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Battle of Xiangyang
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Date 191
219
241
Location Xiangyang, Jing Province (present-day Xiangyang, Hubei)
Result Liu Biao's forces victorious; Huang Zu is captured and Sun Jian is killed (191)
Guan Yu takes Xiangyang; Cao Ren withdraws to Fan Castle (219)
Wei forces victorious (241)
Forces
Sun Jian's Forces
Shu
Wu
Liu Biao's Forces
Wei
Commanders
Sun Jian (191)
Guan Yu (219)
Zhu Ran (241)
Huang Zu (191)
Lu Chang (219)
Cao Ren (219)
Hu Zhi (241)

The Battle of Xiangyang (襄陽の戦い, Jōyō no Tatakai) was a conflict between Sun Jian's forces and Liu Biao's forces. Sun Jian, enraged by Liu Biao's attack after the dissolution of the alliance against Dong Zhuo, and acting on orders from Yuan Shu, attacked Jing Province as an act of revenge. However, he was lured into an ambush and killed, and his body was exchanged for Huang Zu.

During the Battle of Fan Castle, Guan Yu sent an army to attack Xiangyang in order take the city along with Fan Castle, assuming the city would fall easily. This decision to split his army, however, meant he couldn't concentrate in a single front, and neither city fell to him.

In the novel, however, Guan Yu attacks Xiangyang before pushing on to take Fancheng. Luring and ambushing Cao Ren, Guan Yu easily takes the city.

Years after the death of Cao Rui, Sun Quan sensed an opportunity and sent Zhu Ran to attack the city, however Hu Zhi's forces are able to hold the line long enough for the Wu forces to withdraw.

Depending on the installments, the second battle is occasionally merged with the Battle of Fan Castle.

Role in games[]

Dynasty Warriors[]

The third installment version is one of the stages that involves not disclosing the location's name within the stage name, Surprise Attack on Liu Biao. Players can either play as Sun Jian's forces or Liu Biao's forces. At some point in the stage, the a cutscene with a nearby Wu flag snapping off will occur (which most likely signals a bad omen). Sun Jian when heading down the path to the castle's rear on the east side, will be provoked by a retreating Lu Gong, and the Wu general will chase him down into a trap set by Kuai Liang. In the third installment, the trap is known for being a rockslide that will cause the death of Sun Jian (unless the player is playing Sun Jian themselves which causes the trap to occur but not kill anyone) and thus a cutscene will occur that involves Sun Ce grieving his death and cursing Liu Biao. Command will then be switched to Sun Ce, and the stage will end when Liu Biao is defeated.

Dynasty Warriors 4 is the debut of the location name in the series, or rather, as the standard stage set for several other stages. Two versions of the Battle of Fan Castle are playable, along with the Liu Biao stage being known instead as Assault on Liu Biao. The whole entire Xiang Yang map is used for only the Battle of Fan Castle, while the Siege of Fan Castle is the same only with the most western fort omitted. On the Assault on Liu Biao, a portion of the stage via the southwestern corner of the eastern castle is only available with the rest in tact, while also adding a path on the southeastern area of the map.

The Assault on Liu Biao stage itself once again, involves Sun Jian chasing down Lu Gong (while Cheng Pu states that their own forces may be slightly overextended). Cai Mao arrives to offer aid to the enemy forces up in the northeast, and Zhang Hu will appear in the southeast. The trap instead involves Sun Jian being locked within Xiang Yang castle with a massive ambush setup, where the player is offered a chance to rescue him by defeating the guard captain that seals the eastern gate of the castle. The stage also offers another variable cutscene that instead involves Liu Biao questioning why the player character is attacking Jing for such trivial purposes, which each character having their own unique reply.

In the Xtreme Legends expansion, the Assault on Liu Biao version and variations of it are used for used for Lu Meng's Legend Mode for the Siege of Mai Castle (omitting the southeastern path) and Sun Jian's Legend Mode as Changsha (whole map). Xu Huang's Legend Stage cuts out the northeastern portion of  Fan Castle and the eastern part of the map itself (and the southeastern path) while along leaving the central smaller castle nearby. Pang Tong's Legend Mode on the other hand, uses the Siege of Fan Castle map, while Xiao Qiao's Legend Mode stage limits the stage only to the whole eastern castle area (referred to as the Tong Qiao Tai).

