This opera was revised from an old opera The Battle of Wei-Nan some fifty years ago by Master Li Shao-chu of Beijing Opera. The scale and the difficulty of the opera can be compared with those of The Battle of Jing-Zhou and The Battle of Chang-Ban-Po, but unfortunately, due to the politically sensitive times, the opera was never staged after rehearsals. In the past fifty years, the two sides of the strait have only heard of it without seeing it performed. To recreate his father’s work, Li Bao-chu asked advice from an old actor who had long ago taken part in the rehearsals. He also studied disparate bits of information related to the opera that he discovered in libraries. Finally, the opera was reproduced as an old opera and first staged at the National Opera House in 2011. Tian Lei, a well-known top-ranked Chinese actor who had won the Plum Blossom Award at the age of 30, was invited to play the role of Ma Chao.

The opera is set in the year 211 when Cao Cao led his army in an attack on Guan-zhong at Wei-nan. Ma Chao fought bravely, and when Han Suei, Governor of Si-liang, arrived with his troops from Hexi, they joined forces to defeat Cao’s army at Bai-yang Ferry Crossing. Han Suei, having observed that Cao’s army, though defeated, still fought bravely, suggested sending the troops back to Hexi so that it would not be subjected to a surprise attack. But Ma Chao, who was over-confident and arrogant, carelessly refused to take his advice. It was in mid-winter, and Cao’s army at Wei-nan was on the brink of defeat. However, the resourceful Cao Cao sent his army to seize Hexi and, taking the advantage of Ma Chao’s suspicious nature and Han Suei’s hesitancy, used the stratagem of sowing dissension to create a rift between the two. He thus turned defeat into victory.