Battle of Fancheng

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Battle of Fancheng

Part of the wars of the Three Kingdoms

Illustration of Pang De in a scene during the Battle of Fancheng from a Qing Dynasty edition of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms

Date	Spring, 219 AD
Location	Fancheng (present-day Xiangfan), Hubei, China
Result	Shu retreat

Combatants

Shu Han

Cao Wei

Commanders

Guan Yu

Cao Ren
Yu Jin
Pang De
Xu Huang

Strength

estimated 70,000

60,000

Wars of the Three Kingdoms
Yellow Turban Rebellion – Campaign against Dong Zhuo – Jieqiao – Wancheng – Xiapi – Yijing – Guandu – Changban – Red Cliffs – Tong Pass – Hefei – Mount Dingjun – Fancheng – Xiaoting – Southern Campaign – Northern Expeditions (Jieting) – Shiting – (Wuzhang Plains)

The Battle of Fancheng (樊城之戰) was fought between the Shu and Wei kingdoms during the Three Kingdoms period of ancient China. It is named after Fancheng, a city which is now a part of the city of Xiangfan.

Guan Yu, military general of the Shu kingdom, served as its commander during the battle. Cao Ren, cousin of the warlord Cao Cao, commanded the troops of the Wei kingdom.

The battle itself occurred in the spring of 219 AD. Pang De, a prominent Wei general, was captured and executed here by Guan Yu. After several weeks of fighting, heavy rains caused flooding in the area of Fancheng. This hindered the forces of the Wei kingdom because they had made camp in the lower plains, while the Shu forces had taken the mountains and hill. Many Wei soldiers drowned, and the Wei armies outside the city walls were defeated.

Several weeks thereafter, the third kingdom of Wu, which had secretly allied itself with Wei, attacked Shu's army at Jiangling. Wu, a previous ally of Shu, surprised and defeated the Shu forces there, forcing Guan Yu to lift the siege on Fancheng and retreat.

Guan Yu and his son, Guan Ping, while fleeing to Sichuan, were caught and executed by soldiers of Wu. Guan Yu's death was one of the major reasons the Battle of Yiling occurred in 222 AD, between the Shu and Wu kingdoms.

In The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the flooding is drammatized to have Guan Yu damming the rivers beforehand and opening the dam when the dam is full, thus flooding the armies in the lower plains in an event named "Drowning of the Seven Armies" (水淹七軍). Pang De is captured afterwards and showed no fear of execution, contrasted to Yu Jin's begging for his life.