Battle of Guandu
Indeed the grain was falling short in Cao Cao's granaries and he considered a withdrawal. Such a situation called for immediate action. Shock troops were dispatched to burn Yuan's grain carts and Yuan Shao was forced to send out for relief food supplies. In the tenth month, Chunyu Qiong's ten thousand-strong force returned with large reserves of grain and lodged around twenty kilometres from the main Yuan camp, in a place called Crow's Nest (Wuchao). The wisdom of such a position was questioned by adjutant Ju Shou, who argued that there were too few troops to guard such an important commodity as grain. A defection soon after from Yuan Shao's ranks alerted Cao Cao to this weakness and he seized the opportunity. Leaving the main camp in the hands of Cao Hong, a force of 5000 elite infantry was led by Cao Cao himself into enemy controlled territory.
- Blue -- Yuan Shao's attacking route
- turqoise -- Yuan Shao's escape route
- Pink -- Cao Cao's attacking Route
At such a time of emergency, Yuan Shao refused to send his main forces to relieve Chunyu's defenders, as his commander Zhang He urged him to do. Instead he chose to send a smaller force of light cavalry, whilst attacking Guandu with the bulk of his army. By dawn, Wuchao had fallen to the furious attack and Cao's victorious soldiers then proceeded to defeat the small relief force. At Guandu, Yuan Shao failed to break through and army morale dropped sharply in knowledge of the capture of food supplies. Zhang He surrendered and his battalion burned their weapons. Cao Cao seized the day once more and attacked when the enemy was at its weakest. 70,000 of Yuan's force was destroyed and he lost countless provisions, escaping over the Yellow River with little more than 800 horseman.
The victory was a decisive one; Yuan Shao no longer provided a serious threat to Cao Cao's ambitions and he died a dejected man the next year. Unlike Yuan Shao, Cao knew the value of tactical withdrawals. On the strategic level he could understand and anticipate his opponent's moves and took calculated risks to counter them. The victory of Cao Cao over superior forces lay in his capacity for superior planning and processes on tactical and strategic levels. He rendered his inferior numbers irrelevant with the use of disruption and dislocation. In short, dislocation is the art of cancelling out the enemy's strength. Instead of having to fight a hostile force on its own terms, the friendly force avoids any combat in which the enemy can bring his might to bear. In contrast, Yuan Shao had none of this brilliance and has often been criticised for not heeding the reasonable suggestions of his senior advisers. Certinaly this was an important part of his defeat, for if he should have recognised the importance of the grain supply and taken appropriate measures as his counselors advised. The Battle of Guandu will forever be testimony to the fact that superior numbers do not gain victory.