Hu Lie

Hu Lie was from Anding Commandery. He was a younger brother of Hu Fen (胡奋; died March or April 288^[2]), and a son of Hu Zun (胡遵; died 12 August 256^[3]);^[4] Hu Fen and Hu Zun were also officials of Cao Wei.^[c]

During Zhuge Dan's rebellion, Hu Lie, as Administrator of Tai Shan, led 5,000 men to launch a sneak attack on Zhu Yi's baggage train and managed to burn down Zhu's supplies. Zhu was later executed by Sun Chen.^[5][6][7]

Sometime between 17 April and 16 May 261,^[8] Hu, as Administrator of Xiangyang, reported that the Eastern Wu military officers Deng You (鄧由) and Li Guang (李光) were planning to lead 18 units to defect to Wei, and had already sent their subordinates Zhang Wu (張吳) and Deng Sheng (鄧生) across the border.^[9] Upon receiving the news, Sima Zhao and the Wei imperial court ordered Wang Ji, then General Who Attacks the South, to mobilise the military units in all of Jing Province's commanderies, including Xiangyang, in preparation for a large-scale invasion of Eastern Wu with the aid of the defectors.^[10][11] Wang Ji was suspicious of Deng You's and Li Guang's intentions and warned Sima Zhao. As it turned out, Deng and Li were only pretending to defect.^[d]

During the invasion of Shu, Hu, as Zhong Hui's subordinate, was tasked together with Li Fu (李輔) to lead a detachment through the Luo Valley (駱谷; southwest of present-day Zhouzhi County, Shaanxi).^[12]

While Zhong Hui was supervising the assaults on Lecheng and Hancheng, he ordered Hu to lead the vanguard force to attack Yang'an Pass and seize control of the pass's stockpiles of food supplies and equipment.^[13]

The Shu general Fu Qian was in charge of guarding Yang'an Pass. His subordinate, Jiang Shu (蔣舒), previously served as an area commander at Wuxing (武興縣; present-day Lueyang County, Shaanxi). However, due to incompetence, he was removed from his appointment and reassigned to Yang'an Pass. As a result, he bore a grudge against the Shu government and secretly desired to defect to Wei.^[14]

Jiang Shu first attempted to persuade Fu Qian to lead his troops out of Yang'an Pass to engage the enemy in battle, but Fu Qian refused as he felt that it was too risky. Jiang Shu then lied to Fu Qian that he would go out to fight the enemy while Fu Qian would remain behind to guard the pass. After Fu Qian agreed, Jiang Shu led the troops out of Yang'an Pass to Yinping, where he surrendered to Hu Lie. Seeing that Yang'an Pass's defences had weakened after Jiang Shu's defection, Hu Lie led his troops to attack the pass and succeeded in capturing it along with its resources. Fu Qian fought bravely to resist the enemy but ultimately lost his life. The Wei soldiers were impressed by his heroism.^[15][16]

After the fall of Shu, the Wu emperor Sun Xiu ordered his general Lu Kang to lead 30,000 troops to besiege Yong'an. After a six-month-long siege, more than half of Yong'an's population fell sick from infectious diseases. Just then, Hu Lie led reinforcements from Jing Province to help Luo Xian and lift the siege on Yong'an. The Wu forces retreated upon seeing the arrival of Wei reinforcements.^[17]

Zhong Hui, Hu Lie, Shi Zuan (師纂) and others then accused Deng Ai of showing disrespect for the Wei imperial court's authority, and claimed that he was likely to start a rebellion.^[18]

Zhong Hui then arrived in Chengdu on 29 February 264. The following day, he summoned all the high-ranking officers and former Shu officers to the old Shu imperial court in the name of holding a memorial service for the recently deceased Empress Dowager Guo. During the service, he showed them an imperial decree and claimed it was issued by the empress dowager before she died. In the decree, Empress Dowager Guo wanted all those who were loyal to Wei to rise up against Sima Zhao and remove him from power. The decree was actually a fake one written by Zhong Hui. Zhong Hui sought the officers' opinions, asked them to sign on a list if they agreed to carry out the empress dowager's dying wish, and then instructed his close aides to take over command of the various military units. He then had all the officers (including Hu Lie) detained in their respective offices with the doors shut, and ordered the gates of the city to be closed and tightly guarded.^[19]

Qiu Jian (丘建), an officer serving under Zhong Hui, used to be a subordinate of Hu Lie; Hu Lie had recommended Qiu to Sima Zhao. Zhong Hui favoured and regarded Qiu Jian highly and requested for Qiu to be transferred to his unit. Qiu Jian sympathised with Hu Lie, who was detained alone inside a room, so he approached Zhong Hui and said that each of the detained officers should have a servant to attend to their personal needs. Zhong Hui agreed. Hu Lie lied to his servant and wrote a letter to his sons, in which he claimed he heard from Qiu Jian that Zhong Hui was planning to purge the officers not from his own unit by luring them into a trap and killing them. The rumour spread like wildfire among all the detained officers. When Zhong Hui's men received news about the rumour, they suggested to their superior to execute all the officers holding the rank of Cavalry Commandant of the Standard (牙門騎督) and above. Zhong Hui could not decide on what to do.^[20]

Around noon on 3 March 264, Hu Lie's sons and subordinates started beating the drums and their soldiers followed suit. After that, they rushed towards the city gates in a disorderly manner because they had no one to lead them. Around the time, Jiang Wei was collecting his armour and weapons from Zhong Hui when they heard shouting and received news that a fire had broken out. Moments later, it was reported that many soldiers were crowding near the city gates. Zhong Hui was surprised and he asked Jiang Wei, "Those men are causing trouble. What should we do?" Jiang Wei replied, "Kill them." Zhong Hui then ordered his men to kill the officers who were still detained in their offices. Some of the officers used pieces of furniture to block the doors. Zhong Hui's men rammed the doors but could not force them open. A while later, there were reports of people climbing up the city gates on ladders and of people setting fire to buildings. Chaos broke out and arrows were fired in all directions. The detained officers broke out of captivity, regrouped with their men, and attacked Zhong Hui and Jiang Wei. Zhong Hui and Jiang Wei fought the mutinying soldiers and slew about five or six of them, but were eventually overwhelmed and killed by them. Hundreds of lives were lost in the mutiny.^[21]