Yang Fu

Yang Fu is the governor of Jicheng who, after Ma Chao takes the city and spares him, regrets having betrayed the trust placed in him to defend it. His decision to resist Ma Chao again sets off a chain of reversals: the ambush succeeds, but the rebels then seize Jicheng and kill Ma Chao’s family, driving Ma Chao to retaliate before seeking refuge with Zhang Lu.

Identity and Background

The account introduces Yang Fu as the governor of Jicheng. Ma Chao defeats him, takes the city, and pardons him for having resisted. That pardon leaves Yang Fu alive and in a position to reconsider what his surrender means: when he visits relatives soon afterward, he admits that he is ashamed of having betrayed the trust he was given to defend the city.

His position carries an obligation as well as political authority. The narrative frames his remorse specifically around the defense entrusted to him, making the choice to act against Ma Chao a renewed attempt to meet that responsibility. Yet Yang Fu does not act alone or simply resume open resistance; he and his relatives devise a plot that will lure Ma Chao away from Jicheng.

Plot Against Ma Chao

Yang Fu’s confession to his relatives becomes the starting point for the conspiracy. One supporter singled out in the account is an eighty-two-year-old matriarch. Together, the plotters draw Ma Chao into an attack before Licheng, where an ambush is prepared. Cao Cao has sent Xiahou Yuan to support the scheme, and Ma Chao’s army is cut to pieces.

The ambush is a military success, but it does not settle the struggle. Ma Chao escapes and rides back toward Jicheng, only to find the city gate controlled by two of Yang Fu’s associates who had also been pardoned. Their seizure of the city turns the conspiracy from an operation against Ma Chao’s army into a direct assault on his household.

Consequences and Narrative Role

From the walls of Jicheng, the rebels kill Ma Chao’s wife in front of him and then kill his three infant sons and more than a dozen other members of his family. Yang Fu’s remorse had prompted the attempt to recover the city; the resulting violence gives Ma Chao a personal reason for vengeance and marks the cost of a political plot that has escaped any limited military objective.

Ma Chao retaliates by returning under cover of darkness to Licheng, deceiving the guards into opening its gate, and killing the conspirators, including the elderly matriarch. He then leaves the sacked city and flees west. The account does not describe Yang Fu’s fate after the counterattack; it establishes his role as a governor who tries to reverse his surrender, while showing how the successful ambush leads not to lasting security but to a cycle of reprisals and Ma Chao’s eventual flight to Zhang Lu in Hanzhong.