The Battle of Hefei and Zhang Liao's Raid

Cao Cao had been building Wei inside the Han order. Sun Quan, meanwhile, was looking north.

For Jiangdong, Hefei was the gate.

If Sun Quan could break through Hefei, he could push into Huainan and move beyond a purely defensive Yangzi strategy. If he could not, Jiangdong would remain strong on the river but blocked on land.

The First Siege

After Red Cliffs, Cao Cao withdrew north and left commanders to hold the northern part of Jingzhou and the Huainan line.

Sun Quan turned toward Hefei.

The city was besieged for months. Heavy rain damaged the walls. Liu Fu, the defender, repaired them with straw and palm leaves and lit fires at night to watch for attacks.

Cao Cao sent reinforcements, but they were slow.

Sun Quan, still young and eager, wanted to lead light cavalry in person. His officers stopped him. Charging, taking heads, and seizing banners were tasks for subordinate commanders, not for the ruler of Jiangdong.

Then Jiang Ji used deception. He pretended that Cao Cao had sent forty thousand troops and allowed a messenger to be captured.

Sun Quan believed major reinforcements were coming and withdrew.

The first Hefei contest ended without Jiangdong taking the city.

Jianye and Ruxu

Cao Cao understood Hefei's importance and strengthened Huainan.

Sun Quan also adjusted. He moved his headquarters to Moling, renamed it Jianye, the later Nanjing.

The old Jiangdong center in Wu Commandery lay farther southeast. Jianye gave Sun Quan better control over the middle and lower Yangzi.

He also built the Ruxu fortress across the river.

Some generals thought it unnecessary. If battle went badly, they said, troops could simply run back to the ships.

Lü Meng disagreed. War did not always allow orderly retreats. If the enemy suddenly pressed in, men might not even reach the riverbank.

Sun Quan listened.

Soon, Cao Cao came again.

Sun Quan and the Arrows

At Ruxu, Cao Cao's army was said to be enormous, but it was still less comfortable on water than Jiangdong.

Sun Quan sent naval forces to counterattack. Cao's side suffered losses, and the two armies settled into a standoff.

Sun Quan then took a light boat close to Cao Cao's lines to observe the enemy.

Cao's officers wanted to attack. Cao Cao judged that Sun Quan himself had come to inspect the formation and ordered arrows to be fired.

So many arrows struck one side of the boat that it began to tilt. Sun Quan ordered the boat turned around so the other side could take arrows too. Once balanced, the boat returned with drums and music.

The later "borrowing arrows with straw boats" story was famously attached to Zhuge Liang in fiction. The historical pattern is closer to this Sun Quan episode.

Cao Cao saw the order in Sun Quan's army and sighed that one should have a son like Sun Zhongmou.

Sun Quan later wrote telling Cao Cao that spring waters were rising and he should withdraw. He also wrote that as long as Cao Cao lived, Sun Quan could not be at ease.

Cao Cao laughed and withdrew north.

Huainan Emptied

Cao Cao then made a costly decision.

He feared people along the Yangzi might fall under Sun Quan's control and wanted to move Huainan's population inland.

Jiang Ji warned him not to force people from their homes. Cao Cao did not listen.

When the news spread, more than one hundred thousand households from Lujiang, Jiujiang, and Guangling crossed the river to Sun Quan on their own. The area south of Hefei was nearly emptied.

Cao Cao regretted it and stationed Zhu Guang at Wan, where he farmed and stored grain.

Sun Quan immediately targeted Wan.

Lü Meng argued that if the grain ripened, Cao's position would become stronger. Sun Quan attacked quickly. Gan Ning led the assault, Lü Meng beat the drum, and Wan fell in a single morning.

Zhang Liao arrived too late to save it.

Cao Cao was furious, but the Huainan front was difficult. He soon turned west toward Hanzhong.

That left Hefei exposed.

Zhang Liao Attacked First

Cao Cao left only seven thousand men at Hefei.

Sun Quan came north with a much larger force.

Before leaving, Cao Cao had given Xue Ti a sealed order to open only when the enemy arrived. It said: Zhang Liao and Li Dian should attack; Yue Jin should defend the city; Xue Ti should not fight.

The generals were puzzled.

Why attack when outnumbered?

Zhang Liao understood. Cao Cao was far away in the west. Reinforcements could not arrive in time. If they waited behind the walls, Sun Quan's army would settle in. They had to strike before the enemy became steady.

Li Dian and Zhang Liao had old tensions, but Li Dian set them aside. State business could not be ruined by private resentment.

That night, Zhang Liao chose eight hundred brave men and fed them well.

At dawn, he charged straight into Sun Quan's camp, killing his way toward Sun Quan's command canopy.

Sun Quan was shocked and retreated onto a high mound, guarding himself with a long halberd.

Zhang Liao shouted for him to come down and fight. Sun Quan did not.

When Zhang Liao broke out, some of his men were still trapped and cried out that he was abandoning them. Zhang Liao turned back into the enemy line and rescued them.

The raid hit Sun Quan's army, but it also showed Hefei's defenders that their commander would not leave his men behind.

By noon, Jiangdong's momentum had been broken. Zhang Liao returned to the city. The defenders' morale held.

Xiaoyao Ford

Sun Quan besieged Hefei for more than ten days but could not take it. Disease spread in camp, so he withdrew.

Most of the army left first. Sun Quan remained at Xiaoyao Ford with Lü Meng, Jiang Qin, Ling Tong, Gan Ning, and about a thousand men to cover the retreat.

Zhang Liao saw the chance and pursued.

The main Jiangdong force was already gone. Ling Tong fought to protect Sun Quan, losing all his close guards and suffering wounds himself.

Sun Quan reached a bridge and found that planks had been removed, leaving a gap more than a zhang wide.

His attendant told him to hold the saddle tight and loosen the reins. Then he whipped the horse from behind. The horse leapt across the broken bridge, and Sun Quan escaped.

If that jump had failed, Jiangdong might have lost its ruler.

Back on the boat, He Qi wept and urged Sun Quan never again to risk himself so lightly. Sun Quan wiped away his tears and said he would remember.

After this battle, Zhang Liao's name shook Jiangdong. Later sayings claimed that even children in Wu stopped crying when they heard his name.

Hefei remained the gate Sun Quan could not easily break. Jiangdong was powerful on water, but Hefei forced it into city fighting, cavalry pressure, and land warfare.

Next, while the east remains blocked, Liu Bei will raise his own title in the west.