Chang'an

The Battle of Chang'an (長安の戦い, rōmaji: Chō'an no Tatakai; literally "Battle of Long Ease/Peace") was a battle within the main capital of the West Han between Lu Bu, who had just killed Dong Zhuo, and the remnants of the latter's forces. After Dong Zhuo's death, Wang Yun declared that Fan Chou, Li Jue, Guo Si, and Zhang Ji were not to be pardoned, invoking a violent reaction from the four.

Ultimately, Lu Bu was defeated and forced to flee while Li Jue and his allies effectively took control of Emperor Xian until the intervention of the White Wave Bandits and later Cao Cao.

Role in Games

In Dynasty Warriors Vol. 2, the capital appears as one of the final battles of Shu's story. In this scenario, Zhuge Liang is successful in his northern campaigns and manages to reach Wei's last bastion at Chang'an. There is initially only one route leading to Cao Pi, so Zhuge Liang orders that two task areas be taken to break the castle walls. Xiahou Mao and Xiahou Wei ambush the Shu troops in both task areas, and must be defeated to secure the tiles. Once a tile is secure, a new path will appear from the conquered task area, and the Shu troops will begin advancing. Defeating Cao Pi will end the stage, and Shu's story. If both task areas are taken before defeating Sima Yi, then the strategist will harden his officer's resolve, and will become recruitable. There is also a village to the northeast corner of the map. The treasure trove of the area is guarded by Water Margin's Lin Chong.

In Wei's story, it is known as "Capture of the Ma Clan" and uses textures from Tianshui as Cao Cao works to capture Ma Teng before he can escape. Cao Cao's forces start out scattered with the player and the commander's unit fighting in the middle. From there, there are two paths; one on the north and the other to the south. Once the player has made their choice, Ma Teng will destroy the player's path and take the opposite path. The paths, however, will be guarded by Cheng Yu and Xu Zhu, and they attempt to stall Ma Teng until Cao Cao can catch up.

Once the player reaches the escape point's gates, Ma Chao and Ma Dai arrive to defend the entrances. There is a village close to the northern path that can be rescued. The battle will end either if Ma Teng is defeated, which leads to the Battle of Chibi, or if both escape point gates are taken, which leads to the Battle of Tong Gate.

The battle appears in Dynasty Warriors 8, but only limited to Shu's story mode. In Shu's hypothetical route, the Shu forces ambush Xiahou Mao with help from women who the commander had forced to be a part of his harem. After the initial altercation, Xiahou Mao flees into Mingguang palace while Cai Wenji stalls the enemy, and must be defeated. Soon Jiang Wei arrives, predicting Shu's advance, but is unable to pass through the front gates. Ma Zun is soon urged to head around to the rear path, and is unaware that the Shu forces have now reached Jiang Wei. At this point, Xu Shu and Pang Tong decide to separate in order to deceive Ma Zun and convince Jiang Wei to defect respectively. Once Ma Zun is defeated, more reinforcements appear, and Jiang Wei traps Pang Tong in a fire attack, but the Shu forces break through, and finally convince Jiang Wei to defect. Seeing no route to Xiahou Mao, Jiang Wei decides to set up a bridge layer to reach Mingguang Palace. As the bridge piece is being escorted, Yue Jin and Li Dian appear to try and destroy the bridge. Once the bridge is in place, Shu forces will charge the palace, but Guo Jia appears, and takes the role of commander. Defeating Guo Jia will end the battle.

If the Shu forces thwart all of the Wu plots at Lukou, Lu Meng along with Lu Xun will appear, ordered by Lu Su to help defend the bridge. Should Xiahou Mao be defeated before Guo Jia's arrival, the "Pacification of Nanzhong" will be unlocked.

In Wei's free mode version of the stage, no reinforcements will aid the isolated Xiahou Mao. Wei Yan first appears at the south while Ma Chao and Ma Dai appear in conjunction to the west. Once all three generals have been defeated, Jiang Wei will appear to assist, but, if he's approached by Pang Tong, the prodigy will defect immediately. After defeating Pang Tong or Jiang Wei, Xu Shu will appear. Defeating both strategists will end the battle in a Wei victory.

In the Xtreme Legends expansion, the stage is reused in Wei's story, where Ma Chao is victorious at Tong Gate, and attacks Chang'an. Initially seeing the chaos, Jia Xu orders that the armory be retaken in order to reactivate the pyrocannons, but Zhang Lu and Ma Chao's men make it difficult as Zhang Wei heals up defeated troops, and must be defeated. Once the pyrocannons destroy the cavalry, Jia Xu orders that the reinforcements' access route be retaken from Pang De. After the reinforcements arrive, Jia Xu will order the final charge against Ma Chao, and defeating him will end the stage.

In Ma Chao's side of the battle, the pyrocannons are already active in the center and must be defeated in order to give a clearer route for the cavalry. After securing the central area, the Wei forces lead a pincer attack alongside the their reinforcements. After the pincer attack is thwarted, only Jia Xu remains, and defeating the strategist will finish the battle.

Lu Bu's army rebels against Dong Zhuo, and they attempt to kill him at Chang'an after the escape at Hulao Gate. With his guard down, Lu Bu and Diaochan are able to advance to through the southern point with ease. Wang Yun then decides to head for the western bridge of Mingguang palace, but the path is blocked by Zhang Liao, and he must be defeated. Upon his defeat, Zhang Liao decides to serve Lu Bu instead. Dong Zhuo eventually decides to release the tigers, but Lu Bu's forces are able to tame some. As Lu Bu heads towards Dong Zhuo, the rebel forces notice the access points throughout the city.

