To improve ourselves by taking the gains and losses of history as an admonition, today, we will still present wonderful historical stories for everyone and interpret the great work of historiography "Zizhi Tongjian".
01
In the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Zhuge Liang saw before his death that Wei Yan was bound to rebel, so he asked Ma Dai to design and kill Wei Yan when he rebelled, which was a stroke of God, and resolved a major crisis within Shu Han.
In the main history, Wei Yan did have a change, and after Zhuge Liang's death, he was at odds with Yang Yi, so he led his troops to burn the boardwalk, intending to stop the withdrawal of troops, and wanted to lead his own troops to the Northern Expedition.
However, he failed to succeed, and was killed at a critical moment, and Wei Yan was completely convicted of conspiracy to rebel, which has always been a big debate, including whether Zhuge Liang had arranged for someone to kill him, which is also an unsolved mystery.
However, when Zhuge Liang was alive, Wei Yan rarely got the opportunity to lead the army alone, and he was more like a strategist under Zhuge Liang's command.
Wei Yan joined a little late, but his role in Shu Han was very critical, and he had been a Taishou of Hanzhong for decades, creating a very strong set of defensive lines, which also blocked the Attack of the Wei Army.
Later, he followed Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition and made many meritorious contributions, and within the Shu Han Dynasty, except for Zhuge Liang, there was really no one who could overpower him.
As a military and political leader of the Shu Han Dynasty, what did Wei Yan do after Zhuge Liang's death? What was Zhuge Liang's attitude toward him?
In fact, Zhuge Liang still admired Wei Yan and repeatedly mediated the contradictions between Wei Yan and Yang Yi, hoping that the two could get along peacefully.
At the time of Zhuge Liang's Fifth Northern Expedition, he was also arranged as the vanguard of the army, and he did not expect that Zhuge Liang suddenly fell ill at this time, and then he was seriously ill in the army, and he needed to arrange the route of advance and retreat of the army, at this time Zhuge Liang had already sensed it, let Wei Yan cut off, and also specifically pointed out that if Wei Yan did not obey the order, then do as he pleased.
This order is actually some headless and tailless, Zhuge Liang such a strict person, actually have such an order, I think this order is likely to be forged, Wei Yan as the vanguard of the army, when the army retreated to let him break the back is very normal, but Zhuge Liang can not predict in advance that Wei Yan will inevitably disobey the general's order, then wei Yan in the end did not plot rebellion? This is also unlikely.
Wei Yan was already a high-ranking military and political figure in the Shu Han Dynasty at that time, and there was no need for him to rebel.
The Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms records: "The original Yan intended not to surrender to Wei in the north but to return to the south, but to get rid of the killing instruments and so on." ”
If this record is true, then the matter is also more obvious, Zhuge Liang deliberately wanted to separate Wei Yan and Yang Yi before he died, because the people responsible for returning to the army were Yang Yi and these people, but Wei Yan's relationship with these people was quite bad, so if Wei Yan was cut off, he could stagger these people, and if they did not contact together, there would be no problem.
02
However, the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" describes that Zhuge Liang did have the intention of killing Wei Yan, saying that Wei Yan had anti-bones, which is not easy to say, but one thing is certain, that is, Wei Yan has laid the root of the curse from a move when he surrendered to Shu Han.
When Liu Bei attacked Changsha, Wei Yan was dissatisfied with his lord Han Xuan, so he killed him and surrendered to Liu Bei.
Therefore, many people believe that Zhuge Liang judged that Wei Yan could not be reused, and that those who could kill the lord and duke, even if they were strong, did not dare to use it, in case one day it came out again, it would be tragic.
Of course, this is all recorded in the interpretation.
However, the official attitude of the State of Wei is definitely less credible, I think Chen Shou's record is more correct, Wei Yan was rushing to lead the troops to disobey the general's orders and try to kill Yang Yi and these people, because Wei Yan also wanted to kill Yang Yi and others many times before, he knew very well that once Yang Yi and these people returned to power, then he only had one way to die, and only before this could he kill Yang Yi first to save his life.
If you want to say that Wei Yan plotted rebellion, he was only anti-Yang Yi, and did not intend to oppose the imperial court, otherwise Wei Yan's defeat would be more embarrassing, and his army was immediately scattered when questioned by everyone, leaving only Wei Yan and a few people around him still there, even if it was a rebellion, how could it not be defeated so quickly.
Zhuge Liang managed these people for so many years, and he also knew the personality of several of them, Wei Yan this person and the people around them are not very harmonious, it is also very normal, in the System of Shu Han, Wei Yan is one of the few cold disciples, the others are from the scholar clan, Wei Yan, who started with military merit, there is some embarrassment in these people, he and Yang Yi and others can not get along.
And it just so happens that Wei Yan should not have the idea of killing Yang Yi, so that it is not worth the loss, which may also be the reason why Zhuge Liang designed to get rid of him, after all, Wei Yan is also very arrogant, and sometimes does not obey orders.
Very similar to Guan Yu, he did not have any good feelings for the scholars, but he was very good to the soldiers below, so he could make a name for himself in the army, but he was also ostracized everywhere in the dprk, Zhuge Liang knew his faults, so he always took him with him, with Zhuge Liang in town, Wei Yan's contradictions with other officials would not intensify, but once Zhuge Liang died, this problem would be intensified.
Wei Yan's actions at that time were indeed very dangerous, he should have known that Zhuge Liang's orders had absolute authority in the army of Shu Han, and if he disobeyed the orders, it was tantamount to plotting rebellion, then no one would follow him.
Therefore, he would fail so quickly, Zhuge Liang may have had the idea of killing him, after his death, among the people who were arranged, Wei Yan was not put in charge of the mobilization of the army, it is reasonable to say that Wei Yan, from seniority to official, should be the best candidate for the management of the army, Zhuge Liang should give him more trust, rather than just let him break off.
But Zhuge Liang could not do this, at that time Wei Yan's relationship with Yang Yi and Jiang Wei was very bad, he came to lead the army, these people at the bottom would not necessarily obey him, in that case, the army would inevitably split, so he only had to sacrifice Wei Yan and let his arranged team to control the army.
03
It turned out that Zhuge Liang also indirectly killed Wei Yan in doing so, perhaps he did not mean this, but his arrangement led to this result.
In the final analysis, it was still Wei Yan's personality problem, he could not tolerate people, because of the contradiction with Yang Yi, it openly rose to the point of suspected rebellion, Zhuge Liang actually saw the problem between the two people, but unfortunately he did not solve the matter well.
With the outbreak of this military rebellion, Shu Han once again lost a major general, and later Jiang Wei's northern expedition alone was not very successful, and people were also very curious, if Wei Yan was still there, he would definitely be able to lead his troops to play better with Jiang Wei, but Wei Yan's own character defects eventually killed him, perhaps Zhuge Liang should have killed him earlier.