Red Cliff-Part II (2009)

 

Sun Shangxiang has infiltrated Cao Cao's camp and is secretly noting its details and sending them via a pigeon to Zhuge Liang. Meanwhile, Cao Cao's army is seized with a plague of typhoid fever that kills a number of his troops. Cao Cao orders the corpses to be sent on floating rafts to the allies' camp, in the hope of spreading the plague to his enemies. The allied army's morale is affected when some unsuspecting soldiers let the plague in. Eventually, a disheartened Liu Bei leaves with his forces while Zhuge Liang stays behind to assist Sun Quan. Cao Cao is overjoyed when he hears that the alliance has collapsed. At the same time, Cai Mao and Zhang Yun propose a new tactic of interlocking the battleships with iron beams to minimise rocking when sailing on the river and reduce the chances of the troops falling seasick.

Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang make plans to eliminate Cai Mao and Zhang Yun and produce 100,000 arrows respectively. They agreed that whoever fails to complete his mission shall be executed under military law. Zhuge Liang's strategy of letting the enemy shoot 20 boats covered in straw brings in over 100,000 arrows from the enemy and makes Cao Cao doubt the loyalty of Cai Mao and Zhang Yun. On the other hand, Cao Cao sends Jiang Gan to persuade Zhou Yu to surrender, but Zhou tricks Jiang Gan into believing that Cai Mao and Zhang Yun are planning to assassinate Cao Cao. Both Zhuge Liang and Zhou Yu's respective plans complement each other when Cao Cao is convinced, despite having earlier doubts about Jiang Gan's report, that Cai Mao and Zhang Yun were indeed planning to assassinate him by deliberately "donating" arrows to the enemy. Cai Mao and Zhang Yun are executed only for Cao Cao to realize his folly afterwards.

Sun Shangxiang returns to base from Cao Cao's camp with a map of the enemy formation. Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang decide to attack Cao Cao's navy with fire after predicting that a special climatic condition will soon cause the winds to blow from the southeast – a direction to their advantage. Before the battle, Sun Quan's forces feast on rice dumplings to celebrate the Winter Solstice. Meanwhile, Zhou Yu's wife, Xiaoqiao, after over hearing the battle plan heads towards Cao Cao's camp alone secretly in the hope of persuading Cao to give up his ambitious plans. She fails to convince Cao Cao and decides to distract him with an elaborate tea ceremony to buy time for her side.

The battle begins when the southeast wind starts blowing in the middle of the night. Sun Quan's forces launch their attack on Cao Cao's navy by ramming smaller boats that are set aflame into Cao's larger battleships. On the other hand, Liu Bei's forces, whose departure from the alliance was a ruse, start attacking Cao Cao's forts on land. By dawn, Cao Cao's entire navy has been destroyed. The allies launch another offensive on Cao Cao's ground army in his forts and succeed in breaking through using testudo formation despite suffering heavy casualties. Although Cao Cao is besieged in his main camp, he manages to hold Zhou Yu at sword point after ambushing him with the help of Cao Hong. Xiahou Jun also shows up with Xiaoqiao as a hostage and threatens to kill her if the allies do not surrender. Just then, Zhao Yun manages to reverse the situation by rescuing Xiaoqiao with a surprise attack, while Sun Quan fires an arrow that grazes the top of Cao Cao's head and cuts his scalp loose. Cao Cao is now at the mercy of the allies, but they spare his life and leave. In the final scene, Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang have a final conversation before Zhuge walks away into the far distance with the newborn foal Mengmeng.