Battle of Liyang | |||||||
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Forces | |||||||
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Cao Cao's Forces Ma Teng's Forces |
Yuan Shao's Forces Liu Biao's Forces | ||||||
Commanders | |||||||
Guo Jia Ma Chao |
Yuan Shang Yuan Tan Yuan Xi Liu Biao | ||||||
The Battle of Liyang was the destruction of the Yuan Family's unity.
Battle[]
Following the death of Yuan Shao, his family fell into turmoil as his sons fought to be the sole heir. Having defeated Yuan Shao at Guandu, Cao Cao was not about to lose the momentum he had gained and took advantage of the situation. So he took his troops to Liyang, where Yuan Shang and Yuan Tan resided, and planned to exterminate the Yuans. Among his forces was the highly-regarded strategist Guo Jia, who was to lead the attack on Liyang. Yuan Shao's sons overcame their differences to fight Cao Cao, but Guo Jia had a simple plan to bring them down. He wanted to destroy the glue in between them, Yuan Xi, the middle brother. Allied to Cao Cao was Ma Teng, a loyal Han vassal, who dispatched Ma Chao, Ma Dai, and Pang De to support him. The Yuan Family army numbered in the hundreds of thousands, but their commanders Yuan Shang, Yuan Tan, and Yuan Xi were quarrelsome. They besieged Cao Cao's main camp, but Guo Jia defeated the commander of the siege Xun Chen and prepared to mount his own advance on Yuan Xi to break the barrier between the three brothers. After breaking the siege, Cao Cao's army went on the offensive. The Wuhuan tribe, allied to the Yuan Brothers, guarded Yuan Xi's camp, and were commanded by Wu Yan, Tadun, and Supu Yan. Refusing a protracted battle, Guo Jia ordered his army to quickly defeat Yuan Xi and brush aside the Wuhuan natives. Jiao Chu and Yuan Xi were forced to retreat from their mountaintop defenses after a successful attack by Guo Jia, which caused confusion in the Yuan Family ranks. Yuan Tan ordered Yuan Shang to go out there and take care of Cao Cao's forces, but Yuan Shang questioned his authority and ordered Yuan Tan to do so. The Yuan Family Forces stopped their advance and the Wei army went on the offensive. They had to keep an eye out for Liu Biao, who was bringing Liu Bei with him to aid Yuan Shao's Forces. But the Allied Forces kept up the attack on Yuan Shang, and defeated his army so that Yuan Shang had to withdraw his forces from the battlefield. This left only Yuan Tan and his army left to face the army of Cao Cao and Ma Chao. Ma Chao headed to fight off Liu Biao, who was heading to attack Cao Cao himself at his main camp. Ma Chao, Pang De, and Guo Jia surrounded Liu Biao, Zhang Fei, and Liu Bei, and crushed their army. Yuan Tan cowered in his base and built up the defenses, led by Guo Tu, Gao Gan, Xin Pi, Wang Xiu, Xin Ping, He Mao, and Cen Bi. Chen Qun and Yu Jin attacked, and the Allied Forces destroyed Yuan Shao's Forces forever. Yuan Shang, Yuan Tan, and Yuan Xi went their own ways by raising their own armies to fight against each other. Cao Cao finally took control of Ji Province after a long struggle.