In fact, the Battle of Chibi took place in Wulin on the north bank of the Yangtze River, where Cao Cao's land and sea bases were located, not in Chibi, on the other side of the river, where Sun and Liu's allied forces were stationed. As for the specific location of the Battle of Chibi, the folk and academic circles have different opinions, and they can't agree. Over the past 1,800 years, the direction and length of the Yangtze River have undergone tremendous changes, and the associated place names have also changed several times. In 1998, the city of Puqi in Hubei province was officially renamed Chibi City, apparently intended to have some literal connection to the most famous battle in Chinese history. However, even if this is where the Battle of Red Cliffs took place, the constant flow of large and small ships on the river is enough to keep the director away, not to mention the terrain there is far from what John Woo imagined.
In order to choose a suitable location, from the summer of 2004, the film crew visited 14 provinces for field investigation. Director John Woo and producer Zhang Jiazhen personally inspected five provinces including Hubei, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Hebei and Yunnan, and finally settled on the Angezhuang Reservoir in Yixian County, Hebei, which is only a three-hour drive away from Beijing. When he looked out on the wide water from the yacht, he immediately caught sight of an open area on the shore. Wulin, where Cao Ying is located in the film, can be built there. However, he encountered three thorny problems. In the film, Wulin is located on the north bank of the Yangtze River, and there is no similar place in Chibi on the opposite bank; the film crew's vehicles cannot drive in because there is no decent road there; although the location is suitable, the terrain is too flat. In this regard, John Woo had to choose another location to build the location of Chibi, and rely on later special effects to "connect" it with Wu Lin here. In addition, a decent road has been specially built to lead to the nearby highway. In order to solve the problem of peaceful terrain, John Woo ordered people to build a high platform slope with a height of about 12 meters and an area of two football fields, and built Cao Jun's camp on it, and also built a watch tower on the top of the slope. Although the water from the Angezhuang Reservoir is used to irrigate farmland, the surrounding land is still within the scope of environmental protection. The construction of the slope was specially approved by the local government. As a result, a small hillside a few kilometers away was moved to the edge of the reservoir by "Yu" Gongs, and the new soil was compacted little by little. The whole project took several months. It was the summer of 2006, and the script had not yet been formed, and even the funding for the filming had not been secured. John Woo and Zhang Jiazhen are indeed taking certain risks. In the end, the adventure paid off enormously. It was this high platform that gave a generation of hero Cao Cao a certain majesty to rule the world, and it also became the visual focus of the entire war.
