Editing Sun Quan (section)

==Battle of Red Cliffs==
{{main|Battle of Red Cliffs}}
[[File:Dahuting Tomb mural, cavalry and chariots, Eastern Han.jpg|thumb|300px|A mural showing [[Horses in East Asian warfare|chariots and cavalry]], from Dahuting Tomb ({{lang|zh|打虎亭漢墓}}) of the late [[Eastern Han dynasty]] (25-220 AD), located in [[Zhengzhou]], [[Henan]]]]

At the end of 208. After Liu Biao's death, a succession struggle for his domain came into being, between his sons [[Liu Qi (Liu Biao's son)|Liu Qi]] and younger son [[Liu Cong (Han dynasty)|Liu Cong]], whom Liu Biao's second wife [[Liu Biao#Family|Lady Cai]] favoured (because he had married her niece). After Huang Zu's death, Liu Qi was therefore given Huang's post as the governor of [[Jiangxia Commandery]]. Liu Cong therefore succeeded Liu Biao after his death, and Liu Qi was displeased and considered, but did not carry out, an attack against his brother. Nevertheless, Liu Cong, in fear of having to fight Cao Cao and his brother on two fronts, surrendered to Cao Cao against the advice of Liu Biao's key ally [[Liu Bei]]. Liu Bei, unwilling to submit to Cao Cao, fled south. Cao caught up to him and crushed his forces, but Liu Bei escaped with his life; he fled to [[Dangyang]]. Cao Cao took over most of [[Jing Province]], and appeared set on finally unifying the empire.

Sun Quan was well aware of Cao Cao's intentions, and he quickly entered into an alliance with Liu Bei and Liu Qi to prepare for an attack by Cao. Cao Cao wrote Sun Quan with a letter intending to intimidate, and in face of Cao's overwhelming force (estimated to be about 220,000 men, although Cao claimed 800,000, against Sun's 30,000 and the Lius' combined force of 10,000), many of Sun's subordinates, including Zhang Zhao, advocated surrender. Sun Quan refused, under advice from Zhou Yu and Lu Su that Cao Cao would surely not tolerate him even if he surrendered.

Sun Quan put Zhou Yu in charge of his 30,000 men, largely stationed on naval ships, and Zhou set up a defensive position in conjunction with Liu Bei, whose army was stationed on land. About this time, there was a plague developing in Cao Cao's forces which significantly weakened it. Zhou Yu set up a trap where he pretended to be punishing his subordinate [[Huang Gai]], and Huang pretended to surrender to Cao Cao in fear. Zhou Yu then sent ships under Huang Gai's command to pretend to surrender and, as Huang's ships approached Cao Cao's fleet, they were set aflame to assault Cao's fleet, and Cao's fleet was largely destroyed by fire. Cao Cao led his forces to escape on land, but much of the force was destroyed by Sun Quan and Liu Bei's land forces.