Julu

Julu Commandery (鉅鹿郡) was a historical commandery of China. During the Tang dynasty, it was one of the twenty-four commanderies of Hebei Circuit.^[1]

When the jiedushi An Lushan rebelled from Fanyang in 755, he led his 150,000 strong army down on a southward march Tang eastern capital of Luoyang. Along the way, he intimidated virtually all the commanderies of Hebei into submission, but he refused to spare Julu on the basis of a superstition. The name Julu (鉅鹿, reconstructed Middle Chinese: /ɡɨʌˣ.luk/, Cantonese: geoi⁶ luk⁶), means 'iron deer', but since luk (鹿) is homophonic with the luk (祿) in Lushan's name (Middle Chinese: /luk.ʃˠɛn/, Cantonese: luk⁶ saan³), a pun on keoiluk (拒祿) meaning 'to repel Luk' could be construed. Lushan took offence at this and used it as a pretext to order Julu city razed to the ground.^[1]

Yan Jiming and the Hidden One Li E arrived shortly after the city's destruction, where they witnessed the suffering of its surviving inhabitants. They spoke to one of them, who explained that the Yeluohe garrison keeping guard at the nearby beacon tower had continued to plunder what little they had left every nights.^[1]