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Battle of Red Cliffs

The fire on the Yangtze that split China three ways — shown at the strategic scale the sources actually support.

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Phase by phase

1. Campaign stage 1: Cao Cao's southern advance · Autumn 208 CE
   Cao Cao
   Cao Cao takes Jiangling and advances downstreamCao Cao
   After Liu Cong's surrender, Cao Cao (Side B) seizes the naval base at Jiangling and pushes his combined land-and-river host east/downstream along the Yangtze toward the Sun–Liu positions.
   Jiangling (Jing Province) → middle Yangtze · documented · Sanguozhi (Book of Wu; Biography of Zhou Yu) and Wikipedia 'Battle of Red Cliffs' — Cao Cao's autumn 208 advance after capturing the Jiangling naval base. NOTE: Jiangling proper is ~112.2E, west of the map frame; the start point is a normalized western frame-entry position.
2. Campaign stage 2: Allied fleet moves up · Late 208 CE (approaching winter)
   Zhou Yu
   Sun–Liu fleet sails upstream from Xiakou/FankouSun Quan–Liu Bei allies
   The combined ~50,000-strong Sun Quan–Liu Bei fleet under Zhou Yu (Side A) sails upstream from Xiakou or Fankou, near modern Wuhan, to meet Cao Cao's advance at Red Cliffs.
   Xiakou / Fankou (near modern Wuhan) → Red Cliffs · documented · Wikipedia 'Battle of Red Cliffs': 'The combined Sun–Liu force sailed upstream from either Xiakou or Fankou to Red Cliffs'; Sanguozhi Biography of Zhou Yu (30,000 from Sun Quan, 20,000 from Liu Bei).
3. Campaign stage 3: First contact · Winter 208 CE
   Inconclusive skirmish at Red Cliffs
   The fleets meet at Red Cliffs. Cao Cao's northern troops, weakened by disease and unused to river warfare, cannot win the small engagement; neither side gains an advantage and both pull back.
   Red Cliffs (Chibi), south bank of the Yangtze · reconstructed · Sanguozhi (Biography of Zhou Yu) and Wikipedia: 'Plagued by disease and low morale... Cao Cao's men could not gain an advantage in the small skirmish.' Exact site is scholar-debated (Chibi City / Puqi widely accepted) — coordinate is a reconstruction.
4. Campaign stage 4: Withdrawal · Winter 208 CE
   Cao Cao
   Cao Cao withdraws to Wulin on the north bankCao Cao
   After the failed skirmish Cao Cao (Side B) retreats across the Yangtze to Wulin on the north bank; the allies pull back to the south bank opposite him.
   Wulin (烏林), north bank of the Yangtze · reconstructed · Sanguozhi and Wikipedia: 'he retreated to Wulin (烏林), north of the river, and the allies pulled back to the south.' Wulin is placed opposite the disputed Chibi site — coordinate is a reconstruction.
5. Campaign stage 5: The fire attack · Winter 208 CE (night)
   Huang Gai
   Huang Gai's fire-ship attack across the riverSun Quan–Liu Bei allies
   Huang Gai (Side A) sends Cao Cao a false surrender letter, then launches fire ships loaded with kindling, dry reeds and oil across the river; carried by the wind they ignite Cao Cao's moored fleet and shore camp.
   Yangtze crossing, Chibi (south bank) → Wulin (north bank) · reconstructed · Sanguozhi (Biography of Zhou Yu; Huang Gai) records the feigned surrender and fire ships. The chained ships and Zhuge Liang's 'southeast wind' are later Romance-of-the-Three-Kingdoms fiction and are excluded; the exact crossing point is a reconstruction.
6. Campaign stage 6: Overland retreat · Winter 208 CE (immediately after)
   Cao Cao
   Cao Cao retreats overland up the Huarong roadCao Cao
   His fleet burned, Cao Cao (Side B) abandons the river and retreats overland northwest along the Huarong road, through marshland where heavy rain forces sick soldiers to carry bundles of grass across the mud, heading back toward Jiangling.
   Huarong road, marshlands toward Jiangling · reconstructed · Wikipedia and Pei Songzhi's Shan Yang Gong Zaiji annotation: the retreat along Huarong Road through marshland, rain-soaked road, sick soldiers carrying grass. 3rd-century Huarong lay north of the river; the route is a reconstruction (frame exits west toward Jiangling ~112.2E).
7. Campaign stage 7: Pursuit · Winter 208 CE – early 209 CE
   Zhou Yu
   Zhou Yu and Liu Bei pursue toward JianglingSun Quan–Liu Bei allies
   The victorious allies (Side A) press the attack by land and water, pursuing Cao Cao's routed army northwest and opening the follow-on campaign against Jiangling.
   Pursuit up the Yangtze toward Jiangling · reconstructed · Sanguozhi (Biography of Zhou Yu) — the allied pursuit and subsequent siege of Jiangling; exact pursuit track is a reconstruction, frame exits west toward Jiangling.

