Zhong Hui's Rebellion 鍾會之亂

In the winter of the 6th year of Jingyao (263), when the Later Ruler of Shu surrendered to Deng Ai and issued his order, Jiang Wei went with Zhang Yi, Liao Hua, Dong Jue and others to surrender before Zhong Hui's camp at Fu County. Zhong Hui forbade his soldiers to plunder and welcomed the Shu officials, and he was so close to Jiang Wei that they rode in the same carriage when going out and shared the same mat when sitting. By an edict of the 12th month Zhong Hui was made Minister over the Masses. Records, Wei 28 §115 · 119–120Records, Shu 14 §47–48Records, Shu 15 §16

Harboring other designs, Zhong Hui used the fact that Deng Ai had acted on his own authority in the emperor's name as a pretext to report secretly that Deng Ai showed signs of rebellion. The Biography of Deng Ai records that Zhong Hui, Hu Lie, Shi Zuan and others all reported that Deng Ai's conduct was perverse and rebellious. When an edict sent a prisoner's cart to summon Deng Ai, Sima Zhao, fearing that Deng Ai might not obey, had Zhong Hui also advance to Chengdu. The Army Supervisor Wei Guan went ahead and, when he admonished Deng Ai's army with Sima Zhao's handwritten order, the army all laid down their weapons, and Deng Ai was put in the prisoner's cart. The Annals of the Three Young Emperors date this to the renxu day of the 1st month of the 1st year of Xianxi (264). Records, Wei 28 §121 · 80Records, Wei 4 §128

Commanding the great army alone, his might shaking the western lands, Zhong Hui thought that since his merit and fame covered the world he could no longer remain beneath anyone, and plotted rebellion. He planned to have Jiang Wei and others lead the Shu troops out through the Xie Valley while he followed with the main army, and from Chang'an to send the cavalry by land and the infantry by water to Mengjin, joining the cavalry at Luoyang. Just then a letter came from Sima Zhao, saying that he had given the Central Protector of the Army Jia Chong 10,000 infantry and cavalry to enter the Xie Valley and station themselves at Lecheng, and that he himself was stationed at Chang'an with 100,000. Alarmed, Zhong Hui told those close to him, "If the matter succeeds, I will gain the realm; even if it does not, I can fall back and hold Shu-Han and still be a Liu Bei," and decided to act at once. Records, Wei 28 §121–124

Zhong Hui reached Chengdu on the 15th day of the 1st month. The next day he summoned all the Protectors of the Army, Commandery Administrators and Cavalry Commanders of the Gate and above, together with the former officials of Shu, announced mourning for the Empress Dowager in the court hall of Shu, and falsely claimed a testamentary edict of the Empress Dowager ordering him to raise troops and depose Sima Zhao, passing it around to those present and having them deliberate on it. He then wrote out appointments on boards, had those close to him take over the various armies, shut up the summoned officials in the office buildings of Yi Province, and had the city gates and palace gates closed and strictly guarded. The Biography of Jiang Wei records that Zhong Hui styled himself Governor of Yi Province, rose in revolt, and intended to give Jiang Wei 50,000 troops and make him the vanguard. Records, Wei 28 §124–125Records, Shu 14 §48

Zhong Hui's Commander of the Headquarters Guard Qiu Jian had originally belonged to Hu Lie, and out of pity for Hu Lie, confined alone, asked that a single personal soldier be let in to fetch food and drink for him, and the various Gate Generals were each likewise allowed one. Hu Lie spoke falsely to his soldier and wrote a letter to his son, saying that Qiu Jian had secretly told him that Zhong Hui had dug a great pit and prepared several thousand white cudgels to beat the outside soldiers to death one after another and bury them. In a single night this story passed through the personal soldiers of the various Gate Generals and spread to everyone. Someone suggested killing all the Cavalry Commanders of the Gate and above, but Zhong Hui hesitated and could not decide. An edict in the Annals of the Three Young Emperors records that Jia Fu (賈輔) spread word that the Chancellor of State was coming with 300,000 men, rousing the officers and men. Records, Wei 28 §125–126Records, Wei 4 §132

At midday on the 18th Hu Lie's soldiers came out of the gates with Hu Lie's son, beating drums, and the soldiers of the various armies, without any prearrangement, beat drums and shouted and rushed to the city, each trying to be first. When Zhong Hui, who was handing out armor and weapons to Jiang Wei, asked what to do, Jiang Wei said, "Just strike them." Zhong Hui had all the confined Gate Generals and Commandery Administrators killed, but those inside lifted tables to prop the doors shut, and as the troops outside climbed the walls with ladders, set fires and swarmed in, the Gate Generals and Commandery Administrators came out over the roofs and met their own soldiers. Jiang Wei, leading Zhong Hui's attendants, fought and killed five or six men with his own hand but was cut down by the crowd, and the crowd rushed in to kill Zhong Hui. Zhong Hui was then forty, and several hundred officers and men died. Records, Wei 28 §127–128

After Zhong Hui's death, when the officers and men of Deng Ai's own camp went after the prisoner's cart to free Deng Ai and bring him back, Wei Guan sent Tian Xu and others, who beheaded Deng Ai west of Mianzhu, and his son Deng Zhong died with him. The Shu crown prince Liu Xuan and Zhang Yi were killed by the rioting soldiers, and Jiang Wei's wife and children were all executed. The Biography of the Later Ruler records that after Zhong Hui's death the troops in Shu plundered, the dead lay strewn everywhere, and order was restored only after several days. Zhong Yong, the son of Zhong Hui's elder brother, who had followed him, died with him, and Zhong Yi was executed, but the brothers Zhong Jun and Zhong Chan were pardoned on account of the merit of their grandfather Zhong Yao and father Zhong Yu. Records, Wei 28 §81 · 129–130Records, Shu 4 §25Records, Shu 15 §16Records, Shu 14 §48Records, Shu 3 §47

Earlier, when the Western Bureau Clerk Shao Ti was worried about sending Zhong Hui, Sima Zhao had said that once Shu was broken, its remaining people would not be enough to plot with, and the officers and men from the central states would all be thinking only of going home, so that if Zhong Hui plotted evil he would only destroy his own clan. When Sima Zhao's army reached Chang'an, Zhong Hui was already dead. In his assessment Chen Shou said that Zhong Hui was refined and skilled in strategy and stratagems, but his ambitions were great and his aims misguided, and failing to foresee disaster, he left his clan crushed into the earth. Records, Wei 28 §131–135 · 140