King Mulu 木鹿大王

In Chapter 90 of the Romance, when Meng Huo, released by Zhuge Liang and back at Yinkeng Cave, asks whether anyone has a good idea for taking revenge on the Shu army, the Dailai Cave Chief, Meng Huo's wife's brother and chief of the Eight Tribes, steps forward offering to recommend someone who can defeat Zhuge Liang. The man he names is King Mulu, chief of Bana Cave to the southwest. He is versed in sorcery and can ride an elephant and summon wind and rain; he is always followed by tigers, leopards, jackals and wolves, venomous snakes and poisonous scorpions; and he has thirty thousand exceedingly brave divine soldiers under him. Meng Huo gladly has the royal brother-in-law carry a letter to him. Romance, Ch. 90 §1 · 5–6

Just as Meng Huo has got back his wife, Lady Zhurong, who had been captured by the Shu army, word comes that the Chief of Bana Cave has arrived. He rides a white elephant, wears necklaces of gold and pearls, has two great swords hanging at his waist, and enters surrounded by a band of men who keep tigers, leopards, jackals and wolves. When Meng Huo bows again and again, pleads piteously and tells him what has happened, King Mulu promises to avenge him, and Meng Huo, overjoyed, holds a banquet in his honor. Romance, Ch. 90 §18–20

The next day King Mulu sets out with the troops of his own cave and his wild beasts. Zhao Yun and Wei Yan see that most of the Man soldiers wear neither clothing nor armor but go completely naked, with hideous faces, each carrying four pointed knives, and that instead of drums and horns they strike gongs as signals. King Mulu, with two precious swords at his waist and a bell (tizhong) in his hand, rides out on a white elephant from among the great banners. While Zhao Yun is saying that in a lifetime on the battlefield he has never seen such a figure, King Mulu chants a spell and shakes his bell, and a fierce wind rises, sending sand flying and stones rolling, while tigers, leopards, jackals and wolves, venomous snakes and wild beasts charge forward on the wind. The Shu army falls back, and the Man soldiers pursue them as far as the road at the border of Sanjiang before turning back. Romance, Ch. 90 §20–22

Zhuge Liang tells the two generals, who come asking to be punished, that even before he left his thatched cottage he knew that the Southern Man had arts for commanding tigers and leopards, and that he had prepared in Shu the things to break this formation; of the twenty chest carts that have come with the army, he opens the ten painted in red lacquer. Inside are wooden beasts with coats of five-colored woolen yarn and teeth and claws of steel, each large enough to carry ten men. The next day Zhuge Liang draws up his formation at the mouth of the cave, and King Mulu, considering himself invincible, comes out with Meng Huo at the head of the cave troops and again chants a spell and shakes his bell. Romance, Ch. 90 §22–24

But when Zhuge Liang waves his feather fan once, the wind blows back into the Man soldiers' own ranks, and the false beasts surge out from the Shu lines. Seeing the giant beasts spouting flames from their mouths and black smoke from their noses and shaking their bronze bells, the real beasts dare not advance and flee back toward the Man caves, trampling countless Man soldiers instead. As the Shu army pursues and attacks to the sound of drums, King Mulu dies amid the confusion of battle; Meng Huo's clan abandon their palace and flee, and Zhuge Liang's main army occupies Yinkeng Cave. Romance, Ch. 90 §25–26