Author: Xu Yunhui
"The Pingxi general Duting Marquis Ma Chao (zi Mengqi)... Wait for one hundred and twenty people to play: ... The ministers and other ministers are still canonical, and the king of Hanzhong is sealed..."
Ma Chao, in this "Hanzhong Wang Persuasion Table", is impressively at the top of the table. So, is Ma Chao regarded by Liu Bei as a humerus and unparalleled in the limelight in Shu Han as a ranking?
(1) Inherit hegemony
After Ma Chao's father Ma Teng married a Qiang woman, he broke out of liangzhou and was named a general of the Western Expedition by the imperial court. Later, due to a conflict of interest, he turned against Han Sui, the Zhenxi general of Yijie Jinlan. "Teng's attack was completed, and he left, and the united people also attacked Teng, killing Teng's wife, and the soldiers were puzzled."
Subsequently, Ma Teng was enfeoffed as the Marquis of Huaili, and after painstaking management, established a solid base area centered on the county of Li (líqián, an ethnic minority autonomous county specially designed by the Western Han Dynasty to accommodate the Xiongnu Lijing tribe).
Ma Teng took advantage of the special friendly relationship between his wife and the Lijing tribe to recruit the men of the Lijing tribe to his subordinates, and made full use of their brave and good war characteristics and the speed advantage of the "Liangzhou Big Horse" to train the world-famous heavy armored cavalry - the Western Liang Iron Horse.
In order to prevent ma jia's army from falling behind, Cao Cao made Ma Teng a wei lieutenant (one of the nine secretaries and an official in charge of the guards of the various gates of the capital), and made Ma Chao "a partial general and the marquis of the capital pavilion", staying in Xizhou. Ma Teng obeyed the edict and led his second son and more than a hundred of his family members to Yecheng to take up his post.
Ma Chao, the young marshal of Ma Jiajun, was a handsome man and god of war with a mixed Qiang-Han lineage of "more than eight feet long, a large body, and a male nose". At the age of 15, he accompanied his father on the Southern Expedition to the Northern War and became famous in the Western Regions. Cao Cao had recruited Ma Chao, who was "both a scholar and a warrior and a brave man", to become an official in the dynasty, but Ma Chao insisted on resigning.
In the Battle of Pingyang (the battle between Lieutenant Colonel Zhong Xuan and Ma Chao in which he broke through and assassinated Shi Gaogan and hu kitchen springs of the Xiongnu), the 26-year-old Ma Chao was a pioneer soldier who broke into the enemy position, killed the enemy in his calf and wrapped his wounds with cloth belts, charged the enemy with a horse, broke the enemy army, killed the enemy chieftain, became famous in the first battle, and was worshipped by the imperial court as the Xuzhou Assassin And Counselor.
(2) Involve the family
In 211 AD, after Cao Cao returned from Chibi, he shifted his strategic objectives to force a rebellion against the northwest. He mobilized heavy troops, claiming that he wanted to use the northwest to attack Zhanglu in the southwest, and ordered his generals to hold Tongguan to the death.
Ma Chao saw through Cao Cao's strategy of "false way to destroy the qi" and suddenly fell into a painful choice: allowing the government army to borrow the road was tantamount to attracting wolves into the house, and the foundation founded by his father would be destroyed; resisting the government army was naturally regarded as a rebellion against the imperial court, endangering the lives of his father and other hostages. In the end, in order to preserve his father's inheritance, Ma Chao painfully chose the latter. He abandoned his previous suspicions, conspired with the "Nine Ministries, and made Han Sui the Governor of the Capital", categorically refusing to allow the government army to borrow the road. The warlords of Xizhou formed more than 100,000 allied troops and "marched to Tongguan" to fight against the government forces. Cao Cao was in the middle of the heart, personally leading a large number of government troops to fight the rebellion in the west.
