The Death of Guan Yu
Three Kingdoms 115
In November 219 A.D., Lyu Meng attacked Guan Yu's rear road with the plan of “crossing the river in white clothes”.
After Mi Fang(糜芳) and Shi Ren(士仁) surrendered, Jiangling(江陵present day Jingzhou city ) and Gongan(公安) fell into the Wu army, and Sun Quan personally rushed to Jiangling from Jianye(建业present day Nanjing) in the same month.
At that time, the soldiers and people in Jiangling city were already impressed by Lyu Meng's behavior of loving the people like his son, only the famous scholarly official Pan Jun(潘峻) was not willing to submit, even though Sun Quan personally summoned him, he claimed to be sick and did not go.
Pan Jun, a native of Hanshou County(汉寿县) in Wuling commandery(武陵郡), was a disciple of Song Zhong(宋忠), a Confucian master in Jingzhou, and at the age of 21 he was appointed by Liu Biao(刘表), then the provincial governor of Jingzhou, as the deputy governor of Jiangxia(江夏).
After Liu Bei occupied Jingzhou, in order to stabilize the people, he had Yin Guan(殷观) and Pan Jun, two representatives of the local famous scholars, serve as the deputy governors of the Jingzhou . When Liu Bei entered Yizhou(益州), he left Pan Jun to assist Guan Yu in governing Jingzhou.
Although Pan Jun had a righteous character and was resourceful, Guan Yu had been at odds with Pan Jun for many years because he had always disliked famous scholars. When he set out for the northern expedition, even though Mi Fang and Shi Ren had a bad track record for a long time, Guan Yu still chose to trust them rather than hand over the important task of guarding the city to Pan Jun.
After the fall of Jiangling, Pan Jun was so ashamed that he closed himself at home. Sun Quan then ordered someone to carry Pan Jun to himself on a bed, while Pan Jun lay face down on the bed, choking with tears.
Sun Quan called him by his Courtesy name while softly comforting him, and asked his close followers to take a towel to wipe the tears from Pan Jun's face, before Pan Jun got up and bowed to thank him. Sun Quan immediately reinstated him to his official position, dealing with matters of all commanderies in Jingzhou.
As a flagship figure in the circle of famous scholars in Jingzhou, Pan Jun's submission also represented that the hearts of the scholars in Jingzhou had fallen to Sun Quan.
At this time, Guan Yu had lost the chance to have a last fight with the Wu army in a situation where his army collapsed and a large number of his soldiers fled, so he could only lead the remnants of his army to retreat to Maicheng(麦城).
In order to block Guan Yu's retreat route into Yizhou(益州), Sun Quan ordered Lu Xun(陆逊) to lead his troops westward along the Yangtze River. Fan You(樊友), the governor of Yidu(宜都) under Guan Yu, abandoned the city and fled, and all the officials and minority commanders of the cities along the river surrendered to Sun Quan.
Lu Xun then sent Li Yi(李异), Xie Jing(谢旌) and other generals with 3,000 men to attack the Shu generals Zhan Yan(詹宴) and Chen Feng(陈凤), who were stationed in the area of Linju(临沮). Zhan Yan was defeated and Chen Feng was surrendered after being captured.
Li Yi and Xie Jing continue to move northward with their victory. Deng Fu(邓辅), the governor of Fangling(房陵), and Guo Mu(郭睦), the governor of Nanxiang(南乡), are unable to withstand the attack, so they are defeated one after another. The local powerful clans of Zigui(秭归), Wen Bu(文布) and Deng Kai(邓凯), gathered a few thousand barbarian soldiers intending to counterattack, but were easily defeated by Lu Xun. Deng Kai fled and Wen Bu surrendered.
The Wu army under Lu Xun's command was invincible , and in a short time with a wave of successive victories, they completely occupied the Yangtze River waterway and all the strongholds along the coast, tens of thousands of Shu troops were killed, captured or surrendered.
