Throughout the Three Kingdoms period at the end of the Han Dynasty, there are about five hundred well-known historical figures, but among these five hundred people, the vast majority of people's names are single characters, whether they are civilian generals, or princes and emperors, plus the surname basically does not have three words, there are only one or two, or stand out from the flock, or live in the valley. Therefore, it is precisely because the first name plus the last name are two words, which makes it difficult to avoid the situation of duplicate names. Among them, as far as the name Ma Zhong and Ma Zhong are concerned, the surname ma is undoubtedly a common surname in the Three Kingdoms period at the end of the Han Dynasty, such as Ma Teng, Ma Chao, Ma Dai, etc., and Zhong is also a more common name, such as Huang Zhong.
On this basis, during the Three Kingdoms period at the end of the Han Dynasty, there were two historical figures who were recorded in historical records, both named Ma Zhong. Among them, Ma Zhong, on the Eastern Wu side, was known to women and children for beheading Guan Yu, and was hated by Liu Bei. As for the other Ma Zhong, it is undoubtedly little known. However, as far as the other Ma Zhong was concerned, it made Liu Bei feel happy.
Ma Zhong (Eastern Wu)
On the one hand, Eastern Wu, a military general named Ma Zhong, was well known for killing Guan Yu.
In the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, it is recorded that Quan Zheng Guan Yu, Zhang and Zhu Ran broke the yu walkway, went to Linfeng, and lived in the stone. Under Sima Zhongyu, Yu Ziping, DuDu Zhao Lei, and so on. Quan was divided into yidu (至) and Zigui counties as Guling Commandery (固陵郡), baizhang as the general of Taishou and Zhenwei, and fengliyang marquis.
In 219, Guan Yu launched the Battle of Xiangfan. During Guan Yu's northern expedition against Cao Wei, Sun Quan took the opportunity to send Lü Meng to secretly attack Jingzhou. In the face of Cao Cao and Sun Quan's front-to-back attacks, Guan Yu retreated to Maicheng, so Sun Quan sent Pan Zhang and Zhu Ran to cut off the rear road of guan Yu, and Pan Zhang led his army to Linfeng, stayed in the middle of the stone, and encountered Guan Yu's army. In December 219, Pan Zhang's subordinate Sima Mazhong captured Guan Yu, Guan Ping, and the governor Zhao Lei. By 220 AD, Guan Yu and Guan Ping were beheaded on the spot in the Linfeng area.
Thus, for Ma Zhong, the capture and beheading of Guan Yu and Guan Pingren can be described as a great achievement. Of course, because Ma Zhong was Pan Zhang's subordinate, his credit was largely counted on Pan Zhang's head. Therefore, in 220 AD, Sun Quan divided yidu and zigui counties into Guling County, and Bai Panzhang was made the general of Taishou and Zhenwei, and the Marquis of Liyang was sealed.
It is worth noting that in the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and other canonical histories, there are only relevant records about Ma Zhong, the Eastern Wu general, who beheaded Guan Yu. Since then, ma Zhong's relevant records are unknown. However, for Luo Guanzhong, he added some scenes to Ma Zhong in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. According to the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", when Liu Bei attacked Wu, Ma Zhong, along with Pan Zhang, and others refused, and suddenly attacked and wounded the Shu general Huang Zhong, resulting in Huang Zhong's death. Soon, Pan Zhang was killed by Guan Xing, and Ma Zhong led his troops to surround and repel Zhang Bao's reinforcements.
After this, Mi Fang and Fu Shiren found that the sergeant was dissatisfied and wanted to mutiny, so they assassinated Ma Zhong while Ma Zhong was asleep and offered the first rank to Liu Bei. In this regard, in the author's opinion, it is in the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" that Luo Guanzhong added scenes such as shooting and killing Huang Zhong for Ma Zhong, which promoted the obvious increase in the popularity of Ma Zhong, a military general, and even friends who like the history of the Three Kingdoms at the end of the Han Dynasty are difficult to have some impression of this name. Of course, this is the content of literary works such as "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", and Huang Zhong in the zhengshi died of illness in 220 AD, that is, in the zhengshi, the Eastern Wu general Ma Zhong only had the record of killing Guan Yu.