At the beginning of the war, Ma Chao was extremely brave and brave, killing Cao Cao's soldiers and breaking his generals, lamenting: "Horses do not die, and I have no burial place." "However, the Northwest Alliance Army seems to be strong and strong, but in fact, each of them has their own intentions to deceive themselves. Cao Cao made a slight plan, "With Jia Xue's plot, Jian Chao and Sui were even more suspicious, and the army was defeated." After Ma Chao led the remnants to flee back to the Liangzhou area, Ma Teng, who was held hostage at the imperial court, and more than a hundred of his relatives were indeed "Yi San" by Cao Cao.
With the strong support of the ethnic minorities in the Zhurong area, Ma Chao made a comeback. In the direction of the soldiers, the counties and counties of Longshang fell without a fight. With the assistance of Zhang Lu's reinforcements, Ma Chao captured the strategic town of Jicheng and killed Liangzhou Assassin Shi. In order to show that he would inherit his father's legacy, Ma Chao "called himself the General of Zhengxi, led the state pastor, and oversaw the military of Liangzhou." ”
Soon, several of the old subordinates under the former Liangzhou Assassin Shi conspired to rebel and attack Ma Chao in order to avenge their superiors. Ma Chao was caught off guard and defeated, not only did Jicheng gain and lose, but also lost the territory and troops that the Ma family had painstakingly operated in the northwest for decades. After Ma Chao defeated Jicheng, his wife and children were paraded by the rebels.
Ma Chao "went in a dilemma", taking his concubine Dong Shi and his son Ma Qiu and cousin Ma Dai, leading the remnants of the Western Liang Iron Horse, and under the bloody sun, he rushed to Zhang Lu in Hanzhong.
(3) Sending people under the fence
Zhang Lu was very courteous to Ma Chao and even wanted to marry his daughter to him. However, Ma Chao's parachute landing caused serious dissatisfaction among some jealous people. They repeatedly persuaded Zhang Lu: "O Lord! For the sake of personal self-interest, Ma Chao was so cruel that he ignored his father's family to death, and his wife and children were not distressed by being beaten to the public! Such a guy who doesn't love his relatives to the point of outrageous, can the lord rest assured that he will marry him?! Zhang Lu was forced to dispel his thoughts.
Ma Chao and Ma Dai led the remnants of the Western Liang Iron Horse and borrowed troops to kill Liangzhou, besieged Qishan for a month, and finally returned without success. After that, Ma Chao "numbered troops from Lu and wanted to take Liangzhou north." Zhang Lu angrily agreed, but Ma Chao was "unprofitable" in every action, and had to endure the sneers and open guns and dark arrows of the jealous people around him, and he was indignant. At the low point of his life, Liu Bei waved an olive branch at him.
(4) Chengdu Meritorious Service
At this time, Liu Bei had formed a siege situation in Chengdu, and after hearing about Ma Chao's recent situation, he urgently dispatched Jiangning's governor Li Hui to "go to Hanzhong to make good friends with Ma Chao." Ma Chao in a desperate situation was like seeing the bright moon in the dark night, and resolutely asked Liu Bei to surrender to the secret letter. ”
Ma Chao led the Western Liang Iron Horse to break away from Zhang Lu in the name of going out on a campaign, and fled from Wudu to Shu instead. When Ma Chao led the Northwest Coalition Army to resist the government army, "the Xingguo King Agui and the Bai XiangQi King had more than 10,000 tribes" and "Zeng" was chaotic from Ma Chao. Ma Chao first went to The Middle of The Qiang to contact the qiang leader as a strong reinforcement, and then led the men and horses to Shuzhong.
Liu Bei was overjoyed when he heard the news: "I have Yizhou! In order to give The widowed Ma Chao a strong voice, Liu Bei secretly sent an elite force to Ma Chao's command. Ma Chaoxin understood the spirit, ordered them to change into the Ma family's military uniform, mixed with the old troops, and marched to Yizhou.
