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Han Sui

Courtesy nameWenyue

The Old Warlord Who Ruled Xiliang Thirty Years

The Opening Cast · Warlords & Elders

FrontierFicklenessCunning

Who they are

A warlord of Xiliang who rose in arms against the Eastern Han court for more than thirty years, among the hardest local powers to deal with in his day. Ally and sometime rival of Ma Teng, he joined Ma Chao in revolt against Cao Cao in 211 and gave him no small trouble at Tong Pass, until Cao Cao used a scheme of estrangement to break his trust with Ma Chao and collapse the coalition from within. Deserted by all in his old age, he was killed at last by his own officers, aged past seventy.

Primary sourcesChen Shou, Records of the Three Kingdoms, Book of Wei, appended to the Biography of Ma Chao

Key stories

The Battle of Tong Pass and the Scheme of Estrangement

Han Sui and Ma Chao joined ten Guanzhong warlord contingents in revolt against Cao Cao, facing his army at Tong Pass and gaining the upper hand for a time. Sensing that Han Sui and Ma Chao were already mutually suspicious, Cao Cao deliberately chatted with Han Sui before the lines about old times, then sent a letter with the characters deliberately smudged and altered, making Ma Chao suspect Han Sui of secret dealings with Cao Cao. Trust within the coalition collapsed in an instant, and Cao Cao seized the moment for a general assault that shattered them — a deadlocked battle utterly turned by one "doctored" letter.

Relationships

Ally

🐴Ma Teng　Warlord of Xiliang, warring and reconciling by turns

Nemesis

🦅Cao Cao　The Battle of Tong Pass; the coalition broken by the scheme of estrangement

Echoes today

Below are how modern works borrow or reinterpret this name or story — not the original material. The two differ, so keep them apart.

A classic case of the "scheme of estrangement"The episode of Cao Cao breaking his trust with Ma Chao by a single doctored letter is often cited as a textbook use of the "scheme of estrangement."

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