Chapter 378: Chang'an Mutiny, Ma Chao's Death In September of the seventh year of Jian'an, as if in response to the tranquility of last year's autumn harvest, this year's autumn harvest seemed unusually chaotic. From Guanzhong to Hebei, across a thousand miles, troops from all over the country were gathering urgently. However, compared with the Battle of Guandu, this war is more similar to the Battle of Shouchun many years ago. There were four forces that started the war, but their interests were the same, which was to take over the Guanzhong area. Compared with the difficult situation of Liu Bei's army in the previous Battle of Shouchun, the balance of this battle seemed to tilt towards Liu Bei's army from the very beginning. The war began with a mutiny in Chang'an City. In August, Ma Chao was persuaded by Fu Wan and others to rebel, and he began to prepare from then on. He first persuaded Liu Xiongming to mobilize the army, and then asked Ma Teng to lead his troops into the capital to prepare for the capture of Chang'an with internal and external support. But what Ma Chao didn't know was that their plan had been exposed to Guo Jia long before anything happened. Guo Jia then began to plan according to Cao Cao's words, but while mobilizing Xiahou Dun, he naturally would not sit idly by and wait for death.

After covering up the news of Cao Cao's death, he found Xun Yu, Jia Xu and others and told them Cao Cao's last wishes. When Xun Yu heard the news of Cao Cao's death, he fell to the ground and cried bitterly. Only Jia Xu remained calm and said: "In the past, Wei Huang and others came to persuade me to let the school release Jin Yi. I put the overall situation first and went to help them!" "I didn't expect this move to make them unite to this extent. Now that they can gather together to rebel, I can't escape the blame!" That’s right, it was not a surprise for Jia Xu to hear that everyone was planning a rebellion, and he did not offer any advice, but directly admitted his mistake. Because everyone in the court knew that he had persuaded Lu Hong to release Jin Yi, this matter could not be hidden from the ministers, nor from the two of them. So he had to clear himself first, saying that he released Jin Yi for the sake of the overall situation, and was not in collusion with others. To be honest, Guo Jia did not understand Jia Xu's character, but Xun Yu knew a little bit. He knew very well that Jia Xu never made mistakes in his judgment of the overall situation. Even when facing the overwhelming force of Cao Cao's army, Jia Xu did not let Zhang Xiu down. Although he was good at protecting himself, he was not cunning. Seeing that he took the initiative to talk about this, he wiped his tears and said: "Mr. Jia is right in this matter. If you listen to it, you will also help!" "The most urgent matter is that Cao Gong has left, the court is in chaos, and the enemy has infiltrated. We must first deal with the internal strife!" Seeing this, Guo Jia also nodded and said, "Mr. Jia is the Prefect of the Imperial Guards, responsible for the defense of the capital. If Mr. Jia wants to rebel, there is no need to wait until today." "I have come to you two this time, firstly to tell you Lord Cao's last words, and secondly to discuss with you how to get rid of the soldiers in my city!" Their problem now lies in Ma Chao, the source of the internal strife. They have to get rid of Ma Chao first before they can proceed with the next steps. Originally, Guo Jia had his own strategies and plans, but now his power is not as great as Xun Yu and Jia Xu, so he needs to mobilize the power of both of them. After hearing what he said, the two men knew that the best thing to do now was to eliminate the internal strife. As for whether to surrender to Liu Bei or not, they had to wait until the situation stabilized. So everyone discussed it and decided that once Ma Teng and Han Sui entered Guanzhong, they would spread the news of Cao Cao's death and use the excuse of holding a funeral to lure Ma Chao to take the initiative. Under such a plan, Ma Teng and Han Sui entered Guanzhong. Before they arrived, they sent a message to Ma Chao to be on guard. The letter said that they would arrive in Chang'an on September 17th. At that time, they would light a fire as a signal and attack the city from outside. Ma Chao would take the opportunity to capture the city! However, Jia Xu knew that Ma Chao was going to rebel, so he naturally guarded against his internal and external communications, and anyone with a Xiliang accent along the way was strictly searched.

