Wei Huang 韋晃

In Chapter 69 of the Romance, when Guan Lu says that there will surely be a fire in Xudu the following spring, Cao Cao stays in Ye Commandery, has Xiahou Dun patrol Xudu and gives the Chief Clerk Wang Bi command of the troops and horses of the Imperial Guard. In the 1st month of spring in the 23rd year of Jian'an, the Privy Treasurer Geng Ji, resentful that Cao Cao has been raised to the rank of king and uses the Son of Heaven's carriages and robes, consults secretly with the Director of Rectitude Wei Huang, with whom he is on very close terms, and Wei Huang says that he has a trusted confidant surnamed Jin and named Yi, a descendant of the Han minister Jin Midi, who has long harboured the wish to strike at Cao Cao and is also on very close terms with Wang Bi, and proposes that they plot together with him. Romance, Ch. 69 §23–26

When the two men visit Jin Yi's house, Wei Huang sounds him out, saying that the King of Wei will soon receive the abdication and ascend the throne, and that when Jin Yi and Chief Clerk Wang rise high they hope he will help them up. When Jin Yi rises with a flick of his sleeve and pours the tea onto the ground, Wei Huang feigns surprise and asks how an old friend can be so cold. Seeing that Jin Yi has a loyal and righteous heart, the two reveal the truth, saying that what they said before was only a test, and Wei Huang says that though they wish to repay the state, they do not yet have a plan for striking at the traitor. Romance, Ch. 69 §27–29

Jin Yi proposes acting together from inside and outside to kill Wang Bi, seize his command and uphold the Son of Heaven's carriage, and joining hands with the Imperial Uncle Liu, and he draws in Ji Miao and Ji Mu, the two sons of the Imperial Physician Ji Ping, as their wings. Jin Yi's plan is that on the night of the fifteenth of the 1st month, taking advantage of the lanterns of the Lantern Festival, Privy Treasurer Geng and Director of Rectitude Wei will each lead their household servants to storm the front of Wang Bi's camp. The five men swear an oath to Heaven and seal their covenant by drinking blood, and Geng Ji and Wei Huang each keep three or four hundred household servants and prepare weapons in advance. Romance, Ch. 69 §29–33

On the night of the fifteenth of the 1st month, after the second watch, fire breaks out in Wang Bi's camp, and Cao Xiu, alerted by Wang Bi, holds off the rebels within the city. Xiahou Dun, who has been encamped five li outside the city, surrounds Xudu with a large army and the fighting goes on until daybreak, when word comes that Jin Yi and the two Ji brothers have all been killed. Geng Ji and Wei Huang fight their way out through the city gate but are surrounded by Xiahou Dun's main army and captured, and the hundred or more men under them are all killed. Romance, Ch. 69 §34 · 36–38

Cao Cao orders Geng Ji and Wei Huang, together with the kin of the five households, old and young, all to be beheaded in the marketplace. At the execution ground, when Geng Ji dies still hurling curses to the end, Wei Huang strikes his face against the ground, crying 'What injustice! What injustice!', and dies gnashing his teeth until they are all broken. The Romance appends a poem by a man of later times that begins, 'Geng Ji was utterly loyal, Wei Huang was worthy'. Romance, Ch. 69 §38–40

Afterwards Cao Cao tells the officials who have been sent under escort to Ye Commandery that, of those present when Geng Ji, Wei Huang and the others set fire to Xudu, those who fought the fire should stand under the red flag and those who did not should stand under the white flag. Saying that those under the red flag had really meant to help the rebels, he has them beheaded on the bank of the Zhang River, and more than three hundred die. Romance, Ch. 69 §41–42