According to the historical book "The Biography of Guan Yu in the Book of Shu of the Three Kingdoms", Guan Yu was defeated in a battle against Sun Quan's Wu army, and was eventually captured by the Wu generals Pan Zhang and Ma Zhong, and was beheaded at Linfu, and his head was sent to Cao Cao.
In July 219, Guan Yu was inspired by Liu Bei's victory in Hanzhong, and went north to take Xiangfan, Cao Cao took Yu Ban as his general, supervised the 7th army to rescue Cao Ren, and ordered Xu Huang to lead the army into Wancheng to provide support for Cao Ren.
But the sky did not help Wei, at that time, outside Fancheng, a flash flood broke out, and the flood raged, drowning the camp of the Seventh Army such as Yu Ban. Guan Yu saw the opportunity and took advantage of the situation to kill Pang De, forcing Yu Ban to surrender. Cao Renze, the general of Fancheng, Shen Baima to show his determination to defend it, launched a stubborn resistance to Guan Yu.
Guan Yu did not stop, he sent a partial general to attack Xiangyang, personally led the army to attack Fancheng, and laid a trap in the north of the city to prevent reinforcements from the north of Cao's army. At the same time, he sent people to rebel against the surrounding counties, and Hu Xiu, Fu Fang and others surrendered to Guan Yu. Some ** south of Xuchang secretly supported Guan Yu and fended off Cao Cao's threat. Lu Hun Sun Wolf gathered a crowd to riot and responded to Guan Yu, and Yecheng Wei Wei took the opportunity to attempt a coup d'état.
Cao Cao listened to the opinions of Sima Yi, Jiang Ji and others, formed an alliance with Sun Quan, and at the same time ordered Xu Huang to lead an army to rescue Cao Ren, and named Zhang Liao to rush to Cao Ren's aid. Sun Quan deliberately sent Lu Xun to replace Lu Meng, Guan Yu was careless, and then took away part of the defenders of Jingzhou; In leap October, Sun Quan made Lü Meng the governor and led the army to attack Jiangling, Sun Jiao followed, and sent the right protector Jiang Qin to supervise the water army into the water (Han Shui) to prevent Guan Yu from going down the river. Lü Meng went to Xunyang (now southwest of Huangmei, Hubei), disguised the warship as a merchant ship, and the soldiers disguised themselves as merchants, day and night.
When they arrived at the public security, they forced the Shu army to defend Fu Shiren to surrender. Lü Meng took advantage of Fu Shiren's persuasion to surrender, successfully persuaded the Jiangling garrison general Mi Fang, and gave preferential treatment to Guan Yu's soldiers and families, released the captured Wei soldiers, and pacified the people. At the same time, Lu Xun was stationed in Yiling to defend Liu Bei in the west.
After Xu Huang arrived at the front, he made contact with Cao Ren, and Cao Ren's army was greatly demoralized. In order to drive a wedge between Sun and Liu, Cao Cao sent a letter from Sun Quan into Guan Yu's camp. Guan Yu hesitated when he saw the letter, but Xu Huang seized the opportunity to attack Guan Yu's stronghold in a big way, achieving a major victory and opening up Fancheng's supply line at the same time. At this time, the flood had receded, and Cao Ren led the army to cooperate with Xu Huang to attack Guan Yu with all his might, while Wen Ping cut off Guan Yu's grain route from the waterway.
Guan Yu knew that Jingzhou had been lost, and hurriedly withdrew from the army, and the soldiers learned that their families had been favored, and their morale dropped sharply, and Guan Yu had to be defeated and take Maicheng. Eventually, Guan Yu was captured by Lü Meng's generals Pan Zhang and Ma Zhong in Maicheng, and Guan Yu's son Guan Ping was also captured and executed together.