Am reading Sima Guang's history of the Three Kingdoms era, "To Establish Peace" (Sima Guang - one of China's most famous scholars and politicians. Living during the Northern Song period he was a child prodigy, considered a genius in his youth and became an extremely powerful Prime Minister). I came across this passage:

They arrived at Anzhong, and Cao Cao's army had enemies in front and rear. During the night Cao Cao dug entrenchments in the pass and then feigned retreat. As the armies of Liu Biao and Zhang Xiu came full force in pursuit, Cao Cao loosed his soldiers from ambush, attacked on both sides with horse and foot and completely defeated them. Some time later Xun Yu asked Cao Cao, "That time you knew the enemy would be defeated: how could you tell?" "They cut my army's line of retreat," replied Cao Cao. "In doing so, they gave me a 'death place'. Then I knew I must win."5

Rafe de Crespigny's notes on the term "death place":

"Death place" ( sidi): where a retreating army's road is cut off, the soldiers must fight for their lives, and through desperation are more likely to win. ZZTJ commentary quotes Sunzi bingfa 7, 38a; Ames, Sun-tzu, 132 (Griffith, Art of War, 109): "do not obstruct an enemy returning home." See also 11, 37a-38a; Ames, 160 (Griffith, 133): On terrain from which there is no way out, I would show my troops my resolve to fight to the death. Thus the psychology of the soldier is: Resist when surrounded, Fight when you have to, And obey orders explicitly when in danger. The theory of the "death place" is discussed in several other passages of Sunzi bingfa, and Hu Sanxing also quotes commentary by Chen Hao of Tang to 11, 15b, who speaks of "creating" a death place in order to [conquer and] live. Another occasion the policy was put into practice is told in the biography of the great general Han Xin, SJ 92, 2616-17; Watson, RGH I, 216-217. Compare also passage F and note 10 of Jian'an 9.

What other "death place" victories have there been in history?

Cortez burning his ships, when arriving in Mexico?

It bears some similarities to the fighting during the battle of Aspern Essling, Napoleon's troops were left struggling to maintain their hold on the villages whilst the line of retreat over the Danube river was repaired. Also during the 1812 invasion at the river Beresina, 40,000 french soldiers (with as many stragglers attached) fought off 140,000 Russians for two days so that the river Beresina could be crossed and the relative safety of the opposite bank could be reached. Mind you it cost the French 25,000 troops and 10,000 stragglers...

Coincidentally, it was all only possible because Jean-Baptiste Eble, commander of the pontonniers disobeyed a direct order by Napoleon and kept the equipment necessary to construct the bridge in the first place, thus "saving" what little of the Grand Army that did escape.