Battle of Yiling (208)

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


caption=
date=Winter 208
place=Yiling (Present-day Yichang)
casus=
territory=
result=Sun Quan victory
combatant1=Sun Quan
combatant2=Cao Cao
commander1=Zhou Yu
commander2=Cao Ren
strength1=31,000
strength2=6,000
casualties1=Low
casualties2=3,000+The Battle of Yiling (夷陵之战) of 208 between Zhou Yu under Sun Quan and Cao Ren under Cao Cao during the prelude to the Three Kingdoms era in China was an integral part of the Red Cliffs campaign, fought immediately after the major engagement at Wulin (乌林, located within modern day Honghu) in the Battle of Red Cliffs. The Battle of Yiling was also the prelude to the Battle of Jiangling that immediately followed.

Prelude

Immediately after the decisive defeat of Cao Cao at Wulin in the Battle of Red Cliffs, Zhou Yu led his thirty thousand strong force proceeded to the Jiangling (江陵, located in modern day Jingjiang 荆江, not to be confused with modern day Jiangling), the next target of their overall strategy of their Red Cliffs campaign, and camped cross from the Yangtze River on the southern bank. Cao Ren’s staunch resistance made it obvious that the possibility of a quick victory that Zhou Yu had anticipated was impossible to achieve, so Gan Ning suggested a new plan of taking Yiling (夷陵, modern day Yichang) 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 be reduced so Zhou Yu would face less resistance. Although Zhou Yu agreed with the idea, he was worried about Cao Cao and his unscathed northern thrust not too far away in the north, which was at least four times bigger than his 30,000 member strong force, so he could not afford to split his force. Gan Ning volunteered to lead his own troop of 700 to take Yiling and Zhou Yu agreed.

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)
**Guanghan Administrator (广汉太守) Xi Su (袭肃) stationed at Yiling (夷陵, modern day Yichang),later defected to Sun Quan
Sun Quan 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

Battle

The commander of Yiling, Guanghan Administrator (广汉太守) Xi Su (袭肃) was originally Liu Zhang’s subject and hated Cao Cao, and once Gan Ning’s troops reached Yiling, Xi Su surrendered without a fight. As Gan Ning’s troops reached a thousand, Zhou Yu wanted to reassign Xi Su and his 300 troops to Lü Meng to strengthen the main force. Lü Meng realized it was a wrong decision and directly appealed to Sun Quan to ask not reassign the Xi Su and his 300 troops to him, but instead, keep them with Gan Ning to strengthen the defense of Yiling, and Sun Quan agreed. Learning the news of the fall of Yiling, Cao Ren immediately gathered all available troops to form a 6,000 strong rescue force. Under intense pressure, Gan Ning remained calm and stabilized defenders’ morale. As Gan Ning’s request for reinforcement reached Zhou Yu, he was reluctant to split his force for the rescue at first. Once again, Lü Meng saved the day by convincing Zhou Yu and Cheng Pu to carry out the rescue.

Zhou Yu left Ling Tong in charge of a token force to guard the main camp at Jiangling to face Cao Ren and Xu Huang, while he led the main army with every other commander to directly attack Cao Ren’s force besieging Yiling. Cao Ren’s force outside the city wall of Yiling did not expected Zhou Yu would ignore Cao Ren and Xu Huang at Jiangling, and would rescue Yiling with a huge army, and thus consequently was defeated when attacked from both sides, suffering more than 3,000 casualties. Meanwhile, Ling Tong deceived Cao Ren into believing that there was still a sizable force left in the main camp of Easter Wu at Jiangling, and thus neither sending more reinforcement to Yiling nor attacking the Easter Wu’s main camp at Jiangling. Lü Meng once again demonstrated his capability by providing a plan to capture enemy’s horses: he would lead 300 soldiers to cover enemy’s retreating road with bundles of fire woods so that horses could not pass but people could. As Lü Meng expected, in order to escape the enemy hot on their trail, Cao Ren’s cavalry abandoned their horses and fled back to Jiangling on foot. Zhou Yu returned to his main camp at Jiangling with over 300 horses captured from the enemy and Yiling was firmly in the allies’ hands for the remainder of the war.

Outcome

The fall of Yiling meant that the supply route to Jiangling over land was completely severed, and despite having plenty supplies, Jiangling would not last as the supply eventually ran out and Cao Ren was forced to abandon his stronghold and accept defeat after holding out for a year in the Battle of Jiangling, the next battle which immediately followed.

References

*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)