Chapter 3 94 Zhou Yu Attacks Chibi with Fire

After Cao Cao pacified the north, in 208 A.D., he led an army southward to attack Liu Biao.Before his troops arrived in Jingzhou, Liu Biao had already died of illness.His son Liu Cong was frightened when he heard Cao Jun's momentum, and sent someone to beg for surrender first. At this time, Liu Bei was stationed in Fancheng (now Xiangfan City, Hubei Province).When he heard that Cao Cao's army was going south, he decided to retreat to Jiangling (now Jiangling, Hubei).The people in Jingzhou heard that Liu Bei treated people well, and they would rather retreat with him. When Cao Cao rushed to Xiangyang, he heard that Liu Bei was retreating to Jiangling, and that Liu Biao had accumulated a large amount of military rations in Jiangling. Fearing that Liu Bei would take it, he personally led 5,000 light cavalry to chase Liu Bei.Liu Bei's men and horses brought weapons and equipment, and hundreds of thousands of people followed him, and they could only march a dozen miles a day.Cao Cao's cavalry drove more than three hundred miles a day and one night, and soon caught up with Liu Bei at Changbanpo in Dangyang (now northeast of Dangyang County, Hubei).

Liu Bei's troops were thrown into disarray by Cao Cao's cavalry, and thanks to Zhang Fei's resistance at Changbanpo for a while.Only then did Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang get rid of the pursuers with a small number of troops.However, the road to Jiangling had been cut off by Cao Jun, so he had to divert and retreat to Xiakou (in today's Wuhan City, Hubei Province). Cao Cao occupied Jiangling and continued to march eastward along the river, and soon he would reach Xiakou.Zhuge Liang said to Liu Bei: "The situation is urgent, and we have only one way to ask Sun Quan for help."

It happened that Sun Quan was afraid that Jingzhou would be occupied by Cao Cao, so he sent Lu Su to find Liu Bei and persuade him to join forces with Sun Quan to resist Cao Jun.Zhuge Liang and Lu Su went to Chaisang (now southeast of Jiujiang, Jiangxi) to meet Sun Quan. Zhuge Liang met Sun Quan and said: "Now that Cao Cao has captured Jingzhou, he is about to attack Soochow. If the general is determined to resist, he should sever ties with Cao Cao as soon as possible and resist with us; otherwise, simply surrender to them. If you hesitate, it will be too late when disaster strikes."

Sun Quan asked back, "Then why didn't General Liu surrender to Cao Cao?" Zhuge Liang said solemnly: "General Liu is a descendant of the royal family, so he can surpass the world. How can he be willing to surrender to Cao Cao?" Hearing what Zhuge Liang said, Sun Quan also said excitedly, "I can't just give away the land of Jiangdong and 100,000 horses for nothing. However, General Liu has just lost a battle. How can he resist Cao's army?" Zhuge Liang said: "Don't worry, although General Liu has been defeated for a while, he still has 20,000 sailors. Although Cao Cao has many troops, his soldiers are exhausted after chasing him from a long distance. Besides, the northerners are not used to water warfare. The people in Jingzhou are not convinced by them. As long as we work together, we will be able to defeat Cao Jun."

Sun Quan was very happy after hearing Zhuge Liang's analysis, so he immediately summoned his generals to discuss ways to resist Cao Cao. At this time, Cao Cao sent soldiers to fight.The letter said: "I was ordered by the Emperor of the Han Dynasty to lead the army to march south. Now I have prepared 800,000 sailors, and I am willing to compete with the general." Sun Quan handed the letter to his subordinates to read, and everyone's faces changed completely after reading it, and they were speechless. Zhang Zhao is the oldest of the Soochow officials.He said: "Cao Cao used the name of the Son of Heaven to conquer. We have to resist him, and we have lost the truth. Besides, we originally wanted to rely on the natural danger of the Yangtze River, but now we can't rely on it. Cao Jun occupied Jingzhou, and there are thousands of warships. , they came down together by land and water, we couldn't resist anyway, so I think we had to surrender."

When Zhang Zhao said this, many people immediately agreed.Only Lu Su watched coldly, without saying a word. Sun Quan listened and felt uncomfortable, so he walked out of the house, followed by Lu Su. Sun Quan took Lu Su's hand and said, "Tell me, what should I do?" Lu Su said: "I didn't listen to what Zhang Zhao and the others said just now. If you want to talk about surrender, I, Lu Su, can surrender, but the general can't. Because I surrendered, the big deal is to go back to my hometown, and I can still associate with celebrities. An official from a prefecture or county. If the general surrenders, all the six counties in the east of the Yangtze River will fall into the hands of Cao Cao. Where are you going?"

