When Liu Bei was dying, he chose two ministers, one was Zhuge Liang and the other was Li Yan, and according to the reason, the status of the two should be similar, why is it that the same minister is a trusted orphan minister, one is highly powerful, and the other is degraded to a commoner?
Soon after the defeat of Yiling, Liu Bei fell ill, and he quickly summoned the two most important ministers of the Shu state, Zhuge Liang and Li Yan, to his side and entrusted Liu Chan to them, with Zhuge Liang as the right and Li Yan as the deputy, and assisted Liu Chan together.
At that time, Liu Bei transferred Li Yan to Yong'an and appointed him Shangshu Ling and Zhongdu Protector, which was very confusing, and Shang Shu Ling was equivalent to the current secretary general, directly carrying out the orders issued by the emperor. And what kind of official is Zhongdu Hu? He could command the internal and external military forces, and Liu Bei handed over military power to Li Yan and zhuge Liang.
Liu Bei's purpose in doing so was twofold, first of all, Zhuge Liang was the representative of the Jingzhou faction, and Li Yan was an outstanding talent of the Yizhou faction, Liu Bei did not want either side to monopolize power and let his son Liu Chan's position be threatened, and the existence of the two orphan ministers could check and balance each other.
At the same time, because Li Yan is the representative of the Yizhou faction, and now his base is in Yizhou, which is the territory of the Yizhou faction, to give the Yizhou faction a little face, and to regard Li Yan as a trusted minister is a manifestation of respect for the local forces.
But can Li Yan really control military power? In fact, there was none, so how did he lose the military power that Liu Bei had given him?
Not long after Liu Bei's death, large-scale riots began to occur in the territory of the Shu Kingdom, as recorded in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms:
"Mu Mu Tai Shou Zhu Praised the County Rebellion. First, Yizhou County had the surname Yong Min rebelled, Liu Taishou Zhang was of Wu descent, and according to The County, Gao Ding, the King of Yuejunyi, also betrayed..."
At about the same time, the problem of rebellion began to appear within the Shu state, and almost half of the territory was in turmoil, and the shu Han regime was seriously threatened, and such a serious problem must be solved immediately, and the easiest way was to send troops to suppress it.
Li Yan was nominally the protector of Zhongdu, and according to the reason, Li Yan should be responsible for military actions, but Liu Beituo issued a strange order at the same time, that is, to arrange for Li Yan to guard Yong'an, which was the front-line gateway to defend Eastern Wu, and the strategic position was also very important.
Zhuge Liang also gave Liu Chan a suggestion, so that Li Yan would continue to stay in Yong'an, after all, the Battle of Yiling had just been defeated, and it was necessary to prevent Eastern Wu from taking advantage of the void, and Li Yan was very relieved to guard Yong'an.
Therefore, Li Yan was far away from the political center of Chengdu at this moment, and there was no way to exercise his authority as a zhongdu protector, let alone mobilize the army, and the matter of commanding the army to suppress the rebellion was entrusted to Zhuge Liang.
Soon under the leadership of Zhuge Liang, the rebellion in China was quelled, and at this time, in order to complete Liu Bei's legacy of unifying the world, Zhuge Liang wrote a master's table to Liu Chan and proposed a plan for the Northern Expedition to the Central Plains.
Before that, to first stabilize the barbarians in the south, Zhuge Liang personally led an army to the south, crusaded against Meng, Jianxing for three years, Liu Chan handed over the army to Zhuge Liang again, from this time on, the army was firmly in the hands of Zhuge Liang, And Li Yan's Zhongdu Protector was already in name only.
Although Li Yan and Zhuge Liang are both trusted ministers, Li Yan is a fictitious position, while Zhuge Liang has real power, and the status difference between the two is not a little bit and a half, why does this happen?
Compared with Zhuge Liang, there is a situation that keeps him away from the political center, that is, Zhuge Liang can open a government to govern affairs, which is the power that the future prime ministers do not have, while Li Yan cannot open a house to govern affairs, which is the fundamental reason why the power of the two people is getting bigger and bigger.
