2008 Discount Yangtze River Cruise Starting from 290 USD p.p.! !
THREE KINGDOM'S RED CLIFF
From the flat bank appears a Sharp
rock escarpment dotted with pavi1ions and paths.
This is 
the
site of the great Battle of the Red Cliff between
the huge forces of Cao Coif Wei and the combined,
1esser armies of Shu and Wu in AD 208. Cao Cao
had consolidated the power of the Kingdom of
Wei in the north and sought to extend it to
the Yangtze. His troops, all from the northern
plains, were not accustomed to naval warfare.
Nevertheless, he took his army of 200,000 men
to launch his attack on the Kingdom of Shu,
whose king, Liu Bet, called upon the King of
Wu for assistance.
In urgent need of 100,000 arrows
to repel the invaders, Zhuge Liang (adviser
to Liu Bei) devised a brilliant stratagem. Twenty
naval junks, beating war drums, but stacked
high with only bundles of straw shrouded in
black cloth, feigned an advance on the Wei encampment
on a dark, foggy night. The Wei commanders Responded
by discharging their arrow into the indistinct
hulks on the junks. By dawn, each junk bristled
with thousands of arrows, more than enough for
the army's requirements.
By another ruse, Cao Cao was persuaded
by a spy in his camp to secure all his boats
together for a forthcoming attack, so that his
soldiers 
would
feel as if they were on firm ground. The armies
of Wu and Shu set fire to the boats in the midst
of the battle and, with a favorable wind, the
great conflagration brought about the defeat
of Cao Cao. who fled northwards.
Red Cliff itself is said to have
been forever scorched red by the flames of this
day-long battle. In a victory celebration, General
Zhou Yu of Wu, flourishing his writing brush,
jubilantly inscribed the gigantic characters
'Red Cliff (Chi Bi) on the cliff face, which
can be seen to this day.
Pavilions on the hill commemorate
specific incidents in the battle, and there
is an exhibition of over 2,000 weapons, dating
from the Three Kingdoms period, that were found
in the area. The story of the battle is known
to all Chinese, and the makestlle site a very
popu1ar tourist spot.
• Shashi
• DongTing
Lake
• Three Kingdom's Red Cliff
• Han River
