Shu Warrior
Ma Chao, the Splendid
馬超176 to 2224 star
In short
Ma Chao (176 to 222) was a warlord of Liang Province in the northwest. In 211 he raised the armies west of the passes against Cao Cao and nearly killed him at the crossing of the Yellow River, before a forged quarrel split his coalition. His father and clan, hostages in the capital, were executed. He went over to Liu Bei in 214, and the news of his coming made Chengdu surrender.
| Lived | 176 to 222 |
|---|---|
| Name in Chinese | 馬超 |
| Courtesy name | Mengqi |
| Served | his father Ma Teng, Zhang Lu, then Liu Bei |
The history
Ma Chao was from Maoling in Fufeng. His father Ma Teng, part Qiang by descent, was one of the frontier generals who held Liang Province after the Han court lost its grip. When Ma Teng went to the capital as an official around 208, Ma Chao kept the army.
In 211 Cao Cao moved troops west. The generals beyond the passes took it as aimed at them, and Ma Chao and Han Sui led ten armies to Tong Pass. Ma Chao wanted to hold the north bank of the Wei and starve Cao Cao out, and Han Sui overruled him. When Cao Cao heard of the plan he said that if the Ma boy did not die, he himself would have no place to be buried. In the event Cao Cao crossed, and then set Ma Chao and Han Sui against each other with a letter full of deliberate erasures. The coalition broke.
The cost fell on his family. Ma Teng and the clan in the capital were executed in 212. Ma Chao took Liang Province again with Qiang support, killed its inspector, and lost it within a year when officers he had spared shut the gates behind him and killed his wife and children.
He fled to Zhang Lu in Hanzhong, and then to Liu Bei. His name was worth more than his troops by then: Chengdu opened its gates when he camped outside. Liu Bei made him General of the Left, and General of Agile Cavalry in 221. He died the next year.
The novel
Romance of the Three Kingdoms calls him Ma Chao the Splendid, in a lion helmet and silver armor, and turns Tong Pass into revenge for a father already dead. In the history the order is the other way: his rising came first, and his father died for it.
Ma Chao in the game
In Warlords of the Three Kingdoms Ma Chao is the Splendid: a 4 star warriorof Shu. The game's line for him: “At Tong Pass he chased Cao Cao so hard that the chancellor cut off his own beard to pass unrecognized.”
| Kingdom | Shu |
|---|---|
| Role | Warrior |
| Rarity | 4 star |
| Base attack and defense | 27 and 20 |
| Where from | Sold in the Merit Shop for 500 Merit, the currency the weekly Kingdom War pays. |
A warlord sworn to Shu fields him 10% stronger, as every General of their own Kingdom. Wei, Shu or Wu has what the choice changes.
Four star is where he starts. Duplicates become shards, shards add stars, and each star adds a tenth to both numbers.
Questions
Did Ma Chao almost kill Cao Cao?
At Tong Pass in 211 he attacked while Cao Cao was crossing the Yellow River, and Cao Cao got away in a boat under a rain of arrows, covered by Xu Chu.
Why did Ma Chao join Liu Bei?
He had lost Liang Province and distrusted his host Zhang Lu. In 214 he wrote to Liu Bei, who was besieging Chengdu. Liu Bei sent him troops, and within ten days of his arrival under the walls the city surrendered.
How did Ma Chao die?
Of illness in 222, aged forty six. His last memorial said that Cao Cao had killed more than two hundred of his family, and asked Liu Bei to care for the one cousin left, Ma Dai.
How do you get Ma Chao in Warlords of the Three Kingdoms?
Sold in the Merit Shop for 500 Merit, the currency the weekly Kingdom War pays.
Sources
The history follows Chen Shou's Records of the Three Kingdoms, written in the third century, with Pei Songzhi's annotations of the fifth, and Fan Ye's Book of the Later Han for the years before the Han court fell apart. What the page calls the novel is Luo Guanzhong's Romance of the Three Kingdoms, of the fourteenth century. Where the two disagree, the page says which is speaking. For more on him, see Ma Chao on Wikipedia.
Written by Gitkonek Studio, .
Keep reading
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