The Battle of Ji Province (冀州の戦い, rōmaji: Kishū no Tatakai) is the fictional final battle between Cao Cao and Yuan Shao, after the latter's major defeat at Guandu, but is moreso based on the Battle of Ye Castle (鄴城の戦い, rōmaji: Gyōjō no Tatakai) where it was a conflict vs. Yuan Shao's sons instead due to Yuan Shao's passing. By proxy, this also coincides with the prior Battle of Liyang (黎陽の戦い, rōmaji: Reiyō no Tatakai).
After retreating from Guandu and reorganizing his army however (including putting down local rebellions), Yuan Shao eventually passed away from the grief and stress of the prior battle, leaving his legacy up to his three sons, Yuan Xi, Yuan Shang and Yuan Tan. Sadly, no official succession was announced which lead the factions between Yuan Shang and Yuan Tan to be at odds with one another. Taking advantage of the situation, Cao Cao as advised by Xun Yu lead a campaign against Yuan Tan at Liyang. Though initially repelled, Guo Jia then advised Cao Cao to sit back and let the animosity between the 2 Yuan Brothers to reach a boiling point before finding his chance to continue.
Ye County (鄴縣/鄴県), the capital seat of Ji Province's Wei Commandery, was the Yuan clan's actual HQ during that time, and Yuan Shang was stationed in that location. Initially with growing tensions between Yuan Tan and Yuan Shang in tandem with 2 camp between their feuding (alongside with Yuan Shang refusing Yuan Tan aid on several prior occasions), Yuan Tan after being pushed back from 2 of Yuan Shang's assaults (to Nanpi then Pingyuan), then reached a breaking point and allied himself briefly with Cao Cao (having followed Xun Yu's advice to reap the current benefits and the recently-defected Xin Pi's convincing) to besiege Yuan Shang at Ye, driving him back along with a later assault by Yuan Tan in Zhongshan Commandery, to then join Yuan Xi further northwest; Shen Pei was noted to have a defiant last stand here in spite of Yuan Shang's rout and was executed. Meanwhile, Yuan Tan returned to Nanpi but was eventually besieged there and slain by Cao Cao who broke their alliance.
Specifically after claiming the Wei Commandery and making Ye County his chief residence during that time, Cao Cao then ordered the construction of the Tongquetai, and naming his kingdom after the said commandery. However, while it was historically fully built after the Battle of Chibi, the construction of the palace was ordered much sooner in the novel due to an iconic poem Cao Zhi made that was purposely taken out of context by Zhuge Liang during the foundation of the Sun-Liu Alliance to fully stoke Zhou Yu's intent to wage war against Cao Cao.
Role in Games
Dynasty Warriors
In Dynasty Warriors 4, this battle serves as the last stand of the Yuan Family taking place in the aforementioned Ye County of Ji. Players can defeat any one of the officers serving under Yuan Shang or Yuan Tan to cause them to bicker and turn against each other. Cao Cao will then use this opportunity to coerce one of the brothers to defect and destroy the other. Yuan Shao will eventually arrive with reinforcements and stop the defection.
However, a bonus Tales stage taking place at night entails the return of Dong Zhuo trying to get his revenge on Cao Cao's forces, known as Dong Zhuo in Ji (冀州防衛戦, Kishū Kōbōsen; lit. Ji Province Offense & Defense Battle). Dong Zhuo himself is not yet present on the stage as his generals are there to pave the way for his arrival; Cao Cao urges his army to try and cut off Dong Zhuo's main force arrival by defeating the generals guarding the specific entry points by the Great Wall. Even then, Dong Zhuo will eventually appear with his full force in tow to attempt to surround Cao Cao.
