Mai Castle

	Battle of Mai Castle
Date	219
Location	Mai Castle, Jing Province (southeast of modern day Dangyang, Hubei)
Result	Wu is victorious; Guan Yu is killed
Forces
Wu	Shu
Commanders
Sun Quan	Guan Yu

The Battle of Mai Castle (麦城の戦い, rōmaji: Bakujō no Tatakai) was a chase by Wu for Guan Yu's capture after his failure to take and defend Fan Castle. With negotiations for surrender being rejected, Guan Yu is eventually captured and executed by Wu's forces. Mai Castle is Guan Ping's only historical mention in the Three Kingdoms era, doubling as the spot in which he shared his father's fate.

There isn't a heavy military conflict mentioned in the area historically, at least not to the extent featured within the games.

Role in Games

Dynasty Warriors

The battle takes place exclusively during Wu's story Dynasty Warriors 4. After the Battle of Yi Ling, Guan Yu escapes the fighting and makes a stand at Mai Castle. He will send out Liao Hua to ask for reinforcements who players can defeat to lower enemy morale. Guan Yu will then attempt to escape and players can seal off his escape routes. Once players have secured all exits, Wu's armies will charge the castle.

Though albeit using a different map (possibly detailing more on Guan Yu's retreat from Fan Castle), Lu Meng's legend mode in Dynasty Warriors 4: Xtreme Legends retells the very same scenario, only Guan Yu and Guan Ping flee into a preplanned ambush on the other side from Jing, thus isolating their forces, and putting both the defensive efforts of Zhou Cang and Liao Hua in vain.

The area appears again in Dynasty Warriors 5: Xtreme Legends as a Legendary Mode for Guan Yu, Guan Ping, and Xing Cai. The defenders of the castle repel Sun Quan, Lu Meng, and Cao Ren's surrounding forces whilst Guan Ping departs to seek Liu Bei, Zhang Fei and other ally generals for aid. If successful, the ally forces arrive in time for a turnaround victory for Shu. Otherwise, morale for the Shu forces will remain low with players needing to defeat their oppressors with grueling patience.

Mai Castle is the setting for Guan Ping's secondary Legendary Mode in Dynasty Warriors 7, which has him face similarly imposing odds as the previous title. This time around, the success of protecting Guan Yu relies solely on him.

The stage reappears in Dynasty Warriors 8: Xtreme Legends as a hypothetical stage, and is known as "Pacification of Jing Province" using the map of Jiangxia. Having defeated both Wu and Shu at Fan Castle, the Wei forces now move in to Maicheng with the intent to slay Guan Yu. Jia Xu first proposes surrounding the castle first, and Yu Jin begins taking the garrisons. Guan Suo and Guan Ping soon attempt to impede Wei efforts to establish ladders to climb the cliffs, but are defeated. As the Wei army begins closing in on Guan Yu's camp, the Wu forces, led by Lu Meng and Lu Xun, charge at Wei's main camp. Following that, reinforcements from Shu, led by Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, Huang Zhong, Wei Yan, and Ma Chao appear, though both Yue Jin and Zhang Liao arrive from Hefei to do battle.

Warriors Orochi

Warriors Orochi 2 features the area as a Dream Mode for Yuan Shao, Nene, and Zhu Rong. In the face of imminent defeat, the generous trio decide to defend the surrounded Hideyori from Sima Yi's imposing numbers. Zhu Rong rallies her Nanman troops for the defense while Yuan Shao seeks to negotiate matters with their stubborn third party ally, Dong Zhuo. Nene likewise scolds Masanori and Kiyomasa to reflect on their actions.

If Dong Zhuo is moved to help (impossible in chaos difficulty due to the messenger stops moving and this causes Dong Ship to detect), after Yuan Shao and company defeat his challenging general, ally morale soars and Sima Yi's forces are caught in a pincer. Failing to convince him will force players resort to other measures in order to defeat the entire opposition. When Sima Yi is beaten, Cao Pi appears to oversee the end of the battle himself. His defeat means the end of the stage.

Historical Information

After Fu Shiren and Mi Fang's defection, the morale at Fan Castle weakened severely with men in Guan Yu's army defecting or surrendering to Lu Meng's forces. Therefore, Guan Yu's armies attempted to relocate their defense in an attempt to make due with their remaining resources. When Xu Huang took Yan Castle, however, Guan Yu became cornered once again when Yu Jin and others came to reinforce the Wei general and grew in numbers. When Guan Yu and his forces fell into an ambush staged by Xu Huang at their main camp, morale lowered and the Guan Yu's numbers fell lower still. Escape was not possible under comfortable means, but it was decided that the siege should still be fortified and continued. However, once Guan Yu learned that Sun Quan's army took possession of their supply line, he gave up on trying to defeat Xu Huang. His forces then retreated to the west towards Yi Province.

