The fading remnants of the Eastern Han dynasty had given way to regional warlords vying for
more power. In our previous videos on the Three Kingdoms era, we discussed both the
Battle of Guandu between Cao Cao and Yuan Shao, and
the rise of Wu in the south under Sun Ce. Now
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the famous Red Cliffs Campaign and the battle
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Though Cao Cao’s victory over Yuan Shao at Guandu had been decisive, his men were
exhausted, so he held his northern army on the Yellow River, before returning to his
capital at Xuchang in the Autumn of 200 AD. When Cao
Cao’s superior army turned against the rebellious Liu Bei in the east, the latter fled to Jing
to Liu Biao. As he was a prominent warlord, Liu Bei
was placed in command of Liu Biao’s northern frontier and began to cause constant problems
for Cao Cao’s generals in the area. At the same
time, Cao Cao himself achieved further conquests in
Xu province. Loyalty was cemented in these regions by the creation of military agricultural
colonies, known as tuntian, which rejuvenated the communities devastated by decades of
conflict. The summer of 202 saw Cao Cao return to the
site of his victory at Guandu where, three weeks
later, he received news of Yuan Shao’s sudden death. Inauspiciously for his state, Yuan
Shao had not appointed a successor, leading to immediate
tensions between his three sons. Seeing this apparent weakness, Cao Cao crossed the river
at the end of Autumn 202 and attacked Yuan Tan -
the eldest of the three. Initially, the campaign against the divided siblings was easy, but
then Yuan Shang’s forces supplemented his elder
brother’s, and the campaign almost ground to a halt.
Nevertheless, Cao Cao eventually managed to capture a bridgehead on the north bank
of the Yellow River. At this point, he once again withdrew to Xuchang, possibly in order
to deal with dissidents in his court.
Without the threat of Cao Cao imminently bearing down on them, the sons of Yuan Shao began
to quarrel and fight with one another. Soon Cao Cao crossed the Yellow River and attacked.
Cleverly using diplomacy to exacerbate the friction, Cao Cao arranged a marriage alliance
with one of the brothers - Yuan Tan. Even as his
army approached Ye City in Spring of 204, the
siblings still fought amongst themselves. Consequently, in a siege which lasted up to
five months, Ye was seized by Cao Cao. It would
become a major base for his military power and its
loss dislodged Yuan influence from Ji province completely. Yuan Tan had been expected to
help during the siege, but instead tried to seize
territories in Ji Province. This caused Cao Cao to
disavow the marriage and kill him in battle. Yuan Shang and Yuan Xi fled to the north after
this defeat and took refuge with their nomadic allies - the proto-Mongolic Wuhuan peoples,
and their chieftain, known as Tadun. He began raids into Cao Cao’s territory and plotted
to assist the revanchist Yuans. It was for this reason
that Cao Cao had to deal with the problem as soon as possible. In a phenomenal display
of engineering and construction prowess, his
forces constructed two massive canals and renovated
others in order to improve supply lines into the nomadic territory. In the Autumn of 207,
Cao Cao, assisted by Wuhuan’s local enemies,
swiftly travelled via an unexpected route, flanking the
enemy. His army met the nomads at White Wolf Mountain, where the forces of Cao Cao
overcame and destroyed those of Tadun, while the tribal leader himself was captured and
executed. By the end of the year, Cao Cao’s attention turned to the south again.
We must now look at the situation in the burgeoning Wu state since the death of Sun Ce in 200.
He had been quickly succeeded by his younger brother Sun Quan - who was just 18 years old
at the time. Having being educated and prepared
to take power, Sun Quan was supported by the senior officials and military men of Sun Ce.
After learning of Sun Quan’s succession, Cao Cao
quickly confirmed the alliance which he had signed with Sun Ce, and had the Emperor - who
was under his protection - appoint Sun Quan the ‘General Who Exterminates the Caitiffs’
and administrator of Kuaiji. Still, tensions between
Sun Quan and Cao Cao were beginning in earnest. Taking advantage of the latter’s
preoccupation in the north, the Sun army quickly attacked the administrator of the Lujiang
region, Li Shu, who was under Cao Cao’s protection,
and the city of Huan was conquered. Throughout this period, Sun Quan regularly
appraised his junior officers and drilled the ragtag,
informal, and often badly supplied groups of disparate soldiers who had joined his brother.
