First of all, it should be made clear that Guan Yu defeated Maicheng in history, but he was captured by PanZhang of Eastern Wu in Linfeng, a fief of Ma Chao.
Guan Yu was one of the most courageous warriors in the Three Kingdoms period at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, whether it was the light capture of Yan Liang's head among the ten thousand armies in the Battle of the White Horse, or the flooding of the Seventh Army during the Jingzhou period to capture Pound, which is a classic example in the history of the Three Kingdoms War. However, even if he is as brave as Guan Yu, there will eventually be a time to defeat Maicheng.
According to the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, Guan Yu was besieged by Eastern Wu forces at Maicheng soon after being defeated in Jingzhou. In terms of the military situation, Guan Yu's situation at that time was very dangerous, and he could only fight and retreat in the areas of Maicheng and Dangyang, basically to the point of exhaustion: the retreat route to the west across the Three Gorges into the river was blocked by Sun Quan (the Three Gorges' Zigui, Zhijiang, and Yiling already belonged to Sun Quan); the road north to Hanzhong along the Han River was in Cao Cao's hands. (Although Cao Cao lost Hanzhong at that time, Xiangyang Fancheng was still in his hands.) Jingzhou needs to travel hundreds of kilometers north on the Yangtze River to reach the Han River. ）
Guan Yu has the reputation of "loyalty and righteousness" in the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". However, when the mountains and rivers were exhausted, Guan Yu had no choice but to obtain a precious opportunity to break through through the fake surrender. However, after the breakthrough, Guan Yu found that he was only following a dozen cavalry around him, and the situation in front of him was very similar to the overlord Bie Ji staged by Xiang Yu that year, and after a fight, guan Yu was left with only failure.
The Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms tells of the details of Pan Zhang and Ma Zhong's capture of Guan Yu: Pan Zhang and Zhu Ran together cut off Guan Yu's back road and set up an ambush in a place called Linfeng. Pan Zhang's subordinate Ma Zhong used a trick to capture Guan Yusheng, along with Guan Yu's son Guan Ping, the governor Zhao Lei, and others. Guan Yu, who was invincible and brave, was captured and executed, and a generation of heroes came to an end.
However, the place where Guan Yu was captured was very strange.
Linfeng is located north of Jingzhou and Maicheng. It is not difficult to see that at that time, Guan Yu chose to retreat in the direction of Dangyang - Yuan'an - Baokang - Fangxian - Zhushan - Pingli - Ankang - Hanzhong. In such a moment and condition of crisis, it will take at least a week. Guan Yu's escape path was much more difficult than Cao Cao's escape route, which was defeated at the Battle of Chibi.
The Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms records that shortly after Ma Chao surrendered to Liu Bei, Ma Chao became the general of Pingxi, and Linfeng became his territory, of course, this does not mean that Linchao was the place where Ma Chao really garrisoned. Ma Chao was the son of Ma Teng, the former general of the Marquis of Huaili, and the ancestor was the fubo general Ma Yuan, and such a prominent family lineage would definitely not be a small person. Shortly thereafter, Ma Chao became Liangzhou Mu. Even if the Shu Han regime only controlled a small area of Liangzhou from beginning to end, Ma Chao's Liangzhou pastoral was actually a nominal false title, which was not uncommon in ancient times. During the Warring States period, Bai Qi of the State of Qin, Su Qin and Li Mu of the State of Zhao, and Xiang Yan of the State of Chu were all given the title of "Wu'an Jun", but most of them did not even go to Wu'an.
However, even if Ma Chao was there when Guan Yu fled to Linfeng, what would happen?
The population loss in the chaotic world of the Three Kingdoms is very serious, and it is even more difficult to recruit troops and buy horses, and it is even more difficult to build an army. More than 200 members of Ma Chao's family were killed by Cao Cao, and in the end only his brother Ma Dai succeeded him to the title. It is conceivable that when Ma Chao defected to Liu Bei, he had no private power at all. At that time, when the Three Gorges region was occupied by the Eastern Wu army, Ma Chao, like Guan Yu, basically had no strength in a battle against the Eastern Wu army.
In the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Guan Yu's death is certainly the most tragic scene. But in the real history, Guan Yu was self-conscious and would not unite with his colleague Mi Fang and others, and Liu Feng and Meng Da were also offended by him. Because Huang Zhong was made a rear general, and he was on a par with his former general, he threatened to duel with Huang Zhong, and in the end Guan Yu could only suffer the consequences of his own.