Burning the Linked Camps 火烧连营

✓ Engine-verifiedBook result: Red winsMate in 14爛柯神機

📚 Lanke Shenji — a Ming-dynasty endgame manual

楚河漢界cotuong.synerworlds.com象傌砲俥兵砲將卒炮車卒傌馬卒車卒炮卒帥cotuong.synerworlds.com

Red to move, and the machine has confirmed the outcome: checkmate in 14 moves. The hard-to-believe part is the balance of forces — Black has two chariots, two cannons and five pawns, while Red's only heavy piece is a single chariot, the rest being two knights, two cannons and one pawn. But a fire attack does not need a big army. The name evokes the Battle of Yiling in 222, when Lu Xun burned Liu Bei's linked camps stretching seven hundred li — and, as the anecdote below tells it, each Wu soldier carried exactly one bundle of dry straw. The position is preserved in Lạn Kha Thần Cơ. Can you find Red's first “bundle of straw” in this position?

✓ Engine-verified — The Fairy-Stockfish engine (NNUE) confirms Red checkmates in 14 moves — the main line was checked move by move, every move legal. Date checked: 2026-11-03.

📖 Anecdotes

700리에 걸쳐 이어진 진영 — 적병 한 사람마다 마른 짚 한 단이면 충분했다

숲과 산을 거쳐 서로 이어진 700리의 진영. 그 전부를 태우는 데 적에게 필요한 것은 거대한 군대가 아니었다. 병사 한 사람마다 마른 짚 한 단이면 충분했다. 222년, 유비는 관우와 장비를 모두 잃었다. 모든 만류를 뿌리치고 복수를 위해 전 병력을 오나라에 던졌다. 오의 젊은 사령관 육손은 굳게 지키며 싸우러 나오지 않았고, 촉군의 예봉은 여름 더위 속에 닳아 갔다. 더위를 피하려 유비는 진영을 숲속으로 옮겼다. 장강을 따라 700리에 걸쳐 이어진 40개가 넘는 진영, 이른바 ‘연영’이다. 마량은 불안을 느껴 진영도를…

— Đội ngũ SynerWorlds

Stories around this position — storytelling, not part of the engine-verified content.

Source
爛柯神機(无局号)
Book result
Red wins
Verification
✓ Engine-verified
Side to move
Red to move
Difficulty
Hard
Red forces
King, Horse ×2, Chariot, Cannon ×2, Pawn
Black forces
King, Elephant, Horse, Chariot ×2, Cannon ×2, Pawn ×5
FEN
2bN3CR/4P2C1/3k5/2p6/3c5/9/6rp1/4N1np1/3r1pcp1/4K4 w
Transcribed from
GitHub weiyinfu/xqp: 残局/烂柯神机/火烧连营 红胜.xqfGitHub · liudada1980/canju12

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Solution