Guangling Commandery, Chen Deng governed his jurisdiction fairly and justly and built up a good reputation. He also managed to induce Xue Zhou (), a pirate leader, to lead thousands of his followers to surrender to the local government. Within the first year of his governorship, Chen Deng's policies yielded good results in Guangling Commandery and earned him the respect and love of the commandery's residents. Chen Deng remarked, "This can be put to good use." Battle of Xiapi In 198, Cao Cao led his forces to attack Lü Bu at Xiapi (下邳; present-day Pizhou, Jiangsu), the capital of Xu Province. Chen Deng responded by leading troops from Guangling Commandery to assist Cao Cao in attacking Lü Bu. At the time, as Chen Deng's three younger brothers were in Xiapi, Lü Bu held them hostage and threatened to kill them if Chen Deng did not make peace with him. Chen Deng refused to start peace talks with Lü Bu, and ordered his troops to press on the attack on Xiapi. During the battle, Zhang Hong (), an officer under Lü Bu, sensed that Lü Bu would eventually lose and became afraid that he would get into trouble, so he secretly freed Chen Deng's brothers at night and brought them out of Xiapi to join Chen Deng. Lü Bu eventually lost the battle against Cao Cao, and was captured and executed. Resisting Sun Ce's attacks After defeating Lü Bu, Cao Cao suggested to the Han central government to grant Chen Deng an additional appointment, General Who Calms the Waves (), in addition to his existing appointment as the Administrator of Guangling Commandery. At the time, Chen Deng was highly popular among the people living in the Jianghuai region (covering parts of present-day Anhui and Jiangsu). During this time, he came up with the idea of conquering the Jiangnan (or Jiangdong) region, which at the time was under the control of the warlord Sun Ce. Battle of Kuangqi Sometime between early 199 and the summer of 200, Sun Ce sent his forces to attack Chen Deng at Kuangqi (), a fortress in Guangling Commandery. When Chen Deng's subordinates saw that Sun Ce's invading forces outnumbered the defending troops in Guangling Commandery by more than ten times, they became fearful and worried that they could not resist the enemy. They advised Chen Deng to evacuate everyone in Kuangqi and retreat further inland away