Administratively, Sun Quan tried his best to attract senior, well respected and competent
men to his court. By 203, the consolidation of his
state and the tuning of its administration was
complete. For any further territorial expansion however,
Sun Quan had to finally eliminate Huang Ze - a
lieutenant of Liu Biao, based in Xiakou. In a series of slow campaigns lasting five years,
enemy armies were gradually beaten. Huang Ze’s
fleet was destroyed, the Poyang region was secured,
and the Mo and Bao peoples were defeated. In the spring of 208, Sun Quan himself launched
a final offensive, during which he attacked
and seized Xiakou, killing Huang Ze in the process.
As the ruler of Jing, Liu Biao, had become seriously ill as he reached his late 60s,
both Cao Cao and Sun Quan now cast their eyes on central
China, which previously was an island of peace in
the ocean of civil war. A succession contest between the sons of Liu Biao - Liu Qi and
Liu Cong - was gradually breaking out, in the manner
of the sons of Yuan Shao, with both being favoured
by different factions. In addition, Sun Quan had begun to raid and embark on military ventures
into Jing territory, which threatened the prosperous and important Yangtze river routes.
Finally, in August of 208, Liu Biao died and Liu Cong immediately claimed the leadership
position. His elder brother Liu Qi was furious and refused to accept it, however an external
threat would prevent a civil war.
In September of 208, Cao Cao’s army reached Xinye on the borders of Jing province, having
been levied extremely quickly. It is likely that his urgent action on this occasion, compared
to his lax attitude in the Yuan civil war, was due
to the presence of his aggressive and experienced old
enemy Liu Bei, who might have a chance at usurping the administration in Jing. Threatened
by Cao Cao’s looming presence, Liu Cong swiftly
surrendered. This capitulation left Liu Bei, who
had been encamped at Fan, in a perilous situation, and he fled as quickly as possible, but was
slowed down by many refugees who accompanied his soldiers.
Seeking to chase his enemy down, Cao Cao split from his main army and ranged forward with
5,000 elite cavalry. After 12 hours and 120 kilometres of hard riding south from Xiangyang,
Cao Cao’s mounted force finally caught up with
Liu Bei and his ponderous mass of humanity at the
Chang Slope. The untrained, badly armed and outclassed followers of Liu Bei were utterly
defeated, and the man himself was forced to flee with only a few companions. The majority
of his baggage and the refugee column fell into
Cao Cao’s hands.
After his flight, Liu Bei rode to Jiangxia in order to link up with Liu Qi at Fankou,
while Cao Cao continued his march south to seize the
crucial riverine naval base at Jiangling. Control of
this strategic hub gave the northern warlord control of the Yangtze as far downstream as
Xiakou. Despite the fact that Liu Bei and Liu Qi were
now allied, their forces paled in comparison to
those of Cao Cao, and it was clear they needed help. They would turn to Sun Quan for aid,
and Liu Bei sent a distinguished diplomat named
Zhuge Liang on an embassy to Chaisang - where Sun Quan had made his forward base.
After days of diplomatic wrangling, Sun Quan agreed to the alliance, convinced of the fact
that Cao Cao’s forces would be unfamiliar with the terrain and exhausted. A Sun army
of around 30,000 quickly began to coalesce and
march towards Fankou. Meanwhile, after seizing Jiangling, Cao Cao’s main contingent
had sailed down the Yangtze River with his huge fleet, while another section of his army
marched via the direct route on land. The forces of Cao Cao and the allied forces would
meet at Red Cliffs. As the large northern army converged on the
site of battle, it was in a poor state - which Zhuge Liang had predicted. Many of the northerners
were exhausted from marching, and were stricken by disease in the unfamiliar,
marshy and damp climate of the Yangtze river valley. Cao Cao’s army encamped on the northwestern
shore of the Yangtze near Wulin, and the allies set up their camp opposite
him at Red Cliffs. In the allied Sun-Liu camp, the
soldiers were relatively fresh, and only Liu Bei’s forces were probably tired from their
extensive withdrawals south. In the dead of winter 208AD, the Battle of
Red Cliffs began. Cao Cao wanted to forge a
crossing across the Yangtze so he could freely advance on Sun Quan’s or Liu Qi’s territory.
