This delegation of envoys was anything but ordinary.
Ma Teng, who had been cursed by Zhang Lu and was bedridden, had actually been escorted here and forced himself to come by carriage.
The escorts along the way were Ma Teng's son, Ma Xiu; his nephew, Ma Dai; his daughter, Ma Yunlu; and Han Sui's daughter, Han Qi. A group of young generals led three hundred cavalry in their wake.
Before the envoys arrived, Bai Xiaowen had first received a joint letter from Cao Ren and Zhong Yao.
After opening the letter, Bai Xiaowen showed it to his subordinates.
Cao Ren and Zhong Yao wrote that a few days earlier, Ma Chao and Han Sui had suddenly led elite cavalry to Tong Pass and demanded that the defending general come out to answer them.
Cao Ren was a cautious man. Worried that there might be a ruse, he answered from atop the city wall.
Ma Chao questioned Cao Ren, saying that the latter had accepted two thousand warhorses and a hundred thousand hu of grain from the Western Liang Army as payment, pledging the Three Dependencies to Western Liang. Why, then, had he sold the Three Dependencies to Zhang Lu first?
The Western Liang Army had spent a considerable amount of military supplies and provisions to conquer the Three Dependencies, not to mention that their commander, Ma Teng, had been severely injured by Zhang Lu's curse.
The root of the matter was that Cao Cao had tried to marry one daughter into two families, causing this war that should never have happened!
Therefore, Ma Chao demanded compensation from Cao Cao's faction.
Even if Cao Cao had already fallen, the debt did not vanish with his death. Whoever had taken Cao Cao's territory should bear this debt.
In fact, Ma Chao had