Incident at Guangling
The Incident at Guangling was a military confrontation that took place from late 224 to early 225 between the state of Cao Wei and the kingdom of Wu during the Three Kingdoms period of China. Although the conflict was considered a naval battle, no fighting officially occurred. This would ultimately prove to be the final military campaign that Cao Pi participated in before his death in June of 226.
Background
In 222, the Wei emperor Cao Pi demanded that Sun Quan, who in 220 became a vassal king paying nominal allegiance to Wei, send his son Sun Deng as a hostage to Wei to further secure Sun Quan's allegiance towards him. However, Sun Quan refused, broke ties with Wei, and became the independent ruler of his Wu kingdom. In retaliation, Cao Pi ordered a series of invasions of Wu between 222 and 224, but each invasion ultimately ended in failure. In late 224, Cao Pi mobilised over 100,000 troops from throughout Wei and ordered them to assemble at Guangling Commandery in preparation for a massive invasion of the Wu capital, Jianye.The advance
Cao Pi knew that the invasion would fail if he launched attacks from upstream of the Yangtze, where the river was narrow. Therefore, he chose to stage the invasion from Guangling Commandery, where the river was wider. Earlier that year, the Wu general Xu Sheng had ordered the construction of a whole stash of dummy defence walls and turrets along the southern bank of the Yangtze from Jianye downstream to Jiangcheng in preparation for a naval attack by Wei forces.In the winter of 224–225, Cao Pi ordered his troops to destroy the blockading walls and personally led the 100,000 strong Wei fleet as they set sail on the Yangtze. In response to the impending Wei invasion, Sun Quan sent a large naval fleet to block the enemy. Despite the size of the Wu fleet, Cao Pi was actually more worried about the climate and its effects on the Wei fleet. It was a harsh winter so the Wei navy would have a hard time advancing. After seeing the Wu defences and the conditions of his fleet, Cao Pi sighed, "Alas! It is truly the will of Heaven which divides the south from the north." He then ordered his troops to retreat from Guangling Commandery. When the Wu general Sun Shao heard about the Wei retreat, he ordered his subordinate Gao Shou to lead 500 men to launch a surprise night raid on the enemy. The retreating Wei forces were caught off guard by the raid; Gao Shou and his men even captured and made off with the parasol of Cao Pi's chariot.