Since Guan Yu invaded Nanyang at the end of last year, the area around Luoyang had remained in a state of constant tension. New battle reports were delivered to the palace every day, and Cao Pi had grown numb from reading them.
Following the same stratagem as two years earlier, Guan Yu had contacted the bandits in Henan's various counties in advance, agreeing to raise rebellion together and overthrow the false emperor, Cao Pi. He promised that once it was done, he would ask the King of Hanzhong to grant them amnesty.
Not long after Henan's bandits answered Guan Yu's call that year, Cao Cao personally led troops south to Jing Province to meet the enemy. Some of the bandits were suppressed and exterminated on the spot by the Cao Army, while others hid away in the mountains and waited for their chance.
Cao Cao had needed to stabilize matters swiftly at the time, for Guan Yu was his principal foe. He had intended to drive Guan Yu back before settling accounts with the bandits.
Unfortunately, man proposes, Heaven disposes. Once the war with Guan Yu ended, Cao Cao was first "settled" by Heaven itself. Then the Governor of Henan and Grand General Xiahou Dun died of illness; after that came Cao Pi's succession, his usurpation of the Han, and his proclamation as emperor. One great event after another struck the State of Wei, and the matter of Henan's bandits was gradually forgotten.
After Guan Yu launched an all-out war against Wei to "coordinate with" Sun Quan, Henan's bandits immediately raised their banners in response. Thus, the nearly two hundred thousand troops stationed around Luoyang were unable to suppress the Jing Province army.
As Huang Quan, flying Liu Bei's banner, led troops out of Shangyong to attack Nanxiang alongside Liu