While Rome Burns...

Episode 2: The Battle of Chi-bi (pronounced sh-bee)

Hello and welcome to the second episode of While Rome Burns, the podcast where we explore the worst blunders, mistakes, disasters and bad luck that have befallen some of history's most iconic figures.

Our episode today is one of my favorite moments from history.

A tale of the underdog claiming victory in spite of terrible odds. A story where the tide of victory changes as quickly as the wind. The Battle of Chi-bi or Battle of Red Cliffs, was a battle that by all rights should have gone to Cao Cao's (pronounces Tsao Tsao) forces.

But as you will see in this episode, the expected results don't always pan out and a sure victory is never guaranteed. So sit back, relax, and enjoy another story with me... While Rome Burns.

It is the winter of 208 CE. The location: China. The Han Emperor, Liu Xie, was a figurehead and political puppet at this point. The Warlord Cao Cao had been appointed Chancellor of China, being granted the absolute right to rule over the lands of the Han.

Cao Cao had just returned to the imperial capital after a long, grueling northern campaign that saw him solidify his hold on the northern territories of China. But Cao Cao was not one to sit idly and rest on his accomplishments.

Cao Cao then set out to conquer the southern lands of China, starting with Jing Province. Cao Cao ordered his forces, which according to his own accounts, were as high as 800,000 into Jing Province and a confrontation with a warlord known as Liu Bei.

Liu Bei's province of Jing quickly fell to the seemingly endless armies of Cao Cao and twice it seemed that he would be captured by the enemy forces. At one point, Liu Bei was completely surrounded by the elite infantry under Cao Cao's command.

But when all hope seemed lost, Liu Bei was miraculously saved by the timely arrival of a fleet of ships commanded by his brother in arms, Guan Yu. After the province of Jing fell, Liu Bei knew it was only a matter of time before he found himself unable to stand against the might of Cao Cao.

After careful contemplation, he sent his most trusted advisor, Zhuge Liang, to meet with another local warlord, Sun Quan, in hopes of forming an alliance and stopping Cao Cao before he could have a chance to solidify his rule of the southern provinces.

Zhuge Liang arrived shortly after Sun Quan had received a message from Cao Cao demanding his surrender, boasting that his army stood at 800,000 strong. Sun Quan's main strategist Zhou Yu places the realistic number somewhere near 230,000 men. Far more than Sun Quan has, but not the inflated numbers that Cao Cao gives. Many of Sun Quan's advisors advocated for capitulation and surrender. Surely living under Cao Cao's rule was better than dying under Cao Cao's blade.

After many meetings, negotiations, and tense arguments the persuasions of Zhuge Liang, Lu Su, and Zhou Yu won the day. Deciding on an alliance with Liu Bei, Sun Quan prepared his troops for battle. The combined forces of Sun Quan and Liu Bei amounted to only 50,000 men. Not nearly enough to even face the lower estimate of 230,000 that Zhou Yu gave. The allied forces would need to think strategically and plan carefully if they were to make any sort of stand against the northern warlord.

The lead up to the confrontation at Red Cliffs shows Cao Cao making some decidedly poor decisions and miscalculations.

Cao Cao forced his troops on long marches into the southern territories as a way to maintain the momentum of his victories during the southern campaign. The forced marches, however, did little more than cause fatigue and illness to take root with the bulk of his forces. This caused a severe moral and personnel problem for the great warlord.

Cao Cao also made the mistake of pressing many of the men from Jing province into service in his army. The people of Jing did not hold much respect or loyalty toward this warlord from the north. Liu Bei claimed descent from the Han dynasty and thus represented a connection to what many still saw as the legitimate rulers of China. The conscripts loyalty was as fleeting as the wind. Again, Morale and Personnel problems abound in Cao Cao's camp.

Another problem came when he attempted to sail his army down the Yangste river. Many of his troops were used to fighting and traveling overland. As Cao Cao's forces maneuvered their way down river, the tides and waves caused severe bouts of seasickness. Again, Morale and Personnel problems were plaguing the warlord's army.

This is where Cao Cao made his biggest mistake. In order to help stabilize the ships, and thus assist his troops in overcoming their seasickness, he ordered the ships to be secured to each other so that they were one solid unit, rather than a maneuverable fleet of individual ships. While this helped relieve his soldiers, it would prove his undoing.

As the armies began their initial skirmishes near Red Cliffs, Cao Cao's forces were unable to gain the advantage that should have been theirs. The illnesses and fatigue were too great a barrier to overcome and his soldiers were forced to retreat to Wulin, as the allied forces of Liu Bei and Sun Quan were able to solidify their position on the southern banks of the Yangste river.

As the allied forces observed Cao Cao setting up on the northern banks of the Yangste, Zhuge Liang, Zhou Yu, and the other generals of the allied forces prepared and planned for their next move. This is where we get one of the more colorful and possibly fictionalized accounts of the era. Zhuge Liang realizes that in order to properly repel the invading northern armies, the Liu-Sun alliance will need more arrows for their archers. Borrowing 20 ships from the fleet and filling the decks with human- shaped straw figures, Zhuge Liang set off toward Cao Cao's camp under the cover of night. A dense fog had settled into the river valley. On a given command, Zhuge Liang's men in the decks below began banging drums. This startled Cao Cao into ordering his archers to fire into the fog. As the arrows rained down onto the ships, they safely stuck into the straw men, acting as cushions from which the arrows could be retrieved relatively undamaged. Once the ships began to become burdened by the weight of the arrows, Zhuge Liang ordered the ships to retreat back to the allied side of the river. Thus Zhuge Liang “borrowed” 100,000 arrows from Cao Cao. Or so the legends claim.

