Chapter 27 6. Ma Chao's failure

After Cao Cao's army withdrew, it seemed that Liangzhou could not make much progress for the time being.However, within two years, the situation in Liangzhou turned around. Han Sui was defeated and killed, Ma Chao could not gain a foothold and fled to Hanzhong, and most of Liangzhou was included in Cao Cao's sphere of influence. During this process, the main force of Cao's army was attracted to fight in Hefei on the eastern front, and they also had to bear the pressure from the Jingzhou direction on the central line, and they did not have the strength to use troops on the western front on a large scale.The reason why Cao Cao still achieved such a great harvest is inseparable from the special contributions of the two people.

These two people have been mentioned before: one is Yang Fu and the other is Yan Xing. When Cao Cao withdrew his troops from Anding County, Yang Fu tried his best not to suspend his military operations in Liangzhou. Although Cao Cao thought he was right, the rebellion in the rear forced him to withdraw his troops. After Cao Cao led the army to withdraw, although Xia Houyuan was left to garrison Chang'an, he was out of reach for Liangzhou. The various warlords in Liangzhou who had participated in the previous rebellion were ready to move again under Ma Chao's instigation.Ma Chao also contacted Agui, the leader of the Qiang people in Xingguo, and Diwang Wanwan in Baixiang, and other tribal forces to attack counties and counties loyal to the imperial court again.Even if there are those who are not willing to join the uprising, because they are afraid of Ma Chao's attack, they should all fight with them (Super leads all Rongqu commanders to attack Longshang counties and counties, and Longshang counties and counties should respond), only Hanyang County openly confronted Ma Chao.

Wei Kang, the governor of Liangzhou, was in Jixian County, Hanyang County. Under Yang Fu's persuasion, Wei Kang decided to lead the whole city's army and people to resist desperately and wait for the arrival of imperial reinforcements. Ma Chao led more than 10,000 people to surround Ji County, Zhang Lu also sent General Yang Ang from Hanzhong to help, and the defense of Ji County began. This battle is not well-known but very important. It was fought from the first month of the eighteenth year of Jian'an (213) to August, and it was extremely tragic. There are very few people defending the city. "Three Kingdoms" records that there are only more than a thousand people. They resisted desperately under the leadership of Yang Fu.Yang Fu is a native of Ji County, and all the descendants of the Yang clan went to the city wall. Yang Fu's cousin, Yang Yue, also built a "Yanyue Camp" on the city wall, fighting to the death with Ma Chao.

According to legend, in the book "Shen Mechanism Enemy Taibai Yin Jing" written by Li Quan of the Tang Dynasty, there is a detailed description of Yanyueying, saying that this formation "likes Yanyue", and its characteristics are "backing the hills, facing the lake, The wheel follows the mountain, and the string follows the face." It is especially suitable for building camps in "narrow land and narrow mountains".Yang Fu, Yang Yue and others built camps on the city wall. The place here is small, so it is possible to adopt this method, but it is not known whether it is consistent with the "Shen Mechanism Enemy Taibai Yin Jing".

This formation worked very well. Ma Chao and Yang Ang fought for several months, but there was nothing they could do about Ji County. However, the city gradually couldn't support it anymore. After discussing with Wei Kang and Yang Fu, they sent the state government not to drive Yan Wen out of the city to rescue soldiers.As I have said many times before, Bie Jia's role is between the deputy governor and the secretary general of the state government, and he is the most important assistant to the governor. There is a river near Ji County, which is Weishui.According to the "Three Kingdoms Yan Wen Biography", Yan Wen sneaked out of the city at night. At dawn, the enemy soldiers found the water traces, and then sent people to chase them. They chased them all the way to Xianqin County, and caught up with Yan Wen.Xianqin County is located in the north of Ji County. It seems that Yan Wen intends to flee to Anding County first, find Yang Qiu there, and then try to report to Xia Houyuan in Chang'an.

Yan Wen was arrested and came back. When Ma Chao saw him, he quickly untied him, and said to him: "You can see success or failure today. I was arrested for asking for help for the lonely city. How can I do justice? If you listen to me, you are right." The city said that there are no rescuers outside, it should be a strategy to turn disaster into blessing. Otherwise, I will kill you now." Yan Wen pretended to agree, Ma Chao ordered people to take Yan Wen to the city, and Yan Wen shouted to the city: "The army will arrive in only three days, everyone must persevere!"Ma Chao was furious: "Don't you want to live (you don't plan evil for your life)?" Yan Wen ignored him.

