Battle of Yiling ( 208 ) The Battle of Yiling was fought between the warlords Sun Quan and Cao Cao in 208 in the late Eastern Han Dynasty . The battle was an integral part in the Red Cliffs campaign , as it was fought immediately after the major engagement at Wulin ( 烏林 ; in present - day Honghu , Hubei ) during the Battle of Red Cliffs . The Battle of Yiling was also the prelude to the subsequent Battle of Jiangling . Background . Immediately after Cao Cao ' s defeat at Wulin in the Battle of Red Cliffs , Zhou Yu led 30 , 000 troops into Nan Commandery in a move to capture Jing Province ' s capital city , Jiangling ( 江陵 ; in present - day Jingjiang 荆江 , not to be confused with present - day Jiangling County , Hubei ) . Zhou Yu ' s army camped on the southern bank of the Yangtze River . Before engaging Cao Cao ' s general Cao Ren , Zhou Yu ordered Gan Ning to take Yiling ( 夷陵 ; present - day Yichang , Hubei ) as a preemptive move to secure the entrance to Yi Province ( covering the Sichuan Basin ) . In addition , if Yiling was captured , Cao Ren would be isolated from Yi Province ' s governor Liu Zhang , who was sending reinforcements to support him . The battle . Defection of Xi Su . The commander of Yiling , Xi Su ( 襲肅 ) , was originally an official under Liu Zhang and he hated Cao Cao . When Gan Ning ' s troops reached Yiling , Xi Su surrendered without a fight . As Gan Ning ' s force reached 1 , 000 ( Gan had 700 men initially ) , Zhou Yu wanted to merge Xi Su and his 300 troops into Lü Meng ' s unit to strengthen the main force . Lü Meng refused the offer and appealed to Sun Quan not to reassign Xi Su and his 300 men , but rather , keep Xi Su with Gan Ning to reinforce defenses at Yiling . Sun Quan agreed to Lü Meng ' s proposal . When Cao Ren learnt that Yiling had fallen , he immediately sent 6 , 000 cavalry to retake the city . Under intense pressure , Gan Ning remained calm and stabilized his army ' s morale . Lü Meng ' s strategies . As Gan Ning ' s request for reinforcements reached Zhou Yu , nearly " everyone pointed out that there were not enough men to spare as a relief force " . However , Lü Meng stood up and urged his colleagues to go and support Gan Ning , and guaranteed that Ling Tong could defend their main camp on his own for at least ten days . Ling Tong took up the burden of facing Cao Ren and Xu Huang alone , in order to buy time for Zhou Yu , Lü Meng , and others to help Gan Ning at Yiling . Cao Ren did not expect Zhou Yu to ignore his massive army at Jiangling , and was consequently defeated at Yiling , suffering more than 3 , 000 casualties . Meanwhile , Ling Tong deceived Cao Ren into believing that was still a sizable army left in Zhou Yu ' s main camp , so Cao did not launch an all - out assault on Ling . Instead , Cao Ren sent Xu Huang to attack Ling Tong but was failed . En route back to the main camp , Lü Meng suggested a plan to capture enemy warhorses : he would lead 300 soldiers to block the enemy ' s retreat route with bundles of firewood so the horses were unable to pass through . As Lü Meng expected , in order to escape from Zhou Yu ' s pursuit , Cao Ren ' s cavalry abandoned their steeds and fled back to Jiangling on foot . Zhou Yu returned with over 300 captured enemy warhorses and Yiling remained firmly in Sun Quan ' s control for the rest of the war . Aftermath . The fall of Yiling meant that Sun Quan ' s forces had opened up the entrance to Yi Province . It also implied that Cao Ren , who was in Jiangling , would no longer receive any reinforcements from Liu Zhang .