In the winter of 208, the warlords Liu Bei and Sun Quan formed an alliance to counter another warlord Cao Cao and defeated him at the decisive Battle of Red Cliffs. Shortly after the Battle of Red Cliffs, the allied forces followed up with the Battle of Jiangling and succeeded in capturing Jiangling County and the rest of Nan Commandery (南郡; around present-day Jingzhou, Hubei) from Cao Cao's forces.