Contrary to what most people think, the historical account of the Battle of Chibi is extremely brief, and the battle was fought quickly and easily.

Cao's army was defeated, Cao's army was defeated, and Cao Cao was defeated. -- That's all

【Pre-war Preparations】

In the thirteenth year of Jian'an (208), after Cao Cao captured Jingzhou, he was ready to go south down the river to capture Jiangdong, Jia Xu advised: "Ming Gong, you broke through the Yuan clan at the beginning, and now you have recovered Hannan, and your prestige is far and wide, and your military strength is already very strong. If you take advantage of the wealth of the Chu State in the past to recruit talented and good people, appease the people, and let them live and work in peace and contentment, then you can make the Jiangdong region bow down without raising the army. But Cao Cao did not listen and insisted on sending troops.

At that time, Sun Quan appointed Zhou Yu and Cheng Pu as the left and right governors, each leading 10,000 troops (30,000 in the Jiangbiao biography), and Lu Su was the captain of the Zanjun Colonel, assisting in the planning of the strategy, and marching with Liu Bei against Cao Cao.

According to the "Biography of Jiangbiao", at that time, Liu Bei obeyed Lu Su's strategy to garrison Fankou. Since Zhuge Liang's envoy to Eastern Wu had not yet returned, Liu Bei was very frightened when he learned that Cao Cao had gone down the river, so he sent patrolling soldiers to watch Sun Quan's army by the river every day. When the soldiers saw Zhou Yu's fleet, they immediately rode back to the camp to report to Liu Bei. Liu Bei asked: "How do you know that it is not the troops of Qingzhou or Xuzhou in the north?" The messenger replied: "I know it by looking at the ship." ”

Liu Bei sent someone to Wei Lao. Zhou Yu said to the comforters: "I have a military mission in my body, and I can't appoint someone else to act as an agent, if Liu Bei can deign to come to the meeting, it really meets my wishes." ”

After Liu Bei found out, he said to Guan Yu and Zhang Fei: "Zhou Yu wants to see me, now I want to unite with Jiangdong, if I don't go to see him, it's not the truth of the alliance", after speaking, he took a boat to see Zhou Yu and said to him: "It is really a wise decision to resist Cao Cao now." I don't know how many fighters? Zhou Yu said: "30,000 people." Liu Bei said: "It's a pity that there are too few." Zhou Yu said: "This is enough, general, and watch me defeat Cao's army." Liu Bei wanted to summon Lu Su and others to talk together, Zhou Yu said: "Accept the military order, you must not entrust someone to act as an agent at will, if you want to see Lu Su, you can visit him separately." And Zhuge Liang will come in two days, don't worry. Liu Bei was both ashamed and happy. But he still couldn't completely believe that Zhou Yu could defeat Cao Cao, so he handed over his 2,000 soldiers to Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, followed Zhou Yu, but did not hand them over to Zhou Yu, as a strategy for advancing and retreating.

【Burning Red Cliff】

Cao Cao's army descended the river and eventually confronted the Sun-Liu coalition at Chibi, when an epidemic had broken out among Cao Cao's troops. The two armies fought for the first time, and Cao's army was defeated and retreated to the north bank of the Yangtze River.

Zhou Yu and other garrisons were on the south bank of the Yangtze River, and Zhou Yu's general Huang Gai said: "Now that the enemy is outnumbered, it is difficult to hold each other for a long time. The Cao army is connecting the warships together, end to end, and can use fire to attack and defeat the Cao army. So he took ten Mengchong warships, loaded them with dry wood and dry wood, poured oil on them, wrapped them in curtains, planted flags on them, prepared speedboats in advance, and tied them to the stern. Huang Gai first sent a letter to Cao Cao, falsely claiming that he intended to surrender.

