Ma Chao

Illustration of a Qing edition of the story of the Three Kingdoms .

Mǎ Chāo ( Chinese  馬超  /  马超 ), also called Mengqi ( Chinese  孟 起 ) (* 176 ; † 222 ) was a Chinese general. He was the eldest son of Ma Teng and one of the Five Tiger Generals of the Shu Han under Liu Bei .

Life

When he was fifteen, his father Ma Teng was appointed commandant of the palace guard. He had previously refused Prime Minister Cao Cao's request to put his son in his service. Ma Chao later became an officer under Sili Xiaowei and went out to fight Guo Yuan . Although he was injured in battle, he defeated Guo Yuan and had him beheaded by his officer Pang De . The imperial court then made him inspector of the Xu province, later an imperial advisor. When Ma Teng reached the capital, Ma Chao was promoted to lieutenant general and took Ma Teng's command. The imperial court also made Ma Chao's younger brother Ma Xui as commander in chief of the charioteers, and his younger brother Ma Tie as colonel of the cavalry. All of their families were sent to Ye , but Ma Chao stayed behind. Ma Teng had a dispute with Han Sui and asked to be given a position in the capital. So he became the commandant of the palace guard, while Ma Chao became lieutenant general and governor of Duting.

After Cao Cao executed his father and brothers in the capital, Ma Chao mobilized his father's troops to seek revenge. Together with Han Sui, his father's brother-in-arms, he set out for Chang'an and easily captured it. They then proceeded to Tong Pass, where he fought a long battle against Cao Cao, in which he eliminated Cao Hong and Xu Huang with their armies (10,000 men). They held out for nine days, but then attacked Ma Chao again, who inflicted a crushing defeat on them. Other Cao Cao's generals such as Yu Jin and Zhang He were also unsuccessful. Ma Chao finally attacked Cao Cao himself, but Cao Hong and Xiahou Yuan saved him. Cao Cao tried to take the Ma Chao supply camp, but was ambushed and only survived thanks to his bodyguard, Xu Chu . For the next few days, Ma Chao kept attacking him to prevent him from even setting up camp. Cao Cao therefore accepted the proposal of his strategist Jia Xu , apparently to make peace and bring Ma Chao and Han Sui against each other, which was also successful. In the confusion, Cao Cao Ma overcame Chao's army and forced him to flee.

Ma Chao escaped with his cousins Ma Dai and Pang De and first sought asylum with the warlord Zhang Lu , who later sent him to Sichuan to assist Liu Zhang against Liu Bei. In the fight with Zhang Fei , in which no one got the upper hand, Zhuge Liang saw the value of Ma Chaos and, after consulting Liu Bei, sent an ambassador to him to win him over to Shu . So Ma Chao went to Liu Bei, where he was given the title of “General who pacified the West” and was entrusted with civil authority over Ju. When Liu Bei became Prince of Hanzhong , he gave Ma Chao the title of Left General, and in 221 made him 2nd General, Governor of Liang Province and Marquis of Li Xiang. He died a year later from illness.