Sun Quan sighed and said: "What everyone said just now really disappointed me. Only what you said is in line with my heart." After the meeting adjourned, Lu Su advised Sun Quan to quickly call Zhou Yu, who was in Poyang, back to discuss. As soon as Zhou Yu arrived in Chaisang, Sun Quan summoned civil and military officials to discuss.Zhou Yu said impassionedly at the meeting: "Cao Cao's name is the prime minister of the Han Dynasty, but he is actually a traitor of the Han Dynasty. This time he came to die by himself, so there is no reason to surrender to him." He analyzed Cao Cao's many disadvantages for everyone, and believed that the northern soldiers I don't know how to fight in water, and I have rushed to this strange place all the way. If the water and soil are not acclimatized, I will definitely get sick.No matter how many soldiers and horses there are, it is useless.

Sun Quan became more courageous after hearing Zhou Yu's words.He stood up and drew out his sword, and with a sound of "huo", cut off a corner of the case.He said sternly: "Whoever wants to mention surrendering to Cao Cao is just like this desk." That night, Zhou Yu went to Sun Quan alone again, and said, "I have already found out. Cao Cao's soldiers claim to be 800,000, which is a bluff, but in fact they are only more than 200,000, and many of them are soldiers from Jingzhou. They may not be sincere." Fight for him. You just need to give me 50,000 elite soldiers, and I will take care of defeating him."

The next day, Sun Quan appointed Zhou Yu as the governor, allocated him 30,000 sailors, and asked him to join forces with Liu Bei to resist Cao Cao. Zhou Yu led the army to march, and encountered Cao Jun's outpost at Chibi (now Xichiji Mountain, Wuchang County, Hubei Province).Sure enough, as Zhou Yu expected, many soldiers of Cao Jun were dissatisfied with the environment and had already contracted the disease.As soon as the two sides clashed, Cao Jun was defeated and was forced to retreat to the north bank of the Yangtze River.Zhou Yu led the water army to the south bank, facing Cao Jun across the river.

Just as Zhou Yu expected, Cao Cao's soldiers from the north did not know how to fight in water. They could not stand the wind and waves when they were on the warship.Later, they tied the warships together with iron cables, and the boats were much more stable. Huang Gai, Zhou Yu's general, saw this situation and offered a strategy to Zhou Yu, saying: "The enemy has many troops and we have few troops. It is not good for us to drag it down. Now that Cao Jun has connected all the warships together, I think we can attack with fire." way to defeat them." Zhou Yu felt that Huang Gai's idea was good, and the two discussed it. Huang Gai sent someone to send a letter to Cao Cao, expressing his intention to leave Soochow and surrender to Cao Cao.Cao Cao thought that the Soochow generals were afraid of him, so he had no doubts about Huang Gai's false surrender.

Huang Gai asked the soldiers to secretly prepare ten large boats, each of which was filled with dead branches, filled with oil, wrapped in curtains, and planted with flags. Be ready to divert if the big ship catches fire. In the middle of winter in November, the weather suddenly warmed up and the southeast wind blew.That night, Huang Gai led a group of soldiers in ten large ships, sailing in front, followed by a group of ships.When the fleet arrived in the middle of the river, it sailed to the north of the river like an arrow with full sails. The soldiers of Cao Jun's water village heard that the great general of Soochow had surrendered, and they crowded to the bow of the boat to watch the excitement.Unexpectedly, about two miles away from the north bank of the Soochow fleet, the ten large ships in front suddenly caught fire at the same time.The fire borrows the wind, and the wind helps the fire.Ten fire boats, like ten fire dragons, broke into Cao Jun's water village.The ships there were all crowded together, and they couldn't avoid it, and they all burned quickly.In the blink of an eye, it has been burned into a sea of ​​flames.Not counting the burning of the water village, the camp on the shore was also on fire, and a large number of soldiers of Cao Jun were burned to death; many people were squeezed into the river, unable to swim, and drowned immediately. Zhou Yu saw the fire on the north bank, and immediately led his elite troops across the river to attack.They beat the drums loudly.Cao Jun on the north bank didn't know how many people were attacking behind him, and they all collapsed in fright. Cao Cao fled to Huarong (now southwest of Qianjiang County, Hubei Province) with his remnants and defeated generals.The path was full of puddles and puddles, and the cavalry could not pass through it.Cao Cao hurriedly ordered the old and weak soldiers to find some straw to pave the way.He led the cavalry to pass through with great difficulty, but many of the soldiers who filled the straw were trampled to death by the horses. Together with Liu Bei and Zhou Yu, they pursued by land and water until they reached Nanjun (now Jiangling, Hubei).Cao Cao had no choice but to send his generals Cao Ren, Xu Huang, and Le Jin to stay in Jiangling and Xiangyang respectively, and led his troops back to the north. After this Chibi War, the separation of the Three Kingdoms has basically taken shape.