The Battle of Jiangling took place in 223 CE between the forces of the state of Cao Wei and the kingdom of Wu in the early Three Kingdoms period. The armed conflict occurred at Jiangling commandery (江陵郡; commandery capital in present-day Jiangling County, Jingzhou, Hubei) in Jing Province. This battle was an integral part of the Wei emperor Cao Pi's three-pronged campaign against the Wu leader Sun Quan, and spanned from the autumn of 222 to June 223. Of the three fronts, Wei's most critical attacks were concentrated against the Wu fortress at Jiangling.
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Background
When Liu Bei attacked Sun Quan in the Battle of Xiaoting, Sun sent his envoys with gifts to relate his wish to submit to Cao Pi, who in 220 ended the Han dynasty and established the state of Wei. As such, Sun Quan nominally became a vassal under Wei, but actually operated his Wu regime independently like he used to. Cao Pi's adviser Liu Ye suggested to his lord to attack Sun Quan while the latter was fighting Liu Bei, but Cao Pi rejected the proposal because he needed Sun Quan's submissive posture to solidify his authority as the legitimate founder of a new dynasty. After Sun Quan defeated Liu Bei in August, Cao Pi began to make plans on taking advantage on Sun Quan, despite opposition from Liu Ye. Wei troops were mobilised in the ninth lunar month of 222, and Cao Pi repeatedly requested Sun Quan to send his firstborn son to Wei as a hostage, prompting Sun Quan to send a humble letter of apology. However, Sun Quan could not agree on sending his son to Cao Pi, which ended the peace negotiation and started the war.
Cao Xiu was ordered by Cao Pi to attack Dongkou and Cao Ren was entrusted to take Ruxu; Cao Zhen and Xiahou Shang were put in charge of taking Jiangling, capital of Nan Commandery and Jing Province. In the late October or early November, Sun Quan adopted his own era name, Huangwu (黃武), and formally declared independence from Wei.
Wei's advancement
When the armies were moving onto Wu, Sun Quan tried to arrange diplomatic agreements between himself and Wei, but they were all rejected. The only other choice was to send an envoy to Liu Bei, which succeeded.
The first objective of the Wei forces was to attack and capture Nan commandery, which would open up the opportunity to swallow the Jing Province capital at Jiangling. The forces of Wei were dispatched from possibly Xiangyang and Fancheng. Cao Zhen, Xiahou Shang and Zhang He attacked Jiangling, as Cao Pi moved a supporting force from the Wei capital Luoyang to Wancheng in case of any required backup. At this time, it was very critical and uneasy for the Wu forces, since the commander, Zhu Ran was in control of a very low amount of troops. Quickly, the Wei forces overran the Wu forces at Nan commandery, after Zhang He defeated Sun Sheng (孫盛). The Wei forces then made way to assist the main army's siege of Jiangling.
Siege of Jiangling
The forces led by Zhang He immediately used the south side of the Yangtze below Jiangling and the north banks to build pontoon bridges to cut off supplies from the Wu commander Zhu Ran, whose forces were shut inside the city. Zhu Ran also had to face the task of keeping order within the city. For example, when the city was running low on its water supply, some civilians and soldiers tried to surrender to Wei by opening the gates, but Zhu Ran put an end to the plot.
However, the position where the Wei forces set up the pontoon bridges was too exposed to be maintained by the Wei forces. Soon, another batch of Wu reinforcements led by Zhuge Jin and Yang Can (楊粲) arrived. Pan Zhang said, "The Wei army's prowess was formidable at the beginning, and the river waters were shallow, so we could not match them at first." Pan Zhang then ordered his men to move to 50 li upstream from the Wei army's location. They cut down and bundled together large quantities of reeds from the river to make big rafts, and sent them afloat down the river towards the pontoon bridges. The reeds were set on fire, therefore burning down the pontoon bridges to crisps. The Wu forces then executed a counter-attack on the Wei forces.
The conflict would go on sixth months well into June 223 before a plague broke out in the Wei camp, causing the Wei forces to withdraw from the siege in defeat. By early summer, Cao Pi had already returned to the capital at Luoyang.
Aftermath
During the time of the withdrawal from Jiangling, the battles at Dongkou and Ruxu also ended in failure for the Wei forces and they withdrew as well.