The Night Raid

In the time of the Three Kingdoms (period 07), general YUÁN Shào 袁绍 was holding the fortified city of Guāndù 官渡 against an assault by the formidable CÁO Cāo 曹操, whose forces were expanding from his base in the state of Wèi 魏 as he sought to unite the scattered remains of the fallen Hàn 汉 dynasty to found his own dynasty.

The two armies had been deadlocked outside Guāndù for three months, Yuán with about 100,000 forces, Cáo with only 20,000 and some. Although Cáo had removed some of Yuán’s generals and taken a few hundred prisoners, he had also lost even more prisoners to Yuán. So Yuán looked likely to prevail, with superior numbers and superior supplies, and Cáo was considering withdrawing.

However Cáo Cāo had an adviser named XÚN Yù 荀彧 stationed in Xǔchāng 许昌 farther south, who wrote advising him not to give up after holding out for so long, but rather to seek new vulnerabilities in his enemy.

Encouraged by Xún Yù’s advice, Cáo sent spies to Guāndù to seek vulnerabilities that might have been missed before. Finally one was identified. The spies discovered that coming along the road towards Guāndù was a convoy of several thousand supply wagons passing through territory that Cáo Cāo had not occupied, but that was not far away. Cáo Cāo immediately ordered that they be attacked by surprise and burned.

Much hurt by the lose of the huge convoy, Yuán Shào nevertheless still had ample stores at nearby Wūcháo 乌巢, and he ordered ten thousand carts of supplies brought from there to his army near Guāndù, under the guard of ten thousand soldiers, roughly one per cart.

One of his advisers, JǓ Shòu 沮授, advised Yuán to send even more guards, both for the convoy and for Wūcháo itself. Yuán was confident however that he had ordered enough.

Another of his advisers, XǓ Yōu 许攸 had a different thought: Cáo Cāo’s forces were all concentrated around Guāndù, leaving his rear areas only thinly defended. A light force staging a raid from around the back could perhaps do great damage. But Yuán Shào saw little merit in this, since it was clear that Cáo Cāo, outnumbered as he was, would presently concede defeat right where he was.

Xǔ Yōu saw that Yuán’s reluctance to take action would lead to his ultimate defeat. He had once been a friend to Cáo Cāo, and now he decided to desert Yuán, the probable loser, and defect to Cáo, the probable winner.

Arriving at Cáo’s camp, Xǔ Yōu was joyously received by his old friend Cáo. Xǔ told Cáo about the cache at Wūcháo and how the supplies were only poorly defended. In view of his earlier losses, if Yuán should lose the cache at Wūcháo, he would be unable to hold out for more than a few days.

This struck Cáo Cāo as wonderful news. That very night he dispatched about 5,000 troops on a secret mission to Wūcháo, disguised as soldiers from Yuán Shào’s own army, but carrying everything needed to start raging fires: wood, kindling, oil, etc. They proceeded in silence. When they briefly met some of Yuán’s guards, they persuaded them that they had his instructions to proceed to Wūcháo for supplies and reinforcements. And thus they were able to pass through Yuán’s lines towards Wūcháo, where they set fire to the ten thousand carts of supplies even before the wagons had left for Guāndù.

Without supplies, Yuán’s hundred thousand soldiers were readily routed by Cáo’s smaller army. Yuán himself escaped with over 800 men, but with no hope of regaining the lost territory. He died slightly later of an illness and is famed in history for ignoring good advice from wise counselors.