He obtained Ma Teng's secret letter and learned the date of his arrival, so he informed Guo Jia of the news. Guo Jia said: "When they arrive on the 17th, we can announce the funeral on the 15th. We will first defeat the soldiers in the city and then weaken the enemy's momentum!" Therefore, he changed the date on the letter to one day earlier, and ordered his Xiliang spies to go to Ma Chao's mansion to report the news. When Ma Chao saw the letter, he did not suspect anything and thought that Ma Teng was coming. He was naturally happy and called everyone to come and discuss the matter. Everyone was naturally excited when they saw the information in the letter, and they began to recruit good fighters in the city. On September 15th, the news of Cao Cao's death was suddenly announced in Cao Cao's mansion. At this time, it had been more than a month since Cao Cao's death. After the first few days, in order to avoid being jealous of his enemies, Guo Jia asked Xu Chu to secretly send Cao Cao out of the city for burial. When the news was sent out, there was only a cenotaph in Cao Cao's coffin. Ding, Cao Pi and others stood in front of the coffin and cried. When all the ministers heard the news, they came to pay their respects. Kong Rong even wrote a eulogy for Cao personally, which made everyone sad. Only Fu Wan saw this and was secretly delighted. He came out of Cao Cao's house and summoned Geng Ji and others to come and said: "Now that Ma Shoucheng and Han Wenyue are about to arrive, Cao Cao will announce the funeral. This is a blessing from heaven for us to act, and we must not miss it." "Although Ma Mengqi can capture the city tomorrow, we must be on guard against his failure. I intend to capture Cao Cao's children first to threaten everyone." "If anyone has not gone to pay their respects yet, please go there tomorrow night. If you see that the security in the palace is lax, please come and report it first." "I will light a fire at the back door as a signal and ask Xu Chu to go put out the fire. You may attack through the front door!" "If we can rob Cao's family, our great cause will be accomplished. I hope you will all help us with all your might!" Everyone responded when they heard this, except Jin Yi, who frowned and said, "We all hate Cao, the villain. How can we harm his family?" "You guys should handle this matter on your own. I am willing to help Ma Mengqi, but I don't want to conspire with you to do such an unjust thing!" After he said this, everyone was unhappy, and Geng Ji even scolded him repeatedly, but Jin Yi just turned away. Only Wei Huang volunteered again to go and investigate the defenses in Cao Cao's mansion. After everyone agreed on this, on the evening of the next day, Wei Huang came to the Sikong Mansion. When he saw Cao Cao's coffin, he began to cry bitterly and express his condolences. Ding persuaded him, and the man stopped, and then advised Ding again: "Sikong died early, and there are many people in the palace, so we should be careful to prevent fire." Ding agreed with his advice and ordered his servants to take turns guarding the front hall. After Wei Huang came up with the plan, he returned to Fu Wan's house to report. When everyone heard his words, they all praised his cleverness. So everyone gathered their troops and when Ma Chao moved at night, they all started to act. On the other hand, after receiving the letter, Ma Chao secretly contacted the soldiers in the city. Together with himself and the servants of Jin Yi and others, there were more than 2,500 people in total. After raising troops, he prepared his weapons and waited for Fu Wan and others to join him. Unexpectedly, Fu Wan had not arrived yet, but Jin Yi arrived first. Hearing Jin Yi's words about everyone's plan, Ma Chao said with disdain, "You are all nobles, yet you want to rob others. This is really unrighteous!" "Since you don't want to come, we can just act in secret. Don't do anything that would damage our reputation!" Having said this, he no longer waited for the others and waited in the mansion with Jin Yi. At the second watch, they suddenly heard someone report that a fire had started outside the city. Upon hearing this, Ma Chao led his troops out of the palace and gathered along the street. He met the garrison commander on patrol and asked him what was going on. The commander then jumped on his horse and shouted: "Now my troops have arrived outside the city. We only need to seize the gate of Chang'an and we will be able to break the city. You will be granted the title of marquis today. It all depends on your ability!" After he said this, the defending general knew something was wrong and hurriedly led his troops forward, but Ma Chao stabbed him in the chest with a spear. After killing the patrolling general, Ma Chao led his troops and charged towards the west gate where the fire started. For a moment, shouts of killing resounded throughout the city. At the same time, Fu Wan and others saw what happened and acted separately. Fu Wan set fire in the back, while Geng Ji and others rushed in from the front door. As the fire started, people were running around in Sikong's house. Fu Wan felt happy when he saw this. He wanted to lead his servants into the house, but he saw a man like a black tower standing at the entrance of the alley, saying in a muffled voice:

"Sikong has treated you well. Today is the day of mourning. How dare you cause trouble? Tiger warriors, listen to my order and kill him with me!" This man was none other than Xu Chu, and behind him were Cao's elite guards. Upon hearing this, they all rushed forward to attack. Fu Wan was unable to retreat and was hacked to pieces by a sword. He fell to the ground, shouting that everyone was a traitor, and then died. It is also said that when Geng Ji, Wei Huang and others saw the back door of Sikong Mansion on fire, they broke in from the front door. As soon as they entered, they saw thousands of arrows being fired. It turned out that although Guo Jia and others planned to get rid of Ma Chao, they did not relax the vigilance of Sikong Mansion and asked Xu Chu to be on guard there. After receiving the order, Xu Chu arranged archers in the front yard, and he personally guarded against the enemy in the back yard. As a result, when Geng Ji, Wei Huang and others arrived here, they were attacked by a group of archers. Geng Ji was unable to dodge and was pierced in the