Ma Zun

Ma Zun is a general of Wei who is the Prefect of Tian Shui. He is best known for being the commander whom Jiang Wei served under prior to his defection to Shu.

Role in Games
In the Dynasty Warriors series, Ma Zun is the one who always commands the Wei armies in The Battle of Tian Shui. In Dynasty Warriors 5, Ma Zun is a careless commander relying only on his generals to push the invading forces out of Tian Shui. When using the Wei forces, if the player fails to defend Nan An or An Ding, Ma Zun will panic and flee from Tian Shui and eventually leads him to Zhuge Liang's main camp. When using the Shu forces, Ma Zun will stay in the locked Tian Shui castle. After capturing Nan An and An Ding and defeating Jiang Wei, Ma Zun will try to escape and to only way to end the game is by defeating him to capture Tian Shui castle.

Historical Information
Ma Zun was the nameless Prefect of Tianshui in Jiang Wei's scroll for Record of the Three Kingdoms. His name is given in the Weilue.

In 228, Zhuge Liang was approaching Qishan on his northern campaign. Ma Zun decided to counter the threat by sending out troops for border patrol, ordering Liang Xu, Yin Shang, Liang Qian, and Jiang Wei out. As they were out, Ma Zun heard other prefectures were in the midst of defecting, he began to doubt the loyalty of his scouts. During the night, he fled his post to a castle in the upper Gui County. His actions were noticed by the stranded scouts, whom tried to re-enter the castle gate. Refused at the castle and at the Ji Prefecture, they were soon surrounded by Zhuge Liang's troops and decided to surrender.

Ma Zun's whereabouts after the incident aren't clearly indicated. However, Zhang Ji's scrolls indicate that Wei's Prefect of Tianshui and Prefect of Nan'an abandoned their posts and tried to flee to the east. Whilst on the run, they ran into the Prefect of Longxi County, You Chu. You Chu was currently cut off from communications with the main command so he had to deal with the two runaways by himself. Upon hearing that they fled from Zhuge Liang, he chided them for abandoning the people within their posts and as well as the land's trust; his words had them weep with shame. He gave them the offer to redeem themselves by joining his defense against the incoming Shu army. You Chu would only allow the two prefects to surrender to Shu in the event their position fell. After ten days of fighting, Zhuge Liang eventually withdrew from the area. You Chu was recorded as the lone commander who remained at the post.

Since the two prefects are not mentioned thereafter, there has been speculation that they could have left the area with Shu's army. Others argue that the prefects were too cowardly to even think of fighting and fled once more to an unknown location.