Dynasty Warriors 5 has the battle primarily as a battle for Wu. It takes place in 192 AD as Sun Jian aims to take the area away from Liu Biao. His army is split into three squadrons to take Liu Biao's position: Huang Gai and Sun Shang Xiang attack from the east, Sun Ce and Zhou Yu charge from the south, while Sun Jian personally leads the western assault. Early in battle, Sun Jian will encounter Huang Zu and is taunted by the latter. Unless players are playing the father's story, Sun Jian is lured into an ambush by Huang Zu at the western gate. Even if the player saves him, he will suffer a wound from the attack and will perish following the battle. His offspring swear to not make his death in vain and continue to build their territories from the land they conquered. In Sun Jian's story, he will escape the ambush and survives through the battle. Later on, Sun Jian's children will attack Xiakou to exact their revenge on Huang Zu.

In the Xtreme Legends expansion, the map is reused for Struggle for the Book, where Zhang Jiao, Zuo Ci, and Pang Tong compete against each other in order to earn the Way of Peace from Master Lao.

In Dynasty Warriors Vol. 2, Xiang Yang appears in Shu's story, where Cao Cao attacks Liu Biao at Jing Province, and Liu Bei is sent to fight him. Outnumbered, Zhuge Liang begins preparations for his plan. Yu Jin will detect the suspicious activity and will move in to attack Zhuge Liang. If protected long enough, Zhuge Liang will unleash a rockslide on the Wei forces. If the rockslide is successful, Zhao Yun and Liu Feng will appear and ambush the enemy troops. Defeating Cao Cao will end in victory.

Xiangyang appears twice in Dynasty Warriors 7, during Wu and Shu's stories. In Shu's story, Xiangyang acts as the garrison directly south of Fan Castle. In Shu's first part of Fan Castle, Guan Yu will enter the battle to take the city and use his flood attack. While Xiangyang is taken quickly, the western bank of the river is under attack by Wei forces and Yu Jin will appear to east with reinforcements. After forces at both sides of the river are defeated, Guan Yu initiates the flood attack on Fan Castle, leading to its capture.

In Wu's story, Sun Jian receives Yuan Shu's aid in exchange for an attack on Liu Biao. Sun Ce, dissatisfied with how his father has to serve Yuan Shu participates in the battle with the promise of getting a proper answer at the battle's end. Sun Jian's forces first start by setting up catapults to attack Xiangyang Castle's gates. Once one of the gates is destroyed, Sun Jian's forces will immediately begin invading the castle. Huang Zu's forces attempt to stop the assault by attacking with arrows while Wei Yan helps defend them. Once Sun Ce reaches Liu Biao, an ambush led by Huang Zhong appears, though Sun Jian helps fend off the ambush troops. After the battle, Sun Ce attempts to apologize for his grievances for his father's decisions, but Sun Jian is struck down from behind by enemy archers.

Dynasty Warriors 8 has Xiangyang act as Wu's opening stage. Sun Jian chooses to attack Liu Biao with himself and Shangxiang attacking the central path while Quan and Ce take the western path. On the western path, however Wei Yan will launch an ambush while a powered up Huang Zu will guard the central path. After seeing that standard attacks will not break through the central gate, Sun Jian orders some of his troops to instead head to the hidden path at the east to assault the castle. Once the castle is successfully attacked, Huang Gai will immediately order the gate guards to be destroyed. Once Liu Biao is defeated, the stage will end. Once the Wu forces infiltrate the castle, Lu Gong will begin retreating. If he is caught and defeated, Sun Jian will survive the ambush, and the Battle of Liang Province will be unlocked.

During the Xtreme Legends expansion, Liu Cong attempts to guard the area from Sun Quan's forces in order to stall for Cao Cao's arrival. Lu Su will immediately order that the central area be taken, however, the castle's gate is impregnable, and Yu Jin arrives with the first batch of reinforcements while Cao Ren also arrives and attempts to attack the Wu forces from the east. After Cao Ren's defeat, Lu Su will order the troops to take the byroad to attack the castle, but Xu Huang's reinforcements arrive to try and block them. After a successful assault on the castle, the Wu forces charge in, but Cao Cao finally arrives and takes charge of the battle. Defeating Cao Cao will end the stage.

