Belligerents
Background
Enthroned as emperor, Liu Bei declared war eastward — vengeance for Guan Yu and the recovery of Jing Province. Zhao Yun protested that the state’s enemy was the house of Cao, not Sun Quan; it changed nothing. Rebuffed in his peace overtures, Sun Quan declared vassalage to Wei to secure his rear, and handed his whole army to Lu Xun, not yet forty.
Course
The Shu army, tens of thousands by the records, drove east along the Yangtze’s south bank with early success — but Lu Xun traded space for time, falling back hundreds of li to Yiling and holding for half a year. When the heat-worn Liu Bei beached his navy and strung his camps through seven hundred li of forest, Lu Xun judged the moment come. One bundle of thatch per soldier: forty camps went up at once, and the Shu army collapsed without organized resistance. Liu Bei fled through the night to Baidicheng; Ma Liang and many of Shu’s best never came home.
Outcome & impact
Shu lost a generation of strength and talent, and Liu Bei died at Baidicheng within the year. Paradoxically, the disaster let Zhuge Liang instantly restore the Wu alliance, and the three borders froze in place for nearly forty years. It stands with Guandu and Red Cliffs as one of the era’s three decisive battles.
History vs. the novelHistoryvsNovel
The novel’s ending — Zhuge Liang’s pre-built stone maze trapping the pursuing Lu Xun — is fiction. The historical Lu Xun halted the pursuit himself, reading the risk of Wei intervention. What is in the record: Cao Pi predicting Liu Bei’s defeat the moment he heard of camps strung over seven hundred li.