Most of Sun Quan’s forces had evacuated by March from mountainous terrain to fortifications on flatland.

Summer soon arrives and the sweltering heat kills several plants and shrubs.

Liu Bei's forces camped at Yiling are directly next to a forest and the heat becomes even more unbearable.

Some Shu soldiers are affected by heatstroke.

By now, the Shu army's morale has fallen significantly as compared to at the start of the campaign, as the troops are now weary and suffering from the intense heat.

Liu Bei deploys eight thousand elite troops to lie in ambush in nearby valleys and sends Wu Ban to lead a weaker force to challenge and lure Sun Quan’s forces out of their fortifications into the ambush.

However, Lu Xun sees through Liu Bei's ruse and orders his troops to ignore taunts from the enemy.

It is said that he even ordered his troops to put wax into their ears.

The failure of the ambush causes the Shu army's morale to plummet even lower.

Shu troops are suffering from the summer heat as the stalemate, which had begun in March, continues.

Liu Bei decides to shift his camp into the nearby forest for shade and shelter from the heat even though his adviser Ma Liang opposes his decision.

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.