shoulder by an arrow, while Wei Huang was hit by several arrows and died on the spot. It was also because the two had never led troops before, and they didn't know how to deal with the sudden attack. When Geng Ji saw Wei Huang dead, he immediately mounted his horse and was about to ride away, but was chased by the Tiger Soldiers and shot to death with a volley of arrows. At this point, all the people who had attacked Cao Cao's mansion were killed, and only Ma Chao was still struggling to attack the west gate of Chang'an. Because he saw the west gate on fire, he thought Ma Teng and others were outside the city, so he headed towards the west gate, but unexpectedly, Xu Huang was stationed there. As soon as Ma Chao arrived here, people from the city shot arrows. Xu Huang stood on the city wall and shouted to surrender quickly. Seeing this, Ma Chao raised his shield and stepped forward, determined to fight to the death, and he did not retreat even after being hit by several arrows. He then arrived at the city gate, used his arms to push the gate open, but at this moment, something happened that made him despair. It turned out that the person outside the city was not Ma Teng, but the elite troops led by Cao Hong. When Cao Hong saw Ma Chao, he said: "Horse thief, I knew you were going to rebel. I am lying in wait here today and I will kill you. Come and die with me!" After he finished speaking, he gave an order and ordered his soldiers to charge towards Ma Chao. Seeing this, Ma Chao knew that his way of survival was cut off, so he simply mounted his horse and continued to attack. At the city gate, hundreds of people were besieging and gradually exhausted. As a result, Cao Hong hated Ma Chao so much that when he saw him dying, he said: "Get out of my way. I will kill this thief with my own hands and take his head as a sacrifice to my brother's spirit in heaven." He shouted loudly and rode his horse towards Ma Chao. Unexpectedly, Ma Chao also hated him. He rushed towards his horse, broke his long spear, and stabbed Cao Hong on his horse. Cao Hong was caught off guard and was stabbed off his horse by Ma Chao. His personal guards rushed forward to protect him and joined the crowd in the siege. Surrounded by the crowd, Ma Chao died of exhaustion. Before he died, his eyes were still looking west. It was as if he was questioning why Ma Teng and Han Sui, who were supposed to be outside the city, had not shown up yet! On September 16, the seventh year of Jian'an, Ma Chao was plotted against by Guo Jia and others and was surrounded and killed in the city of Chang'an. However, Ma Teng and Han Sui, whom he had been waiting for, just arrived outside Chang'an City on the 19th. The reason why it was two days late was that on the seventeenth day after Ma Chao's death, autumn rain fell in Guanzhong for two consecutive days. Since it was a rainy day, not only was it difficult to attack the city, but even to start a fire was quite difficult, so Ma Teng had to postpone the plan. However, in his opinion, since the fire was used as a signal, if he did not light the fire, Ma Chao would naturally not move. Since Ma Chao did not take any action, naturally nothing would happen and their strategy would still be effective. So on the night of the 19th, Ma Teng ordered Yang Qiu to light a fire outside the city, and the main force of the troops approached Chang'an. Just as he expected, shouts of killing were heard in the city soon, and Ma Teng immediately ordered an attack on the city.

After two moments, the city gate suddenly opened. Ma Teng was overjoyed and quickly led his troops into the city. But as soon as his troops entered the city, thousands of arrows were fired from the city, and Xu Huang led his troops to rush out of the city. Ma Teng was caught off guard and was hit by two arrows, almost falling off his horse. Fortunately, Pang De fought to the death and managed to escape! After returning to the camp, Ma Teng burst into tears without worrying about the pain in his body. When everyone asked him why, he said: "Our army's secrets have been leaked, Mengqi will certainly be in trouble. I am already old, and now that I have lost them, there will be no one to see me off to the end of my life in the future!" After hearing this, everyone realized that since their plan had been exposed, how could Ma Chao and others be safe? You know, in order to prevent Ma Teng from rebelling, Cao Cao not only took in Ma Chao, but also took Ma Xiu and Ma Shi as hostages. Now that three sons have died at once, how could Ma Teng not be sad? Seeing how sad he was, everyone tried to persuade him to calm down. Han Sui also advised him to be at ease, saying that maybe Ma Chao and others had already escaped. However, Ma Teng did not feel at ease about this at all. Until the next day, when the heads of Ma Chao and others were hung on the city wall, Ma Teng cried until he fainted. Upon seeing this, Han Sui ordered his troops to launch a fierce attack on Chang'an, preparing to capture Guo Jia and Xun Yu to avenge Ma Chao and others. But at this time, people in the city were also facing a death separation, because Cao Hong tried to show off his bravery and was stabbed to death by Ma Chao with a spear. The spear pierced Cao Hong's abdomen directly, causing a penetrating wound, which was an incurable disease in that era. So after being rescued, Cao Hong fell into a dying state and died on his bed before three days had passed. The death of Cao Hong was undoubtedly bad news for Guo Jia and others, because there was only one general from another family, Xu Huang, leading the army in the city. If Xu Huang had any disloyalty and surrendered to Liu Bei, it would be a disaster for them. Fortunately, Xu Huang was a loyal man and patrolled the city every day to guard against enemy attacks, which dispelled the doubts of Guo Jia and others. However, the troops outside the city were still a huge threat to them, so after discussion, everyone decided to use the heads of Ma Chao and others to disrupt the enemy's morale. After hanging the head, Guo Jia personally went up to the city wall to command the defense of the city. It happened that Han Sui ordered an attack on the city. The two armies fought but the battle ended in failure. After a stalemate of several days, Xiahou Dun's troops finally arrived in Chang'an, but right behind them, Yuan Shao's army also followed. (End of this chapter)