Then Cao Cao showed a red flag, and the ambushing soldiers led by Zhang Liao and Xu Huang fell upon the sortie. The troops tried to return and Cao Cao's force made a direct attack. The chase continued to the drawbridge, but there Cao Cao's force met with a tremendous shower of arrows and crossbow bolts which checked the advance. Cao Cao's helmet was struck and the crest carried away. His leaders came to pull him back, and the army retired.
As soon as Cao Cao had changed his dress and mounted a fresh horse, he set out at the head of the army to attack Yuan Shang's camp.
Yuan Shang led the defense. The attack came simultaneously from many directions, the defenders were quite disorganized and presently defeated. Yuan Shang led his troops back by the Western Hills and made a camp under their shelter. Thence he sent messengers to urge Ma Yan and Zhang Yi to bring up the supports. He did not know that Cao Cao had sent Lu Xiang and Lu Kuang to persuade these two into surrender and that they had already passed under Cao Cao's banner, and he had conferred upon them the title of lordship.
Just before going to attack the Western Hills, Cao Cao sent Lu Xiang, Lu Kuang, Ma Yan, and Zhang Yi to seize the source of Yuan Shang's supplies. Yuan Shang had realized he could not hold the hills, so he went by night to Lankou. Before he could get camped, he saw flaring lights springing up all around him and soon an attack began. He was taken aback and had to oppose the enemy with his men half armed, his steeds unsaddled. His army suffered and he had to retreat another fifteen miles. By that time his force was too enfeebled to show any resistance, and as no other course was possible, he sent the Imperial Protector of Yuzhou, Yin Kui, to Cao Cao's camp and ask that he might surrender.
Cao Cao feigned to consent, but that night he sent Zhang Liao and Xu Huang to raid Yuan Shang's camp. Then it became flight, abandoning everything, seals, emblems of office, and even personal clothing. Yuan Shang made for the Zhongshan Mountains.
Then Cao Cao came to attack Jizhou City, and to help out this Xun You suggested drowning the city by turning the course of the River Zhang. Cao Cao adopted the suggestion and at once sent a small number of men to dig a channel to lead the water to the city. All told, it was seventeen miles.
Shen Pei saw the diggers from the city wall and noticed that they made only a shallow channel. He chuckled, saying to himself, “What is the use of such a channel to drown out the city from a deep river?”
So he made no preparations to keep out the water. But as soon as night came on, Cao Cao increased his army of diggers tenfold and by daylight the channel was deepened to twenty spans and the water was flowing in a great stream into the city where it already stood some spans deep. So this misfortune was added to the lack of food.
Xin Pi now displayed the captured seal and garments of Yuan Shang hung out on spears, to the great shame of their late owner, and called upon the people of the city to surrender. This angered Shen Pei, who avenged the insult by putting to death on the city wall the whole of the Xin family who were within the city. There were eighty of them, and their severed heads were cast down from the walls. Xin Pi wept exceedingly.
Shen Pei's nephew Shen Rong, one of the gate wardens, was a dear friend of Xin Pi, and the murder of Xin Pi's family greatly distressed him. He wrote a secret letter offering to betray the city and tied it to an arrow, which he shot out among the besiegers. The soldiers found it, gave it to Xin Pi who took it to his chief.
Cao Cao issued an order: “The family of the Yuans should be spared when the city should be taken and that no one who surrendered should be put to death.”
The next day the soldiers entered by the west gate, opened for them by Shen Rong. Xin Pi was the first to prance in on horseback and the army followed.
When Shen Pei, who was on the southeast of the city, saw the enemy within the gates, he placed himself at the head of some horsemen and dashed toward them. He was met and captured by Xu Huang who bound him and led him outside the city. On the road they met Xin Pi, who ground his teeth with rage at the murderer of his relatives and then struck the prisoner over the head with his whip, crying, “Murder! Blood drinker! You will meet your death.”
Shen Pei retorted, “Traitor! Seller of the city! I am very sorry I was not to have slain you before.”
When the captive was taken into Cao Cao's presence, Cao Cao said, “Do you know who opened the gate to let me in?”
“No; I know not.”
“It was your nephew Shen Rong who gave up the gate,” said Cao Cao.
“He was always unprincipled; and it has come to this!” said Shen Pei.
“The other day when I approached the city, why did you shoot so hard at me?”
“I am sorry we shot too little.”
“As a faithful adherent of the Yuans, you could do no otherwise. Now will you come over to me?”
“Never; I will never surrender.”
