Ma Chao (176–222), a famous general during the Three Kingdoms period. The word Mengqi. A native of Fufeng Maoling (present-day northeast of Xingping, Shaanxi). Ma Chao relied on his bravery and fought for half his life, but his family collapsed and he himself was displaced. His encounter can be seen as a microcosm of the warlord-fighting society at that time.
First, the door tiger is quite scheming
Ma Chao was the son of Ma Teng, a general of the Late Eastern Han Dynasty, who was the queen of Ma Yuan, the general of Han Fubo. In the third year of Chuping (192), Ma Chao was ordered by his father to accompany Zhong Xuan to Pingyang to attack Guo Yuan and Gao Gan. During the battle, Ma Chao was shot by a flying arrow, and he wrapped his wounded foot in a cloth bag and continued to fight, mobilizing the three armies. After the war, he was appointed as the Assassin of Xuzhou, and later appointed as the Counselor.
In the thirteenth year of Jian'an (208), the imperial court transferred Ma Teng back to the Beijing Division and appointed him as a lieutenant; Ma Chao was appointed as a general and given the title of Marquis of Ting, putting him in charge of Ma Teng's troops.
In March of the sixteenth year of Jian'an (211), Cao Cao sent lieutenant Zhong Xuan (钟繇) to attack Zhang Lu, and the generals of Guanzhong saw Cao Cao's mission to Guanzhong and expeditioned zhang Lu, suspecting that he intended to cut down Yu, so Ma Chao, Han Sui, and other ten departments rebelled, with 100,000 people and Tun Guan. In July, Cao Cao personally led an attack on Ma Chao and others. The two sides confronted each other, and Ma Chao suggested that Han Sui garrison the north bank in advance, prevent Cao Bing from crossing the river, and force him to run out of food. However, Han Sui wanted to "attack with half a soldier", and did not use Ma Chao's strategy. Cao Cao later learned of this and sighed, "Ma Chao Xiao'er is not dead, and I am not buried in the body!" Soon, Cao Cao commanded a large army to cross north, covering up for Ma Chao's army, and was again defeated. After that, the two sides fought several more times, and the Cao army could not win all of them.
Cao Cao asked Jia Xu for advice, and Jia Xu suggested that Ma Chao, Han Sui, and others be separated. Just when Han Sui asked to meet with Cao Cao, Cao Cao and Han Sui were old acquaintances, and the two of them talked for half a day in front of the battle, and they kept clapping their hands and laughing between conversations. Afterwards, Ma Chao and the others asked Han Sui what they had talked about before the battle, and Han Sui was honestly just talking about some old Kyoto matters, and Ma Chao and the others began to suspect him. Then, Cao Cao wrote a letter to Han Sui, deliberately making many traces of smearing at the key points of the letter. Ma Chao knew that Cao Cao had written a letter to Han Sui, so he wanted to come to watch it, and found that the key points were all changed and confused, thinking that Han Sui had changed it on his own, and his heart was more and more suspicious. Cao Cao saw that the time had come, so he set a date for the battle with Han Sui and Ma Chao. When facing the enemy, they were first lured by light troops, and after a while, they released elite troops to attack. Ma Chao and others were suspicious of each other, and the military's morale fluctuated, and they were defeated.
Ma Chao fled to the Rong tribe to defend. Cao Cao led his troops in pursuit until it was stable, catching up with the war in the north, and led his troops back to the east.
Second, the turbulent displacement will eventually choose the Lord
When Cao Cao returned to the east, Ma Chao led qianghu men to attack Longshang County, and the counties surrendered, only Jicheng held on. Ma Chao was able to gain the right army of Long, and Zhang Lu sent the general Yang Ang to help, with more than 10,000 men and horses, to attack Jicheng. Jicheng assassin Shi Weikang and others saw that the rescue troops were not coming, so they opened the door and surrendered. Ma Chao entered the city, killed Shi Shi and Taishou, claimed to be the general of Zhengxi, led and oversaw the military of Liangzhou.
Wei Kang's former subordinates Yang Fu, Jiang Xu, and others conspired to enter the city of Halo, intending to make enemies of Ma Chao. Ma Chao himself led his troops out of Jicheng to attack Halo City, but failed to capture it. Liang Kuan and Zhao Qu closed the city gates in Jicheng, killed Ma Chao's wife, and did not release Ma Chao's city. Ma Chao was in a dilemma at this time, so he had to run south to Hanzhong and surrender to Zhang Lu.
Zhang Lu appointed Ma Chao as the capital to talk about sacrificial wine, and wanted to marry his daughter to him. Some people dissuaded him, believing that Ma Chao's wife suffered a tragic disaster, all caused by Ma Chao, that he could not love his relatives, that he could love others, and that Zhang Lu gave up. Ma Chao saw that Zhang Lu was difficult to achieve a big thing, and he was jealous of Yang Ang, the general of Zhang Lubu, and his heart was depressed.
At that time, Liu Bei was besieging Chengdu for a long time, and after learning of Ma Chao's situation, he sent Jiang Ning's governor Li Hui to persuade him. Ma Chao fled from Wudu into The Middle Of the Bulge and wrote a secret letter to Liu Bei asking for surrender. Liu Bei was overjoyed, sent someone to greet Ma Chao, asked him to stop first, and secretly allocated him a lot of soldiers to increase his military prestige; Then he ordered him to lead his troops directly to the city of Chengdu. Seeing this power in the city, people's hearts floated. Soon, Chengdu was conquered. Liu Bei appointed Ma Chao as the general of Pingxi and made him the Marquis of Duting from Cao Cao.
Liu Bei ascended the throne as King of Hanzhong, appointed Ma Chao as the Right General, and conferred the title of Fu Jie. In the first year of Zhang Wu (221), Ma Chao was promoted to the rank of general of the Hun Cavalry, leading yangzhou mu and entering the marquis of Fengliang Township. In the second year of Zhang Wu, Ma Chao died at the age of 47. Liu Bei posthumously honored him as "Marquis of Wei".