Everyone must be more familiar with the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and it is said that after Liu Bei conquered Yizhou, it was also a landlord, so he impatiently proclaimed himself "King of Hanzhong". Since he became the "king", those brothers who followed him from birth to death and the world naturally had to drink soup. Therefore, there is the famous "Five Tiger Generals". Among these five people, Ma Chao, also known as "Jin Ma Chao", can be said to be the best for a while, Xiao Yong is unmatched, he once defeated Zhang Gao at a speed of twenty, killed Cao Cao and abandoned his robe, and did not fall behind in the battle with Zhang Fei before Ye Meng Guan, and the martial arts were almost impeccable.
However, such a tiger general, but has an unfamiliar ending, Ma Chao after defecting to Liu Bei, after being named "Five Tiger Generals", seems to slowly fade out of people's vision, and finally died at the age of 47. In fact, Ma Chao has the most prominent origin of the five tiger generals, his father Ma Teng was the warlord of Xiliang at that time, and was a descendant of the Fubo general Ma Yuan, plus his character was virtuous and loyal, the world respected him very much, Ma Chao also accompanied his father to the West Station in his early years, this period can be regarded as the most brilliant time in Ma Chao's life.
There is a saying that most people die by the age of thirty-five, and the rest of life is nothing more than a walking dead repetition. This sentence is particularly appropriate for Ma Chao
Mu Xiu yu lin, the wind will urge it, due to the large strength of the northwest army, which also caused Cao Cao's dissatisfaction. In the seventeenth year of Jian'an, because Ma Chao raised an army, Cao Cao did not hesitate to kill Ma Teng, who had entered the capital and serve in Beijing, and destroyed his three tribes, not only Ma Chao's father Ma Teng and brother Ma Xiu, Ma Tie was killed, but also his family members were almost slaughtered. Since then, Ma Chao has become a lonely family overnight, and there is only one brother Ma Dai around him, and since then Ma Chao and Cao Cao have a vendetta of killing their father and killing their son and killing their brother. After fighting with Cao Cao, Cao Cao almost lost his life, but this could not change the decline of the Western Liang Army, and the warlords in the northwest were almost swept away by Cao Cao. Ma Chao had no choice but to accept Liu Bei's surrender and became a member of the Shu Han dynasty.
At this time, Ma Chao also had a wife, Dong Shi, a son of Ma Qiu, when Ma Chao defected to Liu Bei, Dong Shi and Ma Qiu stayed in Hanzhong Zhang Lu, perhaps because of the sudden incident, Ma Chao did not pay too much attention to them, and at the same time overestimated Zhang Lu's character, which also caused the tragic fate of the mother and son later.
In order to completely uproot the Western Liang forces, Cao Cao launched a large-scale attack on Hanzhong, and Zhang Lu was forced to surrender the city due to the disparity in troops, and Zhang Lu's surrender was even to give the right to dispose of Ma Chao's wife and children to Cao Cao. It should be known that Cao Cao's personality has always been fierce and fierce, and for the "traitor" in his eyes, he has cut the grass and removed the roots, and Ma Chao's demotion of Liu may not be able to bring himself much trouble in the future, so the mother and son have become the objects of his anger.
The first is Ma Chao's wife, Dong Shi. In ancient times, the virginity of women was regarded as more important than life, and the general of the defeated army had no place to live, let alone the wife of the defeated army. Cao Cao saw Dong's beauty, so he thought of a "two birds with one stone" method, that is, to give her as a tool to others, so that he could humiliate Ma Chao fiercely, and second, he could buy people's hearts, and it would not be good to be estimated that Dong Shi would be "sent" to others like this.
Obviously, the father's grudge was not diluted by time, and after dealing with Ma Chao's wife, it was Ma Chao's turn to ma Qiu. Although Ma Qiu was fashionable and young, Cao Cao had no intention of letting him go, and he still understood the principle of raising tigers. So Cao Cao thought of a very poisonous method, that is, to hand over Ma Qiu to Zhang Lu and let Zhang Lu execute himself. The viciousness of this method lies in: First, being able to test Zhang Lu's loyalty is also a name.2 Second, it is similar to killing You Heng, and it will not fall into the name of killing young children. As soon as Zhang Lu saw this situation, he executed Ma Qiu without hesitation in order to protect himself, and it was also counted as an explanation for "Cao Gong" and an explanation for Xiao Feng.
It is said that Ma Qiu was only less than ten years old when he was killed, and it is conceivable how Ma Chao felt when he knew that his wife and children were like this, living under guilt and hatred every day, no wonder he died of depression before the age of 50.