Who is Ma Dai from Ma Chao? Why did Ma Dai kill Wei Yan? What was his final outcome?

Ma Dai is Ma Chao's subordinate brother, that is, the younger brother of the same family. Sun Sheng, a historian in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, said in Shu Shi Pu that Ma Dai's father was Ma Yi, and that Ma Yi was Ma Teng's brother. If Ma Yi and Ma Teng were brothers, Ma Dai was Ma Chao's cousin. In Shu Shi Pu, it was said that Ma Dai also had a younger brother named Ma Kang, and Ma Yi was in the Eastern Han Dynasty.

The Marten family is descended from Ma Yuan, the general of Fuhan in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Naturally, Ma Dai lived in Xiliang area for generations, but in Marten's generation, his family declined. Marten joined the army because of Liangzhou turmoil, and was later banned for his work. Later, Marten joined the Liangzhou rebels as an official of the Eastern Han Dynasty and became a warlord.

Ma Teng, Ma Chao's father, has been following Ma Chao and Cao Cao into Guanzhong since he was tricked by Cao Cao into serving as the court guard. Ma Chao joined Han Sui and ten warlords in Guanzhong to fight against Cao Cao, and Ma Dai also fought with Ma Chao, but Cao Cao defeated Ma Teng and Ma Dai with Jia Xu's deviance. A year later, Ma Chao and made a comeback and attacked the city occupied by Cao Jun again. Cao Cao was furious and killed Ma Chao's father Ma Teng and Cao Cao.

Ma Chao and Ma Dai were defeated by Cao Jun again, so they fled to Hanzhong and took refuge in Zhang Lu. Ma Chao also borrowed troops from Zhang Lu to counterattack Guanzhong, but it was still unsuccessful. Later, Ma Chao and Ma Dai were framed by Zhang Lu's men. In addition, Zhang Lu really had no ambition, and Liu Bei strongly invited Ma Chao to join him, so Ma Chao took Ma Dai to take refuge in Liu Bei. Liu Bei secretly gave Ma Chao and Ma Dai an army, and Ma Chao led this army.

After that, Ma Chao and Ma Dai became Liu Bei's ministries, and they took part in the battle of Hanzhong with Liu Bei. In AD 222, Ma Chao, 47, was seriously ill, and wrote a letter to Liu Bei before he died. The main content was to ask Liu Bei to take care of his only subordinate brother, Ma Dai. Ma Chao, a man who didn't care about his parents' clan, was able to ask Liu Bei to take care of Ma Dai before he died. It can be seen that Ma Chao had deep feelings for Ma Dai.

After Ma Chao's death, Ma Dai continued to work for Shu Han, followed Zhuge Liang in many northern expeditions. After Zhuge Liang's death, Ma Dai also killed Wei Yan, who held the highest military post in Shu Army. Why did Ma Chao kill Wei Yan? How did he kill Wei Yan?

After Zhuge Liang's death, Yang Yi was ordered to lead a large army to return to Chengdu. Jiang Wei, Fei Yi, Wang Ping, Wei Yan and other generals had to obey Yang Yi's orders and let Wei Yan leave, but Wei Yan was unwilling to obey Zhuge Liang's orders and he didn't want to withdraw, so Wei Yan led his troops to retreat ahead of time, and burned the plank road, so Yang Yi's army could not retreat from the plank road, and Yang Yi led the army to take other routes.

Wei Yan left the Qinling Mountains ahead of schedule and set an ambush at the intersection. When Yang Yi's army arrived, Wei Yan led an army to attack Yang Yi, and Yang Yi sent Wang Ping to fight. Wang Ping couldn't bear to attack Wei Yan, because he was one of his own. Wang Ping dissuaded Wei Yan's soldiers. Those soldiers understood that Wei Yan's actions were wrong, so they dispersed in a hubbub. In this way, Wei Yan's only relatives and a few cronies followed, unable to fight Yang Yi.

