The Battle of Wancheng (Zhang Xiu’s night raid) turns Cao Cao’s personal distraction into a military crisis: while he neglects his campaign for an affair with Lady Zou, Zhang Xiu attacks his camp at night. Cao Cao survives, but the escape costs him his son Cao Ang and his personal guard Dian Wei. He regroups and defeats Zhang Xiu in a renewed attack, while the episode makes the risks of divided attention and unstable political relationships concrete.

Causes and Background

Cao Cao’s determination to fight Lü Bu is seriously undermined when he becomes absorbed in Lady Zou, the widow of Zhang Ji and aunt of Zhang Xiu, one of Cao Cao’s commanders. He has guards positioned outside his tent, yet gives himself over to the affair day after day and night after night, forgetting other matters. The family connection makes his private choice a political and military vulnerability: Zhang Xiu is deeply offended, and the account explicitly connects Cao Cao’s distraction with the decision to attack his camp after dark.

The Night Raid and Escape

Dian Wei, Cao Cao’s personal guard, helps defend the camp when Zhang Xiu’s forces attack. Although without weapons or armor at first, he takes a sword and fights on; after it breaks, he continues using the bodies of fallen attackers as weapons. He is eventually overcome and dies. His stand buys Cao Cao an opportunity to escape, despite Cao Cao being wounded.

Cao Cao rides toward the river on a swift Fergana horse, accompanied by Cao Ang. The wounded horse carries him to the bank and across the river, but an arrow kills it as it climbs out. Cao Ang gives his father his own horse, enabling Cao Cao to escape; Cao Ang is then killed by a hail of arrows. The retreat thus depends on successive acts of protection—from Dian Wei’s defense of the camp, to the horse’s crossing, to Cao Ang’s sacrifice—and ends with Cao Cao alive but bereaved.

Renewed Attack and Aftermath

Cao Cao regroups his men and judges that his forces remain stronger than Zhang Xiu’s. He attacks again, defeats Zhang Xiu, and drives him into flight; Zhang Xiu seeks refuge with Liu Biao. The outcome reverses the immediate danger of the night raid, but does not undo its personal cost: Cao Cao survives the campaign crisis at the price of losing both his son and his guard.

Narrative Significance

The episode sets intimate conduct against the demands of command. Cao Cao’s absorption in the affair is not merely a private diversion: because Lady Zou is related to Zhang Xiu, it provokes the attack and leaves the camp exposed to disaster. The escape then shifts the emphasis from distraction to loyalty and loss, as Dian Wei and Cao Ang each help save Cao Cao and die in the process. In the wider novel, whose historical material is shaped by oral storytelling, drama, and the novelist’s arrangement, this sequence gives a military reversal a sharply personal human cost.