Famous Battles Sand Table · WarTable

Battle of Changping

Qin took Yewang from Han, cutting the Shangdang Commandery off from the rest of Han. Its governor, Feng Ting, would not surrender to Qin and offered Shangdang to Zhao instead. Zhao accepted and sent Lian Po with a large army to Changping; Qin sent Wang He to attack.

260 BC · Qin vs Zhao

The fight for Shangdang

Lian Po holds fast

Rumours and a new general

Zhao Kuo attacks

Cutting off the rear

Starved under siege

Zhao army destroyed

One of the largest and bloodiest battles of the Warring States period.

Zhao never recovered; none of the six eastern states could resist Qin alone, which cleared the biggest obstacle to Qin's unification.

Battle of Julu

Peasant uprisings swept the land at the end of Qin. After defeating Xiang Liang, the Qin general Zhang Han turned north against Zhao; Wang Li's great army trapped King Xie of Zhao in Julu. Zhang Han camped at Jiyuan and built a walled road to supply Wang Li. Relief armies from the other states arrived north of Julu and built camps, but did not dare to attack the Qin army.

207 BC · Chu vs Qin

Qin besieges Zhao

Xiang Yu takes command

Breaking the cauldrons and sinking the boats

Nine battles, nine victories

Watching from the ramparts

Zhang Han surrenders

The decisive battle of the peasant wars at the end of Qin, which destroyed the main Qin army.

It laid the foundation for overthrowing Qin rule, and made Xiang Yu commander of the anti-Qin alliance.

Battle of Guandu

Yuan Shao held the four provinces of Hebei and had plenty of men and grain; Cao Cao “held the emperor to command the lords” and controlled the land south of the Yellow River. In 200, Yuan Shao marched south and moved to Liyang to cross the river. Cao Cao, outnumbered, massed his main force at Guandu to hold the road to the capital Xu.

200 · Cao Cao vs Yuan Shao

Two great powers clash

Relief of Baima

Wen Chou killed at Yanjin

Stand-off at Guandu

Night raid on Wuchao

Yuan army collapses

A famous Chinese battle won by the smaller army.

Yuan Shao's power declined from then on, laying the foundation for Cao Cao's unification of the north.

Battle of Red Cliffs

After unifying the north, Cao Cao led a great army south into Jing Province. Liu Biao died, his son Liu Cong surrendered, and Cao took Jiangling with the province's navy and warships. Liu Bei was beaten at Changban near Dangyang and fell back to Xiakou.

208 · Sun–Liu alliance vs Cao Cao

Cao Cao marches south

The Sun–Liu alliance

Stand-off at Red Cliffs

Huang Gai's fire attack

Retreat by the Huarong Road

The realm divided in three

A famous Chinese battle won by the smaller army.

Cao Cao's drive to unify China was stopped, laying the foundation for the Three Kingdoms.

Battle of the Fei River

After unifying the north, the Former Qin emperor Fu Jian ignored his ministers' warnings and led over 800,000 men south to destroy Eastern Jin at one stroke, boasting: “With my host, if we threw our whips into the river, they would stop its flow.” The vanguard under Fu Rong crossed the Huai and took Shouyang; the main army stretched for a thousand li behind.

383 · Eastern Jin vs Former Qin

Former Qin marches south

Eastern Jin prepares

Battle of the Luo Stream

Every bush a soldier

The Qin army pulls back

Every wind and crane's cry

A famous Chinese battle won by the smaller army.

Former Qin collapsed and the north split up again; Eastern Jin was secured, and the development of the south continued.

Battle of Thermopylae

King Xerxes of Persia crossed the sea with a huge army and invaded Greece by land and sea. The Greek city-states formed an alliance, and King Leonidas of Sparta led about 7,000 men to hold the pass of Thermopylae. On one side were steep cliffs, on the other the sea; at its narrowest only one cart could pass.

480 BC · Greek allies vs Persia

Persia marches west

Two days of bloody fighting

The mountain path

Leonidas’s rearguard

Fighting to the last

The rearguard’s sacrifice bought time for the Greek navy and city-states; the same year Greece crushed Persia at Salamis.

It became the symbol of the few standing against the many and refusing to retreat in the Greco-Persian Wars.

Battle of Gaugamela

From 334 BC, King Alexander of Macedon led his army east against Persia. In the autumn of 331 BC he crossed the Tigris and met the great Persian army under Darius III on the plain near Gaugamela. Darius had levelled the ground in advance so his scythed chariots could charge.

331 BC · Macedon vs Persia

Armies face off

The oblique advance

The wedge attack

Struggle on the left

Darius flees

The Persian Empire fell apart, and Alexander built a vast empire spanning Europe, Asia and Africa.

The campaign also furthered exchange between East and West, spreading Greek culture eastward.

Battle of Cannae

In the Second Punic War, the Carthaginian general Hannibal crossed the Alps into Italy and defeated Roman armies again and again. In the summer of 216 BC he captured the Roman grain depot at Cannae. Rome sent the consuls Paullus and Varro with about 80,000 men to fight a decisive battle.

216 BC · Carthage vs Rome

Hannibal in Italy

The crescent formation

Luring in the centre

Double envelopment

Roman catastrophe

A classic double envelopment that destroyed an army, still studied at military academies today.

Despite this disaster Rome did not give in; it won the Second Punic War and came to dominate the western Mediterranean.

Battle of Hastings

Early in 1066, King Edward of England died and the nobles chose Harold as king. Duke William of Normandy in France claimed that he was the rightful heir, led an army across the English Channel, landed at Pevensey and then built a camp at Hastings.

1066 · Normans vs English

The Norman landing

Harold marches south

Battle at the shield wall

Feigned retreat

Harold killed

After the Norman Conquest, England built a strong monarchy and feudalism developed further.

Many French words entered English, deeply shaping the language and culture of Britain.