Xia Houyuan Number 26

Opera "Dingjun Mountain"

Xiahou Yuan with a flowered-black cross fac can be seen in the opera "Dingjun Mountain." A warlord in Wei Kingdom. Under Cao Cao's immediate command were two types of officers: those who were fearless but also tactless and those who recently submitted to him, thus have questionable loyalty. Xia-hou Yuan, Cao Hong, Xu Zhu, Cao Zhen and Cao Xiu belonged to former. Zhang Liao, Xu Huang, Guan Yu, and Zhang Xiu belonged to the later. Operation and Advisory Staffs were consisted of Xun You, Guo Jia, and Jia Xu. They were organized at last minute. However, they were able to complement each other seamlessly. Cao Cao placed intelligent, cautious, and charismatic officers to areas that would isolate from chain of command and required to operate independently. Cheng Yu, commander of Zhen City, and Yu Jin, commander of Yan-jin [City], were Cao Cao most dependable intelligent generals. As long as these two areas did not fall, Yuan's troops would easily fall into Cao Cao's trap. Cao Ren, Si-li Region Commander, and Zhang Ba, leader of Qing Provincial Militia, were considered to be independently operated officers. Wei Zhong, commander of He-nei area, and Liu Yan, commander of Li-yang [City], were known for their sense of duty. They would give it all to complete their tasks. These dependable officers and generals were pillars of Cao Cao's holistic battle plan. They allowed Cao Cao to concentrate on his main force to engage against Yuan Shao at the final showdown.