Cao Cao’s Costly Mistake
Cao Cao exaggerated his army’s size to intimidate his foes: modern estimates put his forces at around 250,000 men. It was still a massive host that greatly outnumbered his enemies, whose combined forces were no more than 50,000 men. With the deck heavily stacked in his favor, Cao Cao arrived at the Yangtze River, key waterway of southern China. There, he assembled a riverine fleet to assist his operations. The northern warlord and his men were unfamiliar with naval warfare, however. Like his army, his navy greatly outnumbered the southerners, but unlike his army, it lacked experience. Cao Cao’s foes exploited that at the Battle of Red Bluff, 208 AD, and sent a secret agent to set him up for failure. He persuaded the northern warlord to chain his ships together to increase their stability, and reduce his men’s seasickness.
Next, a southern admiral offered to defect with his ships. Cao Cao believed him, and arrangements were made to welcome the defectors. Unbeknownst to Cao Cao, the “defecting” vessels had been converted into fire ships filled with flammable materials. Skeleton crews sailed them close to the northern fleet, set them alight, then escaped in small boats. The wind carried them to Cao Cao’s chained fleet, whose immobilized ships, unable to maneuver and escape, were destroyed in a massive inferno. He was forced into a retreat that soon became a rout, in which most of his gigantic army was destroyed. That ended attempts to reunify China, which split into three kingdoms.
