The Burning of Red Cliff refers to the famous battle in Chinese history in which fewer won than many, and the weak won than the strong, when the allied forces of Sun Quan and Liu Bei burned Cao Cao's warships and defeated Cao Cao's army at the Red Cliff of the Yangtze River in 208 A.D.
Sun Quan's attack on the Red Cliff of the Yangtze River was a famous battle.
In 208 A.D., Cao Cao led an army of more than 200,000 men and prepared to attack Sun Quan. Sun Quan and Liu Bei joined forces, and the Sun-Liu alliance added up to 50,000 men. In December of the same year, when the two sides faced off at Red Cliff, Pang Tong came to Cao Cao's camp and offered Cao Cao the idea that he could connect his warships with iron cables, which would make it easier for his soldiers to fight. Cao Cao immediately complied with the idea and locked the warships with iron ropes, which were several large ships in a row, on which the soldiers practiced combat, the ships were very stable, the soldiers walked as if they were flat, and the morale was very high.
After a few days, Zhou Yu got the news and decided to use the strategy of fire attack, so Zhou Yu sent Huang Gai to surrender fraudulently. Huang Gai sent a messenger to meet Cao Cao, who lied and said that Huang Gai would bring food and other supplies to Cao Cao, and Cao Cao fell for Huang Gai's trick and believed in Huang Gai's fraudulent surrender. On that day, Huang Gai led a dozen ships, loaded with flammable materials and oil, to Cao Cao's camp as promised. At that time, the wind was blowing from the east, and Cao Cao was overjoyed to see Huang Gai coming to surrender. Huang Gai look at the distance from the Cao camp there are two miles, so send a signal, all the ships ignited, soon, a dozen fire ships by the wind, as fast as flying arrows, straight to the Cao fleet, Cao warships are linked together, can not be separated, a moment of one after another on fire, it is impossible to extinguish. The Cao fleet was almost wiped out, and the Cao troops on the ships burned and drowned to death. Zhou Yu took advantage of the situation to pursue Cao's army, and Cao's army suffered more than half casualties at Red Cliff, leaving only tens of thousands of troops, and Sun-Liu allied forces achieved victory in the Battle of Red Cliff.
First, Cao Cao's navy was not as strong as Sun-Liu's allied forces. Cao Cao's army was mainly from the north, and it would take at least half a year or more to familiarize themselves with fighting water battles, so iron ropes attached to warships were a good way to quickly increase combat effectiveness.
Secondly, Cao Cao did not take advantage of land warfare, if Cao Cao's army divided a part of its force , and confronted Sun Liu's allied forces in Chibi, bluffing, and the main force elsewhere sneaked across the Yangtze River, and fought land battles with Sun Liu, Cao Cao's land forces dominated in numbers, and their fighting strength was also very strong, and they could defeat Sun Liu's allied forces on land.
Third, if Cao Cao recruits a navy and sends his best generals to train the navy, and waits for the navy to finish its training, Cao Cao's navy will have the advantage in numbers and fighting strength, and then, launch an attack, then he will be able to defeat Sun Liu's allied forces.
Fourth, Cao Cao allowed Huang Gai's fraudulent surrender. In fact, since the iron rope linking the warships was very powerful, in order to ensure victory, Cao Cao should have been more cautious, and not taken the risk of directly engaging Sun Liu's navy with the warships, regardless of whether or not Huang Gai was really surrendering, which would have resulted in a victory as well. Because allowing Huang Gai to fraudulently surrender gives Huang Gai's fire ships the opportunity to approach Cao's fleet, resulting in the burning of Cao's fleet. If Huang Gai was not allowed to approach, and a ship approached and the Cao fleet attacked, then the Cao army could have been victorious.
Fifth, Sun-Liu alliance is familiar with naval warfare, targeting the weakness of Cao Cao's fleet in fear of fire attack, successfully burning Cao Cao's fleet, achieving a great victory with fewer than many.