year, eventually resulting in Zhou Yu’s victory when Cao Ren ran out of supplies and forced to abandon the city and retreat.

Conclusion

Traditionally, the Battle of Jiangling is regarded as the end of the Red Cliffs campaign because as the confrontations ended and the battle turned into a siege, Cao Cao returned to his forward base in Qiao (谯) County in the north in March, 209, and Sun Quan also gave up his attack on Hefei in the east, and the remainder of the Siege of Jiangling was no longer considered as part of the campaign by most historians. The fall of Jiangling into Sun Quan’s hand is generally regarded as the aftermath of the campaign.

In fiction

For dramatic effect, in many literary works, Liu Bei’s conquest of the four commanderies south of the Yangtze were listed as separate battles, and there was a match between Guan Yu and Huang Zhong which became the source of other cultural works, such as Beijing opera. In reality; however, none of these were true.

Contrary to what was depicted in the "Romance of Three Kingdoms", Han Xuan was not killed by Wei Yan, who in turn did not join Liu Bei at the factitious battle, but instead, was already a subject of Liu Bei long time ago.

Reference

*Zizhi Tongjian
*Records of Three Kingdoms
*"Selected Examples of Battles in Ancient China" Writing Team, "Selected Examples of Battles in Ancient China", 1st Edition, published by Chinese Publishing House & Distributed by New China Bookstore Publishing House in Beijing, 1981 - 1984.
*Yuan, Tingdong, "War in Ancient China", 1st Edition, published by Sichuan Academy of Social Science Publishing House & Distributed by New China Bookstore in Chengdu, 1988, ISBN 7805240582
*Zhang, Xiaosheng, "General View of War of Ancient China", 1st Edition in Xi'an, published by Long March Publishing House in Beijing & Distributed by New China Bookstore in Beijing, 1988, ISBN 7800150313 (set)