Draft:Battles in Hedong

The battles in Hedong fought between October and December of 202, were a attempt by Gao Gan, the cousin of Yuan Tan and Yuan Shang to aid them as they under attack by the warlord Cao Cao, by attacking his lands in the west. The invasion would be held off and led to the death of the general Guo Yuan.

Background

After Cao Cao's decisive victory in the Battle of Guan Du, Yuan Shao passed away in 202 and Cao Cao quickly sought to take advantage of this. Four months after Yuan Shao's death, Cao Cao attacked Liyang, which was being guarded by Yuan Shao's oldest son, Yuan Tan. Tan requested reinforcements from his youngest brother and their father's named hair(supposedly) Yuan Shang, who led a large force to Liyang. Yuan Tan also send a message to their cousin, Gao Gan, then the inspector of Bing province, to assist them by attacking Sili province, aiming to open another front to break away some of Cao Cao's forces and possibly open a route to match towards the city of Xu from the west. Gao Gan decided to first send forces to attack Hedong commandery, putting the general Guo Yuan in charge of the forces.

One reason for attacking Hedong first was that there were hostile figures there who were known to disapprove of working under Cao Cao. Gao Gan reached out to Huchuquan, a exiled figure of the Xiongnu tribes, who agreed to ally with him against Cao Cao. Finally, Gao Gan send emissaries to meet with the warlords of Guanzhong, namely Ma Teng, trying to convince them to aid him as well.

Battles

In late October of 202, Huchuquan revolted against Cao Cao and took over Pingyand. The director of Sili, Zhong Yao, moved to put the revolt down, but had difficulty. Meanwhile Guo Yuan(who was also Zhong Yao's nephew) attacked Hedong. Without reinforcements, several officials surrendered to him. The defenses of Jiang county however, led by the official Jia Kui, were able to hold off Guo Yuan's first attack. Outnumbered and low on supplies, it was clear the county could not hold out for long and the city elders negotiated a surrender on the condition that Jia Kai, who was well loved in the city, not be harmed. Guo Yuan agreed, although on Jia Kai turning down a effort to make him join Guo Yuan, instead insulting him, Guo Yuan sought to kill him. A city leader who was there shielded Jia Kui and Guo Yuan decided to imprison him instead, sending him to Heguan in Shangdang.

To Guo Yuan's unknowing, before surrendering Jia Kui had send letters to local commanders still supporting Cao Cao, urging them to gather their forces at Pishi county, correctly seeing that this would be Guo Yuan's next target. He was also able to speak to Zhu Ao, Guo Yuan's leading advisor on the campaign who might had been still trying to convince Jia Kui to submit to them. Instead, Jia Kui was able to convince him to suggest that Guo Yuan's force rest a short time at Jiang, a move that actually gave the defenses at Pishi time to get organized. When Guo Yuan attacked, he was surprised by how powerful the defenses were and was held off. Soon after, Jia Kui convinced a guard to let him escape.

Gao Yuan now led forces to assist Huchuquan and helped force Zhong Yao to fall back. However, Zhong Yao had send emissaries to Guanzhong to get the warlords there to aid Cao Cao. Uncertain of who to support at first after receiving offers of bribes from both sides, Ma Teng was convinced by his advisor, Fu Gan, to assist Cao Cao, mainly as Fu Gan had no doubt Cao Cao would be the victor in the end against the Yuan clan and they should not provide him with a reason to attack them. In December of 202, Ma Teng send his son Ma Chao and the general Pang De to aid Zhong Yao, who had pulled his forces back some distance from Pingyang, across the Fen river and was making no moves against the Yuan forces.

The plan was to fool Guo Yuan into trying to cross the river and attack when his army was divided. Zhong Yao's thinking he would do this was correct and while Guo Yuan’s army was divided, Zhong Yao launched an attack. He utterly destroyed Guo Yuan’s army, and Pang De personally took Guo Yuan’s head. The defect put an end to Gao Gan’s plans with Huchuquan quickly surrendering and the other Yuan forces pulling back to Bing province.

Aftermath

Although it started off poorly, the campaign removed what could of been a major threat to Cao Cao, greatly wearing down Gao Gan's forces. As it was going on, the battles at Liyang were still underway, finally ending in June of 203 in Cao Cao taking over the area, but pulling back on a failed fellow up attack on Ye. Over the next three years as later battles went on where Cao Cao sought to take over northern China, Gao Gan sought to aid them again and led a second attack into Hedong, however his losses in the first campaign had greatly weaken how much of a threat he was and this was easily held off.

References

Chen, Shou (3rd century). Records of the Three Kingdoms (Sanguozhi) vol. 3.

Chen, Shou (3rd century). Records of the Three Kingdoms (Sanguozhi) vol. 10

Chen, Shou (3rd century). Records of the Three Kingdoms (Sanguozhi) vol. 12