| In Chinese
folklore, the Yellow Emperor has always been the incarnation of heroism and wisdom, whose
dauntless feats put an end to the tribal wars which had plagued the whole nation for
centuries. He never encountered any enemy worthy of his wheel until he was challenged by
another powerful tribe leader: Chi You, who is described in many sources as a brutal
monster. Some legends say the belligerent chief had 81
brothers, all of them with such ferocious visages as the body of beasts, which could
hardly be penetrated by common weapons. They were also skilled at casting bronze and
making weapons, and their arrows, spears, axes and shields were unparalleled. What
terrified his neighboring tribes most, however, were their evil ambition and blood lust.
They sacked every conquered town, leaving thousands of families homeless behind their heel
of invasion.
 After taking all the
neighboring tribes under his tyranny, Chi You took his men far east to what is today's
Shandong Province, attacked the prosperous tribe of Emperor Yan *, and drove him
into the territory of the Yellow Emperor. The latter was outraged by Chi You's atrocities,
and declared war against the monster.
The unprepared emperor, however, was no rival for Chi You at
first and suffered several defeats. But the early battles rewarded him with an accidental
discovery: the monstrous soldiers were afraid of dragon, and even its sound would make
them tremble. So the emperor created a kind of whistle that could gave out similar sound,
and equipped his men with the secret weapon. Once the warriors engaged the enemy, people
hiding nearby would blow the whistles together, as if thousands of dragons were cruising
over the battlefield. The petrifying roar stuck the brutal enemy as a sudden lightening
from the sky, paralyzing them with fear.
Chi You, who couldn't accept his failure, conjured up the deities
of wind and rain to blow up a tempest. But a goddess soon came to the emperor's side, and
dispersed the storm.
While more and more tribes and immortals joining the Yellow
Emperor's ally, the monster finally met his Waterloo at Zhuoluo in present Hebei Province.
Chi You retreated until he reached today's Shanxi, where he was captured and beheaded.
Near the alleged execution site, there is a lake with water of a subtle reddish color,
which was tinted, as local legends say, by the monster's blood.
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