Lü Dai
Lü Dai, courtesy name Dinggong, was a military general of the state of Eastern Wu during the Three Kingdoms period of China. Born in the late Eastern Han dynasty, Lü Dai started his career as a minor official in his home commandery in present-day Taizhou, Jiangsu before migrating south to the Jiangdong region, where he became an assistant magistrate and later a county chief under the warlord Sun Quan. He rose to prominence after his successes in suppressing some rebellions in Sun Quan's territories. Around the beginning of the Three Kingdoms period, Sun Quan, who later became the founding emperor of Eastern Wu, appointed Lü Dai as the governor of the restive Jiao Province in the south. During his ten-year-long tenure in Jiao Province, Lü Dai quelled a number of revolts, maintained peace in the area, and contacted some foreign kingdoms in Mainland Southeast Asia and made them pay tribute to Eastern Wu. In 231, he was recalled to Wuchang to oversee civil and military affairs in Jing Province alongside his colleague Lu Xun. Throughout the 230s, he suppressed a few rebellions in Wu territories. By 240, as he neared the age of 80, he was still in good physical health and competent enough to perform his duties. He rose to the position of Senior General-in-Chief in 246 and later Grand Marshal in 252 during the reign of Sun Quan's successor Sun Liang. He died aged 95 and was one of the longest-living notable people of the Three Kingdoms period.
Early career
Lü Dai was from Hailing County, Guangling Commandery, which is in present-day Taizhou, Jiangsu. He started his career in the late Eastern Han dynasty as a low-level bureaucrat in the county and commandery offices. When chaos broke out throughout China in the 180s and 190s, he fled south to the Jiangdong region for shelter.In the year 200, after Sun Quan became the warlord ruling over the Jiangdong territories, Lü Dai sought a career under him and was appointed as an assistant official in Wu Commandery. During an inspection tour of Wu Commandery, Sun Quan summoned all the county chiefs and assistant officials for a review of every county's stores and legal administration. Lü Dai impressed Sun Quan when he responded well to his questions and showed that everything under his watch was in perfect order. Sun Quan then reassigned him to be a clerk in his personal administrative office, and later appointed him as the Chief of Yuyao County. During his tenure, Lü Dai recruited over 1,000 able-bodied men to serve in Sun Quan's army.
Pacifying a rebellion in Kuaiji
When Lü He and Qin Lang led an uprising in the five counties in the east of Kuaiji Commandery, Sun Quan commissioned Lü Dai as a Colonel and ordered him to assist Jiang Qin in dealing with the rebels. Lü Dai and Jiang Qin succeeded in their mission and managed to pacify the five counties and capture the two rebel leaders. Lü Dai was then promoted to General of the Household of Illustrious Trust as a reward for his achievement.Aborted mission to Hanzhong
In 211, Lü Dai, with Yin Yi as his deputy, led 2,000 troops west to lure Zhang Lu, a warlord based in Hanzhong Commandery, into a trap at Hanxing Commandery. However, Zhang Lu suspected something fishy so he did not respond. Sun Quan then ordered Lü Dai and his men to return to Jiangdong.On the journey back, Lü Dai passed by Baidicheng and met Sun Quan's ally Liu Bei, who was leading an army to seize control of Yi Province from its governor Liu Zhang. He saw that Liu Bei's army was in disarray and about half of his troops either deserted or were dead, and felt convinced that Liu Bei would not succeed in conquering Yi Province. After returning to Jiangdong, he told Sun Quan, who in turn asked his adviser Wu Fan, who had previously predicted that Liu Bei would conquer Yi Province. Wu Fan replied: "My prediction is based on Heaven's will. What Lü Dai saw were the actions of people." Wu Fan's prediction came true as Liu Bei did eventually conquer Yi Province by 214.
Role in the Sun–Liu territorial dispute
In 215, when Sun Quan had a territorial dispute with his ally Liu Bei in Jing Province, he ordered Lü Dai, with Sun Mao and nine other officers as his deputies, to lead troops to seize control of the three commanderies of Changsha, Lingling and Guiyang. The officials in four counties – Ancheng, You, Yongxin and Chaling – moved to Yinshan County, where they declared hostility towards Lü Dai. In response, Lü Dai led his troops to besiege and attack Yinshan County, and succeeded in forcing the rebellious officials to surrender. The three commanderies in southern Jing Province thus came firmly under Sun Quan's control.Sun Quan left Lü Dai in charge of Changsha. Around the time, Wu Dang, the Chief of Ancheng County, conspired with a military officer Yuan Long to rebel against Sun Quan and defect to Guan Yu, the general guarding Liu Bei's territories in southern Jing Province. Wu Dang managed to occupy You County while Yuan Long stationed himself at Liling County. Sun Quan sent his general Lu Su to attack Wu Dang; Lu Su succeeded in defeating Wu Dang and recapturing the counties while Wu Dang fled after his defeat. In the meantime, Lü Dai attacked Liling County and succeeded in capturing and executing Yuan Long. He was then assigned to serve as the Administrator of Luling Commandery.
