马超 / Ma Chao

Overview

马超 / Ma Chao is the principal Guanzhong coalition figure named in Hanji 1105’s compressed account of the 211 CE 渭南之战, where his side is defeated by 曹操.

Current Profile

The current evidence is limited to one campaign retrospective. Ma Chao represents a militarily substantial but internally divisible coalition: Cao Cao is said to welcome the concentration of opponents because numbers do not guarantee cohesion, and 贾诩’s counsel targets that weakness. This page therefore records Ma Chao’s role in the episode’s strategic argument rather than attempting a complete biography.

Key Characteristics

• Principal opposing commander named in the episode’s Weinan account.
• Associated with a broader Guanzhong coalition rather than an isolated force.
• Represents the difference between troop concentration and coalition cohesion.
• Is defeated after Cao Cao accepts Jia Xu’s divisive strategy.
• Remains source-bounded to the 211 campaign in the current wiki evidence.

Evidence

• Campaign role: Hanji 1105 identifies Ma Chao as the leading opposing figure when Cao Cao reaches Tong Pass and Weinan in 211.
• Coalition vulnerability: Hanji 1105 says Cao Cao judges the gathered opponents unable to remain united and credits Jia Xu’s divisive counsel in the victory.

Qualifications

Hanji 1105 does not reconstruct Ma Chao’s wider career, the coalition’s membership, the causes of the conflict, the maneuver sequence, or the campaign’s aftermath. The battlefield exchange, Cao Cao’s private reaction to the coalition’s size, and the exact mechanism of division remain source-scoped.

What Changed

• Created the page from Hanji 1105’s Weinan campaign retrospective.
• Kept the durable coalition-cohesion claim separate from the episode’s dramatic dialogue.

Relationships

• 渭南之战 - campaign in which the source places Ma Chao’s defeat.
• 曹操 - opposing commander who defeats the coalition.
• 贾诩 - Cao-side adviser credited with the divisive strategy.
• 关中 - regional setting and coalition base in the episode’s account.
• 利益结构式联盟脆弱性 - adjacent concept for cohesion failure inside an interest-bound alliance.