What is the administration of the house? The "Ciyuan" explains that the opening of the house is: the establishment of the government office, the establishment of the subordinates. In simple terms, after the opening of the palace, the prime minister can have his own office space, and he can also appoint government officials in the palace and place his own people in all important positions, which means that the highest power lies, and even compete with the emperor.
Cao Cao, by opening the Xiang Mansion, took the Han Emperor out of the way and firmly held power in his own hands. Liu Bei claimed to be the empress, Zhuge Liang was originally a lu shang shu shi, but did not open a house, in Liu Bei's period, the control of imperial power was very strong, Zhuge Liang did not have the opportunity to open a house.
After Liu Chan became emperor, because he was still young and his ability to handle government affairs was not good, he agreed to Zhuge Liang's opening of the government to govern affairs, and from then on Zhuge Liang began to handle internal affairs with full authority.
Therefore, Zhuge Liang opened a government in Chengdu to govern affairs, "everything is no big or small, salty is decided by liang." Li Yan, on the other hand, has remained in Yong'an, far from the center of power, which has led to a widening gap between the two.
In fact, Li Yan was also very eager to open a government and govern things in his heart, so that he could sit on an equal footing with Zhuge Liang. But he pushed himself to the road of death step by step, and finally did not say that he had opened the government, and even the officials were dismissed, and he was reduced to a commoner.
According to historical records, Li Yan had three things to die, so that he eventually suffered the consequences of his own.
First, in the fourth year of Jianxing, Zhuge Liang began to prepare for the first Northern Expedition, and Zhuge Liang, who had already controlled real power, wanted to transfer Li Yan to Hanzhong, and Zhuge Liang's intention was also obvious, that is, to overthrow Li Yan, and he could not do things in the rear during his own Northern Expedition. Transferring Li Yan to Hanzhong, under his own eyes, he was much relieved.
However, Li Yan resolutely did not go, Zhuge Liang had firmly grasped the military power in his hands, and if he still wanted to take away his own territory in Jiangzhou, and really transferred himself to Hanzhong, it would be the territory of the Jingzhou faction, and if he went there, he would be a waste.
And Li Yan not only did not go, but also put forward a request, asking Zhuge Liang to merge the 5 counties into a Bazhou, he wanted to be the assassin of Bazhou, this was a plan to expand his territory, how could zhuge Liang, who was a human spirit, agree? The matter was closed.
Second, in the eighth year of Jianxing, Cao Wei launched a large-scale attack on Hanchuan, and Zhuge Liang wanted to transfer Li Yan to Hanzhong, but Li Yan refused again, his reason being that Jiangzhou, which he was responsible for, was also very important, and he left on his own, for fear of being taken advantage of by the enemy.
Zhuge Liang also gave in, putting Li Yan's son Li Feng in charge of the defense of Jiangzhou, and then promoting Li Yan to a general on horseback, and Li Yan had to rush to Hanzhong.
These two things had already made Zhuge Liang very dissatisfied with him, and the third thing that happened, Li Yan directly ruined his future.
In the ninth year of Jianxing, Zhuge Liang once again went on the Northern Expedition, and the situation was originally very good, so Li Yan was put in charge of escorting grain and grass, but because of the long distance and the rainy weather, the date of Li Yan's grain delivery was postponed for a long time, and in order to shirk his responsibility, Li Yan came up with a brainless trick.
Li Yan said to Zhuge Liang on the one hand, the grain and grass preparations are insufficient, you should quickly retreat, and when Zhuge Liang had no choice but to retreat, Li Yan ran to the side of the rear lord Liu Chan and said, My grain and grass are very well prepared, and I don't know why Zhuge Liang retreated.
This is really a trick that a three-year-old child can crack, Zhuge Liang directly took out the letter written by Li Yan to him, and confronted him in front of Liu Chan, Li Yan immediately could not hide it, and as a result, Li Yan died this time, so Zhuge Liang lost the opportunity, so Zhuge Liang impeached Li Yan to the rear lord, and the rear lord was angry and immediately reduced Li Yan to a waste.
Some people say that zhuge liang seized Li Yan's power step by step and designed to remove him from office, but the author believes that all this is Li Yan's own death, and has nothing to do with Zhuge Liang.
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