When the remains of the defenders of the grain stores reached their master's camp, they were mustered. Seeing the mutilated state of their one time leader, Yuan Shao asked how Chunyu Qiong had come to betray his trust and to suffer thus, and the soldiers told their lord, “The General was intoxicated at the time of the attack.”
So Yuan Shao ordered Chunyu Qiong to be forthwith executed.
Guo Tu, fearing lest Zhang He and Gao Lan would return and testify the whole truth, began to intrigue against them.
First Guo Tu went to his lord, saying, “Those two, Zhang He and Gao Lan, were certainly very glad when your armies were defeated.”
“Why do you say this?” asked Yuan Shao.
“O they have long cherished a desire to go over to Cao Cao; so when you sent them on the duty of destroying his camp, they did not do their best and so brought about this disaster.”
Yuan Shao accordingly sent to recall these two to be interrogated as to their faults. But Guo Tu sent a messenger in advance to warn them, as though in friendly guise, of the adverse fate that awaited them. So when the orders reached them to return to answer for their faults, Gao Lan asked, “For what reason are we recalled?”
“Indeed I do not know,” said the messenger.
Gao Lan drew his sword and killed the messenger. Zhang He was astonished at this demonstration, but Gao Lan said, “Our lord has allowed some one to malign us and say we have been bought by Cao Cao. What is the sense in our sitting still and awaiting destruction? Rather let us surrender to Cao Cao in reality and save our lives.”
“I have been wanting to do this for some time,” replied Zhang He.
Wherefore both, with their companies, made their way to Cao Cao's camp to surrender.
When they arrived, Xiahou Dun said to his master, “These two have come to surrender, but I have doubts about them.”
Cao Cao replied, “I will meet them generously and win them over, even if they have treachery in their hearts.”
The camp gates were opened to the two officers, and they were invited to enter. They laid down their weapons, removed their armor, and bowed to the ground before Cao Cao, who said, “If Yuan Shao had listened to you, he would not have suffered defeat. Now you two coming to surrender are like Wei Zi leaving the falling House of Shang to go to Yin and Han Xin leaving Xiang Yu to go over to the rising House of Han.”
Cao Cao made then Generals and conferred upon Zhang He the title of Lord of Duting and upon Gao Lan Lord of Donglai, which pleased them much.
And so as Yuan Shao had formerly driven sway his adviser, Xu You, so now he had alienated two leaders and had lost his stores at Wuchao, and his army was depressed and down-hearted.
When Xu You advised Cao Cao to attack Yuan Shao as promptly as he could, the two newly surrendered generals volunteered to lead the way. So Cao Cao sent Zhang He and Gao Lan to make a first attack on the camp, and they left in the night with three thousand troops. The fighting went on confusedly all night but stayed at dawn. Yuan Shao had lost half of his army.
Then Xun You suggested a plan to Cao Cao, saying, “Now is the moment to spread a report that an army will go to take Suanzao and attack Yejun, and another to take Liyang and intercept the enemy's retreat. Yuan Shao, when he hears of this, will be alarmed and tell off his troops to meet this new turn of affairs; and while he is making these new dispositions, we can have him at great disadvantage.”
Cao Cao adopted the suggestion; and care was taken that the report spread far around. It came to the ears of Yuan Shao's soldiers, and they repeated it in camp. Yuan Shao believed it and ordered his son Yuan Tan with fifty thousand troops to rescue Yejun, and General Xin Ming with another fifty thousand to go to Liyang, and they marched away at once. Cao Cao heard that these armies had started, and at once dispatched troops in eight divisions to make a simultaneous attack on the nearly empty camp. Yuan Shao's troops were too dispirited to fight and gave way on all sides.
Yuan Shao without waiting to don his armor went forth in simple dress with an ordinary cap upon his head and mounted his steed. His youngest son, Yuan Shang, followed him. Four of the enemy generals — Zhang Liao, Xu Chu, Xu Huang, and Yu Jin — with their forces pressed in his rear, and Yuan Shao hastened across the river, abandoning all his documents and papers, baggage, treasure, and stores. Only eight hundred horsemen followed him over the stream. Cao Cao's troops followed hard but could not come up with him; however, they captured all his impedimenta, and they slew some eighty thousands of his army so that the watercourses ran blood and the drowned corpses could not be counted. It was a most complete victory for Cao Cao, and he made over all the spoil to the army.
Among the papers of Yuan Shao was found a bundle of letters showing secret correspondence between him and many persons in the capital and army.
