In 234 AD, the ancient famous Zhuge Liangxue was in Wuzhangyuan, and the world was greatly shaken. A very inconspicuous little incident occurred immediately after that, Zhuge Liang's former "political enemy" Li Yan, died of anger. This is actually the view in Chen Shou's "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", I don't know if you agree?
However, there are also conspiracy theories on the Internet now that Li Yan not only heard the news of Zhuge Liang's illness and death, but also realized the "poisonous plan" laid out by Zhuge Liang before his death, and successively removed the two hidden dangers of Wei Yan and Yang Yi - so Li Yan felt threatened, and for the sake of family interests, he automatically "died of anger".
So, which view is credible?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="4" > the original intention of the first lord Bai Dito</h1>
Although he was also a chancellor, Liu Bei's initial arrangement for Li Yan was to command the army at Yong'an and let Zhuge Liang take charge of the military and political power in Chengdu, the center of power. Liu Bei did not do this by not reusing Li Yan, nor by using him to balance Zhuge Liang, but by being forced into a helpless move. After experiencing the Battle of Yiling, Shu Han lost not only the territory of Jingzhou, but also a large number of outstanding talents, which were already seriously injured. Moreover, the loss of Jingzhou represents the loss of the support of the Jingzhou clan, which is very unfavorable to the prospects of the Shu Han.
Therefore, when Liu Bei was alone in the White Emperor City, he took advantage of the fact that his mind was still sober, and he thought of Li Yan, who was quite senior. Li Yan had a special status, coming from Nanyang, Jingzhou, and initially defected to Liu Zhang in Yizhou. Liu Zhang's headquarters was mainly the Dongzhou Clique. This means that Li Yan actually has the attributes of the Jingzhou Group and the Dongzhou Group, and is one of the first candidates to stabilize the situation and avoid civil unrest in the Shu Han Dynasty.
If you can pay attention to the following picture, you will find that Yong'an is actually in the area of the White Emperor City, which is the front line of the Shu Han near Jingzhou, guarding the gateway into Shu, and also has the advantage of natural danger.
Liu Bei was able to hand over such an important place to Li Yan, indicating that he had high hopes for Li Yan, on the one hand, hoping that he could guard this entrance to prevent further invasion by Eastern Wu or Cao Wei; on the other hand, hoping that Li Yan would take advantage of the convenience of his dual attributes of Jingzhou and Dongzhou to stabilize the talents of these two groups remaining in Shu Han at this junction.
On the other hand, although Zhuge Liang was also born in Jingzhou, he was actually still too young, and his interactions with the Jingzhou shi clan were not deep, and he did not get along with the people of the Dongzhou group who had originally stayed with Liu Zhang. Zhuge Liang's true attributes should be the same as Zhao Yun, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei and others, belonging to Liu Bei's headquarters forces. Therefore, when Zhuge Liang was alone in The White Emperor,he was still not senior and prestigious enough, and Liu Bei thought of using Li Yan to help him stabilize the overall situation.
However, Li Yan did not see through these layers of intentions, thinking that his position was equal to Zhuge Liang's, and after the situation was stable, he did not gain the same power as Zhuge Liang in the center of power, and immediately became resentful and began to have various dissatisfaction with Zhuge Liang.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="36" > Li Yanbu died</h1>
If we want to discuss Li Yan's historical evaluation, it is certainly not as good as Zhuge Liang, who "bowed down to death and died later." Li Yan is a person who is relatively arrogant and arrogant, and he can't get along with many people. Li Yan's compatriot Chen Zhen once commented on him in front of Zhuge Liang, saying that his heart was not right; he also had a disagreement with his subordinate Yang Hong because of the relocation of the official residence, and he was so angry that people resigned from the government; there was also a subordinate named Wang Chong, who was also full of contradictions with Li Yan, and finally feared retaliation, and actually defected to Eastern Wu.
If you insist that all of the above is just an isolated case, then the conflicts between Li Yan and Zhuge Liang are really excessive.
In addition to opposing Zhuge Liang on the order, Li Yan had three major events against Zhuge Liang:
First, when Zhuge Liang gradually controlled the overall situation of the Shu Han Dynasty, Li Yan advised Zhuge Liang that he should "add nine tins." As we all know, "Jia Jiu Xi" was a ceremonial step before he was crowned king, and it was a sign of the clear determination of the courtiers to usurp the throne. The first ruler in history to do so was Wang Mang, cao cao in the same era, Sima Zhao later, and Huan Wen, Huan Xuan, Liu Yu, Xiao Daocheng, Xiao Yan, Chen Baxian, Gao Huan, Li Yuan, and Wang Shichong in later generations. Li Yan's move is a proper irony, replaced by everyone's disgust.
However, Zhuge Liang still put up with it, only refuted it, and did not take actual action.
Second, in 226 AD, when Zhuge Liang was preparing for the Northern Expedition, he sent Li Yan to guard Hanzhong, and Li Yan not only did not go, but also wanted Zhuge Liang to establish Bazhou and assign five counties to him. Li Yan's disobedience was already very excessive, and he was still engaged in splittism, which was already very serious, and if Sun Quan had arrested him and executed him earlier.
However, this time Zhuge Liang did not embarrass him much, but only limited Li Yan's military power, and then assigned him the task of transporting grain.
