The Battle of Red Cliffs is one of the famous battles in Chinese history, where the few defeated the many and the weak defeated the strong. It occurred in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, specifically in the 13th year of Jian’an (208 AD). This battle is the most famous of the “Three Great Campaigns” during the Three Kingdoms period, and it is also the first large-scale river battle in Chinese history to be carried out in the Yangtze River Basin, laying the foundation for the Three Kingdoms’ establishment.
At that time, Cao Cao led a large army of 200000 (claimed to be 800000) southward, intending to eliminate the Sun Quan forces and Liu Bei forces that were entrenched in Jiangdong, in order to unify the whole country. Cao Cao’s army marched down the river with a fierce momentum. However, Sun Quan and Liu Bei chose to form an alliance to confront strong enemies. Sun Quan appointed Zhou Yu and Cheng Pu as left and right commanders, each leading 15000 elite soldiers, to join forces with Liu Bei’s army and rise against the tide to confront the Cao army.
The armies of both sides met in the area of Chibi on the Yangtze River (now northwest of Chibi City, Hubei Province) and engaged in fierce battles. Although the Cao army had a large number of soldiers, most of them were from the north, not accustomed to water, and their morale was low after a long journey. The Sun Liu alliance, on the other hand, fully utilized the advantages of geographical location and human resources, and carefully planned a fire attack. Huang Gai proposed a plan to launch a fire attack on enemy ships. He pretended to surrender and led warships filled with flammable materials to approach the Cao army fleet. Then, he ignited the warships and used the wind to directly attack the Cao army, causing a great fire in the Cao army fleet. The fire quickly spread, and the Cao army fleet was engulfed in a sea of flames, suffering heavy losses.
The Battle of Red Cliffs ended with the victory of the Sun Liu coalition army. Cao Cao was forced to retreat and burned the remaining ships during the retreat to prevent the Allied forces from pursuing. After this battle, Cao Cao lost the possibility of unifying the whole country in a short period of time, while Sun Quan and Liu Bei took this opportunity to develop and strengthen their respective forces. After Liu Bei borrowed Jingzhou from Sun Quan, his strength rapidly increased and he subsequently sought Yizhou; Sun Quan also personally led his army to attack Hefei and other places multiple times, although the results were limited, it also demonstrated his strong military strength.
The Battle of Red Cliffs was not only a military victory, but also a victory of wisdom and courage. It fully demonstrates the wisdom and courage of the Sun Liu coalition in using their wisdom and strategy to defeat strong enemies under disadvantaged conditions. At the same time, this battle also marked the initial formation of the tripartite situation, leaving behind many popular heroic stories and strategic wisdom for future generations.
