The Battle of Nanjun (南郡の戦い, rōmaji: Nangun no Tatakai), literally "Battle of South County" 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
Dynasty Warriors
In Dynasty Warriors 4, Nanjun is the Nan Territory. It is mainly played by the Wu forces. During their alliance with Shu, the Wu forces are to capture the following garrisons from the Wei army: Xiang Yang, Jing Province and the Nan Territory before the Shu forces do. At one point, Zhou Yu will be injured by an arrow, then pretend to withdraw. If Wu manages to get all the garrisons in a Musou Mode playthrough, then Guan Yu will try to get back at Wu at Yi Ling via appearing as reinforcements.
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.
The stage is reused in the Battle of Lujiang, where Cao Cao's forces, victorious at Chibi, push on and aim to completely destroy the remaining Wu forces.
The DLC stage Melee at Jing Province takes place here with the player taking Wei's side. Yu Jin chases Mi Zhu who lures the Wei officers into a trap sprung by Guan Ping. While the player clears the opposition out, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei will attempt to charge the Wei main camp and must be stopped. When the player makes their way to the Shu main camp from the southeast, Zhuge Liang will deploy ballista to keep them at bay allowing Liu Bei to advance. The battle is over when Liu Bei is defeated.
Dynasty Warriors 9 sees Nanjun as one of the main battles of Chapter 7 of Wei and Wu's Story Modes as Cao Cao attempts to deal with Sun Quan as they vie for control of Jing Province, only to then turn his attention back to the north when he deals with Ma Teng and then Ma Chao at Tong Gate before turning back to deal with Wu at Ruxukou before withdrawing to station Zhang Liao, Yue Jin, and Li Dian at Hefei while he takes the bulk of his army, including Xiahou Yuan and his son Xiahou Ba, to attack Hanzhong, knowing that with Guan Yu still in Jing Province, tensions between Wu and Shu were starting to build regarding if Liu Bei would return it to Wu or they would have to take it back by force.
Warriors Orochi
In Warriors Orochi 3, Nanjun serves as a side stage where Xiahou Ba goes into Magoichi's past to find his father who has been missing since the Hydra's appearance. Together with Sun Quan, they make their way towards the southern garrison where they find Xiahou Yuan struggling to fend off the Demon army. After the trio help him drive off the enemy, a maiden appears from inside the southern garrison pleading for her sister to be rescued as well. The four men comply and first enter the central garrison where an ambush is lying in wait and proceed to the east. Demon reinforcements arrive from the west which are countered by a regiment of the Saika Renegades. Upon securing the northeast garrison, Magoichi and others find the maiden's sister safe and unharmed. Infuriated by lack of success, Sun Wukong will open the gates to his main camp to capture the southern garrison himself. Defeating Sun Wukong ends the battle and a perplexed Xiahou Yuan joins the Coalition.
In Hyper, Lianshi, Joan of Arc and Rachel must defend the local peasants from a demon army raid. Initially, the Coalition forces are holed within a garrison in order to protect as many civilians as they can from the Orochi army. Despite this, Rachel insists on going out to engage against Joan's advice on staying put. Lianshi calms both down and orders Rachel to first focus on defense at the central garrison. Seeing that their enemies were grouped up, Orochi army proceeds to call in reinforcements for an attack on all sides. Though Rachel begins getting impatient again, Lianshi tempers her ally, insisting on holding the line until the enemy would tire themselves out. After the second wave of reinforcements, Kiyomori finally arrives to take command of the battle and must be defeated to finish the battle.
In Ultimate, the Oda army are attacked by the Wei army after an imposter Nobunaga had been used by Da Ji to create chaos in the Coalition. Guo Jia first takes command and has Zhenji lead the charge while Mitsunari goes into hiding for their plan. In response, the Oda forces surge through the frontlines and move to immediately defeat both Zhenji and Guo Jia. This, however, was all a trap as both Cao Pi and Mitsunari emerge and attack the Oda camp on two fronts. After the Wei army is finally defeated, Da Ji and a fake Nobunaga appear to try an attack on the tired Oda forces and must be defeated. Following their defeat, the Oda army continue chasing the Demon army but are surprised and trapped inside the Divine Mirror by Tamamo.
In the mirror realm version, the battle plays out almost identically except that the Oda forces are able to confirm the second Nobunaga to be one of Kyūbi's tails. Once they learn of this, the Oda forces quickly send a messenger to Cao Pi to inform him of what has happened.
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 survivors, 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.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms
With most of Cao Cao's troops scattered throughout Jingzhou after the defeat at Chibi, Sun Quan attempted to capitalize on the situation. As many of the Cao troops gathered to Cao Ren, Sun Quan besieged the area with high morale after their victory at Yiling.
Cao Ren would later mount a strong defense to meet the Wu forces. During the battle Niu Jin became impatient with defense and asked to be granted troops to lead out, which Cao relented to. Unfortunately, Niu was ambushed but was saved by timely reinforcements by Cao Ren, and the defenders became more resolute in their fortress. Pinned and surrounded, Cao Ren received a brocaded box from Cao Cao with orders to hold Nanjun for as long he could, and a plan to kill Zhou Yu. The Cao troops followed the strategy and lured Zhou Yu out by enraging him before ambushing and wounding him with archers.
After Zhou Yu was wounded, Cao Ren then ordered his troops to curse Zhou Yu, further enraging him and causing him to collapse. In response, Zhou Yu faked his own death, and the Wei forces were lured out of their encampment. Once out, they were ambushed and defeated, and Cao Ren, seeing the futility of further resistance, withdrew his troops back to Xiangyang and Fancheng.
Before the Wu forces could properly celebrate, Liu Bei's forces, led by Zhao Yun, Zhang Fei and Guan Yu, attacked and seized multiple areas in Jingzhou. Realizing that he had actually been just a pawn in Zhuge Liang's tricks, Zhou Yu became incensed, and aggravated his own wound. Sun Quan was enraged and attempted to order his troops to retake the stolen areas, however, Lu Su reminding his lord that a conflict between himself and Liu Bei would only arouse Cao Cao's attention and potentially lead to a second attack.
The seizure of Nanjun and other areas in Jing by Liu Bei's men at the cost of Sun Quan would be the start of the rift between the Sun-Liu alliance.
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