Battle of Red Cliffs
|
|
Battle of Red Cliffs (赤壁之戰 Battle of Chibi) was a decisive battle during the standoff of the Three Kingdoms in China. It took place in the winter of 208 between the allied forces of the southern warlords (Liu Bei and Sun Quan), and the northern warlord, Cao Cao. Liu and Sun successfully frustrated Cao's effort to conquer the land south of the Yangtze River and reunify China. Despite being one of the most famous battles of Chinese history, descriptions of the battle differ widely on details; in fact, even the place of battle is still fiercely debated.
| Contents |
Background
By 208, the Duke of Wei, Cao Cao had controlled all of the North China Plain. He completed a successful campaign against the Wuhuan in the winter of 207, thus securing his northern frontier. Almost immediately afterward, his army turned south in the autumn of 208, aiming to eliminate his main southern rivals swiftly. Meanwhile, Liu Biao, Governor of Jing province, died in that year and his successor meekly surrendered.
Liu Bei, then at garrison at Fan (modern Xiangfan), quickly fled south with a large refugee population following him. He was pursued by Cao Cao's elite cavalry, and was surrounded at the Battle of Changban. Liu further fled east to Xiakou, where he liaised with Sun Quan's emissary Lu Su. Liu's main advisor Zhuge Liang was sent down the Yangtze to negotiate a mutual front against Cao Cao with the state of Wu. Zhuge Liang's eloquence and Wu's chief commander, Zhou Yu's support finally persuaded the King of Wu, Sun Quan, to agree on the alliance against the northerners.
Opposing forces
Meanwhile Cao Cao had captured the strategic centre and military depot of Jiangling, and harbored his massive fleet there. The combined Sun-Liu force sailed upstream to Red Cliffs, where they encountered Cao Cao's courier force. After a mild skirmish, both sides temporarily ceased activity - with Cao camped northern of the Yangtze River and the allies in the south. Cao Cao boasted a troop of 830,000 men, with a sizeable cavalry and naval division. Zhou Yu had around 30,000 marines whilst the exiled Liu Bei managed around 20,000.
Battle
The decisive blow to Cao came shortly afterwards, though the sources vary on whether Liu or Sun struck it. The most detailed account comes from the biography of Zhou Yu, which details how the Sun commander Huang Gai planned an attack on Cao Cao with fireships. The source tells of the devastation wrought in the Cao camp by the fires. In any case, a general order of retreat was given to Cao's troop, and it is likely that the northerners destroyed a number of their own ships during the retreat. There are hints that the northerners were at the time already plagued by disease and low morale.
Many other sources indicate that a combination of Wei's underestimation and Shu's deception resulted in the allies' victory in the Battle of Chibi (Red Cliffs). Cao Cao's generals and solders were mostly from cavalry and infantry, and almost none had any experience in battles on the water. Immersed in his victory over Wuhuan, Cao Cao simply assumed that superiority in number would eventually defeat the Wu and Shu navy (the ratio of the naval forces on the two sides are estimated as 220,000 to 50,000). He converted his massive infantry and cavalry army into a marine corps and a navy, which was his first tactical mistake. Even with only a few days of drills before the battle, Cao Cao's troop was already decimated by sea-sickness and lack of water experiece, as many of his "fresh" crew could not even swim. Tropical diseases to which southerners had long been immune also plagued the soldiers of the north, and had lost control in Cao Cao's camps.
It was under such situation that Pang Tong, a well-known strategist and peer of Zhuge Liang who is loyal to Shu, infiltrated into Cao Cao's army as a military adviser. Under the advice of Zhuge Liang, he recommended Cao Cao to chain his entire fleet together to "prevent sea-sickness and disease". Cao Cao, who was famous for his suspicion, believed in Pang Tong, since he was extremely worried that his troop would be debilitated by the unfamiliar environment.
Within days, sea-sickness was drastically decreaed, as the ships would rock less when chained together. Cao Cao then embraced this plan evern more whole-heartedly. The strategy, dubbed "Together-Chained-Tactic", was actually devised by Zhuge Liang, and this seemingly beneficial act would eventually cause the debacle of his fleet.
