Nanjun

The Battle of Nanjun (南郡の戦い, rōmaji: Nangun no Tatakai) was the final conflict between the forces of Cao Cao and the allied forces of Sun Quan and Liu Bei after the former's loss at Chibi. Cao Cao left Cao Ren behind to guard the area against the assault of Zhou Yu. Later, in 222, the forces of Wei and Wu would meet there again as part of Cao Pi's invasion of Wu.

Role in Games
The Battle of Nanjun is featured in Wu's story mode in Dynasty Warriors 7. Zhou Yu orders Gan Ning and other Wu officers first to capture three garrisons at the front lines. Following the conquest of the garrisons, Cao Cao's forces carry out an ambush on Zhou Yu himself in the central garrison. Ding Feng mentions that Zhou Yu was injured and the player has to come to his rescue. The injury turns out to be a trick by Zhou Yu to lure Cao Cao's forces into the garrison. Following the rescue of Zhou Yu, Xu Huang will lead his forces from the northern garrison to attack Zhou Yu and the player has the option to lure them further into allied territory. Once Xu Huang and his men are defeated, Cao Cao's reinforcements will arrive and the gates of Nanjun are opened, which causes Liu Bei's forces in the south to start advancing towards Nanjun and the Wu forces accusing them of trying to steal the castle. Defeating Cao Ren will end the battle.

The battle returns in Dynasty Warriors 8 again in Wu's story. The player's first task is to rescue Gan Ning and his men at Yiling castle. Doing so will trigger a cutscene in which Zhou Yu is hit by an arrow and injured. Zhou Yu then uses his injury to lure out the enemy. Once the drawbridge is lowered, the player has to conquer the base behind it. Depending on the character choice, the player has to either wait at the garrison and take out all enemies that advance on the garrison or take the eastern route, defeat all enemies there and position himself at the top of the cliffs northwest of the garrison. This will lead to Li Dian attacking Zhou Yu and being ambushed by Lu Su, resulting in a successful pincer attack. This will cause Cao Cao's forces to send reinforcements to attack Zhou Yu from the east.

The Wu forces now try a second pincer attack to confuse Xiahou Yuan and Zhang He. While Lu Su and his men jump off the bridge and take the path below, Zhou Yu has to cross the bridge and follow the path there, destroying watchtowers to prevent Lu Su from getting caught. Zhou Yu will wait in one of the eastern garrisons and taunt Xiahou Yuan and Zhang He into attacking him if Lu Su's men have not been spotted. Once the message pops up that the pincer attack was successful, the player has to defeat them both, but not earlier. If both pincer attacks against Li Dian and Xiahou Yuan and Zhang He were successful, Zhou Yu will survive his injury, otherwise he dies at the end of the stage. Either way, defeating Cao Ren will result in a victory.

In Wei's Free Mode battle of the stage, several Wei officers will already be encircled near Nanjun Castle, while another section of the army is cut off, and stranded at Yiling Castle. Upon saving Xiahou Yuan, he will realize that Zhou Yu's role as a bait, and will assist in thwarting the attack from the cliffs by helping defeat Lu Su and Lu Meng. After his first defeat, Zhou Yu will withdraw to Wu's main camp, and the Wei forces will be able to lower the drawbridge to Yiling castle. Meanwhile, as they are crossing, Liu Bei's forces will begin advancing from the eastern side of the map. Defeating Zhou Yu a second time and Liu Bei will end the stage.

Nanjun also appears in Wei's hypothetical story path. Following the victories against Wu at Jianye and Zuo Ci at Xuchang, Cao Cao's forces try to chase Liu Bei down in Jing Province. Zhao Yun and other generals try to delay Cao Cao's advance by defending the gates at the start of the battle and have to be defeated. Later, Zhang Fei will close another gate and force Cao Cao's forces to take a drawbridge to bypass him, although the player may also choose to help Dian Wei and defeat Zhang Fei to take that route. Sun Qian will close the gates at the eastern part of the map following that and carry out a fire attack on Cao Cao's forces. The player has to take the western route, go around and defeat Sun Qian in order to open the gates. After defeating Liu Qi to open the gates to the western part of the map, Liao Hua tries to impede the Wei forces' advance via ballistae and has to be defeated. Liu Bei's men will then block the route to the cliffs, forcing the player to go through the center of the garrisons and fight Guan Yu. After Guan Yu's defeat, Cao Cao's forces will set up a ladder to reach the cliffs that way. Yueying with her juggernauts and Zhuge Liang stand as the last obstacles before reaching Liu Bei. Defeating Liu Bei will cause Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, and Zhao Yun to reappear and buy Liu Bei enough time to escape. Defeating those three will end the stage. Taking too long to defeat Liu Bei, however, will result in a defeat.

Historical Information
Following their victory at Chibi, the allied forces pursued the enemy forces into the heartland of Jing Province and began preparations to conquer Nan Commandery from Cao Cao's forces. Nanjun at that time was defended by Cao Ren, who had around 100,000 troops stationed in various strategic locations in the area. In order to start a coordinated attack on Jiangling, Zhou Yu asked Liu Bei to cut off Cao Ren's supplies. Liu Bei in turn sent Guan Yu to attack Xiangyang. Guan Yu suffered a heavy defeat against Yue Jin, who pursued the enemy down the Han river up to Xiakou. Guan Yu tried to withdraw to Jingcheng, but the navy of Yue Jin and Wen Ping caught up and forced Guan Yu to fight a naval battle, which resulted in a total disaster for the allied forces.

Meanwhile, Liu Bei received the surrender of Jin Xuan, Han Xuan, Liu Du, and Zhao Fan in the four commanderies of southern Jing, conquering a huge portion of Jing Province. He also received the support of Lei Xu, a bandit leader who had rebelled against Cao Cao at Lujiang and was defeated by Xiahou Yuan, although his force remained largely unscathed. Following that, he divided his troops among Guan Yu and Zhang Fei and ordered Guan Yu to block off the route between Jiangling and Xiangyang to cut Cao Ren's supply line. However, Cao Cao's general Li Tong broke through the blockade, forcing Guan Yu to retreat and managing to hold the supply line.

In the meantime, Cao Ren tried to retake Yiling from Sun Quan's forces, but failed and suffered heavy casualties. Another attempt to attack Zhou Yu's main camp together with Xu Huang led to another defeat against Ling Tong. The morale of Cao Ren's men dropped, forcing him to send out Niu Jin with a small detachment of 300 troops to score a minor victory and inspire the troops in Jiangling. However, Niu Jin and his men were quickly surrounded and Cao Ren decided to go out for the rescue, against the advice of Chen Jiao. Cao Ren managed to save Niu Jin and even went a second time to retrieve the other survivers, keeping the losses low. Cao Ren then built some camps outside of the city and Zhou Yu attempted numerous raids. On one of these raids, Zhou Yu was hit by an arrow and injured, forcing him to leave the battlefield. Lu Meng, Ling Tong and others were left in charge of the campaign.

The siege of Jiangling took on for about a year until Zhou Yu recovered from his injury and rejoined the battlefield. He personally led his men forward and flaunted before Cao Ren, leading him to believe that he was determined to keep up the offensive, although he was still in a critical condition. Cao Cao finally ordered Cao Ren to withdraw, saying that their forces could not afford more losses. Thus, Nanjun fell under the control of Sun Quan.