At that time, the southeast wind was strong, and Huang Gai's warships were in the front, and when they reached the center of the river, they raised their sails, and the rest of the ships advanced in turn. The officers and men of Cao Cao's army all came out of the camp to stand and watch, pointing to the boat, saying that Huang Gai had come to surrender. More than two miles away from Cao's army, the ten ships were ignited at the same time, and the fire was fierce, and the ships flew forward like arrows, burning all the Cao army's warships, and the fire also spread to Cao's camp on land. In an instant, thick smoke and fire covered the sky and the sun, and countless soldiers and horses of Cao soldiers were burned and drowned. Zhou Yu and others led the lightly armed elite soldiers to follow closely, the drums shook the sky, and they marched forward bravely, and Cao's army was defeated.

According to the "Biography of Jiangbiao", Huang Gai wrote in his letter to Cao Cao at that time: "I, Huang Gai, was treated well by the Sun family, and as its general, I was not treated well. However, taking into account the general trend of the world, the disparity in strength of the people of Shanyue in the six counties of Jiangdong against the millions of people in China is known to everyone. None of the generals in Jiangdong are stupid, and they all know that this will not work, but Zhou Yu, Lu Su and others are ignorant and act recklessly. Today, I take refuge in you, and the soldiers led by Zhou Yu can be easily destroyed, and in the confrontation, I Huang Gai will be used as the front, you can see how I perform. Cao Cao met with the envoy and asked him secretly, but he still said: "I am afraid that there is fraud in it." But if what Huang Gai said is true, I will knight him and give him an unprecedented reward. ”

On the day of the battle, Huang Gai selected ten light ships, loaded them with dried wood and dry firewood, poured fish paste on them, wrapped them in a curtain, and planted flags on them. At that time, the southeast wind was blowing, so the ten ships were at the front, and when they reached the center of the river, Huang Gai raised the fire and instructed the captains on the boat, so that the soldiers all shouted: "Surrender!" ”

Cao Cao's soldiers all went out of the camp to watch, and when there were still more than two miles away from Cao's army, all the ships were ignited at the same time, the fire was strong and the wind was strong, and the ships flew towards Cao's army like arrows, igniting all the ships they touched, and even burned to Cao Cao's large camp on the shore. Zhou Yu and others took this opportunity to lead lightly armed elite soldiers to follow closely, the drums shook the sky, and they moved forward bravely, Cao Cao's army was in chaos, and Cao Cao retreated.

However, although Huang Gai has made great contributions, the process is not easy. It is recorded that Huang Gai was unfortunately thrown into the water by a stray arrow during the war, and when he was rescued, Wu Jun did not recognize Huang Gai and placed him in a toilet bed. Huang Gai was only able to save his life by shouting at Han Dang, and when Han Dang found him, he tearfully untied his clothes.

In the "Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms" and "Jiangbiao Biography", the records of the Battle of Chibi are basically the same, and Cao Cao was easily defeated by the Sun-Liu coalition army because of Huang Gai's trick of surrendering.

There is a record of Cao Cao taking the initiative to burn the ship in the "Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms: The Biography of Guo Jia", the original text of which is "Later Taizu conquered Jingzhou and returned, and encountered an epidemic in Baqiu and burned the ship". It is likely that Cao Cao added another fire himself after being burned by Huang Gai to prevent the ship from falling into the hands of Zhou Yu, Liu Bei and others. In addition, there are also records of ships burned by Liu Bei.

Although Cao Cao's army had a large number of generals and a large number of people, it basically failed to form any effective threat to the Sun-Liu coalition army, and was not its opponent at all in the water war, and its advantages were not developed at all, and it was defeated in the confrontation, and was finally easily defeated by the other party with a trick.

Even if Yuan Shao lost in the battle of Guandu, but at least he fought well, and in the battle of Chibi, Cao Cao could basically only be beaten and angry, and he could not show any of his intentions, this battle can be said to be very disappointing, the performance of the Sun-Liu coalition army is not very good in essence, and the reason why Cao Cao will lose is still in himself.

And the end of this battle in the Battle of Chibi did not mark the end of the war, although Cao Cao was gone, Zhou Yu and Liu Bei had to continue, because they had not been able to completely remove Cao Cao's threat.