In Dynasty Warriors 4: Xtreme Legends, an extra battle erroneously called Encounter at Yi Province when localized (which should be called Encounter at Ji Province), but known as the "Ji Province Extra Battle" (冀州番外戦, Kishū Bangaisen) in Japanese. Using a portion of the Yi Ling map, Zhen Ji is fighting the Wei forces alongside Yuan Xi being holed up in Ye Castle, but is then noticed by Cao Pi who proclaims to be able to show her more of the world upon being captivated by her beauty. From there as Zhen Ji decides to herself whom she should be loyal to, she can choose to continue attacking Cao Pi's army to remain loyal to Yuan Xi, or simply advance to Cao Pi without harming any of his men (as they act non-hostile to her despite being flagged as enemy targets) to defect to his side. Upon the defection to Cao Pi being the player's choice however, Yuan Xi then chooses to close Ye Castle's gates; Zhen Ji can rush inside at that moment to end up trapped in the castle to fight her way out (which is a requirement for her and the edit character's rapier Level 11 weapon).
Also in 4: Xtreme Legends, Xiao Qiao's Legend Mode stage takes place here via the Escape from Tong Qiao Tai stage, while using the Fan Castle map instead.
In Dynasty Warriors 5, the stage is a battle between Yuan Shao and the Yellow Turbans within Ye County. If players go through the stage under Yuan Shao's forces, they must overcome every trick perpetrated by their opponents before facing Zhang Jiao head on. For the Yellow Turban's side, players may choose to penetrate the enemy camp without facing all of the opposing army's generals.
In Dynasty Warriors 8, the Tongquetai solely exists within Ambition Mode as a background piece indicating completion.
Meanwhile in Dynasty Warriors 9, the Tongquetai eventually appears as a physical location to visit on the world map, being an additional palace castle placed just northwards of Ye Castle. Though akin to actual history, the Tongquetai does not appear beside Ye's north castle wall until after the Battle of Chibi. The Empires expansion instead allows for a Tongquetai to be built in a playthrough with enough progress made as it is not present in the overworld map by default.
Warriors Orochi
This stage appears in Warriors Orochi as a side story battle for Wu. The player is forced to defend themselves against Tadakatsu Honda's forces, besting him twice in order to gain his trust. Once Dong Zhuo's forces arrive, Tadakatsu will frighten them to lower some of their morale, making the battle easier to handle. If the player defeat Tadakatsu in two minutes on his second appearance, Tadakatsu will be impressed and might be unlocked as a playable character.
In Warriors Orochi 2, this is a Dream Stage for Zhang Jiao, Pang Tong, and Zuo Ci, as they use their magic and sorceries against Nene's ninja army, which uses ninjutsu.
Zhang Jiao starts off by ordering Yu Ji and Zhang Lu to conjure phantom soldiers to prevent the ninja troops from reaching the alter guarded by Zhang Liang. However, Kunoichi then uses her ninjutsu powers to seal the alter, causing the phantom soldiers to disappear. The group then need to defeat Kunoichi to unseal the alter. When they got to her, Kunoichi then uses smoke to hide herself. Pang Tong then manage to find some spy captains in the smoke, in which they must be defeated to make Kunoichi appear again. As they deal with the spy captains and Kunoichi, Kotaro Fuma also shows up to stop them, in which the group must defeat to make things easier. After defeating both Kunoichi and Kotaro, the alter has been liberated as Yu Ji and Zhang Lu manage to make the phantom soldiers appear again. Nene then responds by summoning whirlwinds around the alter, in which Zhang Jiao has to reach the alter to make the whirlwinds disappear. When he reach the alter however, Nene summons her duplicates to attack the alter, in which they must be defeated to ensure that the prayer to remove the whirlwinds is successful.
After the duplicates' defeat, Zhang Jiao prays and remove the whirlwinds. Pang Tong then orders the army to advance, while Zuo Ci summons phantom versions of Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Xiahou Dun, Gan Ning and Lu Bu to help them out. The phantoms then advances as the group defeat Goemon Ishikawa along the way. Nene responds by using her ninjutsu to summon Hideyoshi's army to counter the allied phantoms. The phantoms and Hideyoshi's Army then battle it out. As they battle, Hanzo Hattori appears in a southern garrison and uses his ninjutsu to strengthen Nene and Hideyoshi's army. The group will then need to defeat Hanzo in order to eradicate his ninjutsu. After his defeat, Zhang Jiao will order the rest of the allied army to launch a full scale assault, in which Nene counters by launching a full scale assault as well. Defeating Nene will bring victory to the allied forces, while Zhang Liang's defeat will cause the alter to fall and the player's defeat.
