13. Cao Cao’s Lopsided Losses
Cao Cao exaggerated his army’s size to intimidate his enemies: modern estimates put his forces at around 250,000 men. It was still a massive host that greatly outnumbered his foes, whose combined forces were no more than 50,000 men. With a lopsided superiority of force, Cao Cao arrived at the Yangtze River, southern China’s key waterway. 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, Cao Cao’s navy greatly outnumbered the southerners, but unlike his army, it lacked experience. His enemies 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. However, 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 deteriorated into a lopsided rout, in which most of his gigantic army was destroyed. That lopsided defeat ended attempts to reunify China, which split into three kingdoms. It took centuries before China was finally reunified.
