Campaigns
The campaigns that decided the era
Four battles, four turns of fate. Each account is drawn from the historical record, with the people involved and the sources behind it.
- 200 ADBattle of Guandu官渡之战In 200, Cao Cao and Yuan Shao contested the Central Plains at Guandu. Outnumbered, Cao Cao held his lines until a defector from Yuan Shao’s camp revealed where the army’s grain was stored at Wuchao. Cao Cao led a night raid and burned the depot; Yuan Shao’s army collapsed, and the north fell to Cao Cao within a few years.
- 208 ADBattle of Red Cliffs赤壁之战In the winter of 208, Cao Cao pushed south down the Yangtze to destroy Sun Quan and Liu Bei in one campaign. The allied fleet under Zhou Yu met him at Red Cliffs; Huang Gai feigned surrender and drove fire ships into Cao Cao’s moored fleet, setting it ablaze. Cao Cao withdrew north, and the three-way division of the realm took shape.
- 219 ADFancheng campaign樊城之战In 219, Guan Yu marched north from Jing province and besieged Fancheng. Autumn floods on the Han River drowned Yu Jin’s seven relief armies; Guan Yu captured Yu Jin and executed Pang De, and Cao Cao’s court weighed moving the capital. Then Lü Meng crossed the river in disguise and seized Guan Yu’s base at Jiangling. Abandoned by his troops, Guan Yu was captured and executed by Sun Quan’s forces.
- 222 ADBattle of Yiling夷陵之战In 222, Liu Bei led the armies of Shu-Han east to retake Jing province from Sun Quan. Lu Xun refused battle for month after month while Liu Bei’s force strung its camps through the wooded hills, then ordered a coordinated fire attack that burned more than forty camps in one night. Liu Bei fled to Baidicheng and died the following year.