📚 Shiqing Yaqu — the famous Ming-dynasty collection of entertaining endgame compositions
Red to move, and the classical manual Thích Tình Nhã Thú (game 318) gives the win to Red — even though Black looks the better-organised side: both advisors and elephants, plus knight, chariot and cannon. Red has only one chariot, one cannon, two defensive elephants and three pawns; but two of those pawns have burrowed deep into enemy territory — like two fuses already planted inside the opposing camp, waiting for someone to light them. The name recalls the naval battle of 208, where the fire attack is documented history while the borrowed arrows and summoned wind are fiction from the novel — the anecdote below separates the two carefully. This position has not been machine-verified; the result follows the classical book. Do you agree with the ancients' verdict: does Red really win?
Red Cliffs: the fire was real — the arrows and the wind were not
In 208 a fleet burned on the Yangtze and an empire split into three. Everyone 'knows' the tricks that won Red Cliffs: chained ships, arrows borrowed with straw boats, an east wind summoned by magic. But strip away the novel, and the decisive weapon turns out to be… what, exactly? The fire itself…
Stories around this position — storytelling, not part of the engine-verified content.
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