Sun, to avoid having to fight on…

Liu Bei declares himself emperor as well, establishing Shu Han, after news of Cao Pi's ascension (and an accompanying false rumor that Cao had executed Emperor Xian) arrives in Liu Bei's domain of Yi Province (modern Sichuan and Chongqing).

Sun Quan, who controls the vast majority of modern southeastern and southern China, takes no affirmative steps one way or another, leaving his options open.

An armed conflict between Liu and Sun quickly develops, because in 219, Sun Quan's general Lü Meng had invaded and annexed Liu Bei's territory in Jing Province (modern Hubei and Hunan).

Guan Yu, the general appointed by Liu Bei to defend Jing Province, had been captured after his defeat and executed on Sun Quan's order.

Liu Bei was enraged by the sudden attack because Sun Quan was formerly his ally, and also due to his close relationship with Guan Yu.

Liu now wants to take vengeance on Sun for Guan Yu's death.

Many of his subjects, including Zhao Yun, oppose his decision, but Liu Bei ignores them.

As Liu Bei mobilized his troops in preparation for the attack on Sun Quan, another of his generals, Zhang Fei, is growing impatient with the preparations for war, so he imposes strict deadlines on his subordinates Fan Qiang and Zhang Da, but his subordinates fail to meet the time limit.

Zhang Fei disparages them before warning them that they will be executed under military law if they founder again.

Out of fear, Fan Qiang and Zhang Da kill Zhang Fei while he is asleep, cut off his head, and defect to Sun Quan.

Liu Bei is overwhelmed with grief over the loss of two of his generals, who had accompanied him since the beginning of his military career.

Zhang Fei's death hardens his decision to attack Wu for revenge.

Again, many Shu officials attempt to dissuade Liu Bei from attacking Sun Quan, but Liu dismisses their advice.

Eventually, Liu Bei departs from his capital, Chengdu, with a large army and advances towards Jing Province on both land and water (along the Yangtze River).

He leaves his chancellor Zhuge Liang and crown prince Liu Shan to defend Chengdu.

Sun Quan’s forces, due to their superiority in numbers, initially underestimate the enemy's tenacity.

As the advancing Shu army captures regions including Zigui, Wu County, Mount Ba and Mount Xing, Sun Quan’s forces that set out from their fortifications to engage the enemy are nearly all annihilated.

The initial defeat causes Sun Quan to decide to adopt Lu Xun's strategy and appoint Lu as Grand Viceroy (de facto commander-in-chief of Sun Quan's forces).

Sun Quan’s forces, realizing that the Shu troops are better versed in warfare in mountainous terrain as they are mostly ground troops, decide to abandon their defenses at certain territories and retreat to vital positions and defend them instead.

After this, they intend to hold on to these positions and wait for an opportunity to launch a counterattack.

Elagabalus' eccentricities, particularly his relationship with Hierocles, have by 221 increasingly infuriated the soldiers of the Praetorian Guard, a significant portion of whom are Illyrians, having distinguished themselves as warriors in the Roman legions.

When Elagabalus’s grandmother, Julia Maesa, perceives that popular support for the emperor is quickly wavering, she decides that he and his mother, who had encouraged his religious practices, have to be replaced.

As alternatives, she turns to her other daughter Julia Avita Mamaea and her son, the thirteen-year-old Severus Alexander.

Persuading Elagabalus to appoint his cousin as his heir, Alexander is bestowed with the title of Caesar and shares the consulship with the emperor this year.

However, Elagabalus reconsiders this arrangement when he begins to suspect that the Praetorian Guard favors his cousin over himself.

Elagabalus' sexual orientation and gender identity are the source of much controversy and debate.

All told, Elagabalus will marry and divorce five women, three of whom are known.

His first wife was Julia Cornelia Paula; the second is the Vestal Virgin Julia Aquilia Severa, but within a year, he abandons her and marries Annia Aurelia Faustina, a descendant of Marcus Aurelius.

It is her beauty and her high prominent imperial ancestry that have attracted Elagabalus to her.

In order to marry her, he orders the execution of her husband, Pomponius Bassus.

After the death of the latter, Elagabalus forbids her to mourn Bassus.

In July 221, Elagabalus takes Faustina as his third wife.

Roman society is more accepting of his marriage to her than of his second marriage to the Vestal Virgin Julia Aquilia Severa.

Through her marriage to Elagabalus, she becomes Empress of Rome.

