Battle of Red Cliffs (208): Cao Cao's Defeat on the Yangtze

The Battle of Red Cliffs, also known as the Battle of Chibi, was fought on the Yangtze River in the winter of AD 208-209 between Cao Cao, master of northern China, and the allied forces of Sun Quan and Liu Bei. A fire attack launched by Sun Quan’s officer Huang Gai destroyed much of Cao Cao’s fleet, and disease and defeat forced him to retreat north. The battle ended Cao Cao’s hope of reuniting the Han empire and fixed the shape of the Three Kingdoms period.

Background: Cao Cao turns south

By 207 Cao Cao had defeated the Yuan family, his great rivals since the Battle of Guandu, and controlled the whole of northern China in the name of the Han emperor Xian. In the summer of 208 he abolished the old posts of the Three Excellencies and made himself chancellor, the supreme minister of the court.

South of the Yellow River basin lay two great regions he did not control. Jing province, in the middle Yangtze, was governed by Liu Biao. Further east, along the lower Yangtze, the young Sun Quan ruled lands conquered by his father Sun Jian and his brother Sun Ce. Liu Bei, a wandering warlord who claimed descent from the Han imperial family, was a guest of Liu Biao and was stationed at Xinye in the north of Jing.

In the autumn of 208 Cao Cao marched south. Liu Biao died in the eighth month, and his younger son and successor, Liu Cong, surrendered Jing province without a fight. With it Cao Cao gained Jing’s large river fleet and its naval base at Jiangling.

The road to Red Cliffs

Liu Bei refused to submit and fled south with his followers and thousands of civilians. Cao Cao chased him with elite cavalry and caught him at Changban, near modern Dangyang, scattering his army. Liu Bei escaped east to Xiakou, where he joined Liu Qi, Liu Biao’s elder son, and the fleet commanded by Guan Yu.

Liu Bei’s adviser Zhuge Liang now travelled to Sun Quan at Chaisang to propose an alliance. Sun Quan’s own counsellors were split. Many, led by Zhang Zhao, urged surrender to a man who held the emperor and commanded overwhelming numbers. Lu Su and the commander Zhou Yu argued for war. Zhou Yu pointed out that Cao Cao’s northern troops were exhausted from a long march, unused to fighting on water and vulnerable to southern diseases, and that the Jing troops were of doubtful loyalty.

Sun Quan decided to fight. According to a well-known story in the histories, he cut the corner off his desk with his sword and declared that anyone who spoke again of surrender would share its fate. He gave Zhou Yu and Cheng Pu command of some 30,000 men to join forces with Liu Bei.

The opposing forces

Cao Cao wrote to Sun Quan that he would bring 800,000 men to the south, which was clearly a boast. Zhou Yu’s own estimate, recorded in his biography, was 150,000-160,000 northern troops plus 70,000-80,000 men from Jing province. Many modern historians suggest that Cao Cao’s effective strength on the river was lower still, perhaps around 200,000 in the whole campaign but far fewer at the decisive point.

The allies were much weaker in numbers. Zhou Yu and Cheng Pu had about 30,000 men, while Zhuge Liang told Sun Quan that Liu Bei and Liu Qi together had about 20,000. The allies’ advantage lay in experienced river crews and ships, and in a commander who knew the waterways.

The battle and the fire attack

Cao Cao’s fleet sailed down the Yangtze from Jiangling and met the allied fleet near the Red Cliffs. After a first clash, in which Cao Cao’s army was already suffering from sickness, he pulled back to the north bank at Wulin, while the allies held the south bank.

Huang Gai, a veteran officer of the Sun family, noticed that Cao Cao’s ships were moored close together, bow to stern, and suggested burning them. He sent Cao Cao a letter offering to defect. He then prepared several dozen warships, according to the histories, with ten in the lead, filled with dry reeds and firewood soaked in oil, covered with curtains and flying flags, and towing small, fast boats behind them.

With a strong south-easterly wind blowing, Huang Gai’s ships sailed towards Cao Cao’s fleet as if coming to surrender. Close to the enemy they were set alight and their crews escaped in the small boats. The burning ships drove into Cao Cao’s fleet, and the fire spread to the camps on the shore. Many of Cao Cao’s men and horses died in the flames or drowned. Zhou Yu then attacked with his main force.

