In the winter of the 13th year of Emperor Xian of Han's Jian'an reign (208 AD), the three military factions of Cao Cao, Sun Quan, and Liu Bei fought a fierce battle for control of the realm—the famous "Battle of Red Cliffs" in history.
After over a decade of campaigns, Cao Cao had crushed the northern warlords, controlled the Eastern Han emperor, and commanded the realm as Chancellor. Seizing the moment when Liu Biao of Jingzhou had just died, he marched south, defeated Liu Bei (then under Liu Biao's protection), absorbed the forces of Liu Biao's son Liu Cong, and advanced along the Yangtze River with 800,000 troops, intimidating Sun Quan into hoping for a bloodless surrender.
Facing Cao Cao's military might, the repeatedly defeated and landless Liu Bei, along with Sun Quan, who inherited his father and brother's legacy but was isolated in Jiangdong with limited strength, had only one correct choice: form an alliance to resist Cao Cao together.
However, the Eastern Wu court was deeply divided over whether to surrender or fight. Their leader, Sun Quan, wavered in indecision; senior officials Zhang Zhao and Qin Song advocated surrender, while Lu Su alone argued for war but found little support. At this critical moment, Zhuge Liang arrived in Jiangdong, sharply analyzing the pros and cons of each course and the relative strengths of both sides, clearly predicting the ideal outcome of a united front against Cao Cao: "Cao's army will retreat north, and the three kingdoms will stand as a tripod." This convinced Sun Quan to tentatively align with Liu Bei. Then, at Lu Su's suggestion, Zhou Yu was urgently recalled and met with Sun Quan twice, delivering impassioned speeches that finally steeled Sun Quan's resolve to resist Cao Cao and prepare for battle.
As the battle unfolded, everything went exactly as Zhuge Liang and Zhou Yu had predicted: Cao Cao's weary army, exhausted from their long march, struggled with the unfamiliar climate and proved utterly inept at naval warfare. Zhou Yu then adopted his general Huang Gai's brilliant plan of "feigned surrender and fire attack." That night, a fierce southeast wind howled as Huang Gai led ten warships to the front, hoisting sails mid-river while the rest followed in formation. Cao Cao's troops, caught completely off guard, stood idly pointing and gossiping about Huang Gai's supposed defection. When the Eastern Wu ships closed to within less than two li, they simultaneously ignited; the flames raged with the wind, and the vessels shot like arrows into Cao Cao's fleet. In moments, billowing smoke and fire filled the sky as the wind fanned the blaze, nearly consuming all of Cao Cao's warships and spreading to the shore camps. Cao Cao's soldiers and horses perished by the thousands, burned or drowned. Zhou Yu led his elite forces in relentless pursuit, drums thundering across the battlefield. Cao Cao fled on foot with his remnants through Huarong Trail, only to encounter a violent storm that turned the road into a muddy quagmire. He ordered his weakest soldiers to carry grass and fill the path, allowing the men and horses to pass, but the frail troops were trampled into the mud, suffering heavy casualties. Liu Bei and Zhou Yu pressed forward by both land and water, chasing Cao Cao all the way to Nanjun. Leaving Cao Ren and others to guard the passes, Cao Cao himself retreated north with his main force.
This was a famous battle in Chinese history where the weaker, smaller force defeated the stronger, larger army. Afterward, China entered a period of three kingdoms standing as rivals, a situation that lasted for over 50 years.
"The idiom 'Battle of Red Cliffs' embodies the wisdom of pre-war strategy and the dialectical transformation of strengths and weaknesses. Later, it also came to describe achieving victory through hard-fought battle."
Source: *Romance of the Three Kingdoms*
Meaning of the Idiom: Later, the Chinese idiom "赤壁鏖兵" came to describe achieving victory through hard-fought battle.