After flooding the Seventh Army, Guan Yu heard the news of the loss of Jingzhou and withdrew from Fancheng in a panic, intending to go forward to retake Jingzhou. In the process of Guan Yu's march, Guan Yu's army was disintegrated by Lü Meng's psychological warfare, and a large number of fighters had no intention of fighting.
In this case, Guan Yu decided to retreat back to Shu Han first and prepare to make a comeback later.
Lü Meng decided to cut the grass and remove the roots, and laid a net of heaven and earth in Linfu.
Guan Yu did choose to break through from the direction of Linfeng, and Guan Yu was defeated by Pan Zhang in the Linfeng area, and was captured and beheaded by Sun Quan. Linfeng is not an ordinary place, he is the residence of Ma Chao, another famous general of the Three Kingdoms.
The strange thing is that whether It is Dongwu setting up an ambush in Linfeng or Guan Yu arriving in Linfeng, Ma Chao has not appeared, so why did Ma Chao not come to the rescue of Guan Yu?
Ma Chao was originally the warlord leader of Liangzhou, but defected to Zhang Lu because of his defeat, and Ma Chao, who was not well received at Zhang Lu, later switched to Liu Bei.
Ma Chao had just made a great contribution to Liu Bei, and Liu Zhang, who was resisting Liu Bei in Chengdu, heard the news of Ma Chao's arrival and immediately surrendered. Liu Bei was very happy at that time, and he made Ma Chao the general of Pingxi an official position, and asked him to supervise the military of Linfeng.
Seeing Ma Chao's dezhi, Guan Yu began to be dissatisfied, he wrote a letter to Zhuge Liang, asking Zhuge Liang how Ma Chao was, whether he could be compared with himself, in the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" Guan Yu was even more blunt about competing with Ma Chao.
In order to ease the relationship, Zhuge Liang quickly wrote a letter to Guan Yu, saying that Ma Chao's skills could only be the same as Zhang Fei's, and he was not as powerful as Mei Hairgong. Seeing that Zhuge Liang complimented himself as a beautiful bearded man, Guan Yu was very happy and showed the letter to everyone.
In this matter, Guan Yu directly provoked Ma Chao, and although Ma Chao had not spoken, he was definitely dissatisfied in his heart.
However, when Guan Yu was defeated, Ma Chao did not rescue Guan Yu because of a personal vendetta, and Ma Chao was not depressed at that time.
After Ma Chao was made a general of Pingxi, Liu Bei launched the Battle of Hanzhong. In the early stages of the Battle of Hanzhong, Ma Chao and Zhang Fei led troops to engage Cao Wei, and later Ma Chao rebelled against the minorities in Liangzhou. Liu Bei was grateful for Ma Chao's merits, and after the war, he established himself as the King of Hanzhong and made Ma Chao a general of the left.
The interval between this period is very short, and it can be said that Ma Chao has never been to Linfeng, which is only a symbolic honor. There are many such symbolic honors, such as Liu Bei sealing Guan Yu as the Taishou of Xiangyang, and Xiangyang was not really mastered by Guan Yu until Guan Yu's death.
Liu Bei later made Ma Chao a pastor of Liangzhou, which was Cao Wei's territory, and Ma Chao had no chance to take office.
Ma Chao was actually the most depressed one among Liu Bei's five tigers, he never gained real power after he defected to Liu Bei, and Liu Bei probably did not even really hand over a small lining to Ma Chao.
Ma Chao was also the hegemon of the party at the earliest, Liu Bei must have been wary of him, from the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Liu Bei never really let Ma Chao lead the soldiers alone, nor did he let Ma Chao serve as a county guard.
Guan Yu was the ruler of the Jingzhou region, Wei Yan was the defender of the Hanzhong region, Zhang Fei was the defender of Ba County, Huang Zhong died relatively early, and Zhao Yun was the Taishou during the Jingzhou period. These generals Liu Bei gave them real power, but Ma Chao has always been a fictitious position, and later became a hussar general of Shu Han, but still has no real power.
Judging from these circumstances, Ma Chao's governor Linfeng was only a fictitious post, and he did not really take office. If Ma Chao was really in Linfeng, Pan Zhang would certainly not have been so easy to conquer Linfeng, Ma Chao was a person who had defeated Cao Cao, and the level of military use was far from being comparable to that of Lü Meng.
At the time of Guan Yu's defeat, there was one more thing that could prove that Ma Chao was in Chengdu.
The history books record that Ma Chao was not trusted because he sent people under the fence, and often felt uneasy in his heart.
Ma Chao had been a prince who had reigned as a king and a hegemon in the first half of his life, and now he had suddenly become Liu Bei's subordinate, and he was not willing to be sure in his heart. There is more fear, afraid that Liu Bei will be jealous of himself.
In this case, a minister who fell out of favor with Liu Bei found Ma Chao, this person was called Peng Xi, Peng Xi was a relatively high-ranking minister of Shu Han, and when Liu Bei was a pastor of Yizhou, Peng Xian was engaged in zhizhou.
Peng Xi was a very grumpy person, because Liu Bei was very uncomfortable in his heart to let himself go out and be too guarded. Scolding: This veteran actually did this to me. Ma Chao said a few words of comfort to persuade him, and Peng Xian actually regarded Ma Chao as a confidant and said to Ma Chao: I am rebelling outside, and you will definitely succeed if you do internal responses in the imperial court.
Ma Chao was terrified when he heard this, and immediately told Liu Bei, who killed Peng Xi.
This incident proved that Ma Chao was an official in Chengdu, and he would not easily leave Chengdu, otherwise Peng Xi would not have promised Ma Chao like this.
From the perspective of these points, Ma Chao's failure to save Guan Yu is not that Ma Chao does not want to save, but that Ma Chao is not depressed at all. Even in Linfeng, there was no independent military right, let alone the rescue of Guan Yu. After the deaths of Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, Liu Bei distrusted Ma Chao even more, and did not let Ma Chao accompany him during the conquest of Eastern Wu, and did not give Ma Chao a chance to go out again until Ma Chao's death.