Burning down the camp refers to a war between Wu and Shu during the Three Kingdoms period. In the first year of Zhangwu of Shu Han Dynasty (221), Liu Bei, in order to avenge Wu's seizure of Jingzhou and the killing of Guan Yu, led a large army to attack Wu.

Wu general Lu Xun avoided his front and held out, and the two sides faced each other. The two armies held each other for half a year. In June, when the weather was hot, the Shu army moved into a dense forest and camped.

He sent a small number of troops to attack a battalion of the Shu army first, just near the wooden fence of the Shu camp, the Shu soldiers from the left and right sides rushed out to kill; then, the soldiers in the battalions of several nearby companies also came out to reinforce.

The Eastern Wu soldiers could not resist and quickly retreated, having lost many men and horses. The generals complained about Lu Xun, who said, "This is my way of testing their strength. Now I have a way to break the Shu camp."

That night, Lu Xun ordered his generals to each bring a bunch of thatch and kindling, and ambushed them in advance in the dense forest on the south bank, only to wait for the third watch of the night, then went straight to the river and set fire to the camp.

At the third watch, four generals of the Eastern Wu led tens of thousands of soldiers, rushed close to the Shu camp, lit torches with thatched grass, and set fire to the wooden fence of the Shu camp. That night, the wind was blowing very hard, and the camps of the Shu army were all connected, so when one camp was set on fire, the nearby camps also burned together.

At once, Liu Bei's forty camps were overrun. By the time Liu Bei realized the fire had started, he was unable to resist. Under the protection of the generals of the Shu soldiers, Liu Bei finally broke out of the fire net and escaped onto Maanshan Mountain.

The Shu army was in great disorder and was broken by the Wu army in more than forty camps. Lu Xun's success in burning the battalion determined the outcome of the Battle of Yiling (猇亭之戰) in which Shu lost and Wu won.

Expanded Information:

I. Background of the Battle:

News of Cao Pi's claim to be the emperor came to Shu Han, and there was a flurry of rumors that Emperor Xian of Han had been killed by Cao Pi. Liu Bei, the king of Hanzhong, held a funeral ceremony for Emperor Xian. The ministers thought that since Emperor Xian was already dead, Liu Bei, being a descendant of the Han royal family, should take over the throne. In 221 A.D., the King of Hanzhong officially assumed the throne in Chengdu, as Emperor Zhaolie of Shu Han.

Because the area he ruled over was in Shu (present-day Sichuan and most of Yunnan, all of Guizhou, and part of Shaanxi and Gansu), it is historically known as Shu Han or Shu. Liu Bei had been very distressed by the occupation of Jingzhou by Eastern Wu and the murder of Guan Yu. After he took the throne, his first priority was to attack the Eastern Wu to avenge the shame. But he was burned by Lu Xun for 800 miles.

Zhao Yun, a great general, said that it was Cao Pi, not Sun Quan, who usurped the throne. If we can destroy Cao Wei, Dong Wu will naturally yield, and we should not let Cao Wei go to fight Dong Wu. There were many other ministers who advised him, but Liu Bei said he would not listen to anything.

He left Zhuge Liang in Chengdu to assist the crown prince, Liu Chan, and personally led the army to conquer Wu. While Liu Bei was preparing to send troops, he informed Zhang Fei to meet him at Jiangzhou (present-day Chongqing). Before Liu Bei could send troops, Zhang Fei's generals mutinied and killed Zhang Fei to defect to the Eastern Wu.

Liu Bei was weakened by the loss of two generals in a row, but he was so eager to take revenge that he had no room for calm deliberation. The alarm reached the Eastern Wu, and Sun Quan, hearing that Liu Bei was making a big push this time, was also a bit scared and sent a man to ask Liu Bei for peace, but he was rejected by Liu Bei.

2. Main Characters

1. Lu Xun

Benamed Lu Gao (陆议), his character Bo Yan (伯言), he was a native of Wu County, Wu County (present-day Suzhou, Jiangsu Province). During the Three Kingdoms period, he was a statesman and militarist of the state of Wu.

Jianan eight years (203 years) into Sun Quan's office, successively served as Haichang Tuntian Lieutenant, Dingwei Lieutenant, under the account of the right Department of the Governor. Because of Sun Quan's appreciation, he was able to utilize his outstanding military skills and his status became more and more respected.

In the twenty-fourth year of Jian'an (219), Lu Xun took part in the attack on Jingzhou. In the second year of Shu Zhangwu (222), Sun Quan made Lu Xun the governor and defeated Liu Bei in the Battle of Yiling.

In the seventh year of Huangwu of Wu (228), Lu Xun won the Battle of Shiting. In the first year of Huanglong (229), after Sun Quan became the emperor, he made Lu Xun the upper general, assisted the crown prince Sun Deng, and was in charge of the accompanying capital, Wuchang.

The seventh year of the Ch'iwu reign (244), he was appointed prime minister, pastor of the Jing Prefecture, right governor of the province, and general in charge of the affairs of the three principal ministers, and was in charge of the affairs of Wuchang. Sun and Sun Ba two Palace of the dispute involved in Sun Quan father and son, died the following year, aged 63, posthumous title "Zhao".

Lu Xun followed Sun Quan for more than forty years, and was in charge of the military and government of Wu for more than twenty years. He was a far-sighted, loyal and upright man. He was praised as a "minister of the gods of earth and grain".

3, Liu Bei

that is, Han Zhaolie Emperor (reigned from 221 to 223), the word Xuan De, at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the people of Zhuo County, Zhuo County, You Zhou County (now Zhuozhou City, Hebei Province), the Western Han Dynasty, after the king of the Zhongshan Mountains, Liu Sheng, the Three Kingdoms period, the founding emperor of Shu Han Dynasty, the statesman. Historians mostly call him the first lord.

Liu Bei worshiped Lu Zhi as a teacher when he was a young man, and then participated in the suppression of the Yellow Turban Uprising and the crusade against Dong Zhuo, etc. Because of his own limited strength, Liu Bei suffered repeated defeats in the process of wars between the lords, so he successively attached himself to a number of lords, such as Gongsun Zan, Tao Qian, Cao Cao, Yuan Shao, and Liu Biao, etc. He was also the first to be appointed by the Chinese government to the throne.

But because he always insisted on serving others with virtue, he was respected by famous men at home and abroad, to the extent that Tao Qian and Liu Biao gave up letting their own sons inherit the throne, choosing instead to give their own territories, Xuzhou and Jingzhou, to Liu Bei's command.

Through his unremitting efforts, Liu Bei took Jingzhou and Yizhou after the Battle of Red Cliff and established the Shu Han regime.

Because Guan Yu was killed by Wu, Liu Bei did not listen to his ministers and insisted on waging war against Wu, resulting in the defeat of Yiling, and ultimately died in Baidi City in the third year of Zhanwu (223 years) at the age of 63 years old, posthumously known as the Emperor of the Zhaolie Emperor, the temple name of the Martyrs of the ancestors of the burial of the Huiling.

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