Battle of Red Cliffs

The Battle of Red Cliffs was a decisive naval battle fought on the Yangtze in the winter of 208-209, between the warlords of the late Han. The allied forces of Sun Quan, Liu Bei and Liu Qi, based south of the river, defeated the northern army of Cao Cao and kept him from conquering anything south of the Yangtze. The exact site has never been established: scholars have argued about it for at least 1,350 years, and four locations are still put forward, among them the hill at Huangzhou that Su Shi's poems made famous and the site across the river from Wulin, now the city of Chibi. That site is called the Military Red Cliff, and its cliff engravings can be dated to between the Tang and Song dynasties.