In Luo Guanzhong's Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Ma Teng is written as a loyal vassal who was very loyal to the Han Dynasty. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, when Dong Zhuo usurped power, Ma Teng, as the Taishou of Western Liang, raised an army to answer the edict, and was one of the eighteen princes of the Eighteen Roads. After Dong Zhuo's defeat, Ma Teng and Han Sui attacked Li Dai and Guo Feng, but they were defeated due to lack of grain and returned to Xiliang. After Cao Cao moved Liu Xie, the Emperor of Han, to Xu Capital, Ma Teng entered the Eastern Han court and participated in Liu Bei's and Dong Cheng's plan to get rid of Cao Cao, and fled back to Liangzhou because the matter was revealed.
Later, Cao Cao used Xun You's trick to summon Ma Teng to Beijing under false pretenses, and in order to fulfill his wish for many years, he and Huang Kui wanted to fight against Cao Cao, but the matter was still revealed, and Ma Teng, along with his sons Ma Xiu and Ma Tie, were all killed. After the news of Ma Teng's death came out, Ma Chao and Han Sui rebelled in Xiliang in order to avenge him. It is worth noting that this is Ma Teng in literary works such as "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", and in the canonical history such as "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Ma Teng not only did not crusade against Dong Zhuo, but instead colluded with Dong Zhuo and his henchmen. More crucially, in history, the reason why Ma Teng was killed by Cao Cao was mainly because Ma Chao was too bad.
One
First of all, Ma Teng (?) -212), zi shou cheng. A native of Fufeng Maoling (present-day Xingping, Shaanxi Province), he was a prince of liangzhou at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty and a descendant of the Fubo general Ma Yuan. Ma Teng was more than eight feet long (about 1.85 meters today), strong, with a male face and nose, and a virtuous personality, and people admired him.
In April of the fourth year of Zhongping (187), when Liangzhou assassinated Shi Geng as a traitorous official, it led to a rebellion in the Hanyang kingdom and the Qiang and qiang. After the rebellion broke out, the states and counties recruited warriors to fight the rebellion. In this context, Ma Teng enlisted and was valued by the state and county officials, and later because of his meritorious conquest, Ma Teng obtained the official position of a partial general. In this regard, in the author's opinion, in the eastern Han Dynasty, the position of military general, partial general is relatively common. For example, in 200 AD, after Guan Yu killed Yan Liang, Cao Cao made Guan Yu a partial general.
After Ma Teng became a general, Liangzhou's assassin Shi Geng was killed by his subordinate Li Xiangru, and Ma Teng joined forces with Han Sui and others to rebel. Taking advantage of the opportunity of the Eastern Han Dynasty to take care of itself, Ma Teng, Han Sui and others led their people to plunder the three auxiliaries. In this regard, the Eastern Han Court called it the Three Auxiliaries Rebellion. From this point of view, Ma Teng obviously cannot be compared with Liu Bei, who is loyal to the Han Room, and for Ma Teng, he has always thought about how to seek personal interests.
In the sixth year of Zhongping (189), in the face of a crusade from the Eastern Han court, coupled with Ma Teng, Han Sui and others competing for power, their power weakened, which is one of the reasons why Ma Teng failed to become strong in the last years of the Eastern Han Dynasty. In the second year of Chuping (191), after Cao Cao, Yuan Shao, Yuan Shu, Sun Jian and other princes rebelled against Dong Zhuo, the latter moved the capital to Chang'an, which was closer to ma Teng's and Han Sui's territory. Therefore, Dong Zhuo invited Han Sui and Ma Teng to jointly plan an attack on the Shandong generals. The two saw the chaos in the world and also wanted to rely on Dong Zhuo to start an army.
Two
Therefore, it is very obvious that unlike the situation in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Ma Teng, who is in the history, not only did not crusade against Dong Zhuo, but aided and abetted abuse. In the third year of Chuping (192), Ma Teng and Han Sui arrived in Chang'an to prepare to help Dong Zhuo resist the combined forces of the Kwantung princes. However, Dong Zhuo had already been eliminated by Wang Yun and Lü Bu. After Dong Zhuo was killed, Li Dai and others took advantage of the situation to control the Eastern Han court, so they made Han Sui the general of Zhenxi and sent back Jincheng, and Ma Teng was made the general of Zhenxi and Tun Yuguo. For Ma Teng, he did not want to rescue Emperor Xian of Han, who was held hostage by Li Dai and others.
In the first year of Xingping (194), Ma Teng had a private matter to ask Li Dai, but was not answered, so he led his troops to attack Li Dai. Li Dai sent Fan Chou, Guo Feng, and his nephew Li Li to attack, and Ma Teng and Han Sui were defeated and returned to Liangzhou. Li Dai's troops attacked Huaili again, and Zhong Shao and the others were killed. Soon, Li Dai and others made peace with Ma Teng and Han Sui, and changed Ma Teng to General Andi and Han Sui to General An Descend.
