The Incendiary Attack

When we say about fire attack, we will most likely remember the Battle of the Red Cliff; how Zhuge Liang and Zhou Yu use fire attack to defeat Cao Cao’s numerous navy fleets. Fire attack in Ancient China history was used during night raids or surprise attack. In fire tactic, instructions to the army or troop must be clear. If there is a small mistake, the plan may backfire and the enemy will have the advantage.

孙子曰：
凡火攻有五：一曰火人，二曰火积，三曰火辎，四曰火库，五曰火队。
行火必有因，因必素具。发火有时，起火有日。时者，天之燥也。日者，月在
箕、壁、翼、轸也。凡此四宿者，风起之日也。凡火攻，必因五火之变而应之：火
发于内，则早应之于外；火发而其兵静者，待而勿攻，极其火力，可从而从之，不
可从则上。火可发于外，无待于内，以时发之，火发上风，无攻下风，昼风久，夜风止。凡军必知五火之变，以数守之。

Sun Tzu stated that there are five main target of using a fire attack; soldiers, stores and supply, equipments, carts and chariots, and army formation. Burning the soldiers will decrease the strength of the army, burning the supplies will decrease the energy of the army, burning the equipments will make the enemy unarmed. Burning carts and chariot, the enemy will not have transportation for supply and stores, therefore the speed of the enemy decreases. Lastly, using incendiary attack will break the enemy’s army formation, therefore they will not in order.

There are several ways to ensure a successful fire tactic:

Firstly, make sure the equipments to start a fire must be adequate.

Secondly, if the wind is blowing towards the target, then the fire tactic will be successful. Therefore when the moon is in the constellation of 箕、壁、翼、轸, then that are the days of which the wind will raise.

Thirdly, the season and weather condition affect the progress of the fire tactic. Dry season and weather condition is favorable for a fire attack. If the weather is raining, then fire attack will be in vain.

Lastly, the assistance of the army is important as the fire tactic may only weaken the enemy. If the fire occurs inside the enemy, then attack at once, for the fire will make the enemy’s soldiers panic and dispersed in chaos. But if the enemy is calm during the outbreak of fire, then do not attack and wait for the opportunity. When moving the troop during the fire attack, do not order the troop to move against the direction of the wind or the spreading of the fire; follow the direction of the fire.

The Battle of the Red Cliff (208) was the war against the combined force of Liu and Sun (Dongwu) against the warlord Cao Cao. So how did they defeat the Cao navy troop in the battle?

反間計 - Firstly, the Wu commanding general Zhou Yu decided to write a fake letter about Cao's navy admiral Cai Mao and Zhang Yun allied with him. This made Cao Cao executed the two generals mistakingly.

苦肉計 - Zhou Yu and the old general Huang Gai decided to plot the beating trick. By beating Huang Gai, Cao's spy revealed the situation to Cao Cao. Huang Gai wrote a fake surrender letter and order his advisor Kan Ze to sent it to Cao Cao.

無中生有 - Zhuge Liang and Lu Su mobilize straw boat to Cao Cao's naval shipyard. This made Cao Cao use archer to defend the naval base. This made Zhuge Liang collect more than 10,000 arrows.

連環計 - Pang Tong went to Cao Cao's base and advise him to chain all his ship together to ease the sea-sickness of the soldiers. But his intention is to trap the ship together so that Zhou Yu's fire attack will spread.

大 火計 - Huang Gai send speedboats to pretend to surrender to Cao Cao. Upon reaching the naval shipyard, Huang Gai ordered all boats to be set on fire and collide to Cao Cao's chained ships. Soon, Cao Cao's thousands ships were all burnt down.