The film picks up with Cao Cao 's massive fleet of roughly 800,000 soldiers anchored across the Yangtze River from the smaller 50,000-man alliance of the Wu and Shu kingdoms.
The alliance exploits Cao Cao's strategic error of chaining his ships together to prevent seasickness, launching a massive fire-ship attack when the wind shifts in their favor. Red Cliff II(2009)
Zhuge Liang famously uses "straw boats to borrow arrows," tricking Cao Cao's navy into firing volleys into a thick fog to replenish the alliance's empty quivers. The film picks up with Cao Cao 's