Chapter 28 In the fourth quarter, there is a plan to feign surrender

In October of the thirteenth year of Jian'an (AD 208), Zhou Yu and Liu Bei's coalition forces encountered Cao Cao's vanguard forces in Chibi (northwest of Puqi County, Hubei today, on the south bank of the Yangtze River).Because Cao Jun's soldiers were not used to life on the water, many of them got sick and their morale was low.As soon as the two armies came into contact, Cao Cao suffered a small defeat.Cao Cao was forced to retreat to the north bank of the Yangtze River, stationed in Wulin (now Honghu County, Hubei Province), and confronted Sun and Liu's coalition forces across the river.In order to reduce the turbulence of the ships, Cao Cao ordered the craftsmen to organize several or more than a dozen warships into a group, connect them with iron chains, and lay wooden boards on them.In this way, the hull is much more stable, not only can people walk back and forth on it, but they can even ride horses on it.This is the so-called "serial warships", Cao Cao thinks this is a very good way.

Huang Gai, Zhou Yu's subordinate, is a veteran with great military experience.He saw that the "serial warship" had a great weakness, so he suggested to Zhou Yu: "'serial warship' has a big target and is inconvenient to move. We can use fire attack to break it." Fire attack usually relies on wind power.However, it had entered winter at that time, and the northwest wind was often blowing.Cao's army was in the northwest, and Sun and Liu's coalition forces were in the southeast. If they set fire to the river, it would be easy to burn their own ships. Huang Gai's fire attack plan would be difficult to implement.Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang conducted a careful study based on the local weather changes, and estimated that there might be a southeast wind around the winter solstice.Therefore, the coalition forces immediately prepared warships for the fire attack, and only waited for the southeast wind to blow up, and immediately launched the fire attack.

In order to deceive Cao Cao's trust, so that the warships carrying out the fire attack could approach Cao Jun's water stronghold, Huang Gai specially wrote a secret letter and sent someone to Cao Cao's account.The letter said: "The strength of the six counties in Jiangdong cannot resist your army of one million. Sun Quan's failure is a foregone conclusion. In order to conform to the general trend of the world, I am willing to surrender to you. The army commanded by Zhou Yu is limited in number, and it is not difficult to break through in one fell swoop. Yes. When the two sides confront each other, I can use my favorable conditions to find opportunities and serve you." Cao Cao was a little skeptical at first when he read this letter, but he thought that he had absolute advantages in politics and military affairs. It is entirely possible that Huang Gai came to surrender because of internal divisions in the Sun regime.Cao Cao's arrogance and underestimation of the enemy made him believe in Huang Gai's feint-surrender strategy.