During the Three Kingdoms period, Liu Bei had a large number of military generals who could fight in battle, such as Zhang Fei, Guan Yu, Zhao Yun, Ma Chao, and Huang Zhong, who were known as the Five Tiger Generals. With the old age and death of the Five Tiger Generals, a new generation of generals appeared in the middle of the Shu Han Dynasty, of which Wei Yan became the top pillar, and Wei Yan was highly valued and appreciated before Liu Bei's death. After Liu Bei's death, the Shu Han regime was in turmoil, first Ma Mo was beheaded for disobeying military orders, followed by Li Yan's depose, and even Wei Yan, who had distinguished himself, could not escape death, and he was exterminated for treason.
Wei Yan was a rare fierce general in the middle and late Shu Han Dynasty, and the novel "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" described Wei Yan's back of his head with a backbone, Zhuge Liang expected him to rebel, and as a result, Wei Yan really rebelled. In the canonical history, Wei Yan's rebellion has always been a major suspicious case during the Three Kingdoms period, and later generations have evaluated Wei Yan as mixed, and some people even think that Wei Yan's death was a trap planned by Zhuge Liang, so is this really the case?
(1) Wei Yan was heavily valued by Liu Bei and was ordered to garrison Hanzhong
In 211 AD, Liu Zhang, fearing Zhang Lu in the north, invited his brother Liu Bei into Chuan to help him deal with Zhang Lu, but unexpectedly led the wolf into the room, Wei Yan also entered Sichuan with Liu Bei, Liu Bei later rebelled against the main guest, Wei Yan was awarded the title of General of Yamen for his merits in occupying Guanghan County.
After Liu Bei became king of Hanzhong, he was ready to withdraw his army back to Chengdu, he needed to send a person to help him guard Hanzhong, at this time Guan Yu had already ordered the town to guard Jingzhou, everyone thought that the reliable Zhang Fei was the most promising, even Zhang Fei himself thought so, the result was unexpectedly, Liu Bei actually promoted Wei Yan, made him the governor of Hanzhong, let him guard Hanzhong, Liu Bei's move surprised the whole army, which showed Liu Bei's importance to Wei Yan. After Liu Bei ascended the throne in Chengdu and became emperor, he promoted Wei Yan to the rank of general of Zhenbei, and after Liu Chan succeeded to the throne, he made Wei Yan the Marquis of Duting.
(2) Wei Yan and Yang Yi were at odds, laying the groundwork for his own death
Wei Yan's meritorious deeds were outstanding, and he was heavily valued by Liu Bei, and in the middle and late Period of the Shu Han Dynasty, the martial generals who could fight in battle died, and the old man, Wei Yan, became the top pillar of the Shu Kingdom, and from then on he became more and more arrogant, except for Zhuge Liang and Liu Bei, he did not pay attention to anyone, others did not dare to provoke him, always let him three points, except For Yang Yi, who was an exception.
Yang Yi was a civilian official, and he was also very talented, Liu Bei also appreciated him, most of the general cultural people looked down on the military generals, Yang Yi thought how a martial artist could bark at him.
Therefore, Yang Yi has always been at odds with Wei Yan, the two often quarreled endlessly, and finally became intolerable, once angry Wei Yan drew his sword to Yang Yi's face, Wei Yan made a gesture to kill Yang Yi, the purpose was to scare Yang Yi, and as a result, Yang Yi was frightened and cried, and finally Fei Yi stopped them.
After Liu Bei's death, Zhuge Liang, in order to complete his last words in the Kuangfu Han Room, made five Northern Expeditions before and after, allowing Wei Yan to fight as a forward, and Yang Yi was mainly responsible for logistical work, such as the preparation and transportation of grain and grass. Yang Yi is very talented, efficient, and well done, Zhuge Liang appreciates his talent very much, in fact, Zhuge Liang also admires Wei Yan's Xiao Yong, but the two of them are intolerable.
Zhuge Liang felt sorry for this, and he could only try his best to resolve the contradictions between Yang and Wei, but each time it ended in failure, and Yang and Wei finally quarreled, to the point where you died and I died.