In their final push against the tyrant, Li Ru and Cai Yong both appear to ambush Lu Bu's men, and help cover Dong Zhuo's escape, which is abruptly cut when Wang Yun raises the drawbridge. Once Dong Zhuo is killed, Jia Xu appears, and orders the activation of pyro cannons. Wang Yun is soon forced to go into hiding soon after the arrival of Dong Zhuo's men. Lu Bu eventually concedes, and attempts to escape, but is ambushed at the central area. Defeating Jia Xu will open the path for the escape route.

Less reinforcements will appear if Lu Bu takes all the access points before killing Dong Zhuo. If all the tigers in Chang'an are tamed, they will thwart Jia Xu's ambush and his pyro cannons, which in turn will unlock the Battle of Changshan. Wang Yun can be saved if Lu Bu's men reach the elder at the other side of the western drawbridge. Hua Xiong will also appear to assist Lu Bu if the general was saved at Sishui Gate.

In Dong Zhuo's side of the battle, Mingguang palace is already filled with enemy troops, and Dong Zhuo must defend himself long enough for reinforcements to arrive. Once they arrive, Dong Zhuo switches to the offensive, and must defeat Wang Yun in order to gain access to the central area. Defeating Lu Bu before he can escapes allows Dong Zhuo to continue his dreams of paradise.

The stage reappears as the final hypothetical battle for Lu Bu's story with a revamped map to reveal Chang'an's outer and inner walls. The battle first starts at the outer wall, where Chen Gong orders the taking of the western garrison in order to make rams. Yuan Shao retaliates, but is killed. Zhang He soon stops the rams by activating the ballistae on the walls, while Zhenji jumps down to attack Lu Bu, but she is slain.

With the ram halted, Chen Gong orders that they take path from the waterworks, but are obstructed by Sun Ce's men with more ballistae. Upon reaching the waterworks, Sun Shangxiang, Han Dang, and Huang Gai ambush Lu Bu, but all three are killed. Once Lu Bu exits the waterway, Sun Ce, Sun Quan, and Zhou Yu attempt to avenge their fallen allies, but also die in the process. Having access to the outer wall, Lu Bu's forces kill Zhang He to stop the ballistae, but Li Ru follows up by launching a barrage of fire arrows atop the inner wall at the town Lu Bu's forces had just occupied. The fire, however, causes some roofs to get destroyed, opening a new path for Lu Bu's men. Li Ru is soon killed when Lu Bu's men make it to the top of the inner wall, and the ram destroys the inner wall's gates.

Guo Si replies by raising the central drawbridge, forcing Lu Bu to take a detour east using the moat. Guo Jia anticipates this move, and immediately ambushes Lu Bu's men with the rest of Cao Cao's generals, and Liu Bei arrives with his brothers to attack Chen Gong. After overcoming Guo Jia's ambush and killing Cao Cao and his generals, Lu Bu slays Guo Si, and lowers the drawbridge leading to the palace. Chen Gong immediately divides the forces to advance on the palace from east and west, but Jia Xu counters by ordering a last-ditch ambush with the remainder of Cao Cao's men, and orders the activation of the last ballistae within city, but he is forced to flee against Lu Bu. Finally, Li Jue appears in the throne room, and must be defeated in order to end the battle.

In the coalition's side of the battle, Lu Bu, Diaochan, and Zhang Liao will already be ambushed by Guo Jia, and Li Jue orders various steps to reduce the morale of Lu Bu's forces while they are busy dealing with the ambush. His first order is to swarm the waterways and other critical checkpoints at the outer walls. Once the checkpoints are taken, the player should defeat Chen Gong so that Li Jue can order his men to launch an all-out attack on Lu Bu.

Historical Information

At 192, Dong Zhuo was killed by Lu Bu in Wang Yun's plot, and the former's troops within the city surrendered after the death of their master. Upon hearing this, Fan Chou, Guo Si, Li Jue, and Zhang Ji all requested amnesty for their service, but Wang Yun declared that all four where Dong's closest associates, and should be the only ones who shouldn't receive the amnesty.

Initially, all four were thinking to retire secretly and hide for the remainder of their lives, but Jia Xu advised them to attack Chang'an instead since the situation hadn't stabilized yet. Wang Yun attempted to counterattack by ordering both Xu Rong and Hu Zhen to attack their former allies, but Xu Rong was killed very early into the conflict while Hu Zhen defected.

Lu Bu then attempted to ride out, and stop the siege. Lu Bu would end up dueling and wounding Guo Si, but the former was soon forced back into the city, and the siege raged on. Li Jue then made a statement that if Wang Yun committed suicide, the four would leave; Wang believed the edict and killed himself, but Li Jue turned on his word and maintained the siege. Eventually, the rebels managed to breach the castle walls while Lu Bu himself was forced to flee.

Li Jue and Guo Si wanted to kill Emperor Xian, but Fan Chou, Jia Xu and Zhang Ji dissuaded the pair from doing so, and convinced them to use the emperor as a puppet, much like their former master. With the emperor under their thumb, the four gave themselves promotions, with Li Jue and Guo Si becoming the Eastern Han Dynasty's co-regents and also promoted those who supported them. Chang'an would continue to be a symbol of the dilapidated power of the emperor until Cao Cao took control of the city.