History of Three Kingdoms 109
The Battle of Xiangfan 5 - The Turning Point
In August 219 AD, after Xu Huang（徐晃a mighty general of Wei） and Zhao Yan（赵俨an important minister of Wei,a famous scholar） led their army to Yanglingpo, they found that Guan Yu had already surrounded Fancheng with his warships.
At this time, the reinforcements had not yet arrived all, and Cao Cao had issued a strict order not to engage in a battle in advance, so Xu Huang had to stay at Yanglingpo temporarily.
Zhao Yan stepped forward and said, “Our army is not strong enough, while Cao Ren is isolated and cannot break the enemy together, and it will definitely be difficult to win if we hastily send out troops to rescue him. Why don't we order the front army to push into the encirclement, and secretly send spies to inform Cao Ren, letting him know that help has arrived outside the city, as a way to motivate the soldiers. It will take only ten days for all the reinforcements to arrive, and we will be able to defeat Guan Yu by then! If the Prime Minister(Cao Cao) blames us, I, Zhao Yan, will take the responsibility!”
The generals were speechless, so Xu Huang ordered the front army to advance slowly towards Guan Yu.
At that time, Guan Yu's vanguard was cantoned in Yancheng. When Xu Huang arrived, he pretended to dig trenches to make the Shu army think that he was going to cut off their rear road. The Shu army was afraid of being surrounded, so they had to burn down their battalion during the night and retreat
.
After Xu Huang's army entered the Yancheng city, they set up battalions step by step and gradually approached the main force of Guan Yu who was besieging the city, until they were only a dozen meters away from the Shu army before stopping.
However, Xu Huang only lined up without attacking, but secretly he ordered his soldiers to drain and dig tunnels on one side, and on the other side, he shot letters into the city with arrows , trying to find all kinds of ways to communicate with Cao Ren(Surrounded by Guan Yu in Fancheng).
At this time, Cao Cao also led his personal troops southward from Luoyang into Mobei, preparing to go to Fancheng in person to rescue Cao Ren to prevent a repeat of Xiahou Yuan's tragedy. His ministers also urged Cao Cao to hurry up before it was too late
.
Only Huan Jie(a stragetist of Cao Cao) advised, “Your Grace, do you think that with Cao Ren's ability, can he judge the situation and handle the battle on his own?” Cao Cao replied, “Yes.”
Huan Jie asked again, “ So, Your Grace are you afraid that Cao Ren, Xu Huang, or Lyu Chang(Surrounded by Guan Yu in Xiangyang) will not do their best?” Cao Cao replied, “No. ”
“Then why are you going yourself?” Cao Cao replied, “I'm worried that the enemy army is too mighty and Xu Huang's troops are not enough!”
Huan Jie said: “Now Cao Ren is in the middle of a heavy siege, but they still die to defend without surrendering, it is precisely because you, Your Grace, are in the distance as an external aid ! It is often said that living in a place of death has the heart of dying to fight. Now that they have the will to fight to the death internally, and have strong help to save them externally, if you command the army to stay still, you can show the enemy that we still have strength, so where is the need to worry about failing to go in person?”
Cao Cao thought deeply of Huan Jie's advice, so he stopped at Mobei, stopped moving south, and successively dispatched a total of 12 Battalions of troops to Xu Huang's army to reinforce him.
But in this way, Cao Cao not only handed over all the troops around himself to Xu Huang, but even the local forces that could be mobilized were all sent to the front. For a while, civil officials and military generals with a little bit of ability to command troops from all over the country are all gathering towards Fancheng.
In this situation, the defenses of the provinces and commanderies are empty, the corvée has increased, and the security situation is only getting worse. Though in order to deal with Guan Yu, Cao Cao has made up his mind to put all this behind him for the time being.
Still, the rebellion, which took place in September 219 A.D., hit Cao Cao hard on his most aching nerve. For the location of the rebellion turned out to be in his headquarters of Yecheng.
Wei Feng（魏讽）, was a man of superior wisdom and eloquence, and was well known in Yecheng. Zhong Yao（钟繇，an important minister of Wei,A famous calligrapher） admired him at first sight, and recruited him as an official of the Prime Minister's Office
.
After Liu Bei's victory in Hanzhong, Guan Yu surrounded Xiangyang and Fancheng, terrorizing whole China with his might. When the news spread back to Yecheng, some people who still missed Han dynasty began to move, and Wei Feng was one of them.
He plotted to rebel after uniting a group of famous scholars from Jingzhou ,who were in favor of Liu Bei, including several high-ranking officers in the army, such as Chen Yi(陈祎). But before the agreed date, Chen Yi betrayed him to Cao Pi due to the fear .
When Cao Pi heard of this, he decisively killed Wei Feng, and went on a rampage in Yecheng to arrest the rebels, implicating dozens of people. Among them were the two sons of Wang Can（王璨 a famous writer in Late Han）, the son of Song Zhong(宋忠a great Confucian scholar from Jingzhou),the younger brother of Liu Yi(刘廙 a member of the royal clan in Jingzhou), and the son of Zhang Xiu（张绣,used to be a warlord,surrendered to Cao Cao）, all of whom were executed.
Zhong Yao was dismissed from his post, and even Cao Cao's former general Wen Ji's(文稷) son, Wen Qin（文钦,the Father of the mighty general Wen Yang文鸯）, was nearly tortured to death. However, Cao Cao remembered that Wen Ji was from the same town as himself, and pardoned Wen Qin.
The case of Wei Feng marked the pinnacle of the rebellion in Cao Cao's territory and delivered a huge blow to Cao Cao's mind and body.
Combined with Guan Yu's great victory at Xiangfan, the people and officials were even more shocked and frightened. It even seemed to many that the moment when the Prince of Hanzhong, who was far away in Chengdu, would eliminate the traitors, take over the Central Plains, and restore the Han Dynasty was close at hand.
But after time entered October 219 A.D., along with the end of the rainy season in the northern part of Jingzhou, Cao Cao, who had been going crazy with bad luck for nearly two years, also felt for the first time the refreshing feeling of relief after the rain had cleared.
At this time the floods in Xiangyang and Fancheng began to recede, and most critically, that month, Cao Cao received a secret letter written by Sun Quan himself!
Cao Cao was overjoyed when he saw the letter!
Not to mention the literary Cao Zhi and the valiant Cao Zhang, even his successor Cao Pi, who decisively suppressed Wei Feng's rebellion and controlled the rear, was outshone.
“You see! You should have a son like Sun Quan, who can both yield and resist, fight and surrender like that, so sweet!”