When it comes to the Three Kingdoms, Liu Bei must be known to everyone, as we all know, when the Three Kingdoms were established, Liu Bei occupied a very important position with the ability around him, and Liu Bei himself was often regarded as not having much strength, but only knowing people to make good use of those statuses.
However, this is not the case, Liu Bei himself still has his own wisdom, and the reason why people around him are willing to serve him is not only because he is the orthodox of the royal family, but also because of his behavior.
Speaking of the capable generals around Liu Bei, the most famous are none other than Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Zilong and Zhuge Liang. These people's loyalty to Liu Bei can be seen, and they are willing to go to the soup for Liu Bei and do whatever they want.
And Zhuge Liang, as Liu Bei's military master, was far-sighted, relying on his ingenuity to lay down for Liu Bei, and even when he was about to die, he was still planning how to preserve Liu Bei's inheritance. Such a loyal and good man, since he did not live up to Liu Bei's original three Gu Maolu, he was willing to put down his body and ask him to come out of the mountain.
To say that on weekdays, Liu Bei can be said to have great trust in Zhuge Liang, and since Zhuge Liang put down his cultivation life and came to Liu Bei to advise him, Liu Bei has not neglected him in the slightest.
It can be said that for Zhuge Liang's suggestion, Liu Bei obeyed his words. This is of course understandable, after all, before knowing Zhuge Liang, Guan Yu Zhang Fei, as Liu Bei's right hand, has always borne the responsibility of protecting Liu Bei. But in terms of strategy, Liu Bei lacked such a person.
Therefore, after Zhuge Liang came out of the mountain, Liu Bei discussed the plan with him, talked happily, and slept together. At that time, even Guan Yu and Zhang Fei couldn't understand why Liu Bei found such a good helper overnight, and believed in him wholeheartedly.
Logically speaking, Liu Bei finally wanted to give power to Zhuge Liang, but just when his life was in danger, he made an unexpected decision to entrust the military power to Li Yan. But that's actually where he excels.
1. Maintain stability
Liu Bei's life was brilliant, although he was a descendant of the Han family, but Liu Bei was born in a troubled world, and his father died early, so Liu Bei's life when he was a child was not satisfactory.
At that time, he and his mother depended on each other, and his mother, as a weak woman, was helpless against the blow of life, so Liu Bei took on the responsibilities of the family at a very young age, started a business of weaving straw shoes and selling, and lived a life of poverty.
However, Liu Bei himself is not disturbed by the status quo, he will not be defeated by the trials of life, he has always been proud and ambitious, and wants to get ahead and be shamed.
In fact, don't look at Liu Bei's weak and literary on the surface, but he is a solid civil and martial artist, otherwise how could he bravely sign up during the Yellow Turban Uprising and still make immortal battle merits? Because of the Yellow Turban Uprising, Liu Guan and Zhang were fortunate to get acquainted, and since then, the three brothers have died in the world, and Liu Bei's foundation has begun to be established step by step.
The reason why he went to invite Zhuge Liang was because Liu Bei thought that he lacked a talent around him, because Zhuge Liang's reputation has always been very large, coupled with Xu Shu's strong recommendation to Liu Bei, Liu Bei was determined to recruit Zhuge Liang. Everyone also knows that Zhuge Liang is a genius that Liu Bei invited three times, and you can imagine how much Liu Bei will pay attention to him.
Therefore, when Liu Bei's life was about to end, he called Zhao Yun, Zhuge Liang, and Li Yan to explain the distribution of power to them before leaving with confidence. In contrast, Zhuge Liang and Zhao Yun must be more valued by Liu Bei, but Liu Bei did not play cards according to common sense and handed over military power to Li Yan, while Zhuge Liang's task was to continue to preside over internal affairs as usual.
The reason why Liu Bei chose to do this is that he fully considered the state of the regime at that time.
Although the Shu Han was a collective, it was in a relatively decentralized state at that time. Liu Bei is naturally the leader, but the Shuhan Group can be divided into several parts, just like what we call a company today, several departments under a company.
These departments can be regarded as well water does not violate river water, but for internal stability, Liu Bei needs to constantly maintain it through interest relations.
In fact, for Liu Bei, although he is nominally dominant, in fact, other factions do not have much fear of him, and if there is a conflict of interest, Liu Bei is likely to be resisted by others, so for Liu Bei, handling internal relations has become a priority.
And Li Yan was more like an outsider to Liu Bei, because he did not belong to the "department" led by Liu Bei, that is, the so-called "Dongzhou faction". Liu Bei in other departments has already successfully done it, and naturally there are Zhuge Liang inside, while Liu Bei on the side of the Dongzhou faction needs to stabilize it, so Li Yan has become Liu Bei's right-hand man.
One of the purposes of Liu Bei's handover of military power to Li Yan was to maintain internal stability, as long as everyone had a harmonious relationship, there was no need to worry about provoking internal disputes, and Liu Bei could rest assured.
