Battle of Yiling (222): Lu Xun's Fire Attack Defeats Liu Bei

The Battle of Yiling, also called the Battle of Xiaoting, was fought in 221-222 near modern Yichang in Hubei, China. Liu Bei, emperor of Shu Han, invaded the state of Wu to recover Jing province and avenge his general Guan Yu, but the Wu commander Lu Xun waited for the right moment and destroyed his army with a fire attack. The defeat crippled Shu and fixed the borders of the Three Kingdoms.

Background: the loss of Jing province

After their joint victory at the Battle of Red Cliffs in 208, Liu Bei and Sun Quan quarrelled over Jing province, the strategic middle Yangtze region. Liu Bei held much of it while he conquered Yi province (Sichuan), leaving Guan Yu in command.

In 219 Guan Yu marched north against Wei and besieged Fancheng. While he was away, Sun Quan’s general Lü Meng took Jing by surprise. Guan Yu’s army melted away, and he was captured and executed around the start of 220. Sun Quan sent his head to Cao Cao.

In 221 Liu Bei proclaimed himself emperor of Shu Han and prepared to strike back. Before the army set out, his other sworn companion Zhang Fei was murdered by two of his own officers, who fled to Wu. To protect himself from Wei while he dealt with Shu, Sun Quan formally submitted to Wei and was named King of Wu.

The campaign

Liu Bei advanced down the Yangtze through the Three Gorges in the seventh month of 221. His forces took Wu positions at Wu Gorge and Zigui, and he also won the support of the Wuling tribal peoples to the south under their leader Shamoke. Estimates of his army vary; it is often put at several tens of thousands.

Sun Quan appointed Lu Xun, a relatively little-known officer, as commander, with about 50,000 men. Lu Xun refused to fight in the mountains, where Liu Bei had the advantage, and withdrew to hold the exits of the gorges near Yiling. His senior generals, many of them veterans of the Sun family’s wars, protested at his caution, but he insisted.

The stand-off lasted for months into 222. Liu Bei’s army was spread along the river in a long chain of wooden camps, and his northern wing under Huang Quan was placed on the opposite bank to guard against Wei. As summer came, his troops grew tired and the heat was severe.

The fire attack

In the summer of 222 Lu Xun struck. After a probing attack failed, he ordered his men to carry bundles of reeds and set fire to Liu Bei’s camps. The wooden stockades burned quickly, and Wu forces attacked them one after another, the histories say breaking more than forty camps.

The Shu army collapsed. Several commanders, including Feng Xi, Zhang Nan and the tribal leader Shamoke, were killed, and others surrendered. Liu Bei escaped by night to Baidicheng at the head of the gorges, his rearguard burning equipment to block the narrow paths behind him. Huang Quan, cut off on the north bank, surrendered to Wei.

Consequences

Shu lost most of its field army, along with ships and equipment. Liu Bei, now in his early sixties, stayed at Baidicheng, which he renamed Yong’an, and died there in 223. He entrusted his son Liu Shan to his chancellor Zhuge Liang.

Zhuge Liang quickly made peace with Wu, and the alliance against Wei was restored through the envoy Deng Zhi. Jing province remained in Wu hands for the rest of the period, and Shu was confined to the Sichuan basin and the south-west. From there Zhuge Liang launched his Northern Expeditions against Wei from 228. Lu Xun became one of Wu’s most respected statesmen.

Myths and facts

In Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Lu Xun pursues Liu Bei and is trapped in a mysterious “Stone Sentinel Maze” of rocks set up earlier by Zhuge Liang. This is legend: the histories say Lu Xun chose not to pursue Liu Bei into Shu because he expected a Wei attack on Wu, which came later in 222. The novel also exaggerates Liu Bei’s army to 750,000 men, a figure with no historical basis.

Timeline

• 219: Lü Meng seizes Jing province; Guan Yu is captured.
• 220, about January: Guan Yu is executed.
• 221, May: Liu Bei declares himself emperor of Shu Han.
• 221, July: Zhang Fei is murdered by his own officers.
• 221, August: Liu Bei’s army advances into the Three Gorges.
• 222, summer: Lu Xun’s fire attack destroys the Shu camps near Yiling and Xiaoting.
• 223: Liu Bei dies at Baidicheng.

Why it matters

Yiling ended Shu’s hopes of regaining the middle Yangtze and left it the weakest of the three states. By settling the border between Shu and Wu, it helped preserve the three-way balance of power that lasted until the 260s.