Two of the great emperors of ancient China were the fiery sun god Yan Di and the Yellow Emperor Huang Di. Some said that the Yellow Emperor and Yan Di were broth-ers, governing half of the universe each. Under the considered government of these wise deities, the people of the world were said to have lived and worked in peace and contentment and a peaceful and auspicious atmosphere prevailed in all areas. However, war erupted between the two deities and the chaos of war descended on the land. The Yel-low Emperor, marshaling countless masses of soldiers and troops backed up by the ter-rifying sight of flocks of fierce and cruel wild animals, led a fierce assault on the forces of Yan Di. The great martial hero, the Yellow Emperor, emerged victorious and became the preeminent god of the universe. His erstwhile brother, the old and infirm Yan Di, was driven to the south.
Chi You, Yan Di’s offspring, was a great general who played a leading role in the Zhuo Lu War between Yan Di and the Yellow Em-peror. As the war was entering its final stages, Chi You was captured and forced to become a lowly subordinate of the Yellow Emperor. Chi You’s servitude exposed him to the ev-eryday workings of Yellow Emperor’s court and he came to the conclusion that the Yel-low Emperor’s government was nothing but superficial bombast and empty extravagance. Unbowed by his captivity, he managed to escape. Fleeing to the southern Heavens, Chi You attempted to rouse Yan Di to rise in revolt and attack the Yellow Emperor and put right the humiliations of Zhuo Lu and gain revenge. The old and infirm Yan Di had had enough of war and conflict though. Any ambition he had harbored to attack the Yellow Emperor had dissipated. Chi You would have to fight alone.
Unperturbed by Yan Di’s reluctance to enter the fray, Chi You fearlessly continued with his preparations for martial revenge: first, he gathered together seventy or eighty of his followers whose thirst for vengeance matched his own. He then decamped to try to muster the Miao people to his cause. The Miao were originally kin to the Yellow Em-peror but had been discriminated against by him and were greatly angered at not being treated with the same respect as other races enjoyed, Most of them rallied to Chi You and eagerly joined his crusade to overthrow the Yellow Emperor’s domination. In addi-tion, the demons and monsters which resided in the southern mountains, woods, rivers and lakes all joined Chi You’s forces without hesitation. They greatly resented the heavy control exerted by Shen Tu and Yu Lei, the two ghost leaders delegated by the Yellow Emperor to keep order in that region. Hence, under the nominal banner of the absent Yan Di, the vengeful Chi You started an uprising against the rule of the Yellow Emperor. He stood before a great army, vast and mighty: a powerful killing force.
Hearing the news that Chi You had raised a great army in the southern Heavens determined to topple him, the Yellow Emper-or, resting peacefully in the tranquility of his Heavenly palace on Kunlun Mountain, was greatly perturbed. The Emperor tried hard to negotiate a compromise and avoid warfare but the implacable Chi You was deaf to all pleas. Nothing but the clash of war would satisfy him. The armies met again on the battlefield of Zhuo Lu, the bones of the dead from the previous conflict between Yellow Emperor and Yan Di still littering the field.
The battle was fought with frightening intensity and brutality. On Chi You’s side were his seventy or eighty followers with their distinctive heads made of copper and fore-heads made of iron alongside the brave Miao warriors. On the Yellow Emperor’s side was ranged Princess Ba and Princess Ying Long, gods and spirits of all types, and various fero-cious wild animals including black bears, ti-gers, foxes and jackals. It was very much the irresistible force versus the immovable object and the scene was set for bloody conflict.
As soon as the battle began, Chi You showed his ability and valour; though hordes of wild animals charged toward him, he stood undaunted. Though the Yellow Emperor en-joyed the help of gods and spirits and many valiant nations, Chi You most definitely en-joyed the better of the early exchanges in the second battle of Zhuo Lu.
In the early stage of the battle Chi You ingeniously enveloped the battlefield in thick fog, which he spurted out from his nostrils. The armies of the Yellow Emperor became completely disoriented, unable to tell east from west, unable to find the enemy. Chi You and his allies were much more purposeful in the blanketing fog. Stealthy one moment and hidden, they would burst out of the mist to de-capitate and maim and then disappear into the fog once more. Soon the armies of the Yellow Emperor were in almost complete disarray, their bloodcurdling cries and howls of terror piercing through the fog-bound battlefield.
Brandishing his double-edged sword, the Yellow Emperor charged fearlessly into the fray on his chariot, and the gods and spirits on all sides rallied to his inspirational battle cry. The tigers howled and the bears roared. The death bringing fog was all around them, how-ever, and despite their best efforts, Yellow Emperor’s forces could not break out of the blinding encirclement, no matter what desper-ate measures the gods tried.