Yang Yi sent Ma Dai to kill Wei Yan. Ma Dai led the army to catch up with Wei Yan, killed Wei Yan directly, and dedicated Wei Yan's head to Yang Yi. It is said in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms that Zhuge Liang had arranged a trick up his sleeve before he died. These are all fictitious. The real situation is that Wei Yan took the initiative to attack Yang Yi, and Yang Yi took revenge, sent Ma Dai to kill Wei Yan, and Wei Yan was killed.

Ma Dai did what he was told, not that he really wanted to kill Wei Yan, but that Yang Yi had a grudge against Wei Yan. In the case of Wei Yan's defeat, Yang Yi killed Wei Yan on his own initiative and wiped out Wei Yan's three clans. Yang Yi did this a little too much. Wei Yan did not really rebel, but did not obey Zhuge Liang's orders, which was a blatant disobedience, while Ma Dai obeyed Yang Yi's orders, so Ma Dai was not wrong.

After this incident, Yang Yi was not reused by the imperial court for her own reasons. Liu Chan reused Jiang Wan and Fei Yi recommended by Zhuge Liang, and Ma Dai was also named General Pingbei for his work. In the post-Zhuge Liang era, there were not many talents in Shu Han. At that time, Wang Ping provided General An Han as the satrap of Hanzhong, guarding Hanzhong, while General Pingbei of Ma Dai was mostly used as the name for the Northern Expedition.

After Zhuge Liang's death, Ma Dai recorded it only once in the history books, that is, in the second year (AD 235), Ma Dai led an army to the North and was repulsed by Wei to Jin Niu. This should be a very small-scale battle, because the main generals at that time, such as Wang Ping and Jiang Wei, did not participate. At this time, Ma Dai, the general of Pingbei, has become the leader of an army and can go north alone. Since then, there has been no record of Mount Ma Dai.

Ma Dai's final ending is not recorded in the history books. However, judging from the situation at that time, there was no large-scale northern expedition in Shu Han for a long time after Zhuge Liang's death. During Jiang Wan's administration, he intended to make a northern expedition from above, but the preparation was not mature, and this plan was not optimistic. Later, it was terminated. It was not until ten years after Zhuge Liang's death that Cao Shuang, the general of Cao Wei, launched a large-scale military attack on Shu Han, but Wang Ping was in the ascendant.

So, judging from the situation at that time, since there was no large-scale war, Ma Dai was unlikely to die in the battlefield. Generally speaking, he died a natural death, or died of illness, and there was no story after Ma Dai.

In terms of age, Ma Chao died in AD 222, at the age of 47, and Ma Dai was Ma Chao's younger brother, so he was younger than Ma Chao, but not much younger. That is to say, Ma Dai was almost in his 4 s in AD 222, and Ma Dai was in his 5 s in 234 when Zhuge Liang died. Even if Ma Dai lived to be in his 6 s, he would have lived in AD 244.

As mentioned earlier, Ma Dai's father took his younger brother and clan all the way to the west near the Caspian Sea, and Ma Dai certainly didn't follow him, because Ma Dai's father, Ma Yi, served as a northern army commander in the DPRK. This position should be around the death of Emperor Han Ling in 189, because at this time, the Eastern Han court was still there, and after 189, the Eastern Han court was controlled by Dong Zhuo, Wang Yun, Li Jue, Guo Si, Cao and others.

Ma Dai recorded his deeds in Liangzhou or Yizhou from 211 to 235 AD, so it was impossible for Ma Dai to go to the Caspian Sea with his father and brother. However, in a historical record called "The History of Armenians" written by Armenians in the 4th century AD, it was recorded that the ancestors of Mamikonyan family in Armenia came from China, and some people speculated that Ma Dai's family was the ancestors of Mamikonyan family.

Because of Ma Dai's family, his father Ma Yi and his younger brother Ma Kang came near the Caspian Sea, and Armenia is very close to the Caspian Sea. Although it is highly coincident, it is only a speculation and has no accurate historical basis.