Shu Warrior
Huang Zhong, the Veteran of Dingjun
黃忠died 2204 star
In short
Huang Zhong (died 220) was an officer of Jing Province who joined Liu Bei after Red Cliffs and became one of his chief generals. At Mount Dingjun in 219 he charged downhill with drums beating and killed Xiahou Yuan, Cao Cao's commander in the west. The victory gave Liu Bei Hanzhong. Huang Zhong was made General of the Rear and died the following year.
| Lived | died 220 |
|---|---|
| Name in Chinese | 黃忠 |
| Courtesy name | Hansheng |
| Served | Liu Biao, then Liu Bei |
The history
Huang Zhong was from Nanyang. He served Liu Biao, governor of Jing Province, as a general of the household, and garrisoned Changsha in the south. When Cao Cao took Jing in 208 he kept his post under the new administrator. When Liu Bei took the southern commanderies after Red Cliffs, Huang Zhong joined him.
He followed Liu Bei into Yi Province in 211. In the fighting against Liu Zhang he was regularly the first onto the enemy’s walls, and the history says his courage led the whole army.
His great day came in 219. Liu Bei had been facing Xiahou Yuan in Hanzhong for a year. At Mount Dingjun, on Fa Zheng’s advice, Liu Bei sent Huang Zhong against Xiahou Yuan from the high ground. Huang Zhong pressed forward, drilled his men, and came down with the drums shaking the sky and a shout that filled the valley. Xiahou Yuan was killed in the one battle. Cao Cao came in person, could not retake the ground, and gave up Hanzhong.
Liu Bei made Huang Zhong General of the Rear, level with Guan Yu, Zhang Fei and Ma Chao. Zhuge Liang warned that Guan Yu, far away in Jing, would not like it. Liu Bei said he would explain it himself. Huang Zhong died in 220.
The novel
Romance of the Three Kingdoms makes his age the point. He is past sixty when he duels Guan Yu at Changsha, where each spares the other, and he can still draw a bow no young man can bend. It keeps him alive to die of an arrow wound in Liu Bei’s war on Wu in 222, two years after his real death.
Huang Zhong in the game
In Warlords of the Three Kingdoms Huang Zhong is the Veteran of Dingjun: a 4 star warriorof Shu. The game's line for him: “Past sixty when he cut down Xiahou Yuan at Dingjun Mountain, he took it as proof that he was not yet old.”
| Kingdom | Shu |
|---|---|
| Role | Warrior |
| Rarity | 4 star |
| Base attack and defense | 27 and 21 |
| Where from | Won by mastering the boss campaign of chapter 6, Hanzhong and Yiling, to three stars. |
A warlord sworn to Shu fields him 10% stronger, as every General of their own Kingdom. Wei, Shu or Wu has what the choice changes.
Four star is where he starts. Duplicates become shards, shards add stars, and each star adds a tenth to both numbers.
Questions
Was Huang Zhong really an old man?
The history never gives his age. Guan Yu, angry at being ranked beside him in 219, called him an old soldier, and the novel built the white haired archer from that. He had served since before 208 and died in 220.
Who killed Xiahou Yuan?
Huang Zhong's troops, at Mount Dingjun in Hanzhong in 219. Xiahou Yuan was a cousin of Xiahou Dun and Cao Cao's commander on the western front.
Why did Guan Yu object to Huang Zhong?
When Liu Bei became King of Hanzhong he named four chief generals. Guan Yu said a real man would not stand in the same rank as an old soldier. The envoy Fei Shi talked him round.
How do you get Huang Zhong in Warlords of the Three Kingdoms?
Won by mastering the boss campaign of chapter 6, Hanzhong and Yiling, to three stars.
Sources
The history follows Chen Shou's Records of the Three Kingdoms, written in the third century, with Pei Songzhi's annotations of the fifth, and Fan Ye's Book of the Later Han for the years before the Han court fell apart. What the page calls the novel is Luo Guanzhong's Romance of the Three Kingdoms, of the fourteenth century. Where the two disagree, the page says which is speaking. For more on him, see Huang Zhong on Wikipedia.
Written by Gitkonek Studio, .
Keep reading
- Guan Yu, the Saint of WarHe cut down Yan Liang amid ten thousand men at Baima, and later ages raised temples to him as a god of war.
- Zhao Yun, the Dragon of ChangshanAt Changban he carried Liu Bei's infant son through Cao Cao's whole army and out the other side.
- Zhuge Liang, the Sleeping DragonLiu Bei called at his cottage three times, and was given the Longzhong Plan and the next twenty-seven years.
- Liu Bei, the Imperial UncleA sandal seller of royal descent who lost nearly every battle he fought and still founded an empire.
- Ma Chao, the SplendidAt Tong Pass he chased Cao Cao so hard that the chancellor cut off his own beard to pass unrecognized.