Liu Bei ordered Ma Jiajun to vigorously attack the horses and stand ready for a general attack. The Ma family's army was strong and strong, and they flaunted their might in the north of Yizhou City, causing "the city to tremble." Under the influence of Ma Jiajun's deterrence and various factors, Liu Zhang surrendered without a fight. After Ma Chao made his first contribution to Liu Bei's capture of Yizhou, he was made a general of Pingxi by Liu Bei and continued to use the title of Marquis of Duting.
After Ma Chao gained a firm foothold in Shuzhong, he sent someone to Zhang Lu to meet the family. Unexpectedly, Zhang Lu had already submitted to Cao Cao when the government army was under heavy pressure, dong shi was transferred by Cao Cao to Zhang Lu's advisers, and Ma Qiu was handed over to Zhang Lu by Cao Cao, who "killed him by himself" to show his loyalty. ”
(Liu Bei)
(5) Guishu performance
When Ma Chao was still immersed in the joy of victory and the pain of losing his loved ones, the unexpected "Peng Xi Incident" pushed him to the cusp of the storm.
Peng Xi was a Shu Zhongxian who was recommended by Pang Tong and Fa Zheng, and after serving as a governor (equivalent to the assistant to the governor), the villain gained his ambition and was "arrogant in all shapes", so that Zhuge Liang repeatedly reminded Liu Bei of Yizhou that "his heart is broad and ambitious, and it is difficult to be safe." Liu Bei "acted in a variety of ways" and decided to delegate him to a local post.
Peng Xi "smelled far away, and his private feelings were not happy", so he "went to Ma Chao." First, he scolded Liu Bei, a veteran soldier, for having no eyes and no pearls, and then instigating Ma Chao to conspire with him inside and outside: "Qing is outside, I am inside, and the world is not certain." "Ma Chao" was shocked and silently did not answer. In order to protect himself, he immediately played Peng Xi's words to Liu Bei. Peng was quickly arrested and killed a few years later. Ma Chao, who had only built a miracle, was betrayed by the notoriety of a despicable informant and spurned.
When Liu Bei and Cao Cao fought for Hanzhong, they "sent Zhang Fei, Ma Chao, Wu Lan and other Tunxia to defend" to respond to the main force. Ma Chao exerted his influence and mobilized more than 10,000 people from seven tribes, including Lei Ding, of the nearby Qi tribe, to support Liu Bei, effectively restraining the vanguard of the Cao army. After the Shu army was defeated by the Cao army, Ma Chao retreated to Hanzhong and faded out of the battlefield. And Ma Chao's unsatisfactory performance on the battlefield after his surrender to Shu provided an attack excuse for those who were dissatisfied with him.
In the autumn of 219 AD, Liu Bei ascended the throne of Hanzhong and returned the favor to Li "Bai Chao as a general of the left and a false festival." After being proclaimed empress, he also asked Ma Chao to "move the general of the Horse Riding Horse, lead Liangzhou Mu, and enter the Marquis of Fengyi Township", and guard Yangping Pass, an important gateway to northern Shu. As a result, Ma Chao was expelled from the imperial court, and together with the Western Liang Iron Horse, he was firmly crucified at Yangping Pass, uniting the nearby Qiang tribes of the Qiang tribe and loyally guarding the northern gate for the Shu state until he died of illness.
(6) Sorrow and ridicule
After Ma Chao returned to Shu, due to comprehensive factors such as the First Jianqigong, past history, and the Peng Xi incident, he has been living in a dangerous living environment of "wind and frost and sword are strictly forced".
Ma Chao's sworn enemy Yang Fu once attacked cao cao in front of him, although he "had the courage of (Han) Xin and (Ying) Bu", he was a villain who "betrayed his father and rebelled against the king" and "strong and unjust". In order to save Xizhou, he also scolded him as "the rebellious son who betrayed his father and the thief who killed the king." "Ma Chao backs the father, which is so extremely cool to endure." ”
Ma Chao can dismiss the evaluation from the enemy camp. But for the short and long flow from within and malicious slander, Ma Chao could only swallow his anger.