Historical Information
After the failure of the Battle of Guandu, Yuan Shao had to retreat through Yanzhou's Dong Commandery via Puyang and Juancheng, sailing across the Yellow River through the Cangting Village Ford.
Though Yuan Shao managed to put all of the
Liyang was Yuan Shao's initial HQ county at the southern end of Ji Province's Wei Commandery (north of the Baima/White Horse Ford). Just after retreating from Guandu, Yuan Shao in spite of reorganizing his army and quashing any rebellions taking advantage of the situation, passed away with no successor truly decided, causing favored camps between Yuan Tan and Yuan Shang to feud against one another. Xin Ping and Guo Tu favored Yuan Tan, while Pang Ji and Shen Pei sided with Yuan Shang. Despite common consensus that the eldest Yuan Tan had higher prospects in succeeding the late Yuan Shao, the pro-Yuan Shang faction feared reappraisal from Yuan Tan, producing a forged will that claimed Yuan Shang as the successor. Yuan Tan then out of resentment lead his troops to Liyang to prepare for a defense against Cao Cao's forces.
Yuan Shang also sent Pang Ji to assist (but to also likely spy on) Yuan Tan, though the youngest Yuan brother refused the eldest Yuan's request for reinforcements. Pang Ji was then killed by Yuan Tan out of frustration.
Cao Cao while focusing on his rear defenses back at Guandu, was advised by Xun Yu to be wary of turning his back against a newly defeated enemy (the Yuan Brothers in this case), which would be prime for any remnants to strike at Cao Cao's HQ unguarded. As 4 months have already passed since Yuan Shao's death, Cao Cao decided to mobilize his forces across the Yellow River towards Liyang, facing off against Yuan Tan and the rest of the remnants.
As Li Dian and Cheng Yu were put in charge of supplies to be ferried across the river, Yuan Shang's officer Gao Fan held a solid position which made it quite difficult. In spite of an initial proposal to ferry the supplies by land along a shorter-crossing instead, Li Dian argued that Gao Fan's troops may not be as heavily armed for naval warfare. As Cheng Yu and him decided to attack Gao Fan, they earned success as the water route was clear.
The battle's records were often hazy between the Records of the Three Kingdoms for Wei's faction, Book of the Later Han and Chu Shi Biao, but it was often agreed that Cao Cao faced difficulty regardless. Despite Cao Cao's failure to maintain his initial raid on Liyang and being forced to withdrawal due to some setbacks, it was on the advice of Guo Jia to let the Yuan Brothers quarrel with each other for succession, then turn around to strike back when the time was right as the brothers started to resort to open warfare against one another.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms
Trivia
- The Ji Province stages themselves in Dynasty Warriors 4 and Dynasty Warriors Advance (due to reusing the Yellow Turban Rebellion map from the said 4th installment) features the Great Wall/Long Castle of China running through the stage, which is an anachronism nodding to that specific Great Wall built during the Ming Dynasty running through the same location; the wall itself even then would've historically ran along the western border of Ji Province.
- Despite Liyang being within the Wei Commandery of Ji Province across the Yellow River (one nearby province away from Si Province), some of Guandu's maps in the Dynasty Warriors games include it as the opposite-ended HQ far from Guandu Castle.
Gallery
-
Dynasty Warriors 4 stage image
-
Dynasty Warriors 4 stage image 2
-
Dynasty Warriors 5 stage image
-
Dynasty Warriors 5 stage image 2
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
|
This battle article is a stub. You can help the wiki by expanding it. |