Shanyue 山越

The deliberation at the Wu court recorded in the biography of Zhuge Ke in Records of Wu 19 described the land and people of the Shanyue thus: Danyang's terrain was rugged and closed off, with mountains and valleys ten thousand layers deep, and the people deep within all carried weapons, lived unrestrained in the wilds and grew old in the forests and thickets. Fugitives and long-time wrongdoers fled there to hide, and since the mountains yielded copper and iron, they cast their own armor and weapons. Their custom was to love martial skill and be practiced in fighting; they watched for openings to come out and raid, swarmed like bees when they fought and scattered like birds when defeated, and since earlier ages no one had been able to bring them under control. Records, Wu 19 §6–7

Sun Ce, joined by Zhou Yu at Liyang, took Hengjiang and Dangli, crossed the Yangtze to attack Moling, entered Qu'e and put Liu Yao (劉繇) to flight, and said that with this force he had enough to take Wu and Kuaiji and pacify the Shanyue. Taishi Ci, who was to have fled with Liu Yao to Yuzhang, slipped away to Wuhu, went into the mountains, called himself Administrator of Danyang and set up a garrison headquarters in Jing County; the Shanyue flocked to him in great numbers, but Sun Ce attacked him in person and captured him. He Qi, acting Chief of Shan County, beheaded Si Cong, a county clerk from a great local clan to whom the Shanyue adhered, and when Si Cong's clansmen and followers, more than a thousand strong, attacked the county, He Qi opened the city gates, charged out and crushed them, so that his prestige shook the Shanyue. Records, Wu 9 §3Records, Wu 4 §29Records, Wu 15 §2

When Sun Ce died in the 5th year of Jian'an (200) and Sun Quan took over his affairs, the Sun clan held only Kuaiji, Wu Commandery, Danyang, Yuzhang and Luling, and the deep and rugged lands had not yet all submitted. Sun Quan divided his generals to suppress and pacify the Shanyue and to attack those who would not obey orders. In the 8th year of Jian'an (203), when Sun Quan attacked Huang Zu in the west and broke his fleet but had not yet taken his city, the mountain bandits stirred again; on his way back he had Lü Fan pacify Poyang and Cheng Pu attack Le'an, and made Han Dang, Lü Meng and others magistrates and chiefs of counties that were hard to govern. Records, Wu 2 §3–5 · 7

In counties where the Shanyue would not submit and bandit troubles arose, Huang Gai was always employed as the chief official, and when Huang Gai was transferred to Commandant of Danyang, he restrained the strong and aided the weak, so that the Shanyue gave him their allegiance. When Han Dang served as Chief of Le'an, the Shanyue submitted in awe, and Ling Cao, acting as Chief of Yongping, pacified and governed the Shanyue. Because the deep lands of Danyang had a good deal of treachery and rebellion, and because he was growing old and longed for his native soil, Zhu Zhi memorialized on his own initiative to be stationed at Guzhang, where he kept the Shanyue in order. Records, Wu 10 §9 · 11 · 16 · 70Records, Wu 11 §2 · 8

Lu Xun advised Sun Quan that the mountain bandits had long done evil and held out relying on the deep lands, and that while the heartland, like one's belly and chest, was not pacified it would be hard to pursue distant aims; he urged that they be organized into large units and their best men picked out for use. Just then Fei Zhan, a bandit leader of Danyang, received seals and ribbons from Cao Cao and stirred up the Shanyue to act as insiders for him, and Sun Quan sent Lu Xun. Fei Zhan had many followers and Lu Xun few soldiers, but Lu Xun set up additional command banners, spread drums and horns about, and entered the mountain valleys by night, advancing with a din of drums, so that the enemy collapsed and scattered on the spot. He then organized the people of the three eastern commanderies into units, making the strong into soldiers and enrolling the weak in the household registers, and obtained tens of thousands of crack troops. Quan Cong too, as Colonel Who Displays Might, campaigned against the Shanyue and recruited more than ten thousand picked soldiers. Records, Wu 13 §5–6Records, Wu 15 §23

When Sun Quan sent Zhang Wen, General of the Household Who Assists Righteousness, as envoy to Shu, he said that once the Shanyue had all been eliminated, he meant to form a grand alliance with Shu. In autumn, the seventh month, of the 5th year of Huangwu (226), Sun Quan carved ten counties out of the rugged lands of three commanderies to establish Dong'an Commandery, and made Quan Cong its Administrator to pacify the Shanyue. The Biography of Quan Cong records that Dong'an Commandery was set up when the mountain people of Danyang, Wu and Kuaiji again turned to banditry and overran subordinate counties, and that when Quan Cong had made rewards and punishments clear and won over those willing to surrender, gaining more than ten thousand people in a few years, Sun Quan recalled him to Niuzhu and abolished Dong'an Commandery. Records, Wu 12 §26Records, Wu 2 §53–54Records, Wu 15 §26

Zhuge Ke said that although troops had been sent into Danyang before, they had gained only the commoners of the outer counties and had failed to capture all those deep and far within, and he repeatedly asked to take office himself to bring them out, saying that in three years he could obtain forty thousand armored soldiers. Everyone thought it difficult, and his father Zhuge Jin, also believing the undertaking would never succeed, sighed that if Zhuge Ke did not greatly raise up the family, he would bring it to utter ruin. In autumn, the eighth month, of the 3rd year of Jiahe (234), Sun Quan made Zhuge Ke General Who Pacifies Yue, concurrently Administrator of Danyang. Records, Wu 19 §6 · 8Records, Wu 2 §77–78

Zhuge Ke had the senior officials of the walled towns of the four commanderies each guard their own borders, and had all the commoners who accepted civilizing rule live together in garrison settlements. He deployed his generals in the deep and rugged places, but had them only repair their palisades without crossing blades, and when the crops were about to ripen he sent out his troops to cut them down so that not a seed was left. With the old grain gone and nothing harvested from the new fields, the mountain people grew hungry and gradually came out to surrender. Zhuge Ke ordered that they not be held under suspicion but moved to the outer counties. When Hu Kang, Chief of Jiuyang, bound a surrendered man, a long-time wrongdoer who was secretly plotting rebellion, and sent him to headquarters, Zhuge Ke beheaded Hu Kang for disobeying orders and displayed him as a warning. Hearing of this, old and young came out hand in hand, and within a year the numbers matched the original plan. Zhuge Ke himself took command of ten thousand men and distributed the rest among the generals. Records, Wu 19 §8–10

Sun Quan sent Xue Zong, Vice Director of the Secretariat, to reward the troops, and Xue Zong wrote that the mountains and marshes had been swept clean and a hundred thousand soldiers presented. Zhuge Ke became General Who Awes the North and was enfeoffed as Marquis of a Chief District. In this campaign Chen Biao, concurrently Commandant of Xin'an, acted in concert with Zhuge Ke. Under the 6th year of Jiahe (237), the Biography of the Lord of Wu records that Zhuge Ke completed the pacification of the Shanyue and moved north to garrison Lujiang. Records, Wu 19 §11 · 14Records, Wu 10 §41Records, Wu 2 §81 · 86

In his assessment in Records of Wu 15, Chen Shou said that because the Shanyue were fond of rebellion, hard to settle and easily stirred, Sun Quan had no time to ward off enemies abroad and humbled his words toward the Wei house. He added that the ministers in this volume were all men who skillfully quelled internal disorder and brought peace and quiet within the realm. Records, Wu 15 §86