In the second year of Xingping (195), Ma Teng went to the Eastern Han Court, indicating that his army was insufficiently supplied, and requested that Gu Yu be in Chiyang, so he led the army to change tun to Changping Bank. Soon after, Li Dai and Guo Feng attacked each other, and the three auxiliaries were in turmoil, so Ma Teng gave up his plan to go east, united with Han Sui, and became brothers with different surnames. Of course, at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the relationship between Ma Teng and Han Sui was basically good and bad, that is, sometimes it was more harmonious, and sometimes it attacked each other.
Three
In the fourth year of Jian'an (199), before the Outbreak of the Battle of Guandu, Cao Cao adopted Xun Yu's suggestion and sent Zhong Yu to act as a lieutenant in the service of Shizhong and oversee the guanzhong armies. After Zhong Sui arrived in Chang'an, he wrote to Ma Teng and Han Sui to state the stakes, so Ma Teng and Han Sui were willing to submit and each sent their sons as hostages. In this regard, in the author's opinion, it is precisely because of the ownership of Ma Teng and Han Sui that Cao Cao was able to concentrate on fighting Against Yuan Shao in the Battle of Guandu, thus laying a good foundation for his final victory.
In the seventh year of Jian'an (202), after Yuan Shao's death, his son Yuan Shang wanted to unite with Ma Teng and Han Sui, and Ma Teng pretended to agree to him. However, under the persuasion of Cao Cao's emissaries Zhang Jie, Fu Gan, and others, Ma Teng decided to help Cao Cao. Therefore, Ma Teng sent his son Ma Chao to lead more than 10,000 people to help Zhong Xuan and defeated Guo Yuan's army, and Ma Chao's subordinate Pound personally killed Guo Yuan on the battlefield. Since Ma Teng had helped himself, Cao Cao could not have expressed nothing. Therefore, Cao Cao made Emperor Liu Xie of Han, Bai Ma Teng the general of Zhengnan, and Han Sui the general of Zhengxi, jukaifu. From the perspective of official positions, Ma Teng and Han Sui had become important ministers of the Eastern Han Dynasty.
In the tenth year of Jian'an (205), Cao Cao sent Zhang Jie to recruit Ma Teng and others to defeat Gao Gan and Zhang Shengjun, and behead the rebellious Zhang Yan, Wei Gu and others. From this point of view, Cao Cao was able to successfully eliminate the remnants of Yuan Shao's clique, and Ma Teng's contribution was indispensable. However, in the end, Cao Cao chose to get rid of Ma Teng. Of course, Ma Teng was killed, and Ma Chao can be said to have an unshirkable responsibility.
Four
Finally, previously, due to the contradictions between the parts, Ma Teng and Han Sui became enemies, and Han Sui killed Ma Teng's wife, and the two fought for many years. From this, it is very obvious that liu bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei, who are also brothers with different surnames, can be unswerving, while Ma Teng and Han Sui are fighting each other.
In the thirteenth year of Jian'an (208), because of the war between Ma Teng and Han Sui, Cao Cao chose to send Zhong Xuan and Wei Duan to persuade him to make peace, and with Ma Teng as a former general, he changed his tun to Huaili and falsely sealed the Marquis of Huaili. In the same year, Zhang Jie persuaded Ma Teng to abandon his army and enter the dynasty as an official. Ma Teng hesitated for a while, but under pressure, he finally agreed and came to Yecheng. In this regard, in the author's opinion, after coming to the Eastern Han Court, Ma Teng's fate is no longer something he can control. After Ma Teng's arrival at Yecheng, Cao Cao made his son Ma Chao a partial general and commanded the army instead of Ma Teng.
In March of the sixteenth year of Jian'an (211), Ma Chao, Han Sui, and other princes from Liangzhou and Guanzhong rebelled, claiming to be 100,000, and stationed themselves at Tongguan to resist Cao Cao, who wanted to attack Hanzhong. However, in September of the same year, Ma Chao and Han Sui were defeated by Cao Cao. It is worth noting that at the end of the Battle of Weinan, Cao Cao had not yet eliminated Ma Teng. However, after the defeat, Ma Chao continued to compete with Cao Cao, which led to Cao Cao's final decision to kill the killer.
In this regard, the Zizhi Tongjian Volume 66 records: Xia, May, Yan Wei, (Cao Cao) Wei Wei Ma Teng, Yi San.
In the first month of the seventeenth year of Jian'an (212), Ma Chao attacked Longshang and besieged Liangzhou's assassin Shi Weikang. In May of the same year, after learning the news of Ma Chao's rebellion again, Cao Cao gave an order that Ma Teng be killed and the three tribes exterminated. Therefore, it is very obvious that Ma Teng was killed, and Ma Chao can be said to be blamed.