At the same time, Zhuge Liang calculated that at this time of the year, winds would only blow in the direction of North-West (which was called a South-eastern wind). Cao Cao's fleet, which was anchored in the North-West relative to Shu's and Wu's camps, was then thoroughly exposed to a fire attack. Zhuge Liang betted on this South-eastern wind to even out the chances of the Wu and Shu's inferior forces.
On the eve of the battle, Cao Cao finally realized that the South-eastern wind disrupted his entire fleet movement, as his fleet could not advance against a wind blowing straight towards it. A general retreat order was issued, but as his fleet was chained tightly to one and another, panic broke out and prevented the fleet from retreating effectively. The entire fleet of 2,000 was then trapped in the middle of the Yangtze river with mobility that is next to zero.
In a desperate effort, Cao Cao called for an attack against the allied force. However, the arrows from Cao Cao's fleet could not reach the Wu and Shu's fleets, as the South-eastern wind blew the arrows away from their designated targets. Cao Cao's strategies of overwhelming the Shu-Wu navies with boarding parties had failed as soon as the fleet was immobilized. The Shu-Wu forces, aided by the wind, launched arrows with fire tipps at the hapless warships of Cao Cao. A combination of volleys of "fire arrows" and attacks of the "fire ships" led by Huang Gai eventually destroyed the entire 2,000 warships of Cao Cao. The survivors of the Wei Navy had to row back to the northern shores in small boats, with interception of Shu-Wu marines and skirmishers all along the way.
As his force fell back in disorder, Cao Cao was chased by Liu Bei's troops along the way. Ambushes set by Huang Zhong, Zhao Yun, and Zhang Fei continued to break down Cao Cao's force until Huarong Path, where he faced the legendary Shu general Guan Yu. According to the legend, Guan Yu, moved by Cao Cao's raggness and weary troops, recalled Cao Cao's kind treatment to him at the Battle of Guandu when Cao Cao sheltered Guan Yu; so he allowed Cao Cao to escape with his remnant troop of 27 men (this is the amount of soldiers Cao Cao had alongside of him, not the total number of soldiers survived the battle.). The legend also alleged that Zhuge Liang divined that Guan Yu would let Cao Cao off beforehand; but in order to show discipline, he still pretended being infuriated by Guan Yu's act and almost sentenced Guan Yu to death for not obeying orders, but was stopped by Liu Bei, the sworn brother of Guan Yu.
Aftermath
By the end of 209, the command Cao Cao had established at Jiangling fell to Zhou Yu. Liu Bei, on the other hand, had set up his own kingdom by taking over the four commanderies south of the Yangzi River. He also occupied Cao Cao's Jingzhou, a strategic fortress on the Chang Jiang River that Wu claimed itself. Jingzhou's location gave Liu Bei virtually unlimited access to the passage into Shu, important waterways into Wu, and dominion of the southern Yangtze river. According to the Shu-Wu treaty however, Jingzhou belonged to Wu, and hence Sun Quan was extremely bitter over this act of betrayal by Liu Bei, and Shu-Wu ties were officially severed. As a result, Shu and Wu would be warring over Jingzhou for the next 20 years. Wei, under Cao Cao's control, was still recuperating from the losses suffered in the Battle of Chibi, and therefore did not have enough resource to defend or retake Jingzhou from its southern rivals.
It is later claimed by some scholars that Zhuge Liang had planned this battle all along, calculating that Sun Quan's Wu force would be most weakened after the Battle of Chibi so that Shu could take the advantage of expanding its territory. Zhuge Liang gave the fortress of Jingzhou to Guan Yu, who maintained and guarded it until his death in 219.
Significance
Never again would Cao Cao command such a large fleet as he had at Jiangling nor similar opportunity to destroy his southern rivals would again present itself. Therefore, the Battle of Red Cliffs and the capture of Jingzhou confirmed the separation of Southern China from the northern Yellow River valley heartland. The battle not only formally established the division of China to the Three Kingdoms, but also foreshadowed the north-south hostility of the later centuries.ja:赤壁の戦い zh:赤壁之战