When she marries Elagabalus, it seems for a time that the Nerva–Antonine dynasty rule has returned to Rome.

He gives her the title of Annia Faustina Augusta and adds the Latin name Julia to her name.

Numismatic and other evidence that have survived of her date from her second, brief marriage, to Elagabalus.

Elagabalus has hoped she will bear him an heir, so that his maternal cousin will not inherit the throne; however, she bears him no children and, towards the end of 221, Elagabalus divorces her; it is not known why.

There are no surviving sources stating how Annia Aurelia Faustina ruled when she was a Roman Empress.

Elagabalus returns to Julia Aquilia Severa, claiming that the original divorce was invalid, and remarries her, as his fourth wife.

Although Elagabalus returns to Severa by the end of the year, according to Cassius Dio, his most stable relationship seems to have been with his chariot driver, a blond slave from Caria named Hierocles, whom he refers to as his husband.

The Augustan History claims that he also married a man named Zoticus, an athlete from Smyrna, in a public ceremony at Rome.

Cassius Dio reported Elagabalus would paint his eyes, epilate his hair and wear wigs before prostituting himself in taverns and brothels, (Cassius Dio, Roman History LXXX.14) and even the imperial palace: Finally, he set aside a room in the palace and there committed his indecencies, always standing nude at the door of the room, as the harlots do, and shaking the curtain which hung from gold rings, while in a soft and melting voice he solicited the passers-by. (Cassius Dio, Roman History LXXX.13)

Herodian commented that Elagabalus pampered his natural good looks by wearing too much make-up.

He was described as having been "delighted to be called the mistress, the wife, the Queen of Hierocles" and was said to have offered vast sums of money to the physician who could equip him with female genitalia. (Cassius Dio, Roman History LXXX.16)

Subsequently, Elagabalus has often been characterized by modern writers as transgender, most likely transsexual.

Shu naval forces led by Wu Ban and Chen Shi capture Yiling in January 222.

Liu Bei builds his headquarters in Zigui but does not stay there for long as his forces continue to make progress and push further into the heartland of Sun Quan’s territories.

The Shu vanguard breaks through enemy lines at Yidao in February and defeats Sun Quan’s defenders in an engagement outside the city.

Sun Quan’s general Sun Huan, who is guarding Yidao, retreats with his remaining troops into the city and holds on to his position until a stalemate is reached.

The main Shu force led by Liu Bei  meanwhile reaches Xiaoting and is unable to push any further as Sun Quan’s forces led by Lu Xun hold on firmly to their positions.

With no further retreat by Sun Quan’s forces, both sides reach a stalemate at Xiaoting.

As Shu troops venture further into Sun Quan’s territory, their supply lines from Chengdu lengthen and supplies take longer to arrive.

They also become gradually weary and tired from battle.

The terrain becomes flatter and the Shu infantry loses the advantage the had held in mountainous terrain.

Liu Bei deploys his troops in over fifty camps along the three hundred and fifty-kilometer line from Wuxia to Yiling on the southern bank of the Yangtze River.

His vanguard army is isolated one hundred and fifty kilometers away at Yidao.

Sun Quan’s forces think that this the best time to launch their counterattack, but Lu Xun orders them to hold on.

Elagabalus, to see how the Praetorians would react following the failure of various attempts at Alexander's life, strips his cousin of his titles, revokes his consulship, and circulates the news that Alexander is near death.

A riot ensues, and the guard demands to see Elagabalus and Alexander in the Praetorian camp.

The emperor complies and on March 11, 222, he presents his cousin, along with his mother Julia Soaemias.

Upon arrival the soldiers start cheering Alexander, while ignoring Elagabalus, who orders the summary arrest and execution of anyone who had taken part in this revolt.

In response, the Praetorians attack Elagabalus and his mother:

So he made an attempt to flee, and would have got away somewhere by being placed in a chest, had he not been discovered and slain, at the age of 18. His mother, who embraced him and clung tightly to him, perished with him; their heads were cut off and their bodies, after being stripped naked, were first dragged all over the city, and then the mother's body was cast aside somewhere or other, while his was thrown into the river. (Cassius Dio, Roman History LXXX.20)

Following his demise, many associates of Elagabalus are killed or deposed, including Hierocles and Comazon.

His religious edicts are reversed and El-Gabal is returned to Emesa.

Women are barred from ever attending meetings of the Senate, and damnatio memoriae—erasing a person from all public records—is decreed upon him.

