"Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is a widely circulated historical deductive novel, the content of the book has both parts that are consistent with the history books; there are also elements that are in line with history but have been processed artistically; and there are also elements that are seriously inconsistent with historical facts and are completely fictional.
Zhang Xuecheng, a historian of the Qing Dynasty, has an evaluation of this book, saying that the description in this book is "seven points of fact, three points of fiction", and on the whole, this evaluation is still very objective and fair.
Since it is a literary work, there must be positive characters and villains.
The book has maintained a style of writing that "protects Liu Liu and degrades Cao Cao" throughout, so Cao Cao should be the most powerful character in the book. There is no objection to this.
But there is another person, who is actually degraded by Luo Guanzhong and is a figure in Liu Bei's group, which is a bit puzzling.
Who is this person? It is the late Shu Han Dynasty, which can be called the mainstay of the general Wei Yan.
Wei Yan's strength value should be the top in the late Shu Han Dynasty, if it is purely compared to force, he should be able to be on par with Gan Ning, and he can sit on an equal footing with Yan Liang and Wen Ugly.
From Liu Bei's use of him, it can be seen that his position among the shu Han warlords was higher than That of Zhao Yun, second only to Guan Zhang.
When Liu Bei entered Sichuan and prepared to make the capital Chengdu, he wanted to leave a large general to guard Hanzhong, and most people at that time thought that Zhang Fei was more appropriate to serve as the Taishou of Hanzhong, and even Zhang Fei himself felt that this position was none other than his own.
However, when the appointment came, everyone was quite surprised, Liu Bei appointed only an ordinary general Wei Yan as the governor of Hanzhong and the Taishou of Hanzhong, and the whole army was shocked to hear about this.
Others were surprised, but Liu Bei had a score in mind, and one day he asked Wei Yan, "What are your plans for putting you in this main position?" ”
Wei Yan replied confidently, "The geographical location of Hanzhong is very important, it is the throat that guards the river, and if the Wei army comes, I ask the king to allow me to swallow him." ”
Liu Bei was very satisfied after hearing this, and the Qunchen generally believed that Wei Yan had a strategic vision. From this, we can see Liu Bei's appreciation and trust for him.
In April of the first year of Jianxing (223), Liu Bei died. Later, when the crown prince Liu Chan ascended the throne, Wei Yan was then reused and made the Marquis of Ting, and soon promoted to Sima Xiang (丞相司馬) and Liangzhou (梁州刺史).
In the spring of the sixth year of Jianxing (228), Zhuge Liang decided to carry out the Northern Expedition. This was the first active Northern Expedition carried out by the Shu Han regime after Liu Bei's death.
At a military conference held before the Northern Expedition, Wei Yan had proposed a strange plan to take Chang'an directly from the Meridian Valley, and according to the analysis of his previous personality, the enemy general Xiahou Shu would definitely abandon the city and flee.
This is actually a brilliant plan to win, but "Zhuge is only cautious in his life", for such an adventure plan, Zhuge Liang can not adopt, so he was shelved.
After writing the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, Chen Shou once commented on Zhuge Liang: "Governing Rong is long, plotting is short, and rationalizing the people's work is better than that of generals." The so-called miracle is short, which is naturally an important reason for rejecting the meridian valley plot.
In fact, this is not only the evaluation of posterity, Zhuge Liang also admitted this before his death, see how he said in the "Table of Teachers": "The former emperor knew that the subjects were cautious, so he sent his subjects to the collapse of the country."
Although this conspiracy was not carried out, it can be seen from here that Wei Yan had his own independent military strategic thinking than the average general.
After that, every time in the Northern Expedition, Wei Yan took the initiative to request to lead the troops independently, and took another road to attack the key problems, and finally met with Zhuge Liang at Yu Tongguan, but was unceremoniously rejected.
The more Wei Yan thought about it, the more angry he became, and he began to complain. He said that Zhuge Liang was timid and hated that he had talent and did not meet Bo Le.
When these words reached Zhuge Liang's ears, they were severely suppressed.
In the course of Zhuge Liang's last Northern Expedition, Zhuge Liang's illness worsened, so he planned to arrange the aftermath, and at the last secret meeting, Zhuge Liang did a stupid thing - he held a military conference on his deathbed and determined the strategy of retreating.
However, this meeting did not inform Wei Yan to participate, but at this time, Wei Yan's status was already the second most important person in the Shu army.
This is the crux of the problem, Zhuge Liang, as the number one person, when he was dying, directly bypassed the second person and arranged for the withdrawal of troops. And the heavy responsibility of this withdrawal was handed over to Yang Yi, the number three or four person at that time.
Originally, he had thoughts about Zhuge Liang's withdrawal, but now he directly ignored his existence, and after Wei Yan learned of this arrangement, he was angry and said angrily: "The minister has died, but I am still here, how can the world's major events be abandoned because of the death of one person?" Besides, my army should be commanded by me, how can it be handed over to Yang Yi? ”
So I got into a fight with Yang Yi. Vying for military dominance, Wei Yan fought with Yang Yi and eventually defeated Wei Yan.
After Wei Yan fled, he was beheaded by Ma Dai, and subsequently, the three tribes of Wei Yan were destroyed.
After getting rid of Wei Yan, Yang Yi felt that he was like the undisputed number two person in the Shu Han regime.
Who knew that Zhuge Liang, in fact, had already made arrangements, he had already reported to Liu Chan before he died, thinking that Yang Yi was impatient and narrow-minded, and intended to let Jiang Huan take on a heavy responsibility, so Jiang Huan was appointed as Shang Shu Ling and Yizhou Assassin History - there was no yang Yi thing! Yang Yi understood at this moment that everything he had done, like Wei Yan, was being used!
So he complained bitterly, and even complained: "If I had turned to Cao Wei in the beginning, my treatment would have been better than now."
Who knew that these grumbling words of his were reported to the imperial court by Fei Yi word for word, and Yang Yi was forced to commit suicide.
We have to admire that Zhuge Liang did have a vision. After his death, he also frightened Sima Yi, and in the infighting between Yang Yi and Wei Yan, he easily removed these two people, and smoothly cleared all obstacles for his successor in his mind.
However, he did not think about it carefully, and Jiang Huan got his wish, but this caused the talent in the Shu Han regime to wither away and the power to be greatly reduced, laying the groundwork for the final demise of the Shu Han.
In fact, Speaking of which, Wei Yan did not have any objections, zhuge Liang was the real sinner of Shu Han!