Wei Yan was a famous general in the Three Kingdoms period, but he did not play his true glory in Luo Guanzhong's description, it is obvious that most people's impression of Wei Yan is still stuck in his rebellious image, but this is not the real Wei Yan, in the novel, Wei Yan is described as a traitor and rebel against the enemy, this is a kind of ugliness of Wei Yan, Wei Yan in the history is highly evaluated, he is also among the best among the generals of the Shu State in terms of combat and strategy. The only thing that the main history and the novel about Wei Yan may have in common is that Wei Yan was killed on the charge of rebellion, but the nature of the two rebellions is not the same.
First of all, in history, Wei Yan did not kill his lord and then surrender to Liu Bei, he only officially joined Liu Bei when Liu Zhang invited Liu Bei to enter Shu, and he was very favored by Liu Bei. And the reason for the emphasis is because Wei Yan himself has his own power, and he is willing to bring so many people to join Liu Bei, Liu Bei is naturally very interested in him, after all, Wei Yan's joining is equivalent to a major shareholder, what else is Liu Bei not satisfied with?
Wei Yan was indeed a fierce general, and in the process of Liu Bei taking Liu Zhang and attacking Hanzhong, Wei Yan established many military achievements and was soon promoted to the rank of general of Yamen. Liu Bei was in the time to lay down Hanzhong, and he needed a member of the great future town to guard Hanzhong, but Guan Yu town guarded Jingzhou, Ma Chao did not believe too much, although Zhang Fei was favored by many people, but Liu Bei was still not at ease.
While everyone was speculating about who Hanzhong Taishou really was, Liu Bei announced an incomprehensible decision to appoint Wei Yan as the general of Zhenyuan, hanzhong Taishou, responsible for Zhenshou Hanzhong. Many ministers at that time expressed dissatisfaction, believing that Wei Yan joined relatively late, compared to other generals, his seniority was not high enough, and Wei Yan's age at that time was not very large. However, even so, Liu Bei still withstood a lot of pressure and let Wei Yan sit in the position of Hanzhong Taishou.
In order to establish wei yan's prestige, Liu Bei also deliberately asked Wei Yan about the strategy of defending Hanzhong at the appointment ceremony, and Wei Yan's answer basically meant that if Cao Cao came to attack Hanzhong with all his army, I could only defend, and if he brought less than 100,000 troops, I could annihilate him all for the king. This sentence can be described as very domineering.
Wei Yan was the last general in the Shu state to be able to get his hands on it, and after Wei Yan's death, there were not many generals in the late Shu state who could achieve breakthrough results, which led to the embarrassing situation of Liao Hua as the vanguard. As for Wei Yan's death, Zhuge Liang actually still had considerable responsibility. After Liu Bei's death, Zhuge Liang decided to carry out the Northern Expedition, and Wei Yan proposed the famous Meridian Valley Miracle in history, that is, Wei Yan took a strange soldier and set out from the dangerous environment to achieve victory unexpectedly. However, because Zhuge Liang was too cautious, this plan was denied by him.
Zhuge Liang did not return every time the Northern Expedition, which also had a lot to do with Zhuge Liang's caution, and Wei Yan and Zhuge Liang's concept was different, resulting in Zhuge Liang not optimistic about Wei Yan, and the decision on retiring at the end of his life was not discussed with Wei Yan, and Wei Yan already had a high prestige in the army at that time, almost equivalent to the second person in the military camp except For Zhuge Liang, which is why after Zhuge Liang's death, Wei Yan still felt that he could continue the Northern Expedition. However, Zhuge Liang had arranged that if Wei Yan did not agree to retreat, he would not be left alone, which also led to Yang Yi and others fighting with him later, and eventually Wei Yan was defeated and killed. It was a pity that such a good general as Wei Yan had withdrawn so hastily.