Shan Fu comes back to the county after his victory and says to Liu Bei, Cao Ren has his troops at Fancheng, and now that he knows his two generals are dead he is sure to come with a great army. If he brings all his men, Fancheng will be empty. That is the moment to strike it. Shan Fu leans close and tells Liu Bei the plan in a low voice.
Cao Ren crosses the river and draws up his lines. Li Dian, sent out first, cannot match Zhao Yun and pulls back, and Cao Ren wants his head for breaking the army’s spirit and throwing the fight. The officers beg him off, and the next day Cao Ren lays out a formation and sends a man to ask, Do you know this array? Shan Fu climbs to a high place, looks for a long time, and names it the Eight Gates Locked Formation. The eight gates are laid out well, he says, but no one holds the centre. Strike in at the Gate of Life in the south-east and out at the Gate of Light due west, and the array is bound to fall apart.
Zhao Yun takes five hundred men in by that road, breaks out to the west and charges back to the south-east corner. Cao Ren’s army is thrown into confusion. Only now does Cao Ren believe Li Dian, but he will not give up his own plan to raid the camp that night. Seeing a sudden wind rise, Shan Fu says Cao Ren will surely come tonight. Cao Ren’s men fall back through the flames and drown in the river, and when the survivors reach Fancheng a voice calls from the wall. I took Fancheng long ago. It is Guan Yu.