Sun Quan was overjoyed and appointed Lu Xun as the General of Guarding West, ordering Lu Xun to be stationed in Yiling(夷陵), while Pan Zhang(潘璋) and Zhu Ran(朱然) went north to be stationed in Linju. Since then, due to the complicated terrain in the northern part of Jingzhou, and the swift action of the Wu army, Guan Yu's crucial routes to retreat to Yizhou were completely blocked.
In December 219 A.D., Sun Quan sent an emissary to persuade Guan Yu to surrender. Guan Yu pretended to accept, but secretly ordered his men to erect flags on the walls of Maicheng, creating the illusion that someone was guarding the city, while he himself fled through the north gate in the night.
At this time, Guan Yu should have predicted that the waterway was impassable, so he gave up the direction of Yiling, but wanted to go around from the northern mountainous area of Linju, and then go north along the mountain road into Shangyong(上庸),Liu Feng's(刘封,Liu Bei’s adopted son) area, and perhaps there was still a chance of survival. This is because to the west of Linju,it's the famous Shennongjia(神农架) mountains area,it's still sparsely populated even today.
But what Guan Yu doesn't know is that, not to mention Linju, even Fangling, hundreds of miles away, has long been occupied by the Wu army, and Wu Fan(吴范), a counsellor by Sun Quan's side, sensed Guan Yu's intention of pretending to surrender in advance, and so the area around MaiCheng has also been filled with scouts from the Wu army.
Pan Zhang and Zhu Ran, who were stationed in Linju, ordered their men to set up layers of ambushes in the ravines at the foothills of the mountains after they learned of Guan Yu's escape to the north.
Twenty years ago,Lord Guan,beheaded Yan Liang(颜良), among tens thousands of enemy soldiers, and a few months ago,he drowned seven armies and shook whole China with his might to become the Master of War.
Thus, facing the bitter north wind of the cold winter of 219 A.D., and carrying the last glory and stubbornness of the 400-year-old Great Han Empire, he stepped out on the last part of the journey of this life.
Along the way, the soldiers under Guan Yu continued to frantically flee, and by the time he reached Zhangxiang(章乡), he was actually left with only a pitiful dozen or so of his own soldiers.
There was no suspense, and there would be no more twists and turns or miracles. The group, all of them, were captured by Pan Zhang's subordinate Ma Zhong(马忠) and escorted to Linju. At the behest of Sun Quan, Guan Yu and his eldest son, Guan Ping(关平), were beheaded by Pan Zhang at the age of about 58.
Sun Quan ordered Guan Yu's head to be sent to Luoyang, where it was buried by Cao Cao with the honors of a feudal lord.
Thus, the curtain finally came down on the battle between Liu Bei and Cao Cao at the late Han period, which had lasted nearly two years, stretching from Hanzhong(汉中) in the west to Fancheng(樊城) in the east.
After the war, Lyu Chang(吕常) was ordered to withdraw to the north of the Han River, while Sun Quan sent his men to occupy the city of Xiangyang(襄阳). Sun Quan, who had stolen the fruits of Guan Yu's victory, finally laughed all the way to the end at a very little cost, and got all of JingZhou provinve except Nanyang Commandery as he wished.
Guan Yu's death caused Liu Bei and Sun Quan, at the same time, to lose their last chance to change their destiny against the tide. After that, the situation of Wei's dominance could never be shaken again.
So Guan Yu was still glorious in spite of his defeat! His loyalty, heroism and pride have been deeply melted into the blood of the Han Nationality!
He had only two and a half commanderies, and the pitifully little 30,000 naval soldiers,but the cold Han River boiling for him,the majestic mountains and rivers changing their color for him,hundreds of thousands of elite cavalry in the vast China trembling for him, this life is worthy !
Until the end of the Three Kingdoms, no matter who was the commander-in-chief guarding in Jingzhou, he had never again achieved the same shocking effect.
How about the six commanderies?
How about all of Jingzhou?
How about thousands of
warships that covered the sky?
How about hundreds of thousands of soldiers?
Just relying on the Yangtze River to defend themselves, occupying the southeast side and living in peace.