Some people say that Li Zicheng met Li Yan just as Liu Bei met Zhuge Liang; others say that Li Yan met Li Zicheng, just as Zhuge Liang met Liu Bei. Although the two sentences reversed the order, they pointed out a problem quite sharply: Li Yan had the talent of Wang Zuo, but Li Zicheng did not have the order of an emperor, and he killed a talented strategist in vain.
To understand how Li Zi became and killed Li Yan, perhaps it is very clear to tell you such a story. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Lü Bu had a strategist Chen Gong under him, and when the Cao army was facing a great enemy, Chen Gong offered a plan to let Lü Bu take a group of men and horses to garrison outside the city, and he himself led a part of the army to hold the city, and then he waited for work and attacked on both sides. This is a good plan, but it ignores one problem:
Throw the lord outside the city and hold on to the city by yourself, what is the purpose of doing it?
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In the end, Lü Bu did not adopt Chen Gong's plan, and failed miserably, and Chen Gong was killed. Whether Chen Gong has the intention of rebellion or not is a difficult question to verify, but the crux of the matter is that the sense of trust between people is so fragile when life and death are at stake. Li Zicheng's state of mind when he killed Li Yan was about the same as when Lü Bu faced Chen Gong's plan.
Let's go back to the story between Li Zicheng and Li Yan, the "junchen":
Li Zicheng was originally a subordinate of Gao Yingxiang, but in 1636, the old king Gao Yingxiang was defeated and killed, and he continued to raise the banner and fight against the Ming army. Later, Li Zicheng led his team around to fight against the Ming army. As a result, he met a strategist in a time of crisis. At his suggestion, Li Zicheng adjusted his strategy and came up with an inspiring slogan: "Meet the king, do not pay grain." Of course, this slogan is circulated in the form of nursery rhymes, and the creator of this nursery rhyme is Li Yan.
Li Yan's original name was Li Xin, and the year of his birth is difficult to determine, he was a native of Qinglonggang, QiXian County, Kaifeng Province, in the Ming Dynasty, which is now part of Kaifeng, Henan. Unlike Li Zicheng, Li Yan was a person during the apocalypse years, and he was also a well-known intellectual. However, at the end of the Ming Dynasty, when social turmoil and the official field were dark, when Li Yan was not out of the blue, he went to Li Zicheng with him, helped the king to come up with advice, and became the first strategist under Li Zicheng.
While the Ming Dynasty was busy fighting the Jurchen Eight Banners outside Guanwai, Li Zicheng's army grew rapidly, and even invaded Beijing, forcing Chongzhen to die. Of course, there is also a lot of credit for Li Yan.
It is reasonable to say that the occupation of Beijing was tantamount to the victory of the uprising, but at this moment, Li Zicheng, Taurus and others reveled in the victory and plundered on a large scale, and even occupied Wu Sangui's family property, wives and concubines. Unlike Li Zicheng and others, Li Yan saw the situation very thoroughly at that time, and he strongly advised Li Zicheng to rectify the army and surrender Wu Sangui, but at this time, the king of Chuang could no longer listen to Jin Yu's good words.
While Li Zicheng was at large in Beijing, a war report suddenly came from the south, Dingzhou was lost, and some people even said that the whole of Henan had fallen into the hands of the remnants of the Ming army. At the critical moment, Li Yan proposed to Li Zicheng that he take 20,000 horses to Zhongzhou to defend. However, Li Zicheng suspected that he had two hearts and did not agree.
After the departure from Germany, it is bound to be followed by tragedy. Subsequently, with Li Zicheng's permission, Niu Jinxing, in the name of Li Zicheng, summoned Li Yan to the military camp to drink, and at the same time set up an ambush, and when Li Yan and his brother entered the military camp, they were quickly captured and brutally killed. Li Yan's death was an infighting within Li Zicheng's clique, and it also caused Li Zicheng to lose a knowledgeable strategist. Therefore, some people said that if Li Zicheng had not killed Li Yan by mistake, he would probably have sat firmly in Jiangshan. However, at this point, everything can only be assumed.