Third, in 231 AD, Zhuge Liang again went on the Northern Expedition, and Li Yan, who was in charge of supervising the transportation of grain and grass, deliberately did not distribute grain, and also sent a message to Zhuge Liang to tell him to withdraw his troops. When Zhuge Liang returned, Li Yan pretended to be surprised and said that there was enough grain and grass, so how did he withdraw his troops? In fact, Li Yan calculated very clearly, trying not to recognize the matter of "sending word to Zhuge Liang to withdraw troops" in order to conceal the fact that he did not distribute grain. This behavior should be the most excessive, if it is verified, it will be no problem to curse the Li Yan Nine Tribes.
Unfortunately, Li Yan's emotional intelligence was too low, and when encountering such a thing, even Zhuge Liang, who had a good temper, could not tolerate it. As a result, Zhuge Liang, in front of the empress dowager Liu Chan, passed on Li Yan's before and afterwords one by one, and after some confrontation, Li Yan could not rely on the account and had to admit his mistake.
This time Zhuge Liang finally died of heart, completely abandoned Li Yan, deposed his officials and exiled him, and reduced him to a commoner.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="37" > Zhuge Liang's heart is broad and moving</h1>
In fact, Zhuge Liang did not kill Li Yan, nor did he embarrass his sons and clansmen. This shows that Zhuge Liang has always had expectations for Li Yan, a colleague, and hopes that he can work with himself to assist Liu Chan, the lord of the future. It's just that Li Yan himself was blinded by the desire for power, and always thought that Zhuge Liang was his stumbling block, repeatedly confronting Zhuge Liang and betraying the trust of the ancestors Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang.
But even so, Zhuge Liang still did not lay down a dead hand and left Li Yan's life, which shows that his heart is really good, his heart is broad, and his personality is great.
Not only that, Zhuge Liang also reused Li Yan's son Li Feng. During the secret struggle between Li Yan and Zhuge Liang, Zhuge Liang also suggested that the later lord Liu Chan give Li Feng a promotion to the post of Governor of Jiangzhou; after Li Yan was deposed and exiled, the lord Liu Chan again requested that Li Feng be further promoted to the governor of Jiangzhou. He also encouraged Li Feng, the son of a "political enemy," in person, hoping that he could assist his heir, Jiang Wan. Although Li Yan did not cooperate with Zhuge Liang, Zhuge Liang still did not give up, hoping that Li Feng would not follow in his father's footsteps and concentrate on serving Shu Han.
From Zhuge Liang's attitude toward Li Yan's son, it is not difficult for us to see that Zhuge Liang has always been on official business and did not specifically suppress Li Yan and his family because of the struggle for power, on the contrary, Zhuge Liang still attached great importance to Li Yan and his family. The so-called claim that Li Yan felt threatened is simply unreasonable.
In this situation, if you are Li Yan, you will definitely have no place to look at yourself, and you are eager to kowtow to apologize. It is conceivable that during the exile period, Li Yan's heart will always be self-condemned, deep remorse and guilt, and mental torture.
Not a generous person in itself, Li Yan finally heard the news of Zhuge Liang's death, and the guilt in his heart would reach its limit. If he had cooperated with Zhuge Liang at the beginning, Zhuge Liang would not have suffered such a tragic end. Zhuge Liang was exhausted alive, in large part because of himself, Li Yan, who was already old and depressed for many years, where would he be able to withstand such a blow?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="38" > conspiracy theories don't make sense</h1>
As for Zhuge Liang's conspiracy theory of "designing" to get rid of Wei Yan and Yang Yi before his death, it was actually helpless like the previous lord Liu Beibai Emperor Tuoguo. Zhuge Liang was militarily conservative, and he also knew that Wei Yan belonged to the radical faction and would not follow the decision to retreat, so he could only entrust his successor to complete the plan to withdraw. If Zhuge Liang sent Jiang Huan, the heir, to lead the retreat plan, it would be easy for Chengdu to have no one to control the overall situation. Except for those who could calm Wei Yan slightly, I am afraid that there was no one but Wei Yan's "political enemy" Yang Yi.
If Zhuge Liang's arrangement was reversed, Yang Yi was inside and Jiang Huan was outside, it was not excluded that Yang Yi would use all resources in Chengdu, such as the empress dowager Liu Chan and the eunuch Huang Hao, etc., against Wei Yan, who refused to retreat outside, making it impossible for Jiang Yi to suppress Wei Yan, which could easily lead to chaos at both ends. Therefore, Zhuge Liang chose the most conservative retreat strategy, at least to allow Jiang Huan to retain the power center of Chengdu, in order to cope with the conflict between Yang Yi and Wei Yan that might erupt next.
The later facts proved that Zhuge Liang was right, and Jiang Huan took Chengdu as a aid and controlled the situation. It was just a pity that Wei Yan was sacrificed. As for Yang Yi, Zhuge Liang was not optimistic about it, and getting rid of Wei Yan's dirty work and letting him do it was also a way to protect Jiang Wan's image.
For Li Yan, his emotional intelligence is not high, but his IQ is not low, such a simple truth will naturally be understood. Coupled with the fact that he had been with Zhuge Liang for a long time and experienced various events, he already knew Zhuge Liang very well, and naturally understood Zhuge Liang's good intentions. However, in this way of being forced to damage the general, Li Yan would also blame part of the responsibility on himself--just imagine, if he had cooperated well with Zhuge Liang, helped to guard Hanzhong, and helped to train troops, at this time, he would have absolutely no problem in suppressing Wei Yan, and it was even possible to save this last first-class fierce general for Shu Han. Therefore, Li Yan pondered thoroughly, and it was nothing more than more self-blame.
In summary, Li Yan's "death of anger" is reasonable and in line with human nature, not the internet rumors of feeling threatened and self-destructible. It is only regrettable that Shu Han finally laid the groundwork for his defeat on the issue of Li Yan's link.