Hu Zhong 胡忠

In Chapter 102 of the Romance, Zhuge Liang has Zheng Wen, who had feigned surrender, write a letter so that Sima Yi will come to raid the Shu camp. Qin Lang's 10,000 troops, who charge in at the front, are surrounded, and Qin Lang dies amid the confused fighting; Sima Yi, who was following up in support, is badly defeated and flees back to his own camp. Zhuge Liang returns victorious, has Zheng Wen beheaded and confers on a plan to take the land south of the Wei River, but the Wei army will not come out to meet him. Romance, Ch. 102 §30–31 · 35–37 · 39

Zhuge Liang rides in person in a small carriage in front of Mount Qi and along the east and west of the Wei River to survey the terrain, and comes to a valley shaped like a gourd, able to hold more than a thousand men inside, and enclosed behind by two hills so that only one man and one horse can pass at a time. The guiding officer answers that this is Shangfang Valley, also called Hulu Valley. Romance, Ch. 102 §39–40

Zhuge Liang returns to his tent, summons the two subordinate generals Du Rui and Hu Zhong and whispers a secret plan in their ears. He then gathers the more than one thousand craftsmen accompanying the army and has them go into Hulu Valley to build wooden oxen and gliding horses, and has Ma Dai guard the mouth of the valley with 500 troops. He charges Ma Dai not to let the craftsmen out or outsiders in, since the plan for capturing Sima Yi rests entirely on this undertaking and word of it must on no account leak out. Romance, Ch. 102 §40–41

Du Rui and his companion supervise the craftsmen inside the valley and have them build according to the prescribed method, while Zhuge Liang comes and goes every day to give instructions. One day, when the Chief Clerk Yang Yi reports that the provisions are all at Jiange and are hard to transport with laborers, oxen and horses, Zhuge Liang answers that he has had wooden oxen and gliding horses built, which neither drink nor eat and can carry loads day and night without rest. Saying that they are not yet complete, he writes out the method of building them on a sheet of paper with his own hand and shows it to everyone. Romance, Ch. 102 §41–43