Qian Zhao 牽招

Qian Zhao, courtesy name Zijing, was a man of Guanjin County in the State of Anping. At a little over ten years of age he studied under Yue Yin of the same county, and when Yue Yin became Chief Clerk to He Miao, General of Chariots and Cavalry, Qian Zhao followed him and completed his studies. When disorder broke out in the capital and He Miao and Yue Yin were killed, Qian Zhao, braving the blades together with Yue Yin's disciples, laid out his teacher's body in a coffin and set off for home with the funeral procession. When bandits on the road tried to split the coffin open to take its nails, Qian Zhao wept and begged them to spare it, and the bandits, admiring his loyalty, let him go. This made his name known. Records, Wei 26 §44

Yuan Shao, Governor of Ji Province, summoned him as Attendant Officer Supervising the Army and also gave him command of the Wuhuan shock cavalry. When one of Yuan Shao's retainers broke orders, Qian Zhao beheaded him first and reported afterward, and Yuan Shao, admiring his resolve, did not hold it against him. After Yuan Shao died he served his son Yuan Shang; in the 9th year of Jian'an (204), when Cao Cao besieged Ye, Qian Zhao had gone to Shangdang to oversee the transport of grain, and in the meantime Yuan Shang was defeated and fled to Zhongshan. Records, Wei 26 §45

Qian Zhao urged Gao Gan, Inspector of Bing Province and Yuan Shang's cousin on his father's sister's side, to take Yuan Shang in, join forces with him and watch for a change in the situation, but Gao Gan not only failed to do so but secretly sought to harm Qian Zhao. Qian Zhao slipped away by back roads, but finding the way blocked so that he could not follow Yuan Shang, he went east to Cao Cao, and when Cao Cao took charge of Ji Province he summoned him as an Attendant Officer. Records, Wei 26 §45–46

When Cao Cao was about to attack Yuan Tan, the Wuhuan of Liucheng were preparing to send cavalry to help Yuan Tan, so Cao Cao, since Qian Zhao had once commanded Wuhuan troops, sent him to Liucheng. King Qiao was on the point of sending five thousand horsemen to Yuan Tan, and Gongsun Kang, Administrator of Liaodong, had also sent his envoy Han Zhong with a chanyu's seal and ribbon. When King Qiao asked which was legitimate, Lord Yuan, Lord Cao or Liaodong, Qian Zhao answered that Lord Yuan had erred and the Son of Heaven had ordered Lord Cao to replace him, so Lord Cao was in the right, while Liaodong was a mere lower-ranking commandery and could not make appointments on its own authority. Records, Wei 26 §47–48

When Han Zhong retorted that Liaodong commanded a million troops and that the strong took the higher place, Qian Zhao denounced him for defying the royal command, seized Han Zhong by the head, dashed it against the ground and drew his sword to behead him. King Qiao ran up barefoot, threw his arms around Qian Zhao and begged him to spare Han Zhong. When Qian Zhao explained the consequences of success and failure and of fortune and disaster, King Qiao and the others all knelt and respectfully accepted his instruction, sent the Liaodong envoy away and disbanded the cavalry they had been readying. Records, Wei 26 §48–50

After destroying Yuan Tan at Nanpi, Cao Cao made Qian Zhao Clerk for Military Planning, and Qian Zhao followed him on the campaign against the Wuhuan and was appointed Colonel Protector of the Wuhuan at Liucheng. On their return to Ye, when Yuan Shang's head, sent from Liaodong, was hung up in the horse market, Qian Zhao was moved to grief and set out sacrificial offerings beneath it. Cao Cao admired his loyalty and recommended him as Flourishing Talent. He followed Cao Cao in pacifying Hanzhong and stayed there as Central Protector of the Army; later, as Colonel Who Pacifies the Caitiffs, he commanded the troops of Qing and Xu Provinces and beheaded the bandit leaders of Donglai. Records, Wei 26 §51

