Cao Cao's plot to divide Ma Chao and Han Sui

Cao Cao's plot to divide Ma Chao and Han Sui converts a pause in a difficult campaign into a weapon against the opposing alliance. Advised by Jia Xu, Cao Cao builds suspicion through an apparently harmless conversation, a deliberately altered letter, and a remark calculated to be overheard. The scheme does not simply separate two commanders: it turns Ma Chao against Han Sui, draws Han Sui into Cao Cao's service, and leaves Ma Chao exposed to attack by both former allies and Cao Cao's army.

Background and Opportunity

The plot follows a hard-fought struggle in which Ma Chao and Xu Chu had fought three bouts without a decisive victor. Cao Cao had been driven back to a camp protected by frozen walls, but later sorties and counterattacks enabled him to establish a position on the west bank and threaten Ma Chao from two directions. With winter approaching, several of Ma Chao's officers, Han Sui among them, urged a truce. Cao Cao agreed to consider it and told the envoys to return the following day.

Jia Xu saw that the proposed pause offered a chance to weaken Ma Chao without first overcoming him in a direct contest. He advised Cao Cao to use the truce to sow discord between Ma Chao and Han Sui. The stratagem depended on making ordinary contact look suspicious: Ma Chao and Han Sui had to interpret Cao Cao's gestures through their existing wariness, until each new reassurance could be taken as further evidence of betrayal.

The Meeting and Altered Letter

Cao Cao accepted the truce and appeared over the following days to be withdrawing. Ma Chao, distrustful of him, arranged for himself and Han Sui to take turns observing different parts of Cao Cao's position and Xu Huang's force on the west bank. When Han Sui was on watch opposite Cao Cao, Cao rode out alone, identified himself as an ordinary man rather than a frightening supernatural figure, and sent word that he wished to speak with Han Sui.

The two met without anyone else present and talked for a couple of hours about the past, their families, and growing old. The conversation was presented as harmless, but Cao Cao repeatedly laughed aloud. Ma Chao heard about the meeting and questioned Han Sui. Han Sui said that they had only exchanged reminiscences; Ma Chao remained deeply suspicious. The meeting had supplied no evidence of an agreement, but Cao Cao's conspicuous familiarity gave suspicion something visible to attach to.

Jia Xu then proposed a second device: send Han Sui a letter with words crossed out, scratched over, and rewritten. When Ma Chao saw the alterations, Jia Xu reasoned, he would suspect Han Sui of changing the message to conceal its meaning. The letter arrived as planned. Ma Chao demanded to see it, read the marks as signs of tampering, and accused Han Sui of plotting to defect. Han Sui denied the charge and offered to help Ma Chao trap Cao Cao: he would go to speak with Cao, and Ma Chao could attack on a signal.

Suspicion Becomes a Break

The next day, Han Sui sent for Cao Cao to continue their discussions. Before Han Sui appeared, Cao Hong rode up and loudly told him that the prime minister wished to reassure him after what he had said the previous night, adding that there would be no mistakes. Cao Hong then rode away. Ma Chao overheard the remark, as intended, and interpreted it as confirmation that Han Sui had been communicating secretly with Cao Cao.

Ma Chao charged at Han Sui with his lance lowered. Others intervened and pulled him away; Han Sui continued to profess his innocence. But Ma Chao rode off resolved to take revenge. The staged remark had transformed suspicion into open hostility, while leaving Han Sui unable to restore Ma Chao's trust.

Han Sui's associates warned that Ma Chao would never trust him again. Concluding that the situation had become impossible, Han Sui entered Cao Cao's service secretly while continuing to live in Ma Chao's camp. Five other officers joined him in the betrayal, and they agreed to attack Ma Chao at a signal. Cao Cao's stratagem had thus achieved more than a breach between the two leaders: it created a new group of conspirators inside Ma Chao's own camp.

Exposure, Battle, and Significance

Ma Chao learned of the secret arrangement before the conspirators could carry it out. Accompanied by loyal followers including Pang De and Ma Dai, he went to confront Han Sui. Entering Han Sui's tent quietly, he found the conspirators together and attacked them. The fight moved outside: Ma Chao cut down two of the men, while three others fled. He tried to reach Han Sui again, but attendants had already taken Han Sui away to safety.

Cao Cao's troops then attacked. Disorder among Ma Chao's own men compounded the assault, turning the distrust created by the plot into an immediate military liability. Ma Chao withdrew to defend the Wei bridge with a small body of loyal troops. Though he survived the arrows and attempted to charge forward, the larger force pushed him back. He rode north, leaving his men behind; a crossbow shot killed his horse, and Cao Cao's troops closed in. Pang De and Ma Dai then came to his rescue, scattering the pursuing soldiers and helping him escape on another horse. Cao Cao ordered a pursuit and offered a large reward for Ma Chao's capture. Ma Chao and the few men who remained with him, including Pang De and Ma Dai, eventually reached sanctuary at Lintao.

The episode makes the letter's visible alterations the pivot of a much wider chain of consequences. A private conversation, a forged impression of textual tampering, and one overheard sentence turn an alliance into mutual suspicion, then into conspiracy and battlefield confusion. The result is not an immediate capture of Ma Chao: his loyal followers rescue him. But Cao Cao's deception breaks the cohesion on which Ma Chao's position depended and forces him to flee. In the novel's account, the campaign is shaped not only by force of arms but by control of what opponents believe they have seen and heard.