Advising Sun Quan not to send a hostage Sun Ce was assassinated in the year 200 by the followers of
Xu Gong, a commandery administrator whom he killed earlier. His younger brother,
Sun Quan, succeeded him and took control of his territories. Zhou Yu rushed back to
Wu Commandery (around present-day
Suzhou,
Jiangsu) to attend Sun Ce's funeral and remained in Wu Commandery after the funeral. Zhou Yu then held the appointment of Central Protector of the Army (). As Sun Quan was still relatively young and inexperienced then, Zhou Yu and
Zhang Zhao assisted him in overseeing the day-to-day affairs in the Jiangdong territories. Around the time, the warlord
Cao Cao, who controlled the Han court and the figurehead
Emperor Xian, had recently defeated his rival
Yuan Shao at the
Battle of Guandu and was achieving success in his campaigns to unify northern China. In 202, Cao Cao wrote a letter to Sun Quan, demanding that Sun Quan send one of his sons to the imperial capital Xu (許; present-day
Xuchang,
Henan) as a hostage, so as to secure Sun Quan's allegiance towards him. Sun Quan gathered all his subjects, including Zhang Zhao and
Qin Song, for a discussion, but they could not arrive at a conclusion. Sun Quan was reluctant to send one of his sons to be a hostage in the capital, so he had another discussion with only his mother
Lady Wu and Zhou Yu. Zhou Yu said: Lady Wu agreed with Zhou Yu and she said: "What Gongjin said is true. Gongjin was around the same age as Bofu as he was only a month younger than Bofu. I see Gongjin as a son, so you should treat him like an elder brother." Sun Quan heeded their advice and did not send a hostage to Cao Cao.
Battles against Huang Zu In 206, Zhou Yu and
Sun Quan's cousin
Sun Yu attacked bandits at Ma () and Bao () counties and killed their chiefs and captured thousands of enemies. Later that year,
Huang Zu, the Administrator () of Jiangxia Commandery (江夏郡; around present-day
Xinzhou District, Wuhan,
Hubei), sent his subordinate Deng Long () to lead a few thousand troops to attack Sun Quan's forces in Chaisang Commandery (柴桑郡; around present-day
Jiujiang,
Jiangxi). Zhou Yu attacked Deng Long, captured him alive, and sent him as a prisoner-of-war to
Wu Commandery (around present-day Suzhou, Jiangsu). In the spring of 208, Sun Quan ordered
an attack on Jiangxia, which was defended by Huang Zu. Zhou Yu was assigned as the Chief Commander of the Front Army () and he, along with
Lü Meng,
Ling Tong and others, scored a major victory over the enemy. Huang Zu was killed by Sun Quan's forces when attempting to escape.
Advising Sun Quan to go to war with Cao Cao In the late autumn of 208,
Cao Cao started a campaign aimed at wiping out all opposing forces in southern China. When his forces arrived in
Jing Province (covering present-day
Hubei and
Hunan), the provincial governor
Liu Cong surrendered without putting up any resistance. When Sun Quan's men heard that Cao Cao had obtained tens of thousands of Jing Province's land and naval troops, they were all very afraid because they knew Cao Cao's next target was Sun Quan's territories in
Jiangdong. Cao Cao wrote a letter to Sun Quan as follows: "Of late, I have been leading a punitive campaign in accordance with an imperial decree. Liu Cong surrendered when I led the imperial army to the south. Now, I have 800,000 naval troops under my command, and I wish to participate in a hunting expedition in
Wu with you, General." Sun Quan summoned all his subjects for a meeting to discuss how to counter an impending invasion by Cao Cao. Many of them turned pale when he showed them the letter. Some of Sun Quan's followers suggested to surrender to Cao Cao on the grounds that the strength of their armed forces was not comparable to Cao Cao's. Zhou Yu, however, had a different opinion and he said: Sun Quan replied: "The old villain has harboured the intention of usurping the Han dynasty for a long time, but he feared the two Yuans (
Yuan Shao and
Yuan Shu),
Lü Bu,
Liu Biao and me. Now, all the others have been destroyed and I am the only one left. The old villain and I cannot coexist together. Your idea of going to war coincides closely with my thoughts. This is a sign that Heaven has granted you to me." He then drew his sword, slashed the table in front of him and said: "Any of you who dares to speak of surrendering to Cao Cao shall end up like this table!" Later that night, Zhou Yu came to see Sun Quan and said: Sun Quan placed his hand on Zhou Yu's shoulder and replied:
Pei Songzhi, who annotated Zhou Yu's biography in the
Sanguozhi, argued that
Lu Su was actually the first person who urged Sun Quan to resist Cao Cao. Zhou Yu was at
Poyang County before Sun Quan held the discussion with his subjects, and Lu Su suggested to Sun Quan to summon Zhou Yu back for the meeting. Zhou Yu and Lu Su gave similar advice to Sun Quan, which resulted in Sun Quan arriving at his decision to go to war with Cao Cao. Pei Songzhi argued that it was unfair to Lu Su because Zhou Yu's biography gave full credit to Zhou Yu for being the only person to urge Sun Quan to resist Cao Cao, and failed to mention that Lu Su had already urged Sun Quan to resist Cao Cao before Zhou Yu did.