Lu Meng, who received word from Guan Yu's messengers that their hearts were ailing, decided to hold the wives and daughters of Guan Yu's men hostage as a ticket for their surrender. If they submitted to him, he promised to accept them on good will and as citizens of Jing Province as opposed to war criminals. The beneficial offer enticed several men to desert, decreasing Guan Yu's loyal followers dramatically. Over half of his men accepted surrender to Wu.

Guan Yu then thought to turn back to Dangyang until news of Sun Quan's own march from Jiangling changed his plans again. Fearing another assault, Guan Yu and his few hundred followers took refuge at Maicheng, which was soon surrounded by at least two thousand of Wu's troops. A messenger was sent to Liu Feng to request reinforcements from Meng Da, but it would never be fulfilled. When a letter of surrender came from Sun Quan, Guan Yu refused it and fled again with his remaining handful of men. In December the same year, a Wu general named Lin Ju pursued and barred Guan Yu's path of retreat. He and Guan Ping were ultimately apprehended in Zhang Town (east of modern day Yuan'an County, Hubei) by Ma Zhong and beheaded soon after.

Sun Quan sent Guan Yu's severed head to Cao Cao, who performed proper funeral rites and buried Guan Yu's head with full honors. Guan Yu was granted the posthumous title of "Marquis Zhuangmou" (壯繆侯), which states that he does not live up to his name in terms of his ability.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms

Having been defeated by Lü Meng in the battle for Jing province, Guan Yu refused to return back to his sworn brother about the defeat, and withdrew back to Maicheng to prepare a defense against the pursuing Wu forces. Lü Meng led his troops to surround the castle subsequently. Faced with Wu troops at three sides, Wei at the north and increasing desertions and diminishing food supply, Liao Hua volunteered to make a lone charge out of the Wu encirclement to request reinforcements from Meng Da and Liu Feng who were stationed at Shangyong.

When Liao arrived at Shangyong, Liu Feng initially wanted to ride out, but was reminded by Meng of both the exceeding numbers of the Wu forces and Guan's initial disdain for his adoptive nephew, and regretfully decided to stay put in Shangyong. Liao Hua proceeded to curse the two for their act, and had no choice but to head for Chengdu instead to inform Liu Bei. Meanwhile, Zhuge Jin was sent to Guan Yu's camp in order to convince a surrender from the Shu general, but he was nearly killed by Guan Ping if not for Guan Yu's reminder of Zhuge Jin's familial ties with Zhuge Liang. Left with no other choice, Sun Quan convened on how to subdue Guan Yu, but Lü Meng assured his lord that he had a plan already.

Deducing at this point that Meng Da and Liu Feng were never going to arrive, Zhao Lei planned an attempt to break through the northern paths to reach Yizhou, and Guan Yu accepted the suggestion. Wang Fu attempted to dissuade Guan from exiting through the paths as he predicted an ambush, but Guan stated that even if an ambush were present, he, Zhao Lei and Guan Ping would still be able to push through. With those words, Guan left that night leaving both Wang Fu and Zhou Cang to guard the castle.

As he was crossing through the north, Guan Yu was faced with Zhu Ran, who led a large amount of Wu troops behind him. Unable to challenge Zhu, Guan attempted to turn around, but was ambushed by Pan Zhang. Guan dueled and defeated Pan to force the Wu troops to a temporary retreat, but Guan Ping reports that Zhao Lei has been killed in the fighting. Pushing on with Guan Ping at the rear, Guan Yu was ambushed again, this time by Ma Zhong, who tripped Guan Yu's horse. Wu soldiers took advantage of the general's fall to bound him. Guan Ping arrived in an attempt to rescue his father, but was captured as well.

Having respected Guan Yu deeply, Sun Quan attempted to convince the general to submit again, but was met with an adamant rebuff instead. Under Zuo Xian's advice that Cao Cao also failed to have Guan Yu submit, Sun Quan had both father and son executed. Wang Fu later informed Zhou Cang of a horrid nightmare that Guan Yu appeared, but was all bloodied. Soon after, Wu forces arrived with the heads of both Guan Yu and Guan Ping. Upon seeing this, Wang immediately leapt down the fortress to his death and Zhou slit his own throat, and the Wu forces finally conquered Maicheng.

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