Ma Zhong (Shu Han)
On the other hand, Ma Zhong of Eastern Wu made Liu Bei hate him for killing Guan Yu. Ma Zhong of shu Han made Liu Bei happy. Ma Zhong(?) –249), real name Fox Duk, character Dexin. A native of Langzhong, Brazil (present-day Langzhong, Sichuan). A general of the Shu Han Dynasty during the Three Kingdoms period.
In the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, Volume 33, Shu Shu XIII, Huang Li Lü Ma Wang Zhang Chuan XiII, it is recorded that the first lord of the Eastern Expedition, the defeat of The Pavilion, the Brazilian Taishou Yan Zhifa county soldiers 5,000 people to fill the gap, sent loyal to send. The ancestor lord has returned to Yong'an, and seeing the loyalty and language, the Shang Shu Ling Liu Ba Yue: "Although the death of Huang Quan, the restoration of the fox, there is no shortage of sages in this world." ”
In the second year of Zhang Wu (222), in the Battle of Yiling, Liu Bei was defeated by Lu Xun, and not only failed to avenge Guan Yu and retake Jingzhou, but instead caused Shu Han to lose tens of thousands of troops. In this context, in order to prevent the next attack of Eastern Wu, The Taishou Yanzhi of Bashi County sent soldiers from various counties to replenish the losses of the army, and sent Ma Zhong to lead the soldiers to serve.
When Liu Bei saw Ma Zhong and talked to him at the White Emperor's City in Yong'an, he was overjoyed and couldn't help but say to Shang Shu ling Liu Ba: "Although I lost Huang Quan (at that time Huang Quan was forced to surrender to Cao Wei), I also got Hu Du (Ma Zhong), which is not a shortage of talents in the world!" As a result, Ma Zhong, the warrior of the Shu Han Dynasty, received high praise from Liu Bei through only a few exchanges, which shows that although he is low-key, he is quite talented.
In 223, Liu Bei died, and the later lord Liu Chan took the throne. At that time, Zhuge Liang, the chancellor of the Shu Han Dynasty, opened the government and made Ma Zhong the governor of the gate. That is to say, for such a talented person as Ma Zhong, Zhuge Liang also attached great importance to it, and transferred him to the Xiang Mansion for training and appointment. In the third year of Jianxing (225), Ma Zhong served as the Taishou of Mu Mu Commandery (牂牁郡) to quell the Mu Mu rebellion. After that, Ma Zhong served as the governor of Yu and continued to quell the rebellion in the southern central region. During the Three Kingdoms period, the Shu Han Dynasty established the Governor of Hanzhong, the Governor of Yong'an, the Governor of Jiangzhou, and the Governor of Yucheng. Among them, the governor of Yu not only needed to guard the southern central region and quell the rebellion, but also had the heavy responsibility of delivering materials to the Shu Han.
Based on this, although the successive governors of The Shu Dynasty were low-key, they played an important role in the development of shu han, that is, if the south was unstable, the shu han was naturally unstable in the backyard, and it was even more difficult for the northern expedition to the central plains to continue. However, it was precisely because Ma Zhong and other governors were dutiful and conscientious that Zhuge Liang and Jiang Wei had no worries during the Northern Expedition to Cao Wei. Ma Zhong was a Shu Han official to the Zhennan General and Pingshang Shushi, and successively served as the Marquis of Boyang Ting and the Marquis of Pengxiang. In the twelfth year of Yanxi (249), Ma Zhong died while serving as the governor of Yu, and his son Matthew succeeded to the title. In this regard, Chen Shou, the author of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, said: "At that time, Deng Zhi was in the east, Ma Zhong was in the south, Ping was in the north, and Xian was famous. That is, Chen Shou compared Ma Zhong to Wang Ping, the governor of Hanzhong, and gave him a very high evaluation.