The Battle of Xingyang was fought in 190 in the late Eastern Han dynasty as part of the campaign against Dong Zhuo.

In 190, dissenting regional officials and warlords formed a coalition against the Chancellor of State, Dong Zhuo, who controlled Emperor Xian.

Dong Zhuo was concerned that the capital Luoyang was not as easy to defend as Chang'an to the west, and thus moved all civilians and court officials, including the emperor, to Chang'an while the military under Dong stayed to defend Luoyang.

During the mass relocation on 9 April, Dong ordered his soldiers to raze Luoyang, confiscate from the rich, and looted from the Han emperor tombs.

At the beginning, if Dong Zhuo heard that armies have risen (against him) in Shandong, he would have relied on the imperial house, occupied the old capital [Luoyang], and turned east to attack the rest of the empire; then even though he behaved immorally, he would still be a threat.

Nonetheless, the detachment marched west from Suanzao with the intention to occupy Chenggao (成皋).

In a day of fierce fighting, the coalition force, consisting of a ragtag assembly of family retainers and looters, was ultimately no match for the professional frontiersmen of Dong Zhuo.

[7] Xu Rong considered an attack on Suanzao, but he observed that even though Cao Cao's men were few in number they fought fiercely throughout the day, and so assumed that an attack on Suanzao against these sort of men would be difficult.

Learning from his defeat in Xingyang where he tried to attack Chenggao head-on, Cao Cao came up with an alternative strategy and presented it to the coalition: Instead of attempting another direct attack from Suanzao, the plan involved taking strategic points to blockade Luoyang and Chenggao.

Then Yuan Shu, the coalition general in the south could, instead of attacking Luoyang, threaten Dong Zhuo's new capital in Chang'an.

Attacking in haste, he was swiftly driven back, suffering many casualties and fleeing to base with heavy loss of life.

Xu Rong's men initially fired arrows at them, but soon turned around to cross the river in a ford upstream.