Battle of Tong Pass

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Battle of Tong Pass
Part of the wars of the Three Kingdoms
Date 211 Location Tongguan, Shaanxi Result Cao Cao victory
Combatants
Cao Cao	Xiliang
Commanders
Cao Cao	Ma Chao
Strength
?	100,000
Casualties
?	?

Wars of the Three Kingdoms
Yellow Turban Rebellion – Campaign against Dong Zhuo – Jieqiao – Wancheng – Xiapi – Yijing – Guandu – Changban – Red Cliffs – Tong Pass – Hefei – Mount Dingjun – Fancheng – Xiaoting – Southern Campaign – Northern Expeditions (Jieting) – Shiting – (Wuzhang Plains)

The Battle of Tong Pass (潼關之戰) was a battle between Ma Chao and the warlord Cao Cao during the Three Kingdoms Era in China. This battle has been known as the battle that could have taken Cao Cao's life twice. Nonetheless, Cao Cao repelled Ma Chao's forces, and established a hold of Liangzhou.

[edit] Background

In the year 211, Ma Chao led a coalition of dissidents against Cao Cao. Together with Han Sui, Ma Chao set off for Chang'an and conquered it easily. Having conquered Chang'an they advanced towards Tong Pass. Cao Cao, in response, had Ma Chao's father Ma Teng , who was an imperial officer in the capital, killed because of his son's revolt. (In the novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Cao had lured Ma Teng into the capital and had him killed because Ma had plotted to assassinate Cao, thus making Ma Chao revolt.) Cao Cao then immediately dispatched Cao Hong and Xu Huang with 10,000 troops to Tong Pass and issued orders that they must refrain from engaging the enemy and defend the pass for ten days.

[edit] The battle

On the ninth day Cao Hong could no longer put up with the insults and taunts shouted by Ma Chao and his army and therefore led a contingent of troops out of the pass to fight Ma Chao's forces without permission. Xu Huang came out to help Cao Hong but the two of them were no match for Ma Chao who successfully took the pass. Cao Cao led troops personally to recapture Tong Pass and Ma Chao then defeated many of Cao Cao's top generals such as Yu Jin and Zhang He.

Ma Chao then directly attacked Cao Cao. Cao Cao, in a bid to escape, cut off his beard and threw away his robe to avoid being identified by Ma Chao's troops before being rescued by Cao Hong and Xiahou Yuan. In order to cut off Ma Chao's supplies lines, Cao Cao led troops to cross the river but Ma Chao was prepared and ambushed him instead. Xu Chu, Cao Cao's bodyguard, protected Cao, who would have otherwise perished there. Later Ma Chao was challenged to a duel by Xu Chu. The duel was a draw but the subsequent battle forced Cao Cao to retreat. In the days ahead, Ma Chao harassed Cao Cao's troops and gave them no chance of setting up camps. Cao Cao established a camp anyway, in a short amount of time, using the cold weather and the river water to construct an ice fortress. Knowing that it would be very difficult to defeat a valiant general like Ma Chao, Cao Cao accepted his adviser Jia Xu's proposal to pretend to make peace with Ma Chao and at the same time attempt to turn Ma Chao and Han Sui against each other. Slowly the two men were driven apart. Ma Chao thought that Han Sui had collaborated with Cao Cao against him and tried to kill Han Sui, but only managed to chop off Han Sui's hand. In the ensuing confusion, Cao Cao launched an attack on his confused enemies and overcame them.

Ma Chao, together with his cousin Ma Dai and Pang De, escaped and later sought refuge with the warlord Zhang Lu.