Battle of Tong Pass (211)
| Battle of Tong Pass | |||||||
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| Part of the wars at the end of the Han dynasty | |||||||
 The fictional duel between Xu Chu and Ma Chao, portrait at the Long Corridor of the Summer Palace, Beijing |
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| Belligerents | |||||||
| Cao Cao | Coalition of Guanxi forces | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
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Cao Cao Cao Ren Xu Huang Zhu Ling |
Ma Chao Han Sui Hou Xuan Cheng Yin Yang Qiu Li Kan † Zhang Heng Liang Xing Cheng Yi † |
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| Strength | |||||||
| 60,000 | 100,000 | ||||||
| Battle of Tong Pass | |||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 潼關之戰 | ||||||
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| Simplified Chinese | 潼关之战 | ||||||
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| Battle of Weinan | |||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 渭南之戰 | ||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 渭南之战 | ||||||
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| Transcriptions | |
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| Standard Mandarin | |
| Hanyu Pinyin | Tóngguān Zhī Zhàn |
| Transcriptions | |
|---|---|
| Standard Mandarin | |
| Hanyu Pinyin | Wèinán Zhī Zhàn |
The Battle of Tong Pass, also known as the Battle of Weinan, was fought between the warlord Cao Cao and a coalition of forces from Guanxi (west of Hangu Pass) from March to September 211 in the late Eastern Han dynasty. The battle was initiated by Cao Cao's western expansion, which triggered uprisings in Guanxi. Cao Cao scored a decisive victory over the Guanxi coalition and established a hold of the Guanzhong region.
Before the end of the Han dynasty, the warlord Ma Teng commanded a sizable army in the northwestern frontiers of China that threatened the North China Plain controlled by Cao Cao. When Cao Cao finished his unification of northern China in 207, he wished to turn south to attack the warlords Liu Bei and Sun Quan; so to avoid being attacked from behind, Cao Cao appointed Ma Teng as an official and summoned him to Ye (in present-day Handan, Hebei). Ma Teng and some of his family members were effectively held hostage to prevent Ma Teng's son, Ma Chao, from invading Cao Cao's territory.
Cao Cao's southern expedition did not go well; however, as he was defeated by the combined forces of Sun Quan and Liu Bei at the Battle of Red Cliffs in 208. He soon turned his attention west instead, with the intention to invade the Guanzhong region.
In the third lunar month of 211, Cao Cao ordered Zhong Yao to lead an army to attack the warlord Zhang Lu in Hanzhong and sent Xiahou Yuan to lead another force from Hedong to support Zhong Yao.Gao Rou cautioned Cao Cao against such a move, saying that sending troops west could draw suspicion from the warlords in the area and cause them to revolt.
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