Is “He led the fire attack that defeated Cao Cao's army at the Battle of Red Cliffs.” true?
attested in history
Records of the Three Kingdoms, Book of Wu, Biography of Zhou Yu states that Zhou Yu personally led 30,000 elite troops and adopted Huang Gai's fire attack plan to decisively defeat Cao Cao at Red Cliffs, earning the primary credit for the victory.
Zhou Yu
In official history, he was a magnanimous and accomplished hero of the Jiangdong region, but in the novel, he is reduced to a narrow-minded figure who dies from frustration, lamenting, 'Since Yu was born, why also Liang?'