Cao Cao sought for a way to use his impressive strength of numbers to his advantage. There had to be a way to claim victory against the southern warlords at this pivotal moment. His opportunity seemed to come with the defection of one of the generals under the command of Sun Quan.

This General's name was Huang Gai. He commanded a small fleet of ships in the coalition army currently opposing Cao Cao. Huang Gai sent messengers to Cao Cao, offering to defect to his side with his entire fleet of ships. Cao Cao was practically beaming with excitement: weakening the strength and size of the already pitiful force that was arrayed against him would do well to lower the morale of the Liu-Sun coalition. Unfortunately for Cao Cao, this is not how it would play out.

Huang Gai was acting under orders from Sun Quan. Huang Gai and the troops under his command had been Packing his ships with dried reeds, wood, kindling, and oil. When the ships were ready, they set off toward the Northern banks of the Yangste. A strong wind helped propel these now floating fire hazards toward Cao Cao's chained together ships. The skeleton crews then set the ships and kindling on fire and fled into some waiting lifeboats.

With his ships chained together stern to stem and a strong wind propelling the firebombs forward, Cao Cao could do nothing but watch as the blazing beacons of defeat plowed into his forces. Many men, horses, and supplies were either burned or drowned in the resulting chaos. Cao Cao's hopes of a solid win in the south had, quite literally, gone up in flames.

Cao Cao did not have much time to gather his thoughts or prepare for a counter assault or fire mitigation. As the chaos of the fire attack had just started a contingent of land forces, led by the great strategist Zhou Yu, emerged from seemingly out of nowhere and attacked Cao Cao's forces, scattering them and sending the invading northern army into further disarray. Cao Cao attempted to rally his forces for a defense but quickly reversed that decision and ordered the retreat from Red Cliffs.

Zhou Yu and Liu Bei ordered their forces to continue the pursuit of Cao Cao and his arm. Liu Bei urged on by a desire for revenge after losing the embarrassing engagements in Jing province. Cao Cao's army, still being weakened by disease, fled frantically into the swampland near the red cliffs. Many soldiers were killed after falling in the mud and being trampled, their bodies paving the path back to the northern territories.

The allied coalition, unfortunately, could not capitalize on their surprise fire attack. The remaining forces under the Sun-Liu Alliance attempted to cross the Yangste river but there was such excitement and frantic rushing of the ferries to get across the river, that by the time they had crossed, the vanguard headed by Cao Cao's cousin, Cao Ren, was able to successfully establish a defense that prevented further pursuit. Cao Cao lived to fight another day.

In the aftermath of the battle of Red Cliffs, Cao Cao accepted his defeat in the south and focused on consolidating his power in the North even more. He controlled the Han Emperor and therefore the legitimate right to rule under the idea of the mandate of heaven. After his passing in March of 220, Cao Pi, son of Cao Cao, forced Liu Xian to abdicate and declared himself emperor of the kingdom of Cao Wei. Liu Bei, holding that his link to the lineage of the Han imperial line made him the legitimate ruler of China, was able to gain control of several provinces over the next ten years, culminating in the founding of the Shu-han Kingdom. Maintaining control of his provinces in the south, Sun Quan established the Kingdom of Wu and ruled for 30 years. Thus began the era of the Three Kingdoms; A time where China was divided into three distinct kingdoms each with the power to control their own borders but lacking the military and political will to defeat the other two kingdoms in combat. An era of division was once again upon the land of China. The battle of Chi Bi was a decisive battle toward the end of the Han Dynasty that shows that sometimes having the most power on your side is not always the key to victory. Cao Cao's victory, on paper, was almost a guaranteed fact of history. Sun Quan was open to the arguments of his advisors urging him to surrender at first. Only the timely intervention of Zhuge Liang and a few other advisors steered him toward standing against the Northern Warlord. There were so many moments leading up to and including the Battle of Red Cliffs where history hung in the balance. It could have gone either way and who knows what that would have led to. But as a result of the battle of Red Cliffs, we now have a complex, interesting period of history to study that has spawned novels, plays, movies, video games, and even this podcast. All because of a single battle that by all accounts should have gone the other way.

Thank you for listening and giving this show a chance. Season 1 of While Rome Burns will run for 13 episodes, released every 2 weeks. The next episode will release on August 16th, 2020. If you like what you hear, leave us a review on iTunes so that we can make a second season. While Rome Burns is part of the 1up Podcast Network. Find more content by going to 1upPodcasts.com. Cover Art by Igor Nunes. You can contact him for commissions on twitter @Whyccan. Find more of his art by going to Whyccan.Artstation.com

Background Music “Beyond the Warriors” by GuiFrog under an Attribution 3.0 International License from Creative Commons. Additional Background and outro music provided by Monplaisir under a Creative Commons Zero 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.

Find Monplaisir on twitter @MonplaisirMusic or at FreeMusicArchive.org/music/Monplaisir. Find GuiFrog at soundcloud.com/guifrog

Thank you so much for listening.