Page "Lü Meng" Paragraph 5

That same year, Lü Meng participated in the Battle of Red Cliffs, where an alliance between Sun Quan and Liu Bei defeated the forces of Cao Cao.

Cao Cao perfunctorily retreated to the north, and left Cao Ren and Xu Huang at Jiangling in Nan Commandery ( 南郡 ), Yue Jin in Xiangyang, and Man Chong at Dangyang.

When Sun Quan's forces invaded Nan Commandery, Gan Ning was sent to attack Yiling, but his forces were surrounded by a detachment of Cao Ren's forces.

When Sun Quan's army received the news, most thought that they did not have enough men to spare to save Gan Ning, but Lü Meng insisted on saving him.

He presented a plan to leave Ling Tong behind to defend against the main forces of Cao Ren while the forces of Lü Meng, Zhou Yu, and Cheng Pu went to rescue Gan Ning, predicting accurately that Ling Tong will surely hold out until the three return.

Lü Meng also convinced Zhou Yu to spare 300 men to block the enemy retreat route with giant logs.

When the rescue forces arrived in Yiling, they killed half of the enemy's men, causing Cao Ren's army to retreat at night.

However, their way of retreat was blocked by logs previously set up by Zhou Yu, so they all had to dismount and run to safety.

Zhou Yu's pursuing army arrived at the blockade, and got themselves 300 horses abandoned by Cao Ren's army.

The morale of Zhou Yu's army improved greatly after, and soon they routed Cao Ren and captured Nanjun.

Lü Meng was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General ( 偏將軍 ).