Gao Gan高干

History vs. fiction

The process of Gao Gan losing Huguan was rewritten in the novel

• novel inventionCao Cao's use of the feigned surrender strategy to capture Huguan is fictional in the novel

  The novel describes Cao Cao adopting Xun You's feigned surrender strategy, where the two Lü's lured Gao Gan into raiding the camp, leading to his defeat and loss of the pass: "Gao Gan knew it was a trick, and hurried back to Huguan city. Le Jin and Li Dian had already taken the pass. Gao Gan fled along the road and went to surrender to the Xiongnu Chanyu." The official history has no such feigned surrender plot; Gao Gan voluntarily left Huguan to his subordinates for defense and went to seek help: According to the Records of the Three Kingdoms, Book of Wei, Biographies of Dong, Er, Yuan, and Liu, it is recorded: "Gan then left his generals Xia Zhao and Deng Sheng to guard the city, and personally went to the Xiongnu Chanyu to request aid."