Lu Xun, knowing in July that the time is ripe for counterattack, orders saboteurs to encircle Liu Bei's camp by traveling on water with the navy.

Once they are behind Liu Bei's camp at Yiling, the saboteurs set the camp on fire.

The woods gradually become a fiery inferno within hours as wildfires fueled by dead plants and dry air erupt everywhere.

As Shu soldiers rush towards the Yangtze River for water to put out the fires, Sun Quan’s archers, lying in ambush, shoot them down.

Shu forces attempt a counterattack, but enemy forces led by Pan Zhang break through the lines they re-form and make retaliation impossible.

The Shu navy fares slightly better by barely managing an orderly retreat.

Cheng Ji, a Shu official, personally leads a group of men to cover the navy as it withdraws.

Sun Quan’s marine forces catch up with the rear guard of the Shu navy and engage in battle.

Cheng Ji and his men are surrounded by Sun Quan’s vanguard force but they manage to hold on by sinking the smaller enemy boats.

However, they are eventually outnumbered and killed when the bulk of Sun Quan’s navy arrives.

Shu forces loss over forty of their original fifty camps on the three hundred and fifty-kilometer line to a rockslide at the Ma'an Hills.

Liu Bei attempts to reform and regroup his remaining forces at the hills to make a last stand.

However, his troops are split up before they can regroup as one.

Sun Quan’s general Zhu Ran leads an army of five thousand to disrupt the lines and prevent Liu Bei from reforming.

Lu Xun personally leads an attack on Shu forces together with Xu Sheng and Han Dang, and succeeds in preventing Liu Bei from making his last stand.

The entire Shu army is nearly wiped out at Ma'an Hills.

Retreating Shu soldiers set ablaze the army's remaining camps to hinder Sun Quan’s forces' pursuit.

Meanwhile, the isolated Shu vanguard force at Yidao is also completely destroyed by Sun Quan’s forces.

Huang Quan manages to escape together with his deputy Pang Lin and three hundred and eighteen horsemen to the northern bank of the Yangtze River, where they are cut off from the rest of the Shu army, and eventually they decide to surrender to Wei.

Liu Bei flees to Zigui with Sun Quan’s forces hot on his heels.

The demoralized Shu troops are unable to hold their ground and keep retreating.

During the withdrawal, Wang Fu, the Shu official in charge of Jing Province, is killed in the ensuing battle, but his death buys time for Liu Bei to continue retreating.

Xiang Chong, who is stationed at Jing Province, manages to regroup the surviving Shu troops and lead them on an orderly retreat without them suffering any further great losses.

Xiang Chong also leads Liu Bei safely to Yufu (present-day Fengjie County, Chongqing) and manages to repel any further attacks by pursuing enemy forces.

Liu Bei, impressed with Xiang Chong, promotes him to the rank of viceroy.

Eventually, reinforcements from Jiangzhou led by Zhao Yun arrive and a stalemate is reached before Sun Quan’s forces decide to retreat, thus ending their counterattack.

Most of the Shu commanders who had participated in the battle have been killed; only naval commanders Wu Ban and Chen Shi manage to return safely.