The source of many of these stories of Elagabalus's debauchery is the Augustan History (Historia Augusta), which scholarly consensus now feels to be unreliable in its details.

The Historia Augusta was most likely written near the end of the fourth century during the reign of emperor Theodosius I, drawing as much upon the invention of its author as actual historical sources.

The life of Elagabalus as described in the Augustan History is believed to be largely a work of historical fiction.

Only the sections 13 to 17, relating to the fall of Elagabalus, are considered to hold any historical value.

Sources more credible than the Augustan History include the contemporary historians Cassius Dio and Herodian.

Cassius Dio's account of his reign is generally considered more reliable than the Augustan History, although it should be noted that Dio, although he was a contemporary of Elagabalus, spent the larger part of this period outside of Rome and had to rely on secondhand accounts when composing his Roman History.

Furthermore, the political climate in the aftermath of Elagabalus' reign, as well as his own position within the government of Alexander, likely imposed restrictions on the extent to which his writing on this period is truthful.

Herodian is considered the most important source on the religious reforms which took place during the reign of Elagabalus, which have been confirmed by modern numismatical and archaeological evidence.

While Herodian is deemed not as reliable as Cassius Dio, his lack of literary and scholarly pretensions make him less biased than senatorial historians.

Most of Sun Quan’s forces had evacuated by March from mountainous terrain to fortifications on flatland.

Summer soon arrives and the sweltering heat kills several plants and shrubs.

Liu Bei's forces camped at Yiling are directly next to a forest and the heat becomes even more unbearable.

Some Shu soldiers are affected by heatstroke.

By now, the Shu army's morale has fallen significantly as compared to at the start of the campaign, as the troops are now weary and suffering from the intense heat.

Liu Bei deploys eight thousand elite troops to lie in ambush in nearby valleys and sends Wu Ban to lead a weaker force to challenge and lure Sun Quan’s forces out of their fortifications into the ambush.

However, Lu Xun sees through Liu Bei's ruse and orders his troops to ignore taunts from the enemy.

It is said that he even ordered his troops to put wax into their ears.

The failure of the ambush causes the Shu army's morale to plummet even lower.

Shu troops are suffering from the summer heat as the stalemate, which had begun in March, continues.

Liu Bei decides to shift his camp into the nearby forest for shade and shelter from the heat even though his adviser Ma Liang opposes his decision.

Lu Xun, knowing in July that the time is ripe for counterattack, orders saboteurs to encircle Liu Bei's camp by traveling on water with the navy.

Once they are behind Liu Bei's camp at Yiling, the saboteurs set the camp on fire.

The woods gradually become a fiery inferno within hours as wildfires fueled by dead plants and dry air erupt everywhere.

As Shu soldiers rush towards the Yangtze River for water to put out the fires, Sun Quan’s archers, lying in ambush, shoot them down.

Shu forces attempt a counterattack, but enemy forces led by Pan Zhang break through the lines they re-form and make retaliation impossible.

The Shu navy fares slightly better by barely managing an orderly retreat.

Cheng Ji, a Shu official, personally leads a group of men to cover the navy as it withdraws.

Sun Quan’s marine forces catch up with the rear guard of the Shu navy and engage in battle.

Cheng Ji and his men are surrounded by Sun Quan’s vanguard force but they manage to hold on by sinking the smaller enemy boats.

However, they are eventually outnumbered and killed when the bulk of Sun Quan’s navy arrives.

Shu forces loss over forty of their original fifty camps on the three hundred and fifty-kilometer line to a rockslide at the Ma'an Hills.

Liu Bei attempts to reform and regroup his remaining forces at the hills to make a last stand.

However, his troops are split up before they can regroup as one.

Sun Quan’s general Zhu Ran leads an army of five thousand to disrupt the lines and prevent Liu Bei from reforming.

Lu Xun personally leads an attack on Shu forces together with Xu Sheng and Han Dang, and succeeds in preventing Liu Bei from making his last stand.

The entire Shu army is nearly wiped out at Ma'an Hills.

Retreating Shu soldiers set ablaze the army's remaining camps to hinder Sun Quan’s forces' pursuit.

Meanwhile, the isolated Shu vanguard force at Yidao is also completely destroyed by Sun Quan’s forces.

Huang Quan manages to escape together with his deputy Pang Lin and three hundred and eighteen horsemen to the northern bank of the Yangtze River, where they are cut off from the rest of the Shu army, and eventually they decide to surrender to Wei.