Retreat and the struggle for Jing

Cao Cao withdrew overland towards Jiangling along the Huarong road, through marshy country where his men had to lay bundles of grass so that cavalry could pass. Many of his soldiers, already weakened by illness, died on the march. In a letter to Sun Quan, Cao Cao later claimed that it was disease that had defeated him and that he had burned his own remaining ships, but the outcome was the same.

Cao Cao returned north, leaving Cao Ren to hold Jiangling. Zhou Yu besieged the city for about a year and took it at the end of 209. Meanwhile Liu Bei seized the four southern commanderies of Jing province: Wuling, Changsha, Guiyang and Lingling.

Key people and numbers

• Cao Cao (155-220): chancellor of the Han and ruler of the north, whose southern campaign failed.
• Zhou Yu (175-210): Sun Quan’s commander-in-chief and the architect of the victory.
• Huang Gai: veteran Sun family officer who proposed and led the fire attack.
• Sun Quan (182-252): ruler of the lower Yangtze, later emperor of Wu.
• Liu Bei (161-223): warlord and later founder of Shu Han, whose survival depended on the alliance.
• Zhuge Liang (181-234): Liu Bei’s adviser, who negotiated the alliance.

By the numbers

Myths and facts

Much of what people know about Red Cliffs comes from the novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, written in the 14th century, and from films and games based on it. The novel moves the credit from Zhou Yu to Zhuge Liang and invents several famous scenes.

• Borrowing arrows with straw boats: In the novel Zhuge Liang sends straw-covered boats towards Cao Cao’s fleet in fog and collects over 100,000 enemy arrows. This is fiction; a similar incident is attached in the sources to Sun Quan at Ruxu in 213.
• Summoning the east wind: The novel has Zhuge Liang perform rituals to call up the wind. The histories simply say that a strong south-easterly was blowing.
• Chained ships: The novel claims that Pang Tong tricked Cao Cao into chaining his ships together. The histories say only that the ships were moored close together.
• Zhou Yu as a jealous rival: The novel portrays Zhou Yu as envious of Zhuge Liang. The historical Zhou Yu was praised by contemporaries as generous and cultured.

Where were the Red Cliffs?

Several places along the Yangtze have claimed the name. Most historians place the battle on the south bank in today’s Chibi city, Hubei, which was called Puqi until 1998, when it was renamed after the battle. A cliff at Huangzhou, further downstream, became famous because the Song poet Su Shi wrote his “Red Cliff” rhapsodies there in 1082, but it is not thought to be the battle site. No large-scale archaeological evidence has settled the question.

Consequences

Red Cliffs did not destroy Cao Cao’s power in the north, but it ended his only serious chance to reunite China. Sun Quan secured his hold on the Yangtze, and Liu Bei, who had been a refugee a few months earlier, gained a territory in Jing province. From there Liu Bei moved into Yi province (modern Sichuan) between 211 and 214, gaining the base for the state of Shu.

The alliance did not last. Disputes over Jing province led Sun Quan’s general Lü Meng to seize it in 219, killing Guan Yu, and Liu Bei’s attempt at revenge ended at the Battle of Yiling in 222. After Cao Cao’s death in 220, his son Cao Pi ended the Han and founded Wei, and the three-way division born at Red Cliffs lasted until the Jin reunification in 280.

Timeline

• 208, summer: Cao Cao becomes chancellor and prepares to invade Jing province.
• 208, autumn: Liu Biao dies; Liu Cong surrenders; Cao Cao defeats Liu Bei at Changban.
• 208, autumn: Zhuge Liang visits Sun Quan; Sun Quan agrees to fight.
• 208-209, winter: First clash near the Red Cliffs; Cao Cao withdraws to Wulin.
• 208-209, winter: Huang Gai’s fire attack destroys Cao Cao’s fleet; Cao Cao retreats via the Huarong road.
• 209: Liu Bei takes the four southern commanderies of Jing.
• 209, end: Zhou Yu captures Jiangling from Cao Ren.
• 210: Zhou Yu dies while preparing a campaign against Yi province.

Why it matters

Red Cliffs is one of the most important battles in Chinese history. It kept China divided for seventy years, made possible the states of Wu and Shu, and became, through the novel and its many adaptations, one of the best-known stories in East Asian culture.