Welcome to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms podcast.

This is a supplemental episode.

In this episode, we're going to take a look at the real battle of Redcliffe versus the fictional version.

Considering that we spent all or part of 11 episodes of the podcast on this one battle

and the events immediately leading up to it, it goes without saying that this was a seminal

event in the novel, and that mirrors its significance in real history,

even if the players involved may not have realized it at the time.

This turned out to be essentially the battle that set us on the path

to having three kingdoms instead of one kingdom run by Cao Cao.

However, as you may have already guessed,

a lot of the events described in the novel are exaggerations, or just pure fiction.

So let's start with what was real.

To do that, I'm going to read you what was written about this battle in the

records of the Three Kingdoms, which is generally considered the most reliable source of

information on the Three Kingdoms period. This is actually a collection of three books,

each one being the official history of one of the three kingdoms.

I'll start off with the book of Wei, which is the kingdom that Cao Cao's descendants

would found. Here's roughly what it says about the Battle of Redcliffe.

Cao Cao arrived at Redcliffe and fought against Liu Bei. The outcome was unfavorable.

Also, there was pestilence and many soldiers died, so he led his army back.

Liu Bei then gradually gained the counties of Jing province and the Southlands.

So, I know what you're thinking,

...