What is the process in Battle of Red Cliffs?

What is the process in Battle of Red Cliffs?

Battle of Red Cliffs was a battle in which Sun Quan and Liu Bei's 50,000 troops defeated Cao Cao's 300,000 troops in Chibi (now northwest of Chibi, Hubei) near the Yangtze River at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty. This is one of the famous battles in the history of China.

Cao Cao defeated Yuan Shao, the biggest enemy in the battle of Guandu, and after unifying the north, he prepared to go south to destroy the separatist forces in the south and unify China. In the 13th year of Jian 'an (AD 208), Qiu led 300,000 troops, claiming to be 800,000, and attacked Jingzhou in the south. General Zhennan, who was stationed in Jingzhou at that time, and Liu Biao, who was stationed in Jingzhou, had died. His son, Liu Cong, didn't fight with him, so he surrendered to Zhou and Jingzhou disappeared.

Sun Quan and Liu Bei in the south didn't want to give in, so they decided to unite against Cao Cao for their own benefit. Sun Quan worshipped Zhou Yu as the viceroy, led 30,000 chosen men and led 20,000 people to meet Liu Bei along Jiangxi and Xiakou. Sun and Liu led 50,000 troops back to Jiangxi to meet Jun. In November, Sun and Liu joined forces in Chibi.

Cao Jun's soldiers are mostly northerners. They are good at land warfare, not water warfare. When they first came to the south, they lived on a boat all day. They adapted to the environment and soon became ill. Seeing that the soldiers were listless and depressed, Cao Cao ordered the iron locks to be built day and night, and the large and small warships of the water army were locked with iron rings. More than a dozen ships were lined up, and each row of ships was covered with wide wooden boards.

In this way, not only people can walk freely on it, but also horses can run on it. So Cao Cao proudly clamored that the soldiers would immediately cross the river and destroy Sun Liu's allied troops after practicing water combat.

Zhou Yu and the generals are watching Cao Cao's serial boat cross the river. Huang Gai, a veteran of many battles, offered a plan to Zhou Yu, saying: the enemy is strong and I am weak, and the enemy is outnumbered. It is not good for our army to be deadlocked for too long. I see that their ships are connected together, and we can win by fire. Zhou Yu agreed very much and decided to let Huang Gai pretend to surrender to Cao Cao in order to get close to the enemy ship.

Huang Gai wrote a letter and sent someone to see Cao Cao. The letter said: Zhou Yu is a villain and doomed to failure. He is willing to surrender to Cao Cao with his men. Cao Cao was very happy after reading it. He thought that Huang Gai saw the situation clearly and was afraid of defeat and death, so he didn't doubt Huang Gai's fake surrender. Zhou Yu arranged all the troops in Jiangdong, waiting for the southeast wind to rise and attack Cao Cao.

In the middle of winter, the northwest wind blows more. However, on the day of winter solstice, the weather suddenly warmed up, and the southeast wind blew strongly, and the wind became more and more fierce. Huang Gai sent another letter to Cao Cao, agreeing to take dozens of grain ships to Cao Cao that night to surrender.

That night, Huang Gai led 20 Meng Chong warships, which were filled with dry wood and hay filled with oil, and a large number of kindling materials such as sulfur, smoke and nitrate. They were covered with tarpaulins, completely covered up and inserted with Qinglong Tooth Flag. There are three flexible boats tied behind each boat, and archers are lurking in the boats. Zhang Manfan, braving the wind and waves, galloped away to the water town of Cao Jun.

Huang Gai held the torch high and saw that it was not far from Cao Ying, so he asked the soldiers to shout, "Huang Gai is down!" Cao Jun thought that Huang Gai really came to surrender, so they all ran to the boathouse to watch. While the soldiers in Cao Jun were in high spirits, with a wave of Huang Gai's broadsword, all the ships burned at the same time and rushed to Cao Cao's naval ships. Wind helps fire, fire borrows wind, and fire is fierce. In a blink of an eye, the Cao case became a sea of fire.

On the periphery of the water village is a string of boats connected end to end with nails and boards, which cannot be disassembled at once. The water town in Cao Jun turned into a sea of fire, and the soldiers were burned to death, drowned and trampled on each other to death. Huang Gai and others had already jumped on the boat, quickly approached Beiying and fired rockets at the shore. In an instant, not only the warships in Shuizhai were burned, but also the camps on the shore were on fire. At that time, the river caught fire and flew in the wind, red all over the sky.

As soon as Liu Bei and Zhou Yu saw the fire on the North Shore, they immediately led an army of land and water to go hand in hand, and Cao Jun suffered more than half of the casualties. Cao Cao had to lead the defeated army and escape from the path to Xudu. After Battle of Red Cliffs, Sun Quan and Liu Bei each got a part of Jingzhou. Battle of Red Cliffs laid the foundation for the tripartite confrontation between Wei, Wu and Shu.