Ma Chao

Debuts at seventeen, face like jade and eyes like shooting stars: spears Wang Fang dead within a few passes, then feigns not to see the pursuing Li Meng, twists past his thrust, and plucks him from the saddle with one arm. On the retreat his desperate rearguard saves his father's beaten army.

Counsels obedience to the imperial summons, offers to march on the capital instead - and is ordered to stay commanding the Qiang troops, the deterrent his father wrongly trusts to keep Cao Cao honest. His farewell warning: 'be careful not to enter the city till you know exactly what plots are afoot.'

Dreams of tigers on a snowy plain the night the news rides in; Liu Bei's letter and Han Sui's loyalty turn grief into two hundred thousand men. He takes Changan, takes Tong Pass, routs three champions in succession - and hunts Cao Cao personally: the red robe discarded, the beard sawn off, the spear-thrust that hits a tree instead of the fugitive, the arrows raking the boat at the ferry. 'The fame of Ma Chao rose even to the sky.'

Ma Chao; tricked into suspecting Han Sui by the smudged letter; tries to kill him, cuts off Han Sui's arm; then loses the great single combat with Xu Chu (the famous shirtless duel). Forced to flee west to Zhang Lu at Hanzhong.

The freshly destroyed enemy whose defeat has swollen Cao Cao's pride to the point of snubbing Zhang Song — named again in the taunt catalogue.

The chapter of his ruin: takes Jicheng and butchers Wei Kang's forty-strong household, is lured out by the Licheng rising, loses the triple battle when Xiahou Yuan arrives — and returns to find Liang Kuan and Zhao Qu on his own ramparts, hacking his wife Lady Yang and his three sons before his eyes. Massacres Licheng and Jiang Xu's aged mother in revenge, cuts his way out with sixty horsemen, and limps to Zhang Lu at Hanzhong.

Volunteers to take Jiameng Pass to repay Zhang Lu — and fights Zhang Fei to a standstill: two hundred bouts by day, twenty more by torchlight, a dodged copper mace against a dodged arrow. Stranded by Yang Song's bribed slanders and Zhang Lu's three impossible conditions, he is talked over by Li Hui, kills the watching Yang Bo as his pledge, and rides to Chengdu's wall — where the sight of him breaks Liu Zhang.

Ma Chao; with Liu Bei at Chengdu.

Takes Xiabian Pass with Zhang Fei (per Cao Cao's scouts), blames Wu Lan's unordered battle, then seals the Pass and reports to Chengdu — an inactivity so complete that Cao Hong suspects a ruse and retires.

Named in passing — Zhuge Liang recalls that Xiahou Yuan was the man set to defend Changan against him.

Named in passing — Zhuge Liang sends word to Xiabian Pass assigning him his part in the campaign.

The campaign's hammer from the west: his sudden arrival with Wu Lan throws Cao Cao's army into panic, his long-idle troops 'fight brilliantly, so that none could withstand,' he seizes the rear and center camps while Pang De duels Wei Yan, and his pressure keeps Cao Cao penned in the Xie Valley chewing chicken tendons.

Harries Cao Cao's retreat with a dozen parties, fire on both flanks, driving the beaten army day and night until Jingzhao — then is named among the Five Tiger Generals.

The ghost over Pang De's appointment — his old chief, now a Tiger General of Shu, cited against the van command, dismissed by Pang De with contempt, and offered again by Guan Yu at the execution ground.

Named in passing in Zhang Zhao's count of the avengers at Liu Bei's back.

Runs the sting that unmasks Peng Yang: catches the letter-bearer, then sits drinking with the traitor, feigning shared grievance — 'truth to tell, I have long hated the man too' — until the whole plot spills out, and carries man, letter, and story straight to the Prince.

Ma Chao; ordered to defend the Hanzhong frontier against any Wei opportunism.

The name that defeats an army: posted to Xiping Pass with daily-shifting ambushes, he never has to fight — the Qiangs who call him General Who Possesses Heavenly Prestige turn their hundred thousand around.

His name at Xiping Pass turns back the Qiangs in the four-army recap — and at the chapter's end he takes over Yangping Pass from the recalled Zhao Yun.

Named in Zhuge Liang's reassurance to the anxious Emperor — 'Ma Chao is in command at the passes between Wei and Hanzhong,' one of the guarantees that make the southern march possible.

Dead of illness since the return from the south, and used as the argument against Zhao Zilong: 'I have lost my friend Ma Chao by illness since I returned from the Southern Expedition, and I feel as I had lost an arm.'

Dead, but the chapter opens at his tomb: the army passes through Mianyang, Zhuge Liang sacrifices to him in person as a Tiger General, and his cousin Ma Dai acts as chief mourner.