Ma Zun

Governor of Tianshui, and the chapter leaves him still in possession — the loss of the city is chapter 93. Here he simply cannot decide: Yin Shang and Liang Xu press him to march for the 'golden branch and jade leaf' Imperial Son-in-Law, the false Pei Xu produces a dispatch, a second messenger says Anding has already started, and he is preparing the army when Jiang Wei stops him. His verdict on his own officer is the point of the scene: 'Were it not for you, I would fall into a ruse.'

Wins twice on Jiang Wei's plans before losing everything to his own suspicion of him. Adopts the ambush that beats Zhao Zilong and the four-way division that beats the night assault, then believes the manufactured desertion: when the single exhausted horseman hails his gate he says 'This fellow has came to beguile me into opening the gate' and has his own officer shot at. Consults Xiahou Mao over the arrow-letters and accepts 'Put both the men to death' — which is precisely what turns Yin Shang and Liang Xu. Flees west with Xiahou Mao and a hundred followers to the Qiang.