During the Three Kingdoms period at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the heroes gathered and the military generals of the able subjects were born. Wei Yan had always been deeply trusted by Liu Bei since he defected to Liu Bei. When Liu Bei occupied Hanzhong's class division and returned to Shuzhong, Wei Yan was appointed by Liu Bei as the Zhenyuan general Zhenshou Hanzhong.
Liu Bei's trust in Wei Yan
Hanzhong served as a barrier for the northern Shu Han to defend Against Cao Wei, and the Shu Han had Hanzhong to send troops from Hanzhong to capture the Guanzhong Plain, and retreated to rely on the steepness of Hanzhong for defense. It can be said that Hanzhong is extremely important to Liu Bei Group. Liu Bei let Wei Yanzhen guard this place, which shows Liu Bei's trust in Wei Yan.
Wei Yan was indeed a very capable general, and Liu Bei also asked Wei Yan if he was sure of defending Hanzhong, and Wei Yan told Liu Bei, "If Cao Cao raises troops from all over the country to invade Hanzhong, then I will defend Hanzhong for the king, and if Cao Cao only sends a partial general to bring 100,000 people to attack Hanzhong, I will annihilate them for the king." From the dialogue between Wei Yan and Liu Bei, it is not difficult to find that Wei Yan is still very sure whether he can defend Hanzhong. Indeed, during Wei Yan's garrison in Hanzhong, Hanzhong was impenetrable.
Although Wei Yan was not a Five Tiger General, Liu Bei trusted him no less than any of the Five Tiger Generals. However, in the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Zhuge Liang was wary of Wei Yan at every turn, and more than once said that Wei Yan had a backbone behind his head.
Meridian Valley Conspiracy
In fact, it was not, although Zhuge Liang did not trust him as much as Liu Bei, he did not deliberately suppress Wei Yan. He was very appreciative of Wei Yan's ability. This can be seen from the fact that Zhuge Liang's five Northern Expeditions all took Wei Yan with him and entrusted him with heavy responsibilities.
During Zhuge Liang's first Northern Expedition, Wei Yan proposed the Meridian Valley Conspiracy, leading a division from the Meridian Valley to attack Guanzhong and Zhuge Liang to meet tongguan together, and then achieve the purpose of dingding the Central Plains. If this strategy is successful, it can indeed disrupt Cao Wei's deployment and let the Shu kingdom swallow the world. However, this plan was too dangerous, the Shu state was already weak, and the purpose of Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition was only to seize the northwest region of Cao Wei, and to consume Cao Wei's national strength little by little to avoid the destruction of the Shu state. Instead of pinning his hopes for the unification of the world on a big gamble, Zhuge Liang rejected Wei Yan.
The Meridian Valley Conspiracy has also become the focus of controversy throughout the ages, some people think that the Meridian Valley Conspiracy is likely to be the victory of the Shu Kingdom, and some people think that the Meridian Valley Conspiracy will fail. However, regardless of whether the Meridian Valley conspiracy could succeed or not, this alone could conclude that Wei Yan had the ability to save the Shu state, so why did Zhuge Liang get rid of him?
The political struggle failed and he died unjustly
Wei Yan's death did have a lot to do with Zhuge Liang, but Wei Yan's death was not planned by Zhuge Liang. During the Fifth Northern Expedition, Zhuge Liang was seriously ill at Wuzhangyuan. His last words were to let Wei Yan break off and if Wei Yan did not listen, he would follow him. From this, it can be seen that Zhuge Liang still attaches great importance to Wei Yan's ability, otherwise he would not have left such an important task to Wei Yan after the break, and also instructed Wei Yan to follow him whether he wanted to or not.
At the time of Zhuge Liang, Yang Yi and Fei Zhen controlled power. There was already a contradiction between this Fei Yan and Wei Yan, and when Zhuge Liang was alive, he often mediated the contradictions between the two, and with Zhuge Liang pressing, Wei Yan and Fei Yan were not dead or alive. However, once Zhuge Liang died, the contradiction between the two could no longer be suppressed. Yang Yi was on Fei Yi's side, and Wei Yan was also dissatisfied with Yang Yi and Fei Yan's power, believing that he could not be at the mercy of Yang Yi, so he did not want to be a general of the Broken Queen.
Political struggles have always been between you and me, and after Yang Yi and Wei Yan openly broke up, both of them wrote to Liu Chan accusing each other of rebellion. Wei Yan's connections in the DPRK were not as good as Yang Yi's, so public opinion fell into the inferior position. In the end, he lost the political struggle with Yang Yi and was killed by Ma Dai, who was sent by Yang Yi. Wei Yan was also accused of rebellion and was wiped out of the three tribes.
Wei Yan's death was quite a pity, and he was so capable that he died unjustly in a political struggle, and Shu Han lost an important minister who could save the country. Wei Yan's death also had a lot to do with his pride, and only those who were stronger than him could suppress him. Once Zhuge Liang died, there was no one in shu Han who he could look up to, and even without Yang Yi and Fei Zhen, Wei Yan would be killed by others.