Preface
After the defeat in the Battle of Yiling, Liu Bei was really powerless about the future of Shu Han. He never accepted that his second brother Guan Yu died under the treachery of Soochow.
As the eldest brother, he was unable to avenge Guan Yu, and all kinds of events exhausted Liu Bei. In 223 AD, Liu Bei was about to finish his life in the White Emperor City.
Before he died, he summoned Zhuge Liang, Zhao Yun, Li Yan and others to explain the future. In this period of entrustment, what impressed us the most was what Liu Bei said to Zhuge Liang: "If the heir can be supplemented, he can be supplemented; ”
As a result, Li Yan's important role will be ignored. Zhuge Liang was exhausted about Shu Han, Zhao Yun was a loyal general, and Liu Bei summoned these two people, and everyone had no doubts, but what happened to Liu Bei's summoning of Li Yan?
even transferred full military power to Li Yan.
Orphans at the end of life
In the "Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms: The Biography of Li Yan", it is recorded: "Yan and Zhuge Liang were bequeathed and assisted by the young master; ”
When Liu Bei was in Tuogu, he handed over the military power to Li Yan, the imperial power to Liu Chan, and the political power to Zhuge Liang. Although they are co-assistants, Li Yan can only be regarded as the second assistant, and Zhuge Liang is Liu Chan's first assistant.
It seems that the two are on an equal footing, and even Li Yan's power seems to be greater than Zhuge Liang, but in fact, Zhuge Liang still controls Li Yan.
Some netizens once commented: "Liu Bei handed over the military power to Li Yan to use Li Yan to balance Zhuge Liang, he was afraid that Zhuge Liang would seize power." ”
Such a statement is convincing, but Liu Bei is a person who knows people and is good at his duties, he will not be able to see that Li Yan is not Zhuge Liang's opponent?
And now is the critical moment for Tuogu, stupidly using Li Yan to balance Zhuge Liang, if you don't do it, it will have the opposite effect, isn't this a snake to add to it?
The failure to hand over the military power to Zhuge Liang was not because Liu Bei did not trust Zhuge Liang, but considering the future development of Shu Han, Liu Bei thought that it would be more appropriate to hand it over to Li Yan.
Although Zhuge Liang's military ability is also extraordinary, if you compare his military strength with his political power, then it is a little inferior.
No matter who it is, the energy is limited, and it is impossible to do everything by himself, even if it is the "genius of the world" Zhuge Liang, it is the same, and for Zhuge Liang, Liu Bei has another trust.
叛未来降
It is recorded in the "Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms". Li Yanzi Wenyuan was born in a family of Hanzhong County, he was smart and studious when he was young, and he showed military talent at a very young age, holding military books in his hands all day long.
In the early years, he was under the command of Yizhou Mu Liu Zhang. Later, after Liu Bei entered Yizhou, Li Yan became one of Liu Bei's close generals.
Liu Bei has been entrenched in Jingzhou for a long time, and Yizhou is not Liu Bei's territory. However, Jingzhou was the land of four wars, and Liu Bei urgently needed a stable territory as a large rear, so he set his sights on Yizhou, who was also a "clan relative of the Han family" Liu Zhang.
Liu Zhang was also unclear, and was deceived by Zhang Song, and invited Liu Bei to enter Yizhou to help him resist Cao Cao together, and never wanted to "lure the wolf into the house".
Liu Zhang didn't expect that Liu Bei was not here to help, but had ideas about his position as the "Lord of Yizhou". He hurriedly sent Li Yan to lead his soldiers and horses to Mianzhu to resist Liu Bei, but Li Yan and his subordinates surrendered to Liu Bei.
So that Liu Bei did not spend a single soldier to get Mianzhu and obtained a large number of materials in the city. Mianzhu is very close to Chengdu, and there is no doubt that Mianzhu is a very important strategic place, which shows Liu Zhang's trust in Li Yan.
However, Li Yan's defection brought great help to Liu Bei and accelerated Liu Bei's progress in seizing Yizhou. In the end, Liu Zhang had to open the city and surrender.
Internal contradictions in Shu Han
Liu Bei started halfway, so the power of Shu Han was also obtained by many forces. Shu Han can be roughly divided into three groups, the first is the Jingzhou faction that has been following Liu Bei, the second is the Dongzhou faction formed from Liu Yan, and the last is the Yizhou faction formed by Liu Zhang's old subordinates in Yizhou.
It was Liu Bei who has been maneuvering from it, and the adjustment of all parties has reached the balance of the three parties. The Jingzhou faction is headed by Liu Bei and has always been loyal.
The base camp of Shu Han has been in Yizhou for a long time, and the Yizhou faction often enjoys the benefits of the Shu Han group, and only the Dongzhou faction is not easy to deal with.
