Having barely reached the shore at Red Cliffs with Zhang Liao’s help, Cao Cao flees toward Wulin with a hundred or so riders. Troops of Jiangdong appear behind him and before him, and just as his nerve breaks, Xu Huang arrives and clears the road. Ma Yan and Zhang Kai, generals who once served Yuan Shao and went over to him, meet him with three thousand northern troops, but as the two ride ahead they soon fall to Gan Ning’s blade. Cao Cao had hoped for rescue from the direction of Hefei, but Sun Quan’s troops are already waiting on that road, so he turns toward Yiling.
Meanwhile at Xiakou, as Kongming assigned the passes to his generals one by one, he ignored Guan Yu alone. When Guan Yu could bear it no longer, Kongming said that since Cao Cao had once treated him generously, if he were sent to the Huarong road he would surely let Cao Cao go. Guan Yu said he had already repaid that by killing Yan Liang and Wen Chou and lifting the siege at Baima, and signed a military pledge to submit to military law if he let Cao Cao go. Kongming in turn gave him a pledge that he himself would be punished if Cao Cao did not come that way.
After Guan Yu has gone, Liu Bei worries. My brother has a deep sense of honour. I fear that if Cao Cao really does take the Huarong road, he will let him go. Kongming answers, I have watched the heavens at night, and Cao Cao is not yet fated to die. It would be a fine thing to leave this kindness to Yunchang.