Yang Ju, who was also an official in the same dynasty, praised Ma Chao and secretly praised Ma Chao, first praising Ma Chao's command ma jiajun to become the number one person in the Three Qin region after hard work, and finally being defeated by the enemy army with a divisive plan and destroying the family, and then attacking Ma Chao for abandoning morality, violating morality, and defecting to Liu Bei for climbing the dragon and attaching the phoenix.
Wang Shang, who was also a courtier in the same palace, commented on him even more harshly: "Super brave but not benevolent, seeing is not righteous, can not be lips and teeth."
In his reply to Guan Yu, Zhuge Liang intractatically likened Ma Chao to "Yingbu (Yingbu, king of Jiujiang under Xiang Yu's account, who was made the King of Huainan by Liu Bang after rebelling against Chu and returned to Han, and was later killed for treason), Peng Yue (Peng Yue, a founding hero of the Western Han Dynasty, who was crowned King of Liang, and later killed for treason). "These two parables are rather insidious and extremely ambiguous.
Xu Jing, a heavy minister, ridiculed Liu Bei and said that to summon Ma Chao was to raise a tiger for trouble: "If you draw him closer, then you will raise a tiger and you will leave yourself in trouble."
Liu Bei recruited Ma Chao, in addition to loving Cai, he also valued Ma Chao's intangible assets with ethnic minority blood and great influence in Liangzhou. At that time, the territory of the Shu Han Dynasty overlapped with the sphere of influence of the Qiang and The Qiang, and ethnic contradictions were sharp. And Ma Chao's "qiang, huxin, and xizhou fear" is precisely the magnet that attracts ethnic minorities such as Qiangxi and the rock that stabilizes border defense. Therefore, Liu Bei was relieved to let Ma Chaozhen guard the northern gate where the ethnic minorities of the Shu state were concentrated. The history before Ma Chao returned to Shu, Liu Bei was familiar with it, and naturally did not think so.
However, the three became tigers, and the mouths of the people were shoveled. The slanderous attacks on Ma Chao by the courtiers and subordinates were not a denial of Ma Chao's military ability, but a strenuous attack on Ma Chao's filial piety in killing his father, despising his three-surnamed family slave behavior of first surrendering to Cao Cao and then returning to Zhang Lu and finally surrendering to Shu, and regarding him as Lü Bu's general brave and unscrupulous person. Liu Bei presented himself as an orthodox descendant of the Han Dynasty, flaunting that he ruled the world with filial piety and virtue, and even if he had the heart to use a person like Ma Chao who lacked filial piety and little morality, he had to consider the advice and feelings of his subordinates and give up. At the same time, Ma Chao's bravery and repeated experience of surrendering to rebellion also made it difficult for Liu Bei to use him.
This is the reason why Ma Chao has not been reused after he descended to Shu!
Ma Chao suffered four disasters before returning to Shu, and in the eight years of Guishu, he was full of suspicion and difficulties, and finally became depressed and died young at the age of 47. Before dying, Ma Chao played Liu Bei: "More than two hundred mouths of the Emperor Of the Emperor Of the Emperor, who were cursed by Meng De, were spared, but from his brother Dai, when he was the successor of The Blood Eater of Emperor Weizong, he deeply trusted His Majesty, and yu did not say anything more." This last word is intriguing, in addition to entrusting his cousin Ma Dai to Liu Bei, "Yu Wufu" seems to be full of snakes, but in fact it is soaked with the endless sadness of Ma Chao's hero's end, which makes people think about it.
38 years after Ma Chao's death, he was posthumously honored as "Marquis of Wei" by his successor Liu Chan.
【About the author】Xu Yunhui, male, graduated from the Department of Chinese of Yunnan Normal University in 1984 and is now a senior lecturer at Baoshan No.1 Middle School Education Group in Yunnan Province. He has published two monographs and published more than 600,000 words in literary journals at or above the provincial level.
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