King Mulu

King Mulu, ruler of the Bana valley, joins Meng Huo’s resistance with an army accompanied by wild animals and a reputation for magic. His arrival briefly reverses the campaign: a storm and attacking beasts force Shu’s soldiers to retreat. Kong Ming answers with prepared devices that rout Mulu’s forces, and the king is killed. Mulu’s episode makes supernatural power a battlefield threat, but also shows how the narrative places it in conflict with Kong Ming’s foresight and ingenuity.

Position in the Southern Campaign

After the governors’ revolt is quelled, Meng Huo gathers the chieftains of three valleys to unite against the Shu invasion. When the surviving rebels later regroup, Meng Huo seeks assistance from King Mulu, whose magical powers are renowned. Meng Huo’s brother-in-law is sent with gifts to recruit him, while King Duosi fortifies Sanjiang. Mulu therefore enters the campaign as an ally called in to strengthen a resistance already under pressure, not as an independent adversary of Shu.

The King and His Forces

Mulu arrives from Bana valley with warriors and a striking array of animals: tigers, panthers, jackals, and wolves. His men are distinguished by their appearance and equipment, and they advance with gongs rather than the horns and drums familiar to the Shu commanders. Mulu himself rides a huge white elephant. The scene presents his force as deliberately unfamiliar to the invading army, making the battlefield encounter a collision between distinct military worlds as well as opposing armies.

Mulu’s power is also described as occult. He is renowned for commanding animals, including dangerous creatures, and his chanting is followed by a violent storm. The narrative makes this reputation operational: the storm and animals are not merely signs of his authority but weapons that disrupt the Shu formation and compel a retreat.

Clash with Kong Ming

When Mulu chants at the battlefield, wind drives sand and stones through the Shu ranks as animals surge forward. Zhao Zilong and Wei Yan withdraw with their troops to the relative safety of Sanjiang. Their retreat establishes that Mulu’s intervention has achieved a real, if temporary, advantage; Kong Ming acknowledges that he has heard of the Man magic and says he has come prepared.

The countermeasure is material and theatrical. Kong Ming orders forward red wagons containing large carved animal figures fitted with steel teeth and claws. A thousand soldiers, assigned a hundred to each wagon, load them with gunpowder. When Mulu again summons the storm and wild creatures, Kong Ming’s fan turns the storm back upon the Man army. The figures are then ignited: their flames and noise frighten the animals into flight, and the panicked retreat causes further losses among Mulu’s own troops. The strategy defeats the force by confronting its spectacle with another spectacle, engineered in advance.

Defeat and Narrative Significance

Mulu is killed in the rout, and only a fraction of his army escapes into the valley. His defeat helps break the military resistance surrounding Meng Huo, though the campaign continues beyond Mulu’s death before Meng Huo finally submits. The later settlement leaves Meng Huo as ruler over the lands conquered by Shu, marking a transition from fighting to political accommodation rather than making Mulu’s death the campaign’s final outcome.

Mulu’s brief arc contrasts the apparent power of magic and terrifying beasts with Kong Ming’s ability to anticipate and redirect them. His forces initially unsettle even experienced commanders, but their advantage proves vulnerable to preparation and disciplined counteraction. The episode also places a distinctive valley ruler and his followers within the larger story of Shu’s southern campaign: a military opponent whose defeat contributes to the eventual settlement of the region.