Origin
After his defeat at Tongguan, Ma Chao withdrew into Longxi and, rallying the Qiang, counterattacked Jicheng, forcing Liangzhou Inspector Wei Kang to open the city and surrender — then had him put to death — inflicting a profound humiliation on the Longxi gentry [c:17122] [c:17123]. Yang Fu had served as a staff officer inside the city and fought to defend it to the utmost, yet failed to save his master; he was deeply shamed by Ma Chao's conduct of "betraying his father, defying his lord, and slaughtering the province's commandant." Using the excuse of escorting his recently deceased wife's remains home for burial, he traveled to Licheng to visit his mother-in-law's family, where he found Jiang Xu and launched the campaign plan [c:17122]. This uprising was not in motivation a simple act of military revenge; raising the banner of "avenging our lord and washing clean the province's shame," it reorganized the scattered Longxi local gentry, and was a collective counter-strike of Liangzhou regional forces against an outside warlord.
Forces Involved
The inner circle consisted of four Longxi gentry families — Yang Fu, Jiang Xu, Zhao Ang, and Yin Feng — plus local figures such as Jiang Yin and Yao Qiong; the outer ring comprised a group of internal agents concealed inside Jicheng: Zhao Qu, Zhao Ang, and Pang Gong. Jiang Xu's mother was over eighty years old, and in ethical and public-opinion terms she played an extremely powerful mobilizing role; the novel specifically amplifies her admonishing lines — "If you do not act quickly, when will you act?" [c:17124]. The Zhao Ang family paid the most direct price of all — his son Zhao Yue was serving as a deputy commander inside Ma Chao's army, and rising in rebellion meant his son could not survive [c:17125]. This posture of "sacrificing one's family for righteousness" gave the uprising a moral mobilizing force in the Liangzhou popular imagination far exceeding its actual military scale.
Key Turning Points
The key design of the entire operation was "lure the tiger from its lair." In the ninth month, Lucheng and Qishan rose simultaneously, forcing Ma Chao to personally lead his main force out of Jicheng to suppress the rising; once Ma Chao left the city, the waiting Zhao Qu and Liang Kuan shut the gates and turned against him, dealing with Ma Chao's wife and children at the same time and cutting off his line of retreat [c:17122]. This maneuver stripped Ma Chao from the strong position of defending a city and forced him into the weak position of fighting in the open caught between two forces. Though Ma Chao attacked Licheng in retaliation and killed Jiang Xu's mother, he could not reestablish a base; in the battle against Yang Fu, Yang Fu was wounded five times and seven members of his clan died, yet still Ma Chao could not turn the tide — these figures reflect the real hand-to-hand cost paid by the campaign force.
Suppression and Outcome
Xiahou Yuan's army then descended from the north to provide support; Ma Chao abandoned the city and fled westward, finally heading south to Hanzhong to take refuge with Zhang Lu [c:17127]. The Longxi gentry reclaimed the situation through this uprising: Cao Cao afterward enfeoffed Yang Fu as a Guan Nei Marquis and commended more than ten households including Jiang Xu, Zhao Ang, and Yin Feng [c:17127]. Jicheng and the surrounding commanderies were reintegrated into the Wei administrative system, and the buffer capacity of the Longxi frontier against Shuhan and the Qiang was restored. For Ma Chao personally, this was the true end of his Liangzhou career: he had lost his wife, his base, and the support of the local gentry, and could only continue his wandering alone, ultimately joining Liu Bei.
Historical Echoes
This uprising carries several distinctive meanings in the political history of San Guo localities. First, it demonstrates that an outside warlord who fails to establish a stable compact with local gentry, regardless of how impressive his momentary power, cannot maintain a lasting presence in the region. Second, it shows that the Liangzhou men of affairs — Yang Fu, Zhao Ang, Yin Feng, and others — accumulated political capital that sustained their families within the Caowei system for generations; Yang Fu himself later held high office, and his family became an important pillar of northwestern local governance. Third, the dual ethical images of "Jiang Xu's mother rebuking her son" and "Zhao Ang's wife encouraging her husband" were repeatedly drawn upon by later historians and novelists, and became one of the rare moments of political visibility for Liangzhou women in the late Han — the novel further dramatizes them [c:17124] [c:17125]. Taking the longer view, after Ma Chao fled south, Liangzhou never again produced a powerful regional strongman; instead, it was the descendants of these campaign forces who long dominated the appointment of northwestern commandery administrators, forming the underlying texture of the local power networks of early Caowei and Western Jin.