Liu Cong’s surrender of Jingzhou to Cao Cao is a political reversal driven by a disputed succession and the approach of a stronger army. The surrender turns a threatened local regime into territory offered to Cao Cao, while the intercepted message exposes the decision to Xuande and sharpens the contrast between Liu Cong’s capitulation and Xuande’s choice to lead his followers and the people of Xinye toward safety.

Succession and pressure

The crisis begins after the death of Liu Biao. Lady Cai, Cai Mao, and Zhang Yun forge a will claiming that Liu Biao wished Lady Cai’s son Liu Cong to succeed him. They bury Liu Biao near Xiangyang without inviting his elder son Liu Qi to the rites, then make the city their base. The contested succession leaves Liu Cong facing not only Cao Cao’s approaching army but also the danger that Liu Qi and Xuande might join forces against him.

At a council, Fu Xuan warns that Liu Cong has excluded both Liu Qi and Xuande from the funeral rituals, and that such a breach could cost the regime Jingzhou. Liu Cong asks what course remains. Fu Xuan proposes sending a letter to Cao Cao and offering him the territory, on the expectation that Cao Cao might grant Liu Cong a senior post and protection. Liu Cong objects that he has only just become ruler and is already being asked to give up his lands.

Kuai Yue backs Fu Xuan’s proposal. Cao Cao, he argues, is powerful while Liu Cong is not; Liu Cong has only just taken office and has not established that the people will support him. The people, moreover, fear the advancing army and show no desire to resist. The advisers’ reasoning presents the surrender as a calculation made under military pressure and political insecurity, rather than as the outcome of a battle.

The offer and its exposure

Gradually persuaded that he has no other option, Liu Cong sends a messenger to offer the lands to Cao Cao. Cao Cao welcomes the proposal, but stipulates in his reply that Liu Cong must come out and formally greet him in front of Jingzhou’s gates. The demanded ceremony would make the transfer visible as well as political: the new ruler is to acknowledge Cao Cao’s arrival in public.

The reply does not return to Liu Cong as intended. Guan Yu captures the messenger on the way back. Brought before Xuande, the messenger confesses the arrangement and shows him the letter. The intercepted document converts a secret decision into knowledge for Xuande, who responds with tears at what he regards as a betrayal. The scene makes the surrender consequential beyond the transfer of territory: it reveals that Liu Cong’s government has chosen accommodation without Xuande’s participation, even as Xuande and his followers face the danger of Cao Cao’s advance.

Xuande’s retreat and the people of Xinye

Following Kong Ming’s advice, Xuande decides to retreat to the city of Fan. He does not treat the retreat as a chance simply to save his own forces. He recognizes that the people who have followed him and the residents of Xinye who rely on his protection cannot be abandoned, and resolves to move the ordinary people across the river to safety at Fan. Their departure is a large and vulnerable undertaking, made more urgent because Cao Cao’s army is close by and encamped at Bowang.

Xuande and Kong Ming plan to hold the advancing force back while the civilians escape. Guan Yu receives a thousand men and orders to dam the upper waters of the White River, then break the dam at the appointed time the following day. Zhang Fei is assigned another thousand men at the Boling river crossing, where the current is sluggish and fleeing enemy troops may try to pass. These dispositions turn the river routes around the retreat into part of the defence: one force is positioned to release the flood, another to meet those seeking an escape crossing.

The planned withdrawal thus gives the surrender a human and strategic aftermath. Cao Cao is to take possession of Jingzhou, but Xuande’s immediate response is to move people out of Xinye rather than leave them exposed. His course draws a contrast between the council’s assessment that the people will not resist Cao Cao and Xuande’s own commitment to those who depend on him for protection.

Narrative significance

The episode makes a political handover unfold through a chain of vulnerabilities: a succession engineered by a forged will, an insecure new ruler, advisers who judge resistance impossible, a message sent to the invader, and a messenger caught before the plan can remain secret. The formal welcome Cao Cao requires underscores how surrender is enacted as a public transfer of authority, while the intercepted letter gives the decision an immediate personal consequence for Xuande.

The story also sets political survival against responsibility for the population. Liu Cong’s advisers reason from military strength and the absence of popular willingness to fight; Xuande, informed of the surrender, directs his attention to evacuating the people who have trusted him. The account’s broader description of the novel distinguishes its historical events from the dramatic retelling shaped by storytelling and the novelist. Within that narrative, the surrender serves not merely as a change of control over Jingzhou but as a turning point that propels Xuande’s retreat and places his conduct under the pressure of an approaching army.