Battle of Jiangling (208)
| Battle of Jiangling | |||||||
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| Part of the Red Cliffs campaign | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
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Sun Quan Liu Bei |
Cao Cao | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Lei Xu | Wen Ping | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 40,000+ | 120,000+ (the troops Cao Ren had prior to the battle was more than that of Zhou Yu, and he received reinforcements from Yi Province, Xiangyang, Runan, Jiangxia, Dangyang, and numerous other cities controlled by Cao Cao.) | ||||||
| Battle of Jiangling | |||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 江陵之戰 | ||||||
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| Simplified Chinese | 江陵之战 | ||||||
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| Transcriptions | |
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| Standard Mandarin | |
| Hanyu Pinyin | Jiānglǐng Zhī Zhàn |
The Battle of Jiangling was fought by the allied forces of Sun Quan and Liu Bei against Cao Cao in the late Eastern Han dynasty. The battle was an integral part of the Red Cliffs campaign, and was fought immediately after the Battle of Yiling in 208, and the preceding engagement at Wulin (烏林; in present-day Honghu, Hubei) on land and the marine Battle of Red Cliffs where Cao Cao's navy was destroyed. Note that the battle at Wulin was a byproduct of the Battle of Red Cliffs, and they were not the same battle.
While the fighting around the city of Jiangling was vigorous, there were not much fierce battles taking place in southern Jing Province. Unable to isolate Jiangling from its supporting cities (except those in Yi Province, see Battle of Yiling (208) for details), the campaign became a war of attrition, which resulted in enormous casualties for Cao Cao's side. After a year or so, Cao Cao could no longer afford the continuous losses in personnel and materiel, so he ordered Cao Ren to withdraw from Jiangling.
After the great victory in the Battle of Red Cliffs, the allies immediately carried out their next step of their strategy by attempting to take control of Nan Commandery from Cao Cao by driving the retreating enemy toward Jiangling (江陵, located in present-day Jingjiang 荆江, not to be confused with present-day Jiangling County, Hubei).
Zhou Yu was worried about Cao Cao's unscathed units totaling over 100,000 strong, which were scattered around strategic locations, so he urged Liu Bei to send Guan Yu to block Cao Ren's supply lines via infiltration. Zhou Yu wanted to have Guan Yu attack the enemy rear while bypassing the strongpoint of Jiangling, in order to isolate Jiangling for a coordinated attack.
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Wikipedia