[2] Little is recorded about Hua Xiong in history, apart from the fact that he served as a military officer under the warlord Dong Zhuo and held the position of Chief Controller (都督)[3] or Commandant (都尉).
Hu Zhen and Lü Bu were quarrelsome, so Sun Jian could easily defeat both of them and beheaded their Chief Controller Hua Xiong in a battle at Yangren (陽人; believed to be near present-day Wenquan, Ruzhou, Henan).
When Lü Bu requests to lead troops to attack the enemy, Hua Xiong steps in and says, "An ox-cleaver to kill a chicken!
Having single-handedly slain four warriors from the coalition – Zu Mao (祖茂), Pan Feng (潘鳳), Bao Zhong (鮑忠), and Yu She (俞涉) – Hua Xiong seems invincible.
Despite mistrust from many warlords of the coalition, most notably their leader Yuan Shao, Guan Yu volunteers to fight Hua Xiong.