The Battle of Tong Gate occurred in 211 AD during the fall of the Han dynasty era. Cao Cao's army managed to defeat a coalition of Liang Province warlords under Ma Chao through trickery and defection, and Cao Cao established a hold over the Guanzhong region. Ma Chao was forced to flee into the service of Zhang Lu, Liu Zhang, and, finally, Liu Bei as a result of the loss of his homeland.
Background[]
The warlords of Liang Province in northwest China were fiercely independent during the last decades of the Han dynasty, fighting off Dong Zhuo and Sun Jian's invasions and maintaining a large degree of autonomy. The most powerful of these warlords were Ma Teng and Han Sui. Ma Teng was a fierce loyalist of the Han dynasty, and he decided to conspire to assassinate the powerful warlord Cao Cao, whose grip on the imperial court effectively made him the ruler of China. Ma Teng and Huang Kui's plot failed, and Ma Teng and his sons Ma Xiu and Ma Tie were executed for treason. This infuriated Ma Teng's surviving sons, Ma Chao and Ma Dai, who assembled an alliance of Liang lords with the goal of defeating Cao Cao.
Battle[]
Cao Cao personally led an army of 60,000 troops against the rebels, whose army grew to 100,000 men, commanded by Ma Chao and his lifelong family friend Han Sui. In the first skirmish, Ma Chao defeated Cao Cao, and Cao Cao survived only through trimming his beard and casting off his red robe to make himself unidentifiable.
The following day, Ma Chao engaged Cao Cao's bodyguard Xu Chu in a duel, and the duel ended inconclusively. Eventually, Cao Cao's strategist, Jia Xu devised a scheme to break the deadlock; he had Cao Cao speak with Han Sui, his old friend, to make it seem as if Han Sui was planning to defect. Ma Chao's allies began to surrender or go home after seeing Cao Cao speaking with Han Sui, and Ma Chao barged into Han Sui's tent and attacked him.
Han Sui lost his left arm and fled under the protection of his subordinates, and Han Sui defected to Cao Cao. Cao Cao's army then defeated Ma Chao's weakened army, and Ma Chao fled to join the warlord, Zhang Lu in Hanzhong following his defeat.