Sources

• Battle of Red Cliffs — Wikipedia (en): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Red_Cliffs
• Wikidata Q830059: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q830059
• Chen Shou, Records of the Three Kingdoms (Sanguozhi) — Biography of Zhou Yu and the Book of Wu (records the advance from Jiangling, the fleet from Xiakou/Fankou, the Wulin withdrawal, and Huang Gai's fire attack)
• Pei Songzhi annotations to the Sanguozhi — Jiangbiao Zhuan and Shan Yang Gong Zaiji (Huarong-road retreat through the marshes)
• File:Battle of Red Cliffs 208 extended map-en.svg — Wikimedia Commons (strategic movement map): https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Battle_of_Red_Cliffs_208_extended_map-en.svg
• Reconstructed battlefield coordinates (Chibi City): https://latitude.to/articles-by-country/cn/china/2375/battle-of-red-cliffs

On the data

CRITICAL honesty: Only the STRATEGIC movements are documented — in Chen Shou's Records of the Three Kingdoms (Sanguozhi), esp. the biographies of Zhou Yu and the Book of Wu, plus Pei Songzhi's annotations (Jiangbiao Zhuan; Shan Yang Gong Zaiji for the Huarong-road retreat). The famous TACTICAL details are later fiction from the 14th-century Romance of the Three Kingdoms and are NOT used here: chained-together ships, Zhuge Liang praying up the southeast wind, the "borrowing arrows with straw boats" ruse, and Huang Gai's dramatized flogging. EXACT SITE IS DISPUTED: scholars have argued the location for ~1,350 years; the most widely accepted candidate is Chibi City (former Puqi, Hubei), but Huangzhou (Su Dongpo's "Red Cliff"), Jiayu County, and the Wuhan/Wuchang area are all proposed. The Yangtze's course between Wulin and Wuhan has shifted since the Sui–Tang period, and place names moved (3rd-century Huarong was north of the river, east of Jiangling; modern Huarong County is in Hunan south of the river). CONSEQUENCE: every [lon,lat] here is a RECONSTRUCTED placement onto the modern middle-Yangtze frame, keyed to the widely-accepted Chibi City / Wulin pairing (Chibi ~113.90E,29.72N south bank; Wulin ~113.93E,29.85N north bank across from it) and to Wuhan (~114.3E,30.5N) for Xiakou/Fankou. Two phases are tagged documented where the strategic vector is firmly narrated and its endpoints are securely located (Cao's advance from Jiangling; the allied fleet sailing up from Xiakou/Fankou); the remaining phases are tagged reconstructed because pinning the Red Cliffs skirmish, the Wulin withdrawal, the fire-ship crossing point, the Huarong retreat route, and the pursuit onto exact modern coordinates depends on the unresolved site debate. FRAME NOTE: Jiangling proper (modern Jingzhou) sits at ~112.2E, WEST of the required map box (lon 113.5–114.6); its in-frame start points are normalized frame-entry positions on the western edge, not the city's true location. Troop numbers (~30,000 from Sun Quan + ~20,000 from Liu Bei vs. Cao's much larger but disease-weakened host) follow Sanguozhi; Cao's own figures are widely thought inflated.

Hand-authored from the sources below. Spotted a mistake? Email [email protected].