Among Liu Bei's generals, Ma Chao was a relatively special figure. There are two reasons to say he in particular. First, among the generals under Liu Bei, Ma Chao's family was the most prominent, he was the founding general of the Eastern Han Dynasty, after the Fubo general Ma Yuan, he belonged to the Eastern Han Dynasty Gate Valve Clan "Longxi Ma Clan". And Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Huang Zhong, and Zhao Yun, although they are all fierce generals who have shocked the Three Kingdoms, they are all from the grassroots.
The second special feature of Ma Chao is that he was once one of the princes of the early Three Kingdoms period, the only great warlord among the Five Tiger Generals who once stood on his own mountain, and his status was once equal to that of Liu Bei, and even surpassed Liu Bei when his power was at its peak. And the generals Of Guan Zhang, Zhao and Huang, have always been "part-time workers" and lack the glorious experience like Ma Chao.
In terms of personal military ability alone, Ma Chao is no less than the other 4 of the Five Tiger Generals. In the sixteenth year of Jian'an, after Cao Cao unified the Central Plains, he began to operate the northwest, trying to bring the Liangzhou region into the sphere of influence. The young and vigorous Ma Chao was not afraid, and he immediately made a decision to contact the Western Liang warlord Han Sui and others at that time to form an alliance and fight against the powerful Cao Cao.
Cao Cao's military and economic strength at that time, as well as the thickness of his talent reserves, all formed a crushing advantage over Ma Chao, but what was surprising was that in the face of Ma Chao's deathly resistance, Cao Cao took advantage of the early stage of the war. On the contrary, in the Battle of Weishui, Cao's army almost collapsed under Ma Chao's attack, and if it were not for Xu Chu's life as a savior, even Cao Cao would have almost died. Therefore, Cao Cao will issue a lament that "horses do not die and I have no burial ground".
Among the three kingdoms at that time, Ma Chao, as a young rising star, was able to fight with Cao Cao to a degree of no distinction between superior and inferior, and the strength of his military ability was evident. But in the end, because of the huge difference in strength between the two sides, Ma Chao eventually failed, and was forced to go south to Yizhou and defect to Liu Bei.
According to common sense, among the three kingdoms, Liu Bei's comprehensive strength is the weakest, and the thickness of talent reserves is also the worst. When a military talent like Ma Chao returns, Liu Bei, who is employing people, should completely entrust Ma Chao with a heavy responsibility and let him be alone.
But what is difficult to understand is that Ma Chao arrived under Liu Bei and fought only one battle before being permanently abandoned. When Liu Bei launched the Battle of Hanzhong with Cao Cao, he appointed Zhang Fei to lead troops to attack Wudu and Yinping Counties, with Ma Chao as his deputy. The Cao army sent the generals Cao Hong and Cao Xiu to meet the battle, but Zhang Fei and Ma Chao were stubbornly blocked and returned to Yizhou with nothing.
After Ma Chao participated in this battle, he was completely abandoned by Liu Bei and never went to the battlefield until his death. In fact, before this battle, Ma Chao had never been given a chance to play in the battle. Why is this strange situation happening? When Ma Chao submitted to Liu Bei, it was the peak of the Shu Han's war of foreign expansion, and there were many internal and external wars, so why did Liu Bei let a general like Ma Chao sit in the rear and eat idle meals? Peng Xi, the minister of the Shu State, unveiled the mystery with one sentence.
Peng Xian, zi Yongnian, Yizhou Guanghan people, full of talent, but the personality is lonely and arrogant, arrogant and proud. He was originally an official under the Yizhou warlord Liu Zhang, and was dismissed by Liu Zhang because he had offended too many people. After Liu Bei entered Yizhou, he revived Peng Xi and appointed him as zhizhong ( Zhizhong ) , attaching great importance to him and "meeting riga".
But soon after, Peng Xi's old mistake was committed again. Liu Bei transferred him to a foreign country to serve as the Taishou of Jiangyang, but he refused to leave Chengdu and was full of resentment. Peng Xi had a good relationship with Ma Chao, so he found Ma Chao to talk about his mood, and when he was drunk and hot, Peng Xian said a word to Ma Chao: "Qing is outside, I am inside, the world is not determined", and there is a hidden intention of rebellion.
As a courtier, Ma Chao was shocked when he heard such a rebellious remark, unwilling to follow this nerd and immediately reported to Liu Bei. Liu Bei was furious and immediately arrested Peng Xi and imprisoned him. Peng Xi regretted it very much in prison, and wrote to Liu Bei and explained it repeatedly, but he had already violated the bottom line of being a subject and was eventually killed.
Although Peng Xi died, the words he said did not dissipate. Ma Chao was originally a warlord who dominated one side and was brilliant, and he was forced to turn to Liu Bei. Moreover, he had previously defected to the Hanzhong warlord Zhang Lu and the Yizhou warlord Liu Zhang, and betrayed them twice, and his behavior was quite capricious as a "three-surnamed family slave".
And this time it was regarded by Peng Xi as the target of rebellion, and it was not clear that such a thing as "plotting rebellion" could not be said clearly, and Peng Xian's words deeply stimulated Liu Bei, and Liu Bei's trust in Ma Chao was greatly reduced from then on, and it was not surprising that he refused to entrust him with a heavy responsibility.