Dynasty Warriors 9 has Xiangyang as a full-fledged city in Jing Province due to the game's open-world design alongside Jiangling and Wulin, with Xiangyang just southwest of Fan Castle. Xiangyang provides all the various shops that can be found in most large cities on the map, and is the site for several major battles during the game's Story Mode.

In Lu Su's hypothetical version, Lu Su, Lu Meng, Ding Feng, Zhu Ran and Lu Xun need to rescue Shu's Guan family. Among his gratitude, Guan Yu and his children agreed to work together. Defeating Sima Yi will complete the stage, resulting Lu Su and the others go to Chengdu, making preparation to counterattack against Wei.

Warriors Orochi[]

It is the first stage for the Samurai forces in Warriors Orochi, in which Nobunaga rescues Guan Ping and Huang Zhong. They are under siege by Orochi forces lead by Cao Pi. Guan Ping hurries to assist the elder and runs into an ambush in the eastern garrison. Meanwhile, Huang Zhong is defending the castle before it falls, under heavy attack in the west by Mitsunari and Zhang He. As Nobunaga's forces march out, the army splits into two. The western forces try to assist Huang Zhong while defending the main camp and the center forces head for either Guan Ping or the castle's southern entrance. Cao Ren will try to impede either side from proceeding. After a period of time, an impatient Cao Pi will appear in the south and personally attack the ally army. Defeating him ends the stage and causes the Shu remnants to join Nobunaga.

The battlefield exists primarily as a dream stage for Cao Ren, Sun Jian, and Katsuie in Warriors Orochi 2. The three gentlemen band together to rescue Oichi from danger. At first, the battlefield is relatively empty with the player only needing to escort her to the castle and protect her from a few miscellaneous officers and brigands, however once the second wave led by Liu Biao arrives the enemy will start raining it down with cannon fire. This will cause the allied army to demoralize and the thin defenses will be overwhelmed by a swarm of enemy troops. Players must also protect Wei's messenger and take him to the northeast stronghold in order to receive reinforcements from the Azai forces. Once the Azai forces arrive, Yuan Shao revealed to be the mastermind behind the assault, appears with Zhang He and other warlords such as the Hōjō and launches a final assault, camping himself in the southwest.

Historical Information[]

Romance of the Three Kingdoms[]

During the dissolution of the anti-Dong Zhuo coalition, Sun Jian had obtained the Imperial Seal, but deliberately hid it. As a result, Yuan Shao ordered Liu Biao to bar Sun's way as he left the alliance.

Feeling spiteful ever since, Sun Jian was finally given the opportunity to attack his rival, when Yuan Shu requested him to do so. Huang Gai warned his lord of attacking in vengeance as well as acting under Yuan Shu's orders, but Sun responded in a flurry that he would've attacked Liu Biao anyway, without Yuan Shu's letter.

In the opening battle, Sun Jian sailed his navy forward against Huang Zu. Huang Zu initially ordered his archers to fire at the Sun forces, however, Sun Jian safely hid his men inside, and subsequently plucked out the arrows stuck on the boats. The arrows were then used against Huang's forces, forcing him to retreat. During this skirmish, the mast of Sun Jian's ship broke, an inauspicious sign to come. Ignoring his men's warnings, Sun Jian moved on to besiege Huang Zu in Xiangyang itself.

At this time, Kuai Liang consulted Lü Gong with a plan. During the battle, Lü's forces would attract Sun Jian's forces away from the rest of his men into an ambush. The plan went accordingly, and Sun Jian led a small group of cavalry to pursue Lü. Sun later lost his prey until Liu Biao's forces successfully lured him to the bottom of cliff, where they flung countless arrows and boulders at him. Sun Jian's entire unit was annihilated by the ambush.

On the other side of the battle, Sun Ce had managed to capture Huang Zu after briefly dueling him. By daybreak, however, he had learned of what had happened to his father. Opening a ceasefire, Sun Ce successfully exchanged Huang Zu for his father's body. Shortly after, he returned back to Yuan Shu. Dong Zhuo was overjoyed at Sun Jian's demise, deeming him the greatest threat in the coalition assembled. Laughing at Sun Ce's young age, Dong proceeded to abuse his power even more.

Gallery[]

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