Battle of Red Cliffs Around the time,
Liu Bei had recently been defeated by
Cao Cao at the
Battle of Changban, and he planned to lead his followers south across the
Yangtze River. Liu Bei met
Lu Su at
Dangyang, where they discussed the formation of an alliance between Liu Bei and
Sun Quan. Liu Bei then moved to Xiakou (夏口; present-day
Hankou, Hubei) and garrisoned there. At the same time, he also sent his adviser
Zhuge Liang to accompany Lu Su to meet Sun Quan and discuss a Sun–Liu alliance. Sun Quan ordered Zhou Yu and
Cheng Pu to lead his forces to join Liu Bei in resisting Cao Cao, and they rendezvoused at Red Cliffs (). A plague had broken out in Cao Cao's army, so Cao Cao lost to the allied forces in an early skirmish between both sides. Cao Cao then moved his camp to the northern bank of the Yangtze River while the allies remained at the south.
Huang Gai, one of Sun Quan's generals, told Zhou Yu: "The enemy are superior in numbers in comparison with our side. I fear that we cannot last long. However, I observe that Cao Cao's ships are linked to each other. We can destroy them by fire." Huang Gai then prepared about ten
mengchongs and (鬬艦; a type of warship) and filled them with the ingredients necessary for starting a fire. He also wrote a letter to Cao Cao, pretending that he wanted to surrender and defect to Cao Cao's side. Huang Gai then prepared some (走舸; a smaller type of boat), which would follow behind the and , and his small fleet sailed towards Cao Cao's base. The wind was blowing strongly from the southeast. When Huang Gai's fleet reached the middle of the river, the ships all raised their sails, and Huang Gai lifted a torch and instructed his men to shout "We surrender!" Cao Cao's troops came out of the camp to look and they said Huang Gai was coming to join them. When Huang Gai was about 20
li away from the enemy base, he ordered his men to set the ships on fire and they boarded the smaller boats behind. As the wind was very strong, the flaming ships sailed towards Cao Cao's warships at fast speed and caused them to catch fire as well. Cao Cao's ships were all burnt down and the flames also spread quickly to his camps on land. Zhou Yu then ordered an attack on Cao Cao's base and scored a major victory. Cao Cao retreated north with his surviving troops after his defeat. Zhou Yu and Liu Bei led their respective forces in pursuit of Cao Cao, but Cao had already fled.
Battles of Jiangling After his defeat at Red Cliffs, Cao Cao returned to Xu (許; present-day
Xuchang,
Henan) and left
Cao Ren and others behind to defend
Jiangling County, the capital of
Nan Commandery (). Zhou Yu and
Cheng Pu led their troops towards Nan Commandery and were separated from Cao Ren's forces by the river. Liu Bei told Zhou Yu: "Cao Ren is defending Jiangling and he has much supplies in the city. He poses a big threat to us. I will send
Zhang Yide with 1,000 men to accompany you, while you dispatch 2,000 troops to follow me. We will then cross the Xia River (夏水; a tributary of the
Yangtze River starting from southeast of
Shashi District and ending at north of
Jianli County in Hubei) and attack Cao Ren's rear. When Cao Ren hears that we have infiltrated his rear, he will definitely retreat." Zhou Yu agreed to Liu Bei's suggestion. Zhou Yu later ordered
Gan Ning to station at Yiling (夷陵; present-day
Yichang, Hubei). Cao Ren sent a separate cavalry force to besiege Yiling, so Gan Ning sent an urgent request to Zhou Yu for reinforcements. Zhou Yu followed
Lü Meng's advice and left
Ling Tong to defend his current position while leading Lü Meng and others to help Gan Ning. After the siege at Yiling was lifted, Zhou Yu and his troops crossed the Yangtze River and attacked Jiangling, with Zhou personally participating in battle. He was hit on his right side by a stray arrow and had to retreat due to the severity of the wound. When Cao Ren heard that Zhou Yu was wounded and bedridden, he led his troops to outside Zhou Yu's camp and taunted the Wu troops. Zhou Yu got out of bed and personally inspected his men and encouraged them to raise their morale. Cao Ren saw that and retreated. By 209, Zhou Yu and Cao Ren had held up against each other for over a year and both sides had sustained heavy casualties. Cao Cao could no longer afford the continuous losses in personnel and
materiel, so he ordered Cao Ren to withdraw from Jiangling.
Advice to Sun Quan on how to deal with Liu Bei After the victory at the Battle of Jiangling,
Sun Quan appointed Zhou Yu as a Lieutenant-General () and the Administrator () of Nan Commandery (). Zhou Yu's headquarters were at
Jiangling County while he was in charge of Xiajun (), Hanchang (),
Liuyang () and Zhouling () counties.
Liu Bei assumed the appointment of Governor () of
Jing Province with his
administrative centre at
Gong'an County. When Liu Bei later met Sun Quan at Jing (京; present-day
Zhenjiang,
Jiangsu), Zhou Yu wrote to Sun Quan: Sun Quan considered that Cao Cao was still a threat in the north, so he thought it would be better for him to have more allies instead of creating hostility between him and Liu Bei. Besides, he was also worried that Liu Bei's men might not submit to him, so he rejected Zhou Yu's idea. ==Death==