The Burning of Xinye is the fire-and-flood victory by which Kong Ming turns his first command into a decisive defeat for Cao Ren’s invading force. With Xuande’s authority behind him, he coordinates misleading movements, a deserted city, fires, and a broken dam; Cao Ren escapes, but his army’s power is broken, allowing Xuande, Zhang Fei, and Kong Ming to ferry the people to Fan. The burning is thus both a proof of the new strategist’s ability and the beginning of an irreversible retreat from Xinye.

Background and Command

Cao Cao’s army, numbering more than one hundred thousand, was advancing on Xinye. Kong Ming had recently received a sword and seal from Xuande, granting him authority to issue commands. Guan Yu and Zhang Fei accepted his plan reluctantly, skeptical in particular that Kong Ming would remain away from the fighting. Xuande rebuked them for their doubts, though he too was troubled when Kong Ming ordered him to abandon camp as the enemy approached. The plan tested not only Kong Ming’s tactical judgment but the willingness of Xuande’s commanders to obey a newly appointed adviser.

Kong Ming divided the work among several forces rather than relying on a single attack. Guan Yu was to hide in the hills around Bowang, let the enemy pass, and strike its rear and supply train when the signal fires appeared. Zhang Fei was to wait in the valleys behind the forest and attack the army stores at Bowang. Two commanders were assigned to prepare fires on either side of the ravine through which the enemy would advance, while Zhao Zilong led a forward force and was instructed to feign retreat. The design made fire a coordinated signal and weapon, while concealed troops and an apparent withdrawal shaped the invaders’ expectations.

The Feints and the City

The invading force approached in successive bodies: Xu Chu led three thousand elite iron-clad soldiers, followed by a hundred thousand troops under Cao Ren and Cao Hong. At Xi Wei slope, the red- and blue-bannered troops withdrew in opposite directions as arranged. Xu Chu suspected that the movements concealed an ambush and warned Cao Ren, but Cao Ren pressed on. The feint had its intended effect on Xu Chu, who returned to his crack troops with his suspicions unresolved, while the main advance continued.

At a small wood, Xu Chu’s force halted. Trumpets and drums sounded from the surrounding hills, where Xuande and Kong Ming could be seen sitting beneath umbrellas. Xu Chu’s men tried to climb toward them but were driven back by stones and logs; sounds of an attack from elsewhere compounded the confusion. As evening fell, the invaders were divided between the force drawn toward the hill and Cao Ren’s larger body outside Xinye.

Cao Ren found the city gates open and Xinye deserted. He interpreted the empty city as an opportunity to rest his troops before fighting the next day, not as a warning that the apparent absence of defenders was part of the trap. During the night, fires broke out. Cao Ren initially dismissed the reports, but when he learned that three of the four gates were burning, he understood that his army had been deceived and was in danger of being enclosed. The only reported open gate was the east gate; the men who rushed through it encountered Zhao Zilong’s attack. Cao Ren fought his way out, and Liu Feng’s force struck the survivors in another assault. Cao Ren nevertheless escaped again, though only a small remnant remained with him.

The Flood and Retreat

The survivors reached the Bai River and crossed its shallows. Guan Yu, watching for the flames that were his signal, remembered his orders and had the dam broken upstream. The resulting flood swept away men and horses, turning the river crossing the survivors had treated as relief into a further danger. Those who made it through continued toward Boling, where they expected to find a ford; there Zhang Fei appeared before them and confronted Cao Ren.

Xu Chu rode out to defend Cao Ren, but, exhausted, soon fled. His intervention nevertheless gave Cao Ren time to escape to the ruins of Xinye and gather the remnants of his army. Cao Ren survived, but the power of his force had been broken. The episode’s outcome therefore rests on a sequence of separate pressures—the decoy troops, the confusion around the hill, the burning gates, Zhao Zilong’s interception, Liu Feng’s attack, and Guan Yu’s flood—rather than on the fire alone.

Consequences and Significance

With Cao Ren’s army weakened, Zhang Fei, Xuande, and Kong Ming could turn from fighting to the evacuation of the people. They ferried them across the river to Fan and burned the boats once everyone was safely across. That act made the retreat final: there would be no return by the same route. Xuande’s campaign was not simply a contest for a city; the army’s ability to move the people to safety shaped what followed the victory.

When Cao Cao learned how Kong Ming’s stratagems had cost him men, his anger led him to turn the full force of his army toward Fan. His adviser Liu Ye urged him to try diplomacy and offer Xuande terms of surrender, arguing that this could spare ordinary people further suffering. Thus the success at Xinye defeated Cao Ren’s immediate advance but did not end the threat: it prompted a wider response and placed the safety of Xuande’s followers under renewed pressure. Within the novel’s larger story of the Han’s collapse into competing powers, the episode marks Kong Ming’s emergence as a commander whose plans can change the course of a campaign, while making clear the human cost and strategic displacement bound up with that success.