How did Liu Bei get his fortune? I believe that many readers are at a loss. Because compared with other princes, Liu Bei was born in cloth and did not have any initial political capital. Under such circumstances, Luo Guanzhong had to arrange a person who was also a relative of the Han Dynasty in the novel "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" to let him act as the leader of Liu Bei's entrepreneurship. This person is Liu Yan.
In the first episode of the novel, because of the Yellow Turban Rebellion, the world is in chaos. Liu Bei has always had great ambitions, but unfortunately he has a weak heart. When he faced the thief's letter posted by the imperial court at the city gate, he could only sigh a long sigh to express his concern for the people of the country. Unexpectedly, this long sigh led to a good man, and finally deduced a classic bridge section: "Taoyuan Three Knots of Righteousness". What many people overlook is that the person who sent people to post the anti-thief article was Liu Yan, the pastor of Youzhou. After Liu Bei later revolted, the first person who defected to liu was Liu Yan.
Who is Liu Yan? In fact, in history, Liu Yan and Liu Bei did not have any intersection, and Liu Yan never served as a pastor of Youzhou. However, Liu Yan indirectly provided a huge foundation for the later Liu Bei - Yizhou. And Liu Yan's son was the later Yizhou Mu Liu Zhang. The reason why this plot is fictionalized in the novel also implies that Liu Bei will dominate the land of Bashu in the future, thus establishing a hegemony.
Speaking of this, we have to talk about Liu Yan's effectiveness in governing Yizhou. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the dynasty collapsed, and many people were displaced. The far-sighted Liu Yan realized that the Eastern Han Dynasty would soon be completely in decline. Because of this, he requested the imperial court to guard the border for the Han Dynasty. With some operation, Liu Yan's proposal to change the history of the thorn to the state pastor was approved by the Han Ling Emperor, and he himself was appointed as the pastor of Yizhou.
In this way, Liu Yan took over Yizhou with the appointment of the imperial court, and Guangming Zhengda took over Yizhou. Before coming to Yizhou, Liu Yan made a reasonable plan for controlling Yizhou. Next, he began to execute the first step in the plan — to get a foothold. However, at this time, Yizhou was in the midst of war and chaos. At this time, there were also Yellow Turban thieves led by Ma Xiang in Shuzhong who were causing trouble everywhere. Fortunately, shortly after Liu Zhang's arrival in Mianzhu, this rebellion was suppressed by local forces in Yizhou. What is puzzling is that Liu Yan still chose to carry out yizhou governance work in Mianzhu, why is this? Judging from the situation at that time, I am afraid that Mianzhu was more conducive to Liu Zhang's rule over Yizhou. First, Mianzhu is the place where the Yellow Turban Thieves revolted, and it is the place where Liu Zhang needs to pay attention. His governance in Mianzhu is also more conducive to the differentiation and control of the people at the bottom. Second. Liu Zhang could give priority to the development of his own concubine forces in Mianzhu and make full preparations for his future entry into Chengdu.
After a period of time, Liu Yan successfully gained a foothold in Yizhou, and finally entered Chengdu, beginning his second step in governing Yizhou - to win zhang Lu over. This person was None other than Zhang Lu, the prince who later divided Hanzhong for many years. However, at this time, he was still preaching around in Shuzhong as the Daojun of the "Five Buckets of Rice Sect". Under Zhang Lu's seduction, he gained the confidence of the vast majority of the people in Hanzhong, Brazil (Langzhong) and other places, and had a huge mass base. After Entering Yizhou, Liu Yan appointed Zhang Lu as the Governor of Yi sima and sent him to Hanzhong, thus cutting off contact with the imperial court.
Immediately afterward, Liu Yan's concubine troops, the Dongzhou soldiers, also gradually became stronger. Where did this army come from? It is recorded in the "Later Han Shu Liu Yan Biography": "In the beginning, tens of thousands of households of Nanyang and Sanfu people flowed into Yizhou, and Yan Xi received them as a public, known as 'Dongzhou Bing'. "After becoming more and more powerful, Liu Yan finally showed his fangs and implemented the third step of the plan to govern Yizhou - to suppress the local Hao clan in Yizhou." He wanted to establish a threat to punish him with great self-respect, but he entrusted him with a tuo affair, and killed more than ten powerful people in the state, and the people and the people complained. In the second year of Chuping, Qian rebelled against Taishou Renqi and Jia Long and attacked Yan. Break it and kill it. ”
After several years of hard work, Liu Yan finally "firmly" grasped Yizhou. And the Dongzhou Group, which he was related to, also succeeded in suppressing the local forces in Yizhou from raising their heads. Liu Yan's move seems to govern Yizhou very well, but when he deals with the problems of the Dongzhou faction and the Yizhou faction, he prefers to adopt violent means, so that it causes serious dissatisfaction among the Yizhou Hao clan. This move also laid a deep hidden danger for the later demise of Liu Zhang.
In addition, after Liu Yan took control of Yizhou, he gradually exposed his ambitions. And his several transgressions also caused him to lose the allegiance of the Yizhou Shi clan. According to the "Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, Liu Ermu's Biography": "Yan Yi gradually flourished, and he made a thousand rides on public opinion vehicles. Jingzhou Mu Liu's table has a theory that Zi Xia is suspicious of the saint in the West River. Liu Yan not only openly enjoyed the honor of the Heavenly Son, but also instigated Xiliang Ma Teng to attack Luoyang. According to the "Later Han Shu Liu Yan Biography", "The imperial court made Zhang Xiaoyan, and Yan left Zhangzhang not to be sent back." In the first year of Xingping, the generals Ma Teng and Fan Mou attacked Li Dai and sent 5,000 soldiers to help them, but they were defeated, and Fan and His birthday were killed. Liu Yan's wanton behavior eventually caused his two sons who were far away in Luoyang to suffer retribution. Liu Yan was distressed by his second son, "And when the heavens burned the heavy car of his city government, it extended to the people's home, and there was no room for the museum." In a fit of rage, he eventually suffered from back gangrene and died. In this way, some weak Liu Zhang can only take over the pile of "messes" left by his father.
As soon as Liu Yan died, Zhang Lu felt that Liu Zhang was weak and deceitful, so he severed the connection between Hanzhong and Yizhou, and from then on divided Hanzhong. In addition, the various ministries of Yizhou also launched rebellions many times, and even Liu Yan's old subordinate Zhao Yun betrayed Liu Zhang. Because Liu Yan had already offended the local Scholars and Hao clans in Yizhou, Liu Zhang was struggling during his reign in Yizhou. In desperation, Liu Zhang had no choice but to invite Liu Bei to enter Shu, which led to the foundation of the father and son for more than ten years, which fell into the hands of Liu Bei. I don't know how Liu Yan will feel when he learns?
Reference book: Romance of the Three Kingdoms