Winter 208 AD · Yangtze River (modern Hubei) Theater
Winter 208 AD
Fresh from unifying the north, Cao Cao marched south with an army historians estimate at 200,000–300,000 to crush the last independent powers. The allied forces of Sun Quan and Liu Bei, numbering perhaps 50,000, met him at the Red Cliffs on the Yangtze. Cao Cao's northern soldiers, unused to naval warfare and ravaged by an epidemic, chained their ships together for stability. The allied commander Zhou Yu sent fire ships into the chained fleet. The resulting conflagration destroyed Cao Cao's navy and much of his army, forcing a humiliating retreat north.
Commanders