Second, fancy Li Yan's talent
Then since the military power was handed over to Li Yan, it was necessary to mention the character of Li Yan. Who is Li Yan? There is no doubt that he is a heavy minister on Liu Bei's side, but in fact, he entered Liu Bei's camp after several turns.
Li Yan's father was an official, and Li Yan was quite talented since he was a child, so he went to Liu Biao to take up a position, and then switched to Liu Zhang, and eventually fell under Liu Bei's side.
For Li Yan, Liu Bei still trusted him, because Li Yan had a credit that made Liu Bei deeply gratified, that is, he had assisted Liu Bei in pacifying Yizhou.
However, at this time, Liu Bei only appreciated Li Yan and did not give him a high position, and it was not until later in the Battle of Cao Liu Hanzhong, after Li Yan made meritorious contributions with his outstanding military talents, that Liu Bei realized that Li Yan was indispensable to Shu Han. Since then, Li Yan has made more combat achievements, and gradually began to occupy a high position, becoming Liu Bei's right-hand man.
But Li Yan is relatively not so smooth in dealing with people, he himself is more lonely, and he always seems to be separated from others.
Because of this, Liu Bei himself also understood that Li Yan could be reused, but because he couldn't guess his temperament, Liu Bei also had to worry about whether Li Yan would complain about the size of power after he left.
In addition, Li Yan's own military ability was already outstanding, so Liu Bei did not have to worry that he would make military mistakes.
However, although Li Yan is relatively arrogant, this does not affect his power. Li Yan had a high prestige in the army, not only because he was talented, but also because his father's status in Shu Han was quite high and he was deeply admired, so everyone also respected Li Yan.
Liu Bei's choice to give him military power was actually to soothe the heart of the army and tell everyone that he would not treat any loyal man who had served him.
Liu Bei was also witty, and although he nominally gave all the military power to Li Yan, in fact it was not much different from "verbal promises".
Li Yan seemed to have the power of the Shu Han, but Liu Bei did not let him live in the Shu land where he was supposed to be in charge, but let him guard the important realm, and once there was an enemy, he could easily defend it. Therefore, Liu Bei's move not only won Li Yan's loyalty, but also concentrated the real power in the hands of Zhuge Liang, who he trusted infinitely, which is really wonderful.
In this way, Liu Bei also solved the problem of how to resist external attacks, so his approach is really clever.
Third, the consideration of Zhuge Liang
Of course, Liu Bei chose to hand over military power to Li Yan for another very important reason, that is, to prevent the outside from being dissatisfied with Zhuge Liang.
After all, everyone knows that Zhuge Liang is a popular man around Liu Bei, and Liu Bei trusted him especially when he was alive, so if Liu Bei concentrated all his power on Zhuge Liang alone, it is difficult to guarantee that others will not be dissatisfied with this. Therefore, for the sake of the overall situation, Liu Bei must choose the principle of checks and balances and maintain absolute fairness.
In Liu Bei's heart, Zhuge Liang has long been in an irreplaceable position, and Zhuge Liang himself knows it. So even if Liu Bei doesn't say it, Zhuge Liang should be able to understand Liu Bei's good intentions. Liu Bei did not give military power to Zhuge Liang, of course, not because of Zhuge Liang's lack of ability, but because of the difficult decision made for the sake of the overall situation.
In fact, to say that Liu Bei is not completely at ease with Zhuge Liang. Although he knew that Zhuge Liang was loyal to him, he was not sure whether Zhuge Liang would do his best to treat his son Liu Chan after he left. Therefore, his approach is also a test for Zhuge Liang, and he hopes that Zhuge Liang can be as dedicated as before. And this time the Tuo Gu is actually a reminder of Zhuge Liang's dark poke.
After making this decision, Liu Bei drove Hexi soon after. This proved to be correct, and after he left, Shu Han did maintain a calm state inside.
As for the fact that Li Yan was later degraded as a commoner by Zhuge Liang because of his slack work, there were all kinds of love and hatred between Zhuge Liang and Li Yan, that is all a later story. The only certainty is that Liu Bei had done his best to effectively avoid the threat that Li Yan might pose to Shu Han.
epilogue
All in all, the reason why Liu Bei, a generation of Ming lords, chose to give military power to Li Yan instead of Zhuge Liang before leaving, was mainly out of consideration of the adjustment of internal disputes, checks and balances of power, reminders and vigilance, including trust in Li Yan's military talents. In short, Liu Bei's decision was very wise, and he considered the progress of the matter in an all-round way, which was really clever.
However, the world still has some criticism about Liu Bei's decision, some people think that Liu Bei's approach is unreasonable, but on the whole, such a move does resolve a lot of unnecessary trouble, save a lot of contradictions and disputes, and also achieve his goal. Everything has pros and cons, but as long as you can maximize the harvest, it is already a good ending.