Chapter 29 Chapter 5 Burning the Warship

One night in November of the thirteenth year of Jian'an (AD 208), a southeasterly wind really blew up, and it was very strong.Zhou Yu immediately ordered Huang Gai to set off as planned.Huang Gai led a fleet of fire attack ships and sailed towards Cao Cao's water stronghold.The ship was filled with reeds and dry wood poured with grease, covered with cloth for camouflage, with a flag on the bow, and some light boats were prepared to be tied to the stern, so that they could change and retreat after setting the fire.At the forefront are 10 assault warships.When the 10 ships reached the center of the river, Huang Gai ordered the ships to set sail, and the fleet moved faster, and Cao Jun's water village was gradually visible.At this time, Huang Gai ordered the soldiers to shout in unison: "Huang Gai is coming to surrender!" When the officers and soldiers in Cao's camp heard that Huang Gai was coming to surrender, they all came out and stretched their necks to watch.Huang Gai's fleet was only two miles away from Cao Jun's water village.Huang Gai ordered "set fire"!With an order, all the warships set fire together, like fire dragons, and rushed straight to Cao Jun's water village.The southeast wind was blowing more and more fiercely, and the fire took advantage of the wind, and the wind assisted the fire. Cao Jun's water villages were all on fire, and the "serial warships" could not be dismantled for a while. .I saw raging flames soaring into the sky and the flames soaring into the sky, Cao Jun's barracks on the river and the river bank were engulfed in a sea of ​​flames.Cao Jun's soldiers were burned to death, and countless were drowned.Zhou Yu saw the fire on the south bank, knew that Huang Gai had succeeded, and immediately commanded the fast warships to attack Cao Jun with all his strength.In this battle, the combined forces of Sun and Liu wiped out most of Cao Cao's troops and burned all of Cao's warships.

In the midst of the fireworks, Cao Cao led the remnants of the defeated generals to retreat to Huarong (northwest of Jianli County, Hubei Province today).Unexpectedly, there was a violent storm on the way, and the road was muddy.There is simply no way to pass.Cao Cao ordered all the old and weak soldiers to find branches and weeds and spread them on the muddy road before the cavalry reluctantly walked over.But those old and weak soldiers were knocked down by horses and trampled, and many of them were killed or injured.The armies of Liu Bei and Zhou Yu advanced by land and water, and chased Cao Cao to Nanjun (now Jiangling County, Hubei Province).After this battle, Cao Cao was severely injured and lost more than half of his soldiers.He had no choice but to leave a part of the army to defend Jiangling and Xiangyang, and led the remaining troops back to the north.

The Battle of Chibi was a decisive battle that established the situation of the Three Kingdoms.After this defeat, Cao Cao's power was limited to northern China, and he was unable to go south again; after the war, Sun Quan's rule in Jiangdong was consolidated; Liu Bei took the opportunity to occupy Jingzhou, and later developed westward to occupy Yizhou (now Sichuan Province).In the twenty-fifth year of Jian'an (AD 220), after Cao Cao's death, his son Cao Pi abolished Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty and became emperor himself. The country was named Wei and the capital was Luoyang.In the second year, Liu Bei also proclaimed himself emperor in Chengdu, and his country was named Shuhan.Eight years later, Sun Quan proclaimed himself emperor in Jianye (now Nanjing), and his country was named Wu.The situation of the Three Kingdoms finally formed.

Cao Cao was a great statesman and military strategist in the Three Kingdoms period. He was very good at using troops, and he always won more than he lost in battles.But in the Battle of Chibi, they lost so badly. What is the reason for this? Before the Battle of Chibi, Cao Cao fought many victories year after year, eliminated many separatist forces, and became stronger and stronger.Under such favorable conditions, he overestimated the strength of his own army and the strengths of his own troops; he overestimated the weaknesses of his army, the shortcomings of his own troops, and the courage and strength of the combined forces of Sun and Liu. Low.This kind of arrogance and underestimation of the enemy is the root cause of Cao Cao's failure.In terms of combat deployment, Cao Cao could not adapt to the time and place, but used his own weaknesses to attack the opponent's strengths, exposing his weaknesses to the enemy, which was equivalent to stretching his neck to be slapped.This is also an important reason for his failure.

As for Sun and Liu's coalition forces, because Zhou Yu, Zhuge Liang and others were able to correctly analyze the situation, they determined the policy of joint operations and common confrontation with the enemy; He used his strengths to attack the opponent's weaknesses, thus winning the war and writing a glorious chapter in the history of ancient Chinese warfare.