韦康 / Wei Kang (late Han)

Overview

韦康 / Wei Kang is the Liangzhou inspector who holds Ji through a prolonged siege, sends 阎温 to request relief, and eventually opens the city to 马超 against 杨阜’s advice. His reported killing after surrender becomes the immediate grievance around which nominal subordinates organize resistance.

Current Profile

Hanji 1136 supplies the decision sequence. Wei Kang reportedly succeeds his father as Liangzhou inspector, retains Yang Fu as a military adviser, and holds Ji for roughly eight months. He sends Yan Wen through the siege to seek Xiahou Yuan’s help, but the relief effort fails. As morale and hope collapse, Wei Kang and the commandery administrator favor surrender while Yang Fu argues that the defenders have already committed themselves to a shared stand. Wei Kang opens the city anyway and is reportedly killed with other local leaders and family members.

Hanji 1137 presents the aftereffect. Surrender does not preserve Wei Kang, and Ma Chao’s reported killing converts officials who outwardly accept the new regime into covert opponents. The durable profile is not simply that Wei Kang chose surrender badly: prolonged isolation and failed relief constrained the choice, while the receiver’s treatment of surrender made the result a wider credibility breach.

Key Characteristics

• Late-Han inspector associated with Liangzhou and the prolonged defense of Ji.
• Sends Yan Wen through the siege lines to request outside relief.
• Opens Ji to Ma Chao only after relief fails and morale collapses, despite Yang Fu’s opposition.
• Is killed after surrender, making his fate a case of failed surrender protection.
• Becomes the named superior whose death unifies Yang Fu and other local officials in resistance.

Evidence

• Defense, relief request, and surrender decision: Hanji 1136 places Wei Kang in the prolonged siege, says he sends Yan Wen for help, and reports that he rejects Yang Fu’s counsel and opens Ji after relief fails.
• Post-surrender killing: Hanji 1136 and Hanji 1137 both report that Ma Chao kills Wei Kang after taking the surrender.
• Resistance aftereffect: Hanji 1137 says Yang Fu and more than ten colleagues outwardly submit while retaining a plan to avenge Wei Kang.

Qualifications

The current profile rests on two structured popular-history summaries. Wei Kang’s succession, exact office, authority to surrender, siege duration, relief options, surrender terms, chronology, dialogue, household deaths, and the immediate circumstances of his death require comparison with transmitted histories and specialist scholarship. The evidence supports a constrained decision after failed relief; it does not establish that surrender was the only option or that continued defense would have succeeded. His killing is a credible contributor to the revolt, but not a complete explanation of every participant’s motive.

What Changed

• Backfilled the prolonged siege, Yan Wen relief mission, and collapse of hope before surrender.
• Added Yang Fu’s rejected opposition so the decision is not presented as uncontested.
• Distinguished the constrained surrender choice from Ma Chao’s separate breach in killing the surrendered leadership.

Relationships

• 马超 - incoming ruler who kills Wei Kang after surrender in the episode’s account.
• 杨阜 - subordinate who organizes resistance and frames it as vengeance for Wei Kang.
• 阎温 - envoy Wei Kang sends through the siege lines to request relief.
• 夏侯渊 - Cao-side commander from whom Wei Kang’s defenders seek unsuccessful relief.
• 姜叙 - military relative recruited by Yang Fu into the resistance.
• 受降失信 - framework explaining how post-surrender killing can damage later credibility.