When Emperor Wen took the throne, Qian Zhao was granted the tally and made Colonel Protector of the Xianbei, stationed at Changping. With kindness and good faith he called in and won the surrender of thousands of frontier people who had scattered into Xianbei lands and elsewhere; when Gongsun Ji, General of the Household Who Establishes Righteousness, and others came over with their retainers, he sent them back to their home commanderies; and he won over more than a hundred thousand Xianbei camps under Suli, Mijia and others, so that they came to the frontier to offer submission. Records, Wei 26 §52

He was summoned to join the great army that was to attack Wu, but when the campaign was called off he became General of the Household of the Right and then went out as Administrator of Yanmen. He taught the people battle formations, and obtained an exemption from taxes for more than five hundred Wuhuan households on condition that they keep horses ready and scout far afield, so that whenever the barbarians raided they were met and routed. He also used schemes to sow division so that the barbarians grew suspicious of one another, and the Xianbei chieftains Budugen, Xieguini and others, who had fallen out with Kebineng, came with more than thirty thousand households to attach themselves to the commandery. Qian Zhao personally led Xieguini and others and crushed Kebineng in the old Yunzhong Commandery. Records, Wei 26 §53–54

Qian Zhao repaired the old city of Shangguan north of the Xing Pass and stationed garrisons there, so that the barbarians submitted and banditry died down. He sent talented men to study at the Imperial Academy and return to teach one another, and within a few years schools flourished greatly. At Guangwu, the commandery seat, the well water was salty and bitter and the people had to fetch water from far away, so Qian Zhao cut through the high ground and dug a channel to bring water into the city. Records, Wei 26 §55–56

When Emperor Ming took the throne, Qian Zhao was granted the rank of Marquis Within the Passes. In the 2nd year of Taihe (228), when Tian Yu, Colonel Protector of the Wuhuan, was besieged by Kebineng in the old city of Mayi and asked for help, Bing Province cited the ordinary regulations to stop Qian Zhao. Qian Zhao, saying that a general holding the tally was under siege and he could not be bound by officials' deliberations, submitted a memorial on his own and set out at once. He circulated a dispatch declaring that he would first fall upon the barbarians' families and then strike the barbarians themselves, so that the barbarians took fright and scattered, and when he reached the old city of Pingcheng they all broke and fled. When Kebineng gathered his horsemen again and came, Qian Zhao marched in secret, fell upon them and took a great many heads. Records, Wei 26 §57–58

Qian Zhao submitted a memorial saying that since Zhuge Liang was repeatedly taking the field, Kebineng might collude with him, and urging that preparations be made, but those deliberating thought it too remote and did not believe it. Just then Zhuge Liang, at Mount Qi, did indeed send envoys to ally with Kebineng, and Kebineng came as far as Shicheng in the old Beidi Commandery to act in concert with him. Emperor Ming issued an edict telling Qian Zhao to attack as circumstances allowed, but Kebineng had already returned south of the desert. Qian Zhao proposed to the Inspector Bi Gui that two garrison commands be stationed north of the Xing Pass to accumulate grain through military farming and attack in autumn and winter when the horses were fat, but he died of illness before this could be carried out. Records, Wei 26 §58–60

Qian Zhao spent twelve years in the commandery, and his awe-inspiring reputation spread far; his fame for governing the frontier was second only to Tian Yu's, and the people remembered him with longing. His son Qian Jia succeeded him. His second son Qian Hong was also bold and resolute, with his father's air, and as Administrator of Longxi he won merit following Deng Ai in the conquest of Shu. Records, Wei 26 §60–61

In his assessment Chen Shou said that Qian Zhao 'held to righteousness with fierce resolve and his awe-inspiring achievements were outstanding,' but wrote that while Tian Yu's office went no higher than a small province, Qian Zhao ended his life as a commandery administrator, so neither was used to the full. Records, Wei 26 §80