Battle of Hefei

The Battle of He Fei refers to a series of battles fought at this location. The Dynasty Warriors series focuses on the second and fourth battles.

Dynasty Warriors
The Battle He Fei is an involved battle in the Dynasty Warriors series, in which many twists and turns occur. Perhaps the most significant warriors in the battle is Zhang Liao of Wei. He will return numerous times after his defeat, the most returns occuring in Dynasty Warriors 5, and sometimes even charge the main camp after trapping them by destroying a bridge, putting Wu at an immediate disadvantage. In some installments, Wei will also be reinforced by warriors such as Xu Huang, Cao Ren and even Cao Cao.

Wu, on the other hand, also has some strategic advantages. He Fei serves as the first battle in which Gan Ning fights for the Wu forces. He normally appears in the middle of the battle on a ship, causing panics in the Wei ranks. Wu also recieves a morale boost after their leader, whether it be Sun Jian or Sun Quan jumps a bridge destroyed by Wei earlier.

There is a famous glitch in Dynasty Warriors 4. While playing as either Zhang Liao or Sun Jian, the player is easily able to win the battle. Once across the bridge, do not lure the other man (be it Liao or Jian) to the other side. Once across, you can totally decimate the other's army. There are also task units in Sun Jian's main camp and by the armies of Xiahou Yuan and Xiahou Dun on Wei's side, signifying that stage events may in fact be triggered by task units and not by chance.

Historical Information
Sun Quan is persuaded by Liu Bei to strike at the castle of He Fei and stops Wei's march south into their own lands. Sun Quan crosses the Jiang Dong with 100,000 Wu troops heading north to the fortress.

The defense was led by Zhang Liao and the camp was divided between those who sought a fight and those who sought surrender. It was finally through a letter from Cao Cao that Zhang Liao persuaded his troops to attack even though their troops only numbered 15,000.

First Yu Jin struck out and encountering the Wu force retreated. Sun Quan charged ahead of the main column and was ambushed by Zhang liao and Li Dan who cut the bridge behind Sun. His officers asked him to jump the bridge with his horse so he evaded capture which he did successfully.

Now Zhang Liao asked reinforcements from Cao Cao who personally came down from the north to assist the defenders bringing great morale to the Wei forces.

Enraged at his last defeat, Quan attacked again only to be defeated however he still evaded capture thanks to many of his troops and officers especially the incredible efforts of Zhou Tai. Wu saw the momentum shift for a while with Gan Ning's night time raids but Wu was driven back and just like Guan Du and Chi Bi the smaller force defeated the larger one.