[3][4] By February 219, Cao Ren had crushed the rebellion and killed Hou Yin and Wei Kai, and massacred the citizenry of Wan.

[5] In the meantime, tired and angered by forced conscription and labour, a peasant revolt also broke out in Luhun-county (陸渾, located southeast of present-day Song County, Henan) led by rebel leader Sun Lang (孫狼), who killed the county registrar and defected to Guan Yu, receiving military command to work as raiders for Guan Yu.

[6][7] After taking Hanzhong Commandery by defeating Cao Cao in the Hanzhong Campaign in May 219, Liu Bei further expanded his territorial gains in June 219 by sending Meng Da and Liu Feng to take Fangling (房陵; present-day Fang County, Hubei) and Shangyong (上庸; north of present-day Zhushan County, Hubei) commanderies.

Realising the imminent attacks of Liu Bei and possibly Sun Quan, Cao Cao planned to launch a preemptive strike on southern Jing Province (covering present-day Hubei and Hunan), the eastern part of Liu Bei's territory defended by Guan Yu.

Initially, the cities being attacked were not heavily guarded, as Cao Ren at Fancheng and Lü Chang (呂常) at Xiangyang were both surrounded.

After pitching camp on a lower ground about 4 km north to Fancheng, Yu Jin started to prepare a counteroffensive.

Although Guan Yu could not defeat Pang De in battle, he nevertheless held firm control over the water routes around the area and maintained the encirclement of Fancheng.

Prior, Wen Hui had warned of the potential radical weather changes in the south and feared Guan Yu would use river-floods to his advantage.

At the time, Xu Huang, who was stationed in Wancheng with his force purely consisting of new recruits, was only able to set up defensive fortifications instead of venturing out to relieve Cao Ren.

Meanwhile, Hu Xiu (胡修), the Inspector of Jing Province (the position that had the authority to raise troops from within the entire Jing Province[9]), and Fu Fang (傅方), Cao Cao's Administrator of Nanxiang (Nanxiang was located southeast of present-day Xichuan County, Henan), both defected to Guan Yu.

With only several thousand troops left, Cao Ren was also plagued by low food supplies, so he considered abandoning Fancheng.

Xu Huang pretended to dig a long trench, giving the false impression of cutting off Guan Yu's vanguard, which fell for the trick and retreated.

In the short term, if Guan Yu knew about Sun Quan's attack in his rear, he would certainly withdraw his army to reinforce his home base in Jing Province, and the siege of Fancheng would be lifted.

Furthermore, Dong Zhao pointed out that even if Guan Yu knew Sun Quan's intention, he would not retreat swiftly because of his stubbornness and his confidence in the defence of Jiangling and Gong'an counties.

With his camp overrun by the enemy, Guan Yu was forced to concede defeat by lifting the siege of Fancheng and retreating southward.

When Guan Yu returned south, he discovered that his rear bases in Jiangling and Gong'an counties had both surrendered to Lü Meng, the commander of Sun Quan's westward army.

Lü Meng held hostage the wives and children of Guan Yu's men but treated them and the citizenry of Jing Province with utmost care.

Guan Yu's soldiers, hearing that Jing Province had fallen to Sun Quan and that their families were in good hands, lost their will to fight and deserted.

I have fought in battles for over 30 years, but I have never heard of anyone who attempted to break a siege by launching a direct attack on the enemy's encirclement.

Pang De put up firm resistance and attempted to escape by swimming, but was captured by Guan Yu's subordinate Zhou Cang.