During the Three Kingdoms period, the Five Tigers of the Shu Han Dynasty were actually just novels, operas, and various three kingdom stories circulated by the people. For example, in the seventy-third "Xuande entered the throne of Hanzhong, Yunchang attacked Xiangyang County" in the seventy-third "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", it is said that after Liu Bei proclaimed himself king of Hanzhong, "Feng Guanyu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, Ma Chao, and Huang Zhong were the five tiger generals".
The reason for this statement is that the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms combines these five Shu Han generals as a biography, that is, the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, Volume 36, ShuShu 6, Guan Zhang Ma Huang Zhao Biography. In fact, when Liu Bei was the King of Hanzhong, he only sealed Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Ma Chao, and Huang Zhong, and the four of them were given the titles of Former General, Right General, Left General, and Rear General, respectively, while Zhao Yun only made one General of the Yi Army after the pacification of Chengdu.
Therefore, the so-called Five Tiger Generals actually only have four Tiger Generals, and Zhao Yun's status is not the same as that of the other four. Those four great generals were equivalent to the rank of commander of the Grand Military Region, and Guan Yu's status was obviously higher. At that time, Jingzhou was an enclave of the Shu Han Dynasty, and Guan Yu was actually not only the commander of the military region, but also supervised the administration of the Jingzhou region, and was really a figure who combined military and political power.
Although Zhao Yun's status was inferior to that of the other four, in contrast, the most nested general among the Five Tiger Generals was not Zhao Yun, but Ma Chao.
Ma Chao
Ma Chao, a native of Fufeng, Shanxi, was born into a warlord family. His father Ma Teng, together with Han Sui, was dividing Liangzhou and dominating one side. Later, Ma Teng was recruited by the imperial court, surrendered to Cao Cao, and happily became an otaku with food and drink, and handed over the territory and army to his son Ma Chao.
Ma Chao is not as unproductive as his father, he has ambitions, he wants to become an emperor, if he does not have the opportunity, he also wants to keep the Territory of Liangzhou and is not willing to send people to the fence, so Cao Cao recruited Ma Chao several times, and he did not take care of it. Later, when Cao Cao attacked Hanzhong, Ma Chao and Han Sui felt that Cao Cao might be beating rabbits with grass and even destroyed them together, so they joined forces to fight Against Cao Cao.
Of course, Ma Chao knew that in addition to being alone now leading soldiers, his whole family was in Cao Cao's hands together with his father. However, as mentioned earlier, this man had ambitions, so he brazenly raised an army regardless of the lives of his entire family. Of course, Cao Cao was not a vegetarian, and this side sent troops to deal with Ma Chao, and the other side raised a knife and fell, and the three clans of Ma Chao's family were annihilated.
Cao Cao
After that, Cao Cao used a counter-plot to make Ma Chao Han turn against him, and Ma Chao was unable to support himself, and the emperor fled in a hurry. Then wander around like a lost dog. He established himself as a pastor of Liangzhou, but was beaten by the group; he defected to Zhang Lu and was suspected. Later, he heard that Liu Bei was besieging Liu Zhang in Chengdu, so he turned to Liu Bei.
As soon as Ma Chao arrived at Liu Bei's tent, he made a great contribution. At that time, Liu Zhang was desperately defending Chengdu, but when he heard that Ma Chao's soldiers were approaching the city, he was frightened on the spot, and immediately announced that he would abandon his resistance and surrender to Liu Bei. Ma Chaobing made a miraculous feat without a bloody blade. Who would have thought that this would be the last battle achievement established by Ma Chao.
Since then, there has been no trace of Ma Chao on the rivers and lakes. Ma Chao spent the first half of his life in the storm and dared to break His wrist with Cao Cao, and as a result, after arriving under Liu Bei, he began to sing "I have not been a big brother for many years."
Liu Bei had a lot of eyes
Why is that? It is because Ma Chao's first half of his life is too good, Liu Bei and his gang are guarding against Ma Chao from top to bottom. If you think about it, for the sake of his own ambitions, even the lives of hundreds of people in his family are put aside, how terrible things should happen to such people once they have the army in their hands.
According to the "Records of the Duke of Shanyang", when Ma Chao first surrendered to Liu Bei, because Liu Bei was kind, Ma Chao treated Liu Bei more casually, often calling him Liu Bei's character "Xuande", which seemed very affectionate. Guan Yu and Zhang Fei were very annoyed, thinking that Ma Chao, a demotion general, how dare he disrespect the boss so much.
The two decided to kill Ma Chao privately, but were fortunately dissuaded by Liu Bei. The next day, Liu Bei set up a banquet, and Guan Yu and Zhang Fei deliberately stood behind Ma Chao, holding a large knife dangling in their hands. Ma Chao was frightened and stupid, and only after inquiring from many parties did he know that it was caused by his gaffe, and from then on, he only dared to respectfully address Liu Bei, and did not dare to run the train with his mouth full.
This incident can more or less reflect that Liu Bei's men were wary of Ma Chao at that time, and they almost used the literal prison to kill Ma Chao.
Guan Yu Zhang Fei brothers are good
Not only were his subordinates like this, But Liu Bei's own suspicions about Ma Chao were also very heavy. In Liu Bei's campaign to take Shudi, Ma Chao actually played a role in intimidation and did not lead troops. After that, Ma Chao had no chance to lead the troops. In the battle to pacify Hanzhong, Liu Bei would rather take the old man Huang Zhong than Ma Chao.
After Ma Chao surrendered to Liu Bei, he successively served as the general of Pingxi, the general of Zuo, and the general of HuQi, and successively served as the Marquis of Former Duting, the Marquis of Liangzhou, and the Marquis of Xiangxiang. However, all the titles and titles were false titles, and Ma Chao did not lead a soldier under Liu Bei, enjoying various treatments, but without any power.
Liu Bei was suspicious, and Ma Chao had to be doubly careful, not daring to show any rash horse feet, for fear of being caught by Liu Bei and destroying himself. The Guanghan man Peng Xi was originally a subordinate of Liu Zhang, and after surrendering to Liu Bei, he was sent to serve as the Taishou of Jiangyang. Peng Xi was very dissatisfied and went to find Ma Chao before leaving.
Suffocating Ma Chao
Ma Chao persuaded him for half a day, but Peng Xian did not listen, and actually put forward a big rebellious demand, he asked Ma Chao to do internal response, he was a foreign aid, and the two of them should cooperate with each other to take Chengdu and do a big cause. The horse was shocked and silent. As soon as Peng Xi left, Ma Chao immediately complained to Liu Bei, saying that the person with the surname Peng wanted to rebel.
It's not that Ma Chao is not righteous enough, it's not that he doesn't have the guts, his situation is awkward and dangerous, and he has to do it. From 215 AD when Ma Chao defected to Liu Bei, to Ma Chao's death in 222 AD, for seven years, Ma Chao was isolated from the army, forced to learn from his father, became an otaku, and spent the rest of his life in the family.
At the same time, several other Five Tiger Generals were busy making meritorious contributions on the battlefield. Guan Yu flooded the Seventh Army to shock Huaxia; Zhang Feizhen defended Bazhong to repel Zhang Guo; Huang Zhongwei shocked the army to kill Xiahou Yuan; and Zhao Yun also went with Liu Bei to Hanzhong to confront the Cao army.
There is no harm without contrast, Ma Chao defected to Liu Bei, although he got a stable life, he basically lost his freedom and lost his career, Liu Bei got him a golden bird cage, and locked a phoenix that once soared.
Therefore, Ma Chao is the one who has the most pockets among the five tiger generals, and there is no one.