Battle of Changban

The painting "Zhao Yun's Fight at Changban" inside the Long Corridor on the grounds of the Summer Palace in Beijing

Date	October 208 AD
Location	Changban, Dangyang, Jing Province (south of present-day Duodao District, Jingmen, Hubei)
Result	Cao Cao victory Liu Bei evacuated to Xiakou

Belligerents

Cao Cao

Liu Bei

Commanders and leaders

Cao Cao

Liu Bei

Strength

5,000 elite cavalry advance guard

2,000-10,000 infantry
100,000 mostly unarmed civilians

Battle of Changban

Traditional Chinese

長坂之戰

Simplified Chinese

长坂之战

Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	Chángbǎn Zhī Zhàn

Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	Chángbǎn Zhī Zhàn

The Battle of Changban was a battle fought between the warlords Cao Cao and Liu Bei in 208 in the late Eastern Han dynasty. The battle took place at Changban (長坂; south of present-day Duodao District, Jingmen, Hubei).

After Cao Cao unified northern China in 207, he made arrangements for a southern campaign on Jing Province (covering present-day Hubei and Hunan), governed by Liu Biao at the time. Initial minor invasions led by Xiahou Dun were repelled by Liu Biao's vassal Liu Bei, whose forces were stationed at Xinye at the northern border of Jing Province. Following that, Cao Cao personally led his armies south to attack Jing province in the seventh lunar month of 208.

In the eighth month, when Cao Cao's forces had reached Wancheng (宛城; present-day Nanyang, Henan), Liu Biao died of illness and was succeeded by his younger son, Liu Cong. Liu Cong's advisers Kuai Yue and Fu Xun convinced Liu Cong that he could not resist Cao Cao even with Liu Bei's help, so Liu Cong agreed to surrender. Liu Bei, who was at Fancheng at the time, was not informed of Liu Cong's decision to surrender. When Liu Bei became suspicious, he sent an attendant to Xiangyang to question Liu Cong, and only then would Liu Cong pass the news to Liu Bei through his subordinate official Song Zhong (宋忠). Dismayed, Liu Bei drew his sword on Song Zhong, but did not kill him. Surrender was not an option to Liu Bei, since he had been involved in an assassination plot to remove Cao Cao when Liu was in the service of Cao roughly ten years ago and it was unlikely that Cao would forgive him.

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