October 200 AD · Yellow River frontier (modern Henan) Theater
October 200 AD
The decisive showdown between the two greatest northern warlords. Yuan Shao marched south with perhaps 100,000 men against Cao Cao's force of roughly 30,000. For months the armies faced each other across the Yellow River, Cao Cao's position growing more desperate as his supplies dwindled. Then a defector revealed the location of Yuan Shao's supply depot at Wuchao. Cao Cao led a night raid that burned it to the ground, and Yuan Shao's starving army disintegrated.
Commanders