In the 24th year of Jian'an, Liu Bei marched into Hanzhong with a national force, and Cao Cao personally brought a large army to confront it, and finally Liu Bei won and captured Hanzhong County, and then Liu Bei entered the throne of Hanzhong. Liu Bei was well aware of the importance of Hanzhong, so he said, "Deserve to be the most important general of the town of Hanchuan." How important was Hanzhong to Shu Han?
Regarding the importance of Hanzhong, Yang Hong once said to Zhuge Liangyun: "Hanzhong is beneficial to the throat, the chance of survival, if there is no Hanzhong, there is no Shu, and the disaster of this family is also." That is to say, if Hanzhong fell into the hands of Cao Cao, it would threaten the life and death of the Shu state. This is why earlier when Cao Cao pacified Zhang Lu and attacked Hanzhong, there was a scene of "Shu people being shocked". For Liu Bei, obtaining Hanzhong not only ensured the safety of Yizhou, but also used it as a base for the Northern Expedition. It can be said that the status of Hanzhong in the Shu state is no less than that of Jingzhou. Then after occupying Hanzhong, the selection of the town guard general will be the most important thing for Shu Han in the next step. First of all, we know that Liu Bei's most trusted general is Guan Yu, but at this time, Guan Yu is in charge of the defense of Jingzhou, so naturally he cannot be transferred to the town.
Since Guan Yu was excluded, the most likely nature was Zhang Fei, just when everyone thought that the zhen shou Hanzhong general was none other than Zhang Fei. Liu Bei's decision surprised the Shu Han officials, Zhang Fei was defeated, and Wei Yan was promoted to the rank of general of Zhenyuan and Zhenshou Hanzhong. To know that Wei Yan was only a humble General of Yamen before, but now he was appointed as a general on the independent side of guan Yu on the same status, it was enough to see Liu Bei's trust in Wei Yan and Wei Yan's outstanding military talent.
Later, at the conferred meeting held for Wei Yan, Liu Bei asked Wei Yan, "Now that you have entrusted you with the heavy responsibility of guarding Hanzhong in the town, what are you going to do?" Wei Yan replied, "If Cao Cao leads the troops of the whole country to attack, I will resist them on behalf of the King; if the deputy general leads 100,000 horses, I will annex them for the King." The original text of the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" records as follows: The ancestors of the assembly of the courtiers asked Yan Yue: "Now that the secretary of state is entrusted with a heavy responsibility, what does the secretary of state want to do?" "If Cao Cao comes from all over the world, please refuse it for the king; if you will have a crowd of 100,000 people, please swallow it for the king." "The Lord praises goodness, and the multitude speaks loud."
As soon as Wei Yan finished saying these words, he went up to Liu Bei and down to Shu Han
Hundreds of officials praised Wei Yan for his bravery. So what is the actual situation in Wei Yanzhen's shouhan? The Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms records that "the first lord stayed in The town of Hanzhong in Weiyan, and all the soldiers besieged to resist foreign enemies, and if the enemy came to attack, they were not allowed to enter." During the more than ten years that Wei Yan was defending Hanzhong, Cao Wei repeatedly raised troops to attack, but they were all repelled by Wei Yan and returned without success. It is enough to see that Wei Yan is not speaking wildly, but he really has his talent! However, after Liu Bei's death, when Zhuge Liang took power, the situation changed drastically. First of all, take Hanzhong, during the period of Wei Yan's defense, Cao Wei did not enter the defensive area of Shu Han with a single soldier, and then Wang Ping, who succeeded Wei Yan, completely in accordance with Wei Yan's strategic deployment, also repelled Cao Shuang's 100,000 troops.
However, when Zhuge Liang's successor Jiang Weilai took over Hanzhong, he completely abandoned Wei Yan's established policy, self-righteously abandoned the outer strongholds of Hanzhong, withdrew his garrison to the cities of Han and Le, and adopted the tactics of fortifying the walls and clearing the wilderness. Jiang Wei's major mistake in decision-making directly led to the demise of Shu Han. The military talents of Wei Yan and Jiang Wei were judged by whether they were superior or inferior. This also reflects that Zhuge Liang is far inferior to Liu Bei in terms of recognizing and employing people.
Although Zhuge Liang is a talented person, it does not mean that he is excellent in all aspects. In fact, he has many flaws, such as too much greed for power and bringing personal prejudices into his work. After the deaths of Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, and others, Wei Yan was the only general left in the Shu kingdom, but Zhuge Liang always suppressed him and prevented him from taking on heavy responsibilities. Why did Zhuge Liang do this? Couldn't he really not see Wei Yan's talent? Of course not, on the contrary, it was precisely because of the strength of Wei Yan's talents that Zhuge Liang did not dare to let Wei Yan command an army alone. Zhuge Liang was a greedy man of power, and when Liu Bei died, he monopolized the military and political power of the Shu state. Wei Yan could make a contribution, but it had to be under his control and command. When Wei Yan proposed to lead an army to attack Cao Wei, if he agreed, it would be equivalent to letting Wei Yan lead a team to fight alone, and if he succeeded, it would obviously rob Zhuge Liang of his battle achievements, so that Wei Yan would most likely threaten Zhuge Liang's position in the Shu state. Of course, Zhuge Liang would not let this happen, which is why Wei Yan's proposal has been rejected.
Of course, there must be a reason, that is, the limitation of Zhuge Liang's military ability, the historical Zhuge Liang is not as magical as written in the novel, in fact, he is good at internal affairs, not marching to fight. This is why when Liu Beituo was alone, he entrusted the military of the Shu state to Li Yan instead of Zhuge Liang. Zhuge Liang's conservative and cautious character is indeed a great advantage in internal affairs. However, for the military aspect, it is not necessarily true that a vague sense of conservative caution can sometimes miss opportunities. For example, repeatedly failing to use the Meridian Valley raids advocated by Wei Yan directly led to several Northern Expeditions being fruitless
Before Zhuge Liang died, he still did not forget to suppress Wei Yan. He did not let Wei Yan, the most talented general, command the troops, but let Yang Yi, who was not righteous, command the entire army. When Yang Yi ordered the withdrawal of troops, Wei Yan believed that cutting Wei was a major event for the Shu Han Dynasty, and that Zhuge Liang could not withdraw the 100,000 troops who were approaching Chang'an because Zhuge Liang was killed, and abandoned the great cause of the Northern Expedition. Yang Yi naturally ignored Wei Yan's demands, so he falsely accused Wei Yan of wanting to rebel and let Ma Dai kill him. After beheading Wei Yan's head, Yang Yi did not forget to humiliate him, stepping on his head with his feet, and laughingly said: "Yong slave, can you do evil again?" In this way, a generation of famous generals Wei Yan was in a different place and died tragically. This is even worse for the Shu Han, who is already withering talents. It can be said that as soon as Wei Yan died, the Shu Kingdom would really have no more generals! So that in the end, even the elderly Liao Hua had to be sent into battle, so how could such a Shu kingdom not go to decay and perish