Battle of Jiangling

「留凌公績、蒙與君行、解圍釋急、勢亦不久、蒙保公績能十日守也」 "Leave Ling Gongji here, and I will go with you. To break the siege and relieve the danger will not take long. I will answer for it that Gongji can hold for ten days." -- Lü Meng to Zhou Yu and Cheng Pu (Records of the Three Kingdoms, Book of Wu, biography of Lü Meng) Gan Ning is talking and laughing inside a besieged town. The winter of the thirteenth year of Jian'an (AD 208). Cao Cao, his ships burned at Wulin, went back north and left Cao Ren and Xu Huang at Jiangling. Zhou Yu and Cheng Pu advanced into Nan commandery and faced Ren across the great river. Before any blade had crossed, Gan Ning took Yiling, upstream. He had a few hundred men of his own; with those newly taken he had barely a thousand. Ren detached five or six thousand to surround him and built high towers from which arrows rained into the town. The soldiers were all afraid; only Ning, it is said, went on laughing. A messenger ran downstream. The generals said the army was too small to divide. The board begins there. [A board of one year] One turn is a month; twelve turns make a year. Even a large army has few moves in a month. Zhou Yu's side may move 10 of its 30 units each turn; Cao Ren's side 8 of its 28. [The great river] The Yangtze is a major river and can be crossed at four places only. A road runs across at the Jiangjin and Yiling ferries, and an attack across them carries no penalty. West and east of Jiangjin there is one more hexside each that boats can cross; a defender attacked across those is doubled. At the start two vanguard units of Zhou Yu's army are ashore on the north bank east of Jiangjin, in contact with Niu Jin. Upstream at Yiling, Gan Ning's three units are surrounded by five of Cao Ren's detached force. [The north road] Guan Yu has cut the road north of Jiangling. The two north-facing hexsides of Guan Yu's hexes carry an abatis: attacked across them, he defends doubled. On Turn 7 (the sixth month of Jian'an 14) Li Tong, Administrator of Runan, arrives at the northern edge with the men of Runan, three units. On the bank of the Xia River to the east are Liu Bei and the two thousand men Zhou Yu detached to him. [Points] The result is decided by a single margin. Margin = (points of objectives you hold - points of objectives the enemy holds) + (losses inflicted - losses suffered). The objectives are Jiangling 40, Jiangjin 10 and Dangyang 10 (Cao Ren), and Yiling 20 and Youkou 15 (Zhou Yu). If the margin, seen from Zhou Yu's side, ends above the victory line (+62), Zhou Yu wins; below it, Cao Ren wins. 10 points beyond the line is a tactical victory, 77 an operational victory, 155 an overwhelming victory. Within 10 points of the line the game is a draw. [Names on the pieces] Zhou Yu's Army: Zhou Yu; Cheng Pu; Lu Meng; Gan Ning; Ling Tong (courtesy name Gongji); Han Dang; Zhou Tai; Lu Fan; Huang Gai; Xi Su, an officer of Yi Province who came over with his whole force; Vanguard; Fleet, the men of the ships. Liu Bei's men are the red pieces: Liu Bei; Guan Yu; Zhang Fei, who follows Zhou Yu with a thousand men; Wu Aid, the two thousand Zhou Yu detached to Liu Bei. Cao Ren's Army: Cao Ren; Xu Huang; Niu Jin; Man Chong (at Dangyang); Li Tong; Siege, the detached force around Yiling; Jingzhou, the troops of Jing Province who surrendered with Liu Cong. Not on the board: Chen Jiao, Ren's chief clerk, who watched from the wall as Niu Jin was surrounded; Yue Jin, at Xiangyang; Lu Su; Sun Quan, who was then attacking Hefei. [Decisions to try] First, for Zhou Yu: will you go to relieve Yiling, and if so, whom do you leave before Jiangling? Lü Meng named Ling Tong and said ten days. On this board the journey there and back takes six or seven months. Second, for Zhou Yu: when do you cross to the north bank? Jiangjin has a road, but it lies in front of Ren. At the western and eastern crossings the side that crosses is at a disadvantage. Third, for Cao Ren: reinforce the force around Yiling, or raise the siege and bring it back to Jiangling? The north road is cut by Guan Yu, and Li Tong does not arrive until Turn 7. Until then, can the men in the city hold the line of the river alone? [What followed] Yu followed Meng's plan, left Ling Tong behind and went upstream. He fought on the day he arrived and killed more than half; the enemy fled in the night. Three hundred men had piled brushwood across the road of retreat, and the cavalry abandoned their horses and went on foot. Three hundred horses came back by boat. The army's spirits doubled; Yu crossed to the north bank, encamped and, on an appointed day, gave battle. As he rode along the line himself, a stray arrow struck him in the right side. The wound was severe. Ren, hearing that Yu lay in bed and did not rise, brought his troops forward. Yu rose, went round the camps and encouraged his officers and men. Ren at last withdrew. It was the twelfth month of Jian'an 14. Li Tong broke through the abatis to meet Ren and died of illness on that road, aged forty-two. Yu entered Jiangling as Administrator of Nan commandery; the next year, returning with a plan to take Shu, he died of illness at Baqiu, aged thirty-six. Jiangling was lent to Liu Bei, held by Guan Yu, and taken ten years later by Lü Meng. 　　"Ten days," one man answered for another 　　In the besieged town one man was laughing 　　Three hundred horses go down the river by boat 　　An arrow in the right side 　　He rises, and goes round the camps 　　One year for one city Yiling lies nearly a hundred kilometres upstream of Jiangling. So that the journey there and back fits within a year, distances west of Jiangling are compressed to six tenths. Cao Ren's rescue of Niu Jin from the encirclement with a few dozen riders (biography of Cao Ren) is not written as a rule; the contact between the vanguard and Niu Jin at the start is that scene. The biographies do not say that Huang Gai and Lu Fan were at this siege; they are placed as officers who had served at the Red Cliffs (an inference). 1 hex = about 4 km (compressed west of Jiangling), 1 turn = 1 month, 1 CS = about 600 men. T1 = twelfth month, Jian'an 13; T7 = sixth month, Jian'an 14 (Li Tong arrives at the northern edge); T12 = eleventh month, Jian'an 14. Ren abandoned the city in the month after that.