Ma Chao determined to destroy this camp, so his troops collected straw and each man marched with a bundle and took fire with him. Han Sui's forces were to fight. While one party attacked, the other party piled up the straw, which they lit, and soon there was a fierce fire all around. The defenders could do nothing against it, so they abandoned the camp and ran away. All the transport and bridges were destroyed. It was a great victory for the Xiliang army and gave them the command of the River Wei.
Cao Cao was sad at the failure to make good his strong camp and fearful of his defenselessness. Then Xun You proposed a mud wall. So three thousand soldiers were set to build a mud rampart. The enemy seeing this harassed the workmen with perpetual attacks at different points so that the work went slowly. Beside, the soil was very sandy, and the wall would not stand but collapsed as fast as it was built. Cao Cao felt helpless.
It was the ninth month of the sixteenth year of Rebuilt Tranquillity (AD 211), and the fierce cold of winter was just coming on. Ominous clouds covered the sky day after day with never a break. One day as Cao Cao sat in his tent, very disheartened, a stranger was announced and was led in. He was an old man who said he had a suggestion to offer. He was tall, as delicate as a crane and as refined as a pine tree. He gave his name as Lou Zibo and said he came from Jingzhao. He was a recluse and a Taoist, his religious name being Plum-Blossom Dreamer.
Cao Cao received him with great courtesy, and presently the venerable one began, saying, “O Prime Minister, you have long been striving to make a camp on the river. Now is your opportunity; why not begin?”
“The soil is too sandy to stand,” said Cao Cao. “But if you have some other plan to propose, pray tell me what it is, O Hermit.”
“You are more than human, O Prime Minister, in the art of war, and you surely know the times and seasons. It has been overcast for many days, and these clouds foretell a north wind and intense cold. When the wind begins to blow, you should hurry your army to carry up the earth and sprinkle it with water. By dawn your wall will be complete.”
Cao Cao seized upon the suggestion. He offered his aged visitor a reward, but the venerable one would receive nothing.
That night the wind came down in full force. Every man possible was set to earth-carrying and wetting. As they had no other means of carrying water, they made stuff bags which they filled with water and let out the water over the earth. And so as they piled the earth, they froze it solid with water, and by dawn the wall was finished and stood firm. When his scouts told Ma Chao that the enemy had built a wall, he rode out and saw it. Ma Chao was greatly perplexed and began to suspect help from the gods.
However, very soon after, he got his whole army together and sounded an attack. Cao Cao himself rode out of the camp, with only the redoubtable Xu Chu in attendance, and advanced toward the enemy. Flourishing his whip he called out, “I, Cao Cao, am here alone, and I beg Ma Chao to come out to parley with me.”
Thereupon Ma Chao rode out, his spear set ready to thrust.
“You despised me because I had no wall to my camp, but lo! in one single night, God has made me a wall. Do you not think it time to give in?”
Ma Chao was so enraged that he almost rushed at Cao Cao, but he was not too angry to notice the henchman behind him, glaring in angry fashion, who held a gleaming sword in his grip. Ma Chao thought this man could be no other than Xu Chu, so he determined to find out. With a flourish of his whip, he said, “Where is the noble 'Marquis Tiger' that I hear you have in your camp?”
At this Xu Chu lifted his sword and roared, “I am Xu Chu of Qiao!”
From Xu Chu's eyes shot gleams of supernatural light and his attitude was so terror-striking that Ma Chao dared not move. He turned his steed and retired.
Cao Cao and his doughty follower returned to their camp; and as they two passed between the armies, not a man there but felt a quiver of fear.
“They know our friend Xu Chu over there as Marquis Tiger,” said Cao Cao when he returned.
And thereafter the soldiers all called Xu Chu by that name.
“I will capture that fellow Ma Chao tomorrow,” said Xu Chu.
“Ma Chao is very bold,” said his master. “Be careful!”
“I swear to fight him to the death,” said Xu Chu.
Then Xu Chu sent a written challenge to his enemy saying that the Marquis Tiger challenged Ma Chao to a decisive duel on the morrow.
Ma Chao was very angry when he received the letter.
“Dare he insult me so?” cried he. Then he wrote his pledge to slay Tiger-Lust on the morrow.
Next day both armies moved out and arrayed in order of battle. Ma Chao gave Pang De and Ma Dai command of the two wings, while Han Sui took the center. Ma Chao took up his station in front of the center and shouted, “Where is the Tiger-Lust?”
Cao Cao, who was on horseback by the standard, turned and said, “Ma Chao is no less bold than Lu Bu!”
