Dou Chong was an ethnic Di from
Wudu. It is not known when Dou Chong specifically joined Fu Jian, but he first appeared in the records in 368, during the rebellion of Fu Liu (苻柳), Fu Shuang (苻雙), Fu Sou (苻廋) and Fu Wu (苻武). Dou Chong was serving as the General of the Forbidden Guards of the Left at the time and participated in quelling the rebellion by leading cavalries. In 380, Fu Jian's cousin,
Fu Luo, rebelled against him in Helong (和龍, in modern
Jinzhou,
Liaoning). Fu Jian sent Dou Chong and
Lü Guang to campaign against them. Dou Chong fought Fu Luo at
Zhongshan, where he greatly routed and captured him. Dou Chong sent Fu Luo back to the capital, while Lü Guang defeated Fu Luo's remaining followers. Before the Battle of Feishui in 383, Fu Jian appointed
Yao Chang as Prancing Dragon General. Fu Jian jokingly said to him, "Before, I established my rule as the General Longxiang. I do not easily confer this title on others, so take good care of it." However, Dou Chong objected to his playful comment, telling him, "Kings should not joke, this is an ominous sign." Fu Jian made no reply. The Battle of Feishui ended in disaster for Fu Jian, and Former Qin began to fall apart. As the state disintegrated, Dou Chong remained by Fu Jian's side, serving under Fu Jian's son Fu Rui (苻叡) as his chief clerk. In 384, he helped Fu Rui in his campaign against
Murong Hong but was later given personal command by Fu Jian to defeat Hong's brother,
Murong Chong at
Pingyang, who had also rebelled. Dou Chong defeated Murong Chong at
Hedong, causing Murong Chong to abandon his infantry and flee to his brother. In the middle of 384, Dou Chong feigned surrender to the Jin dynasty. The Jin court appointed Dou Chong as a general but shortly after his appointment, he defected back to Qin and invaded
Hanzhong. The Jin administrators, Huangfu Zhao (皇甫釗) and Zhou Xun (周勳) surrendered three counties of Baxi (巴西; around present-day
Langzhong,
Sichuan) to Dou, and Jin's Inspector of
Liangzhou, Zhou Qiong (周瓊) had little troops to resist them. Qiong asked the Inspector of Yuzhou,
Zhu Xu for help, so Zhu sent Huangfu Zhen (皇甫貞; not to be confused with Former Yan's
Huangfu Zhen) to assist him. The two drove Dou Chong back to the east of
Chang'an while both Huangfu Zhao and Zhou Xun were killed. The following month, Fu Jian led a campaign north against Yao Chang, who had broken away and formed his state of Later Qin. With Dou Chong serving as General of the Left, Fu Jian camped at Fort Zhaoshi (趙氏塢; in present-day
Tongchuan,
Shaanxi) and defeated Yao Chang numerous times. Dou and his contemporaries also built a
weir to cut off Yao Chang's water supply. Yao Chang's men were dying of thirst, so in desperation, he sent his brother, Yao Yinmai (姚尹買), to destroy the weir. However, Dou Chong attacked and beheaded Yinmai, inflicting Later Qin with 13,000 casualties. Yao Chang's army was on the brink of collapse but was saved when a storm occurred to replenish their water. In early 385, the former emperor of
Former Yan and also Murong Hong's brother,
Murong Wei, apologized to Fu Jian for the actions of his brothers. In reality, this was a ruse to let his guard down and assassinate him. One of the conspirators involved was Tu Xian (突賢), who had a sister that happened to be Dou Chong's concubine. The two did not get along with each other, and with knowledge of the plot, Tu Xian's sister revealed to Dou Chong of Murong Wei's intentions. Dou Chong immediately notified Fu Jian about it, and when it was revealed that Murong Wei had already got the Xianbei citizens in Chang'an involved in the scheme, Fu Jian executed Murong Wei and massacred the Xianbei in the city. In 385, Murong Chong sent his general Gao Gai (高蓋) to attack Chang'an. Gao Gai attacked during the night to catch the defenders by surprise, but Dou Chong and others routed him, killing around 800 of Murong Chong's soldiers. There was lack of ration and widespread hunger in Chang'an at the time, so Dou Chong and the generals ordered for the bodies of dead enemies to be carved up and used as food. == Service under Fu Pi and Fu Deng ==