Zheng Lun 鄭倫

In Chapter 113 of the Romance, in winter of the 1st year of Jingyao of Shu-Han (258), Jiang Wei raised 200,000 Shu troops, advanced to Qishan and set up three camps at the mouth of the valley. Deng Ai, in the camp at Qishan, had gauged the lie of the land in advance, deliberately left the ground on which the Shu army would pitch its camps, and dug a tunnel straight from the Qishan camp to the Shu camps; the tunnel came out right in the middle of the left camp, which Wang Han and Jiang Bin had set up. Romance, Ch. 113 §23–25

Deng Ai had his son Deng Zhong and Shi Zuan each lead 10,000 troops to charge in from left and right, and summoned his deputy general Zheng Lun to lead 500 tunnelling troops along the tunnel at the second watch that night straight to the left camp and burst out of the ground behind the tent. Wang Han and Jiang Bin, who had not yet properly set up their camp and so dared not take off their armour to sleep, heard a great uproar in the middle of the camp, and when Deng Zhong charged in from outside, they were attacked from within and without and abandoned the camp and fled. But Jiang Wei ordered his men not to move rashly and only to shoot with bows and crossbows, and though the Wei army charged more than ten times, it could not break in before daybreak. Romance, Ch. 113 §26–28

The next day, competing in battle formations before Qishan, Deng Ai was trapped in the Long Serpent Coiling the Earth formation into which Jiang Wei had changed his array and was rescued by Sima Wang, but all nine camps at Qishan were taken by the Shu army and he withdrew south of the Wei River. Deng Ai arranged for Sima Wang to compete with Jiang Wei in battle formations before the lines the next day while he himself secretly led a force to attack the rear of Qishan, and made Zheng Lun his vanguard. Seeing through this, Jiang Wei had Zhang Yi and Liao Hua take 10,000 troops behind the mountain and lie in ambush. Romance, Ch. 113 §29–33 · 35–36

As Deng Ai urged on his vanguard Zheng Lun to attack the rear of the mountain, Zheng Lun had only just rounded a spur of the mountain when a signal cannon sounded once, drums and horns shook the sky, and an ambush burst out. The general at its head was Liao Hua. Before the two could exchange a word, as their horses crossed, Liao Hua cut Zheng Lun down from his horse with a single stroke of his blade. Deng Ai hastily turned his troops to withdraw but was caught in a pincer attack by Zhang Yi and badly defeated, and fought his way out at the risk of his life with four arrows in his body. In the Romance Zheng Lun's name appears in only three passages of this chapter. Romance, Ch. 113 §40–41 · 26 · 35