In the twenty-fourth year of Jian'an (219), Liu Bei Group and Cao Wei Group fought for the land of Hanzhong. The elites of both sides were almost exhausted, and Cao Cao and Liu Bei also went to the front line to command, and finally Liu Bei's group won a big victory.
After this battle, Liu Bei was promoted to the king of Hanzhong, and the vassals were vassals, and the five most powerful generals under him, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, Ma Chao, and Huang Zhong, were rewarded as five tiger generals.
Victory and defeat are a common thing in soldiers, according to the plot of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", the fate of the five tiger generals and the fate of Shu Han changed dramatically not long after the canonization.
The crockpot will not be broken from Inoue, and the general will inevitably die in battle.
Soon after Liu Bei's group occupied Hanzhong, Guan Yu began the Northern Expedition from Jingzhou in response, flooding the Seventh Army, capturing the ban, beheading Pang De, shocking China and reaching the pinnacle of his life.
However, with the backstabbing of Soochow, Guan Yu fell into an unfavorable situation of attacking back and forth, and finally lost Maicheng and was killed.
Zhang Fei and Guan Yu have a deep relationship, after learning of Guan Yu's death, they became irritable and alcoholic, and whipped their subordinates with drunkenness under the attack of anger, and finally their subordinates were assassinated by Fan Qiang and Zhang Da in their sleep, and finally ended up in a different place.
Liu Bei raised the country's troops to avenge his younger brother, so there was the Battle of Yiling. In this battle, Huang Zhong took the lead bravely and vowed to avenge the country. It's just a pity that the lone army was besieged by the four fierce generals of Eastern Wu when he was in depth, and he was bleeding after several arrows, and finally died after returning to the barracks.
Ma Chao actually had no signs of activity after the canonization of the Five Tiger Generals, and there was no trace of him in the Battle of Yiling, and he probably did some official positions in name only, and finally died before Zhuge Liang's first Northern Expedition.
Zhao Yun still had a highlight moment after Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition, but due to old age and frailty, he died peacefully at home before Zhuge Liang's Second Northern Expedition, which can be regarded as the end of his life.
In fact, according to the plot of the romance, among the five tiger generals, Zhang Fei actually died the worst, after all, the others were either horse leather shrouds, or they were dying, only Zhang Fei died unexpectedly, and he died very badly.
But if we look at the official history, you will find that the worst fate of the five tiger generals is not Zhang Fei, but Ma Chao.
Ma Chao's father Ma Teng is a famous commander in the Xiliang Army, in the thirteenth year of Jian'an (208), Ma Teng decided to return to Cao Cao, and took hundreds of Ma families to Chang'an to enjoy happiness. Ma Chao did not follow, but stayed in Liangzhou to continue to control the army.
In "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", it is said that the contradiction between Ma Chao and Cao Cao is because Cao Cao killed Ma Teng's family first, and Ma Chao raised troops to fight Cao Cao in order to take revenge.
In fact, when Cao Cao attacked Zhang Lu in Hanzhong, Ma Chao, who was sandwiched between Zhang Lu and Cao Cao, thought that Cao Cao had bad intentions, so he ignored the lives of hundreds of family members and united with Han Sui and other Xiliang warlords to raise troops against Cao Cao.
"Abandon the father today, take the general as the father, and the general should also abandon the son, and take the super as the son." This is what Ma Chao said when he knelt in front of Han Sui before he raised troops to fight against Cao Cao, which roughly means that no matter what his father Ma Teng is, he has to do it.
The moment Ma Chao raised troops for his own ambition and put his relatives in a dangerous situation, he was labeled as "disloyal and unfilial".
Ma Chao was really brave, and Cao Cao, who led the Xiliang Iron Cavalry to fight for a time, lost his armor, abandoned his robe and cut his beard, but he still suffered a big defeat under the discord plan.
thought that Ma Chao had suffered a failure, and his family was also in his hands, and he would learn to restrain himself, but Ma Chao continued to fight against Cao Cao for his own ambitions.
Ma Chao led Zhu Rongqu Marshal to raise troops in Liangzhou and captured Jicheng, the seat of Liangzhou, so he proclaimed himself the general of Zhengxi, led the state pastor, supervised the military of Liangzhou, and re-divided the territory to confront Cao Cao.
It's bearable, it's unbearable, Cao Cao suddenly became angry. Since you don't care for the lives of your family, then I will really kill them. In a fit of rage, Cao Cao killed Ma Teng's father and son and more than 200 relatives of the Ma family.
Then Ma Chao killed Shi Weikang in Liangzhou, which led to the sworn resistance of Weikang's old department (Yang Fu, Jiang Xu, Zhao Ang, Yin Feng and others), and they took advantage of Ma Chao's expedition to reoccupy Jicheng.
After being defeated by Xiahou Yuan, Ma Chao went to Hanzhong to join Zhang Lu, and his eldest son and his wife Yang died tragically in the war.
As a result, after a long time, Ma Chao gradually realized that Zhang Lu had no opinions and was not a person who had achieved great things, and Zhang Lu also felt that Ma Chao was a disloyal and unrighteous person, and the two sides would inevitably have differences, so Ma Chao escaped from Hanzhong and defected to Liu Bei.
But Ma Chao didn't have time to take his concubine, so his concubine Dong and another son were captured by Zhang Lu. Later, under the persecution of Cao Cao, Zhang Lu personally killed Ma Chao's son, and forcibly gave the Dong family to his subordinate Yan Pu to humiliate Ma Chao.
Since then, more than 200 members of the Ma family have been executed by Cao Cao, Ma Chao's wife was killed, his wife was given away, and the only relative by his Ma Chao's side was Ma Dai, which was really miserable!
And Liu Bei also didn't like Ma Chao's personality, so he didn't reuse him, although Ma Chao was one of the five tiger generals, but he was just a nominal appearance, and he was always out of place in the Shu Han camp.
On the Chinese New Year's Eve of one year, Ma Chao beat his chest and said to Dong Chong (the brother of his wife Dong), "Close the door and a hundred mouths, once they have the same fate, the two of them will congratulate each other now?"
On his deathbed, he made his only wish to Liu Bei, "There are more than 200 ministers and sects, which have been exhausted by Meng De, but only from his younger brother Dai, deeply entrusted to His Majesty, and there is no reply." ”
All these kinds of things prove how miserable Ma Chao's life is!