Ma Chao didn't kill Yan Wen at first, and tried to lure him to surrender, but he was always reprimanded by Yan Wen.Yan Wen was killed in the end. Before he died, he said: "If you are a king, you must die without any second thoughts. If you let me speak unrighteous words, how can I live on mediocrity?" Yan Wen told the city that the army would arrive in three days. This was just to encourage everyone. In fact, he didn't know when the army would arrive.The city was guarded for a few more days, but it was impossible to keep it any longer. Including the governor Wei Kang, they all planned to surrender (the state sent his farewell driver Yan Wenxun to dive out of the water to ask for help, but was killed by Chao, so the governor and the governor turned pale. There is a plan to reduce the superpower).

Yang Fu tried his best to persuade: "Yang Fu led his father, brother and children to encourage each other with loyalty, and he did not have a second heart until his death. Tian Dan defended the city back then. That's just the case. Now give up the credit that can be obtained immediately, and fall into the reputation of injustice. I would rather Let's defend each other with death!" Yang Fu couldn't help crying when he got excited. However, Wei Kang and others still decided to surrender, and they opened the city gate to welcome Ma Chao into the city.So Ma Chao established a base in Jixian County, claiming to be General Zhengxi, and concurrently serving as Bingzhou Mu, responsible for handling all military and political affairs in Liangzhou (supervising Liangzhou military).

Ma Chao asked Yang Ang to kill Wei Kang and others, and arrested Yang Fu's cousin Yang Yue, but strangely, he didn't go into details about Yang Fu, which created conditions for Yang Fu to launch revenge. Yang Fu wanted revenge but had no chance (Fu Nei had the ambition to repay the super, but he didn't get it).Later, Yang Fu's wife died, and he left Ji County on the grounds of funeral leave.Yang Fu has a cousin named Jiang Xu stationed troops in Licheng, which is located in the south of Ji County, on the way to Wudu County. Yang Fu met Jiang Xu in Licheng and visited Jiang Xu's mother.Yang Fu told his cousin what happened in Ji County before, and the conversation was very sad (it was very sad to talk about the current events in Jizhong).Jiang Xu's mother heard their conversation, was infected by Yang Fu's loyalty, and supported her son to participate in Yang Fu's plan.There is a special record of Jiang Xu's mother in the book "Biography of Martyr Girl" written by Huang Fumi.

In this way, Yang Fu took the lead, and Jiang Xu called his fellow countrymen Jiang Yin, Zhao Ang, Yin Feng, Yao Qiong, Kong Xin, etc., as well as Li Jun and Wang Ling from Wudu County, and made an appointment to attack Ma Chao together. Jiang Xu also sent his cousin Jiang Mo to sneak into Ji County, trying to contact Yang Yue who was still in custody, and also contacted Liang Kuan, Zhao Qu, Pang Gong and others to form a secret alliance in Ji County. In September of the seventeenth year of Jian'an (212), Yang Fu and Jiang Xu set up troops in Lucheng between Licheng and Ji County. Ma Chao personally led the army to crusade after hearing about it. This is exactly what Yang Fu and Jiang Xu wanted to see result.