To accomplish this, Cao Cao launched an initial naval engagement with his superior fleet in
order to establish a bridgehead, supplemented by the captured Yangtze fleet at Jiangling.
However, despite a definite advantage in troop numbers, the northern army was held off by
the allied forces opposite them. At this, both sides withdrew to their respective
camps, and a stalemate began. Cao Cao wanted to collect and rally his forces for
a few days, while the allied forces, commanded by
Zhou Yu, did not feel strong enough to risk a full scale assault across the river. Two
events occurred at this point which would shape China
for years to come. With his forces seasick and inexperienced in riverine warfare, Cao
Cao tried to compensate for this by chaining his ships together, which increased their
stability but decreased their maneuverability. On the other side of the river, a cunning
officer under Zhou Yu’s command named Huang Gai, put forward a bold strategy. Genuine
desertions from the allied forces had been occurring for days, so it was decided this
was to be used against Cao Cao, in the true style
of Sun Tzu. Huang Gai, a squadron commander, sent a letter
to Cao Cao professing his desire to surrender the ships under him and defect to
the northern cause. Cao Cao enthusiastically ordered the apparent defector to bring his
ships and join them to his fleet. So, 10 of Huang
Gai’s warships set off for the northern bank, ominously drifting towards the northern
line. This was a trap, and the usually intelligent
Cao Cao had fallen for it. The ships had been filled with flammable materials and, as they
neared Cao Cao’s bound ships, Huang Gai and his men set them alight. With the wind
blowing towards the northwest, the fire ships
smashed straight into Cao Cao’s fleet. Within a very short time, the smoke and flames of
the conflagration stretched across the sky, and a multitude of men and horses had been
burned or drowned. Amidst the shock, Zhou Yu struck across the river with a swift,
lightly-armed force, and caused Cao Cao’s army to rout along the road to Huarong, on
which sick and wounded were disgracefully trampled underfoot by terrified soldiers.
Cao Cao himself managed to retreat to the north.
In the aftermath of Red Cliffs, Cao Cao left his cousin, Cao Ren, in command of holding
the crucial riverine outpost at Jiangling and its surroundings. At the same time, the
allied forces immediately followed up their victory
at Red Cliffs by assaulting Cao Ren’s position at Jiangling and the Nan Commandery. This
would not be a simple operation, as a 100,000 strong force of Cao Cao’s garrison troops
manned this area, scattered around strategic locations.
Believing the strongholds of Nan commandery to be too strong to take by direct assault,
Zhou Yu ordered Guan Yu, to infiltrate his enemy’s rear, while bypassing the Jiangling
strong point. It was hoped that through this tactic, the city could be isolated and its
supply lines could be cut. Guan Yu, accompanied by
a special force of navy marines and elite infantry, sailed up the Han river and seized
Xiangyang. Meanwhile, Liu Bei obtained Zhou Yu’s permission to cover the flanks and
rear of the allied Sun-Liu army by seizing the four commanderies
controlled by Cao Cao south of the Yangtze. At this point, Cao Cao’s army was
spread incredibly thin and so these territories could not be defended. A key allied objective
of the Red cliffs campaign had been accomplished and Liu Bei now
finally had a base of his own, establishing Zhuge Liang as his military advisor. Blockades
were established along the main passages and Guan Yu’s army was present to
intercept northern reinforcements. It seemed as though Cao Ren was achieving
many small victories, but he was also suffering badly from attrition. His elite cavalry had,
for example, suffered 3,000 casualties in a single
day, and the northern forces were unable to best the defenders of Zhou Yu’s main camp.
Continually harried by the allied forces, and no longer able to sustain the bleeding
his army now suffered, Cao Cao ordered his cousin to retreat
from Jiangling. This campaign was Cao Cao’s final chance at reuniting China under his
name, and probably resulted in the centuries of further
division which would continue until the rise of the Sui.
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