In order to get closer to the Dongzhou faction, Liu Bei also took the local wealthy family of the Dongzhou faction, Wu Yi's sister as his wife. Relying on nepotism as a bridge was not uncommon during the Three Kingdoms period, but if Liu Bei died, the Dongzhou faction was afraid that it would not be so obedient
The solution that Liu Bei thought of was to win over Li Yan, Li Yan is the representative of the Dongzhou faction, he is not a historical role of "playing soy sauce", on the contrary, Li Yan's strength is very strong.
Therefore, before Liu Bei died, he handed over the military power of Shu Han to Li Yan, and also sealed it with a high-ranking official Houlu, in order to stabilize the heart of the Dongzhou faction, even if Liu Bei was not there, Shu Han could also get the support of the Dongzhou faction.
The reason for Li Yan
Yong'an White Emperor City is not only a place for Liu Bei to be alone, he is also a strategic place for Shu Han to face Eastern Wu.
At this time, there was still a high state of tension between Shu Han and Eastern Wu, and as soon as Liu Bei died, Cao Wei and Eastern Wu would definitely take the opportunity to attack Shu Han. Liu Bei left Li Yan in Yong'an and handed over all the military power to him, which shows how much Liu Bei attaches importance to Li Yan.
Although Li Yan said that he was not well-known, he was able to be civil and martial, and he could not only govern the locality, but also lead troops to fight. After Li Yan surrendered to Liu Bei, he was appointed as Qianwei Taishou.
At that time, in order to get the people out of the predicament and control them, Liu Bei selected five people to formulate laws, that is, to formulate rules and regulations, known as "Shu Branch", and Li Yan was among them.
In 218 AD, when Liu Bei was on his northern expedition to Hanzhong, Ma Qin and Gao Sheng of Shu rebelled and gathered tens of thousands of troops, intending to drive Liu Bei away and claim the king.
At this time, Liu Bei was leading a large army to the north to attack Hanzhong, and if he went back to quell the rebellion, the advantages gained on the front line would be in vain, and he would even be chased and killed by Cao Cao.
At this critical moment, Li Yan stood up, he personally led 5,000 soldiers to fight with the rebels, and quelled the rebellion led by Ma Qin and Gao Sheng in one fell swoop, so that Liu Bei could put all his energy into the war in the north, so as to successfully take Hanzhong.
handed over Yongan to Li Yan, which was actually a hot potato for Li Yan. Because Yong'an would be invaded by the other two parties at any time, Li Yan could not leave Yong'an and return to Chengdu to establish his own power.
Moreover, Li Yan is the core figure of the Dongzhou faction, if any accident happens in Yong'an, the forces of the Dongzhou faction will not sit idly by, and if there is no war, they still need to stick to their posts. Liu Bei handed over the military power to Li Yan, he must have thought about it a long time ago.
Ousted Li Yanjun from power
After Li Yan was entrusted to be orphaned, things did not develop as Liu Bei expected. In fact, it is the opposite, Li Yan once wrote to Liu Chan, asking for Zhuge Liang to be sealed Jiuxi.
Jiajiu Xi is equivalent to telling the world, "I want to rebel, I want to be the emperor." Zhuge Liang certainly understood the meaning, and solemnly rejected Li Yan's request.
In 231 AD, Zhuge Liang went out of Qishan to crusade against Cao Wei. Li Yan wrote to Zhuge Liang: "There is not enough grain and grass, and I hope that the prime minister will retire." Zhuge Liang considered that it was the intersection of summer and autumn, the weather was often rainy, and it was difficult for the soldiers to fight for a long time, so he retreated.
When Zhuge Liang's class returned to the court, Li Yan wrote to Liu Chan to impeach Zhuge Liang: "Obviously you have the ticket to victory, why suddenly withdraw from the army!"
Zhuge Liang had already seen through Li Yan, and he unhurriedly asked people to submit the letters exchanged between the two to Liu Chan, and then many ministers jointly wrote to request that Li Yan be removed from military power and transferred from the center of power.
epilogue
After Li Yan became a commoner, Zhuge Liang was still the person he trusted the most, and he always firmly believed that one day Zhuge Liang would be able to enable himself again. But at this time, Zhuge Liang was in the Northern Expedition again and again, and he was haggard and had no more effort to manage Li Yan.
In the end, Zhuge Liang went out of Qishan seven times, all of which ended in failure, and finally died of illness in Wuzhangyuan, "a strong man died before he was paid", which became a portrayal of Zhuge Liang's life. And Li Yanhou sighed: "There is no one in the world who can revive me!" and finally died of grief.
Liu Bei entrusted Gu Zhuge Liang as the upright, and Li Yan as the deputy were all carefully designed arrangements by him, with the purpose of balancing the forces of all sides and consolidating the power of the Han Dynasty.
It is a wise move to say that Liu Bei is lonely and Li Yan, and it is okay to use people without noticing. We can't criticize and accuse the ancients from the point of view of today's people, at least for Liu Bei, Li Yan definitely has a vital role in a certain time.