As soon as Ma Chao left, Zhao Qu, Liang Kuan and others immediately rescued Yang Yue, and took advantage of Yang Yue's influence in Ji County to quickly control the county.Yang Yue ordered the gates of Ji County to be closed, and Ma Chao's wife and children were killed.Things seem to be easy, but in fact it is the result of long-term preparations, and the key figures are Zhao Ang and his wife Wang, which is not recorded in the official history, but is described in detail in Huang Fumi's "Biography of Martyrs". Zhao Ang was one of the allies recruited by Yang Fu and Jiang Xu. According to "Biography of Martyrs", he was a county magistrate, and later served as a military staff officer for the governor. His wife was Wang Yi. At that time, the couple lived in In Ji County.Ma Chao attacked Ji County, Zhao Ang actively defended the city, and his wife Wang Yi also participated in the defense of the city as much as possible.Wei Kang wanted to surrender, and Zhao Ang tried hard to persuade him, but Wei Kang refused to listen, and Ji County was occupied by Ma Chao. Ma Chao wanted to win Zhao Ang for his own use, but he didn't fully trust him (he wanted to use Zhao Ang for his own use, but he didn't quite trust him).Ma Chao's wife Yang Shi heard that Wang Yi was unusual, so she took the initiative to come to meet him.Knowing that her husband had secretly participated in plotting against Ma Chao, Wang Yi also took the initiative to approach Yang Shi in order to win Ma Chao's trust, and finally gained Yang's trust.Through the relationship of Ma Chao's wife Yang, Zhao Ang also gained Ma Chao's trust (so Ang was trusted by Chao, and those who have done everything to avoid disasters have different powers). Ma Chao attacked Lucheng, but was resisted by Yang Fu and Jiang Xu.Yang Fu came to the front line in person, and suffered five wounds on his body, and seven members of his family died in battle.Under their desperate resistance, Ma Chao could not succeed. Ma Chao wants to return to the army, but Ji County has changed hands.Ma Chao was desperate and turned to attack Licheng. According to the "Biography of Martyrs", Ma Chao's men drove to Licheng. The city thought it was Jiang Xu and others returning to the army. Without any precautions, Ma Chao easily occupied Licheng and captured him. Jiang Xu's mother. Ma Chao wanted to use Jiang Xu's mother as a bargaining chip to negotiate with Yang Fu and Jiang Xu. Jiang's mother scolded: "You are a rebellious son who betrayed his father, and a thief who killed the ruler. How can heaven and earth tolerate you? If you don't die sooner, what else is there?" Alive?" Mother Jiang deliberately wanted to irritate Ma Chao and seek death.Ma Chao was furious and killed her as expected. Later, Ma Chao had no choice but to order Licheng to be set on fire. After that, he entered Hanzhong from Wudu County and asked Zhang Lu for help. In the spring of the second year (214), Ma Chao borrowed some troops from Zhang Lu and fought back, trying to regain Liangzhou. Jiang Xu quickly asked Xia Houyuan in Chang'an for help.Some people suggested that Xia Houyuan should report to Ye County before taking action, but Xia Houyuan believed that Chang’an went to Ye County for four thousand miles, and when he received the order, Jiang Xu’s side would definitely not be able to hold on. Compared with newspapers, Syria, etc. must be defeated, not in a hurry). Xia Houyuan was right, but why didn't this idea appear a year ago?Last spring, when Ma Chao besieged Ji County for eight months, Xia Houyuan did not respond. This is a very puzzling mystery. This time Xia Houyuan acted very quickly. He asked Zhang to lead 5,000 people to set off first, and entered Liangzhou from Chencang (now Baoji, Shaanxi), followed by him to supervise the transportation of grain and grass. Zhang passed Chencang and met Ma Chao's troops in the upper reaches of the Wei River. Ma Chao led a joint regiment composed of Di people and Qiang people with thousands of people to attack Zhang.But Ma Chao was defeated as soon as he made contact, and when Xia Houyuan's army arrived, all the counties in western Liangzhou that had pledged their allegiance to Ma Chao surrendered. Ma Chao had no choice but to flee to Hanzhong again, and no longer planned to counterattack Liangzhou. So far, most of Liangzhou, including Hanyang County, Wudu County, Anding County, and Longyou County, have declared peace. For Cao Cao, this is a windfall.In order to commend those who made meritorious service in this battle, Cao Cao named eleven people consecutively as marquises in the name of the imperial court.As the number one hero, Yang Fu was naturally among the marquises. Cao Cao was going to make him Marquis of Guannei, but Yang Fu offered to resign. Cao Cao refused to accept this, and wrote to Yang Fu personally asking him to accept it.Yang Fu later served as the governor of Yizhou, the prefect of Jincheng County, and the prefect of Wudu County. After Cao Pi succeeded to the throne, he served in the imperial court.Liu Ye commented that he had "the festival of public assistant", and Chen Shou commented that he was compared with Ji An, a famous official in the early Han Dynasty, saying that he "just showed his integrity, and was admonishing bandits".