(3) Wei Yan disobeyed Zhuge Liang's will and sent himself to the guillotine
In 228, Zhuge Liang sent his army to attack Cao Wei for the first time, and Wei Yan felt that he had the military talent of Han Xin in the Han Dynasty, and asked him to lead 10,000 troops from the Meridian Valley, with the aim of directly attacking Chang'an, so that Zhuge Liang could lead the remaining troops from the Xiegu Road and meet him at Xianyang, but Zhuge Liang did not adopt his strategy.
After zhuge liang went on several northern expeditions, each time Wei Yan asked Zhuge Liang to give him 10,000 soldiers, asked the soldiers to divide into two roads, and finally meet the division, but each time he was opposed by Zhuge Liang. Wei Yan thought that Zhuge Liang was timid and afraid of things, and at the same time felt that he was a thousand-mile horse, but he did not meet Bo Le, and he could not help but sigh that he did not meet him.
In 234 AD, Zhuge Liang became ill due to fatigue, fell seriously ill during the Fifth Northern Expedition, and soon died of illness in the Wuzhangyuan Army, after Zhuge Liang's death, Wei Yan also came to the end of his life, in order to plot against the three tribes, why did Wei Yan rebel?
In the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", the case of Wei Yan's rebellion was vividly portrayed, and Yang Yi said to Wei Yan: "Do you dare to shout three times, who dares to kill me?" Unexpectedly, Wei Yan really shouted who dared to kill him, and as a result, a bloody scene appeared, ma Dai killed Wei Yan, after all, this is the words of a novelist, so how was Wei Yan killed in the history?
According to the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, Zhuge Liang summoned Yang Yi, Jiang Wei, Fei Yi and others to a meeting on his deathbed, and the main content of the meeting was to wait for him to die, immediately withdraw his troops, and could not continue to attack Cao Wei.
Zhuge Liang died of illness after making everything properly arranged.
Before Yang Yi withdrew, he sent Fei Yi to test Wei Yan's intentions, but Wei Yan said, "How can a person's life and death delay a major state event?" What made Wei Yan angry was that Yang Yi was just the secretary general of the chancellor, and he had not made military merits, so how to let him give Yang Yi a break.
After Fei Yi conveyed Wei Yan's intentions to Yang Yi, Yang Yi led his army to retreat south and prepare to return to Chengdu, and Wei Yan, in a fit of rage, also led his army to retreat in the direction of Chengdu, and also rushed ahead of Yang Yi, and burned the boardwalk along the way, cutting off Yang Yi's rear road. When Yang Yi withdrew, he could only cut down trees and build a boardwalk while withdrawing to solve the urgent need. Wei Yan's obstinate behavior, disobeying military orders, provoked himself to kill himself.
(4) Death of Wei Yan
Soon after Wei Yan and Yang Yi withdrew, they both wrote to Liu Chan saying that the other side was plotting rebellion, Liu Chan summoned Dong Yun, Jiang Wan, and others to discuss the rebellion, and the ministers all defended Yang Yi, saying that he had no intention of rebellion, and Wei Yan was difficult to say, so Liu Chan ordered Jiang Chan to lead the Janissaries north to intercept Wei Yan, and at the same time Yang Yi also led his army south to pursue Wei Yan. The two armies surrounded Wei Yan at Nangukou, and Yang Yi ordered Wang Ping to resist Wei Yan's army, and Wang Ping scolded Wei Yan's army, "Xiang Xiang has just died, and his bones are not cold, do you dare to do so?" After Hearing this, Wei Yan's troops felt that there was some sense, so they scattered, and Wei Yan fled to Hanzhong with his family and was beheaded by Ma Dai.
After Wei Yan's death, Ma Dai handed over his head to Yang Yi, who threw Wei Yan's head on the ground and scolded while stepping on it: "Yongnu, can you still do evil for wrongdoing?" Wei Yan was exterminated for this reason.
(5) Did Wei Yan really plot rebellion, or was he framed by others?
Since Zhuge Liang had left a last word, after he died, Wei Yan should obey the order, not only did he disobey the order, but he also waved his division south without authorization, and even destroyed the boardwalks and bridges along the way.