As the governor of Jiao Province
In 220, Lü Dai was appointed as the Inspector of the southern Jiao Province to replace Bu Zhi. After Lü Dai assumed office, Qian Bo, a bandit chief from Gaoliang Commandery led his followers to surrender to him. Lü Dai accepted Qian Bo's surrender and appointed him as the Commandant of the West Section of Gaoliang Commandery. Later, he also quelled an uprising by indigenous tribes in Yulin Commandery.Around the time, there was a bandit chief Wang Jin from Zhenyang County who frequently led his followers to raid the borders of Nanhai Commandery. Under orders from Sun Quan, Lü Dai led his troops to attack the bandits and succeeded in capturing Wang Jin alive. He then sent Wang Jin as a captive to the Wu imperial capital, Jianye. Throughout the campaign, he had killed, captured and released about 10,000 bandits in total. In recognition of Lü Dai's efforts, Sun Quan promoted him to General Who Stabilises the South, granted him acting imperial authority, and enfeoffed him as a Marquis of a Chief District.
Suppressing Shi Hui's rebellion
When Shi Xie, the Administrator of Jiaozhi Commandery, died in 226, Sun Quan commissioned Shi Xie's third son, Shi Hui, as a general and appointed him as the Administrator of Jiuzhen Commandery. He also appointed Chen Shi as the new Administrator of Jiaozhi Commandery to succeed Shi Xie. Around the time, Sun Quan wanted to split Jiao Province and create another province, Guang Province : Jiaozhi, Jiuzhen and Rinan commanderies would remain part of Jiao Province; Cangwu, Nanhai, Yulin and Hepu commanderies would form the new Guang Province. He then appointed Dai Liang and Lü Dai as the Inspectors of Jiao and Guang provinces respectively.When Dai Liang and Chen Shi came to assume their new appointments, Shi Hui refused to accept the new arrangement and he started a rebellion by sending his forces to block Dai Liang and Chen Shi. After obtaining approval from Sun Quan, Lü Dai led 3,000 troops to attack Shi Hui and quell the rebellion. When someone warned Lü Dai to be careful because the Shi clan had lived in Jiao Province for generations and had strong support from the locals, Lü Dai replied: "Although Shi Hui has decided to rebel, he doesn't expect me to show up with an army. If I launch a swift attack now, I can catch him off guard and defeat him easily. If I don't act fast, the others will start thinking of rebelling too, while Shi Hui will have more time to strengthen his defences. If the barbarians in all the seven commanderies combine forces and join him in his rebellion, I don't think even the most brilliant military commanders can deal with them."
Lü Dai then led his troops to the rendezvous point at Hepu County, where he combined forces with Dai Liang and prepared to attack Shi Hui. When Shi Hui learnt that Lü Dai had shown up at Jiaozhi Commandery with an army, he was so shocked and terrified that he did not know what to do as he did not expect Lü Dai to arrive so quickly. He had no choice but to lead his brothers out of the city and surrender to Lü Dai. Lü Dai later executed all the Shi brothers and sent their heads to Sun Quan. Gan Li and Huan Zhi, two military officers who used to serve under Shi Hui, rallied their forces to attack Lü Dai to avenge their master. Lü Dai managed to defeat them and eliminate all remaining opposing forces. As a reward for his achievement, Lü Dai was promoted from a district marquis to a county marquis under the title "Marquis of Panyu".
After Shi Hui's rebellion, Sun Quan abolished the newly created Guang Province and restored the original Jiao Province. After pacifying Jiaozhi Commandery, Lü Dai led his troops further south into Jiuzhen Commandery to attack opposing forces, and killed or captured tens of thousands of enemies. He also tasked the officials under him with spreading Han Chinese culture in the southern lands with the aim of sinicising the non-Han Chinese peoples living there. At the same time, he sent emissaries to contact the rulers of foreign kingdoms such as Funan, Lâm Ấp and Tangming in Mainland Southeast Asia, and make them pay tribute to Wu. Sun Quan lauded Lü Dai for his efforts and promoted him to General Who Guards the South.
Pacifying rebellions in Wuling, Luling, Kuaiji and Nanhai
In early 231, after seeing that Jiao Province was peaceful, Sun Quan reassigned Lü Dai to a new post at Oukou.Around March or April 231, when the indigenous tribes living in Wuxi rebelled against Wu rule, Sun Quan ordered Lü Dai to lead 50,000 troops to suppress the rebellion. He also ordered Pan Jun to supervise and assist Lü Dai as the latter conducted the military operation against the rebels. Pan Jun ensured that promises were kept, and rewards and punishments were given out fairly. By December 234, the rebellion ended with over 10,000 rebels killed or taken captive. The indigenous tribes also became so drastically weakened that they could not rebel again in a long time.
In 233, Sun Quan ordered Lü Dai and Pan Zhang to lead their troops to station at Lukou. Later, he instructed them to relocate their garrison to the nearby Puqi.
In 235, rebellions broke out almost simultaneously in three commanderies: Luling, eastern Kuaiji and Nanhai. Li Huan and Lu He led the rebels in Luling; Sui Chun led the rebels in eastern Kuaiji; and Luo Li led the rebels in Nanhai. In response, Sun Quan ordered Lü Dai, with Liu Zuan and Tang Zi as his deputies, to lead troops to separately quell each rebellion. After Sui Chun surrendered, Lü Dai appointed him as a Lieutenant-General and recruited him as a subordinate. He also defeated the other rebel forces, executed the rebel leaders Li Huan, Lu He and Luo Li, and sent their heads to Sun Quan. Sun Quan issued an imperial decree to praise Lü Dai for his achievements in quelling the rebellions and restoring peace in the three commanderies.
Following Pan Jun's death in 239, Lü Dai succeeded him by overseeing all civil and documentation-related affairs in Jing Province. He also moved to Wuchang to work alongside Lu Xun, but continued to remain in charge of the garrison at Puqi.