Wei Yan's move made everyone think that he had cut off Yang Yi's rear road, in order to rush back to the Shu state to rebel, so that the Shu Han would have less of Yang Yi's support army, and Wei Yan would have a greater chance of success. In addition, the ministers thought that Yang Yi was just a scholar, how could he rebel, saying that "Xiu cai rebelled, ten years will not succeed", and Wei Yanzhen guarded Hanzhong, went out on many expeditions, and had heavy troops in his hands, so naturally Wei Yan's suspicions were greater.
Ancient emperors wanted to defend a political power, first of all, they attacked the ministers who held military power, and they could only pose a threat to them with heavy troops, which was the fundamental reason for Wei Yan's killing. Wei Yan had no intention of rebellion, wei Yan's strength at that time was not enough to establish a portal on his own, and if he wanted to rebel, the only way out was to surrender to Cao Wei.
Therefore, Chen Shou, the author of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, believes that Wei Yan's only purpose in going south is to kill Yang Yi, and Wei Yan killed Yang Yi to relieve the hatred in his heart, and the two of them have long been intolerable.
Moreover, with Wei Yan's exploits at that time, if he killed Yang Yi, he would be able to take over the position of Zhuge Liang's chancellor and become a heavy minister under one person and above ten thousand people, and after the power was in his hands, he could continue the Northern Expedition.
Therefore, Wei Yan did not rebel, but he failed in his struggle for power and profit with Yang Yi. Wei Yan's self-sufficiency combined with Yang Yi's conceit caused his own tragedy, and a generation of famous generals ended up being wiped out of the three tribes.
(6) Was Wei Yan's tragedy planned by Zhuge Liang?
According to the "Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms and The Biography of Wei Yan" Pei Songzhi's commentary on Wei Luo, Zhuge Liang issued two secret orders at the same time, one for Yang Yi, asking him to take his place, stop the Northern Expedition, and leave Wei Yan alone, and the other to Wei Yan, let Wei Yan take his place, and fu the coffin to return south to Chengdu.
Did Zhuge Liang not deliberately provoke an incident in doing so? Moreover, when Zhuge Liang was dying, he also wrote to Liu Chan and asked Jiang Huan to take over his position, is this not a fear that the world will not be chaotic? In fact, the record of "Wei Luo" is not reliable, "Wei Luo" is a history book of Cao Wei, and Pei Songzhi believes that it is a rumor that the enemy country deliberately smeared Zhuge Liang. At that time, Zhuge Liang's body was still with Yang Yi, how did Wei Yan help the coffin back to Chengdu, and there is also a record in the "Wei Luo" that wei Yan wanted to surrender to Cao Wei, this record is even more unreliable, how could Wei Yan go south when he surrendered to Cao Wei? Shouldn't it be headed north?
Mr. Lü Simian, a famous historian, believes that the records of the "Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms and The Biography of Cao Wei" are also unreliable, and he believes that Zhuge Liang's death came too suddenly to make arrangements for future generations, and it was a conspiracy planned by Yang Yi and Jiang Weina's gang, who falsely passed on Zhuge Xiang's will to achieve their own goals, and Shu Han did not have its own historian at that time. Lu Simian's family's words are not unreasonable, and when the power changes, it is easy to be turbulent, and it is easier to be exploited by people with malicious intentions.
However, the author believes that Zhuge Liang let Yang Yi withdraw his troops at the time of his death, and the credibility of Wei Yan was relatively high, because the strength of the Shu state at that time was not Cao Wei's opponent at all, and Zhuge Liang was also clear, but he was an idealist, and he wanted to try it once in ten thousand chances.
Zhuge Liang knew very well that Wei Yan was self-conscious and pretentious, and could not take on the heavy responsibility of the Northern Expedition, and the 100,000 Shu troops in the Northern Expedition were the lifeblood of the Shu Kingdom, and if the 100,000-strong army was completely destroyed, it was also a matter of time before the Shu Kingdom perished. In addition, Wei Yan was an anti-Cao activist, and he expected that after his death, Wei Yan would continue the Northern Expedition, so he ordered Yang Yi to withdraw his troops, leaving Wei Yan alone, and the folk rumor that Zhuge Liang intended to frame Wei Yan was groundless.
References: Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Zizhi Tongjian, etc