Wei Yan was a famous general of the Shu Han Dynasty, after zhang fei, Guan Yu, Ma Chao and others died of illness one after another, Wei Yan became the veritable first general of the Shu Han Dynasty, he played a key role during zhuge liang's Northern Expedition, but at the moment when Wei Yan should have shined, but because of Zhuge Liang's death, he and Zhuge Liang's successor Yang Yi had a conflict, resulting in Wei Yanzhong rebelling and leaving, and finally being beheaded by the Shu Han general Ma Dai.
Although Wei Yan and Yang Yi were at odds, which almost led to the two of them fighting each other, Wei Yan did not betray Shu Han, nor did he do anything to apologize to Shu Han, so his death was an unjust case. After Wei Yan's death, Shu Han overturned the case for Wei Yan and placed the stone statues of Yang Yi and Ma Dai who killed Wei Yan in front of Wei Yan's tomb, causing the two to kneel down and apologize for Wei Yan, but there were 3 stone statues in front of Wei Yan's tomb, who was the other person?
Wei Yan was born in Liu Bei's department and was very trusted by Liu Bei, Wei Yan was capable of outstanding ability, wisdom and courage, he followed Liu Bei into the Sichuan campaign, and participated in the Battle of Hanzhong, etc., and established a great meritorious service. However, due to the fact that Zhang Fei, Guan Yu and others were too dazzling and too special, their light covered up Wei Yan's light, which made people pay less attention to Wei Yan. After Liu Bei took Hanzhong, most people believed that in the case of Guan Yu's town of Jingzhou, Liu Bei would give the strategic hanzhong to Zhang Fei to defend the town, but to everyone's surprise, Liu Bei chose Wei Yan.
Judging from the historical trend after that, Liu Beihui's eyes are pearls and his choice is very correct. Liu Bei asked Wei Yan, "Now that the Secretary of State is entrusted with a heavy responsibility, what does the Secretary of State want to do?" Wei Yan replied, "If Cao Cao comes from all over the world, please refuse it for the King; if you want to be a hundred thousand, please swallow it for the King." "During Wei Yan's reign as the Taishou of Hanzhong, he adopted the method of wrongly guarding the sieges, dispersing the Shu army to every dangerous pass (such as Luo Valley, Xie Valley, Meridian Valley, etc.) for heavy defense, and the remaining army remained in Hanzhong City to garrison, making it difficult for the Cao army to capture Hanzhong for more than ten years.
After Jiang Wei took over the Shu army, he changed Wei Yan's defensive strategy, and he withdrew all the soldiers and horses at the dangerous pass outside Hanzhong City to Hanzhong City, which allowed the Cao army to approach Hanzhong City without any obstacles, and also caused Hanzhong to be lost in less than a month in the hands of Jiang Wei. In terms of strategy and tactics, as well as strategic defense, Jiang Wei is far inferior to Wei Yan, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, but in fact, not as good as Wei Yan.
Liu Bei gave Hanzhong to Wei Yan, another strategic place in Jingzhou, and Liu Bei gave it to Guan Yu, who he trusted most, but Guan Yu made a strategic mistake and rushed to launch the Battle of Xiangfan, causing Shu Han to lose Jingzhou and destroy Sun Liu's alliance. This was also a key event in the transformation of the Shu Han from prosperity to decline. Because of Guan Yu's death, Zhang Fei was in pain in his heart, often borrowing wine to pour sorrow, and after getting drunk, he beat and scolded the soldiers, resulting in him being killed by his subordinates. This was not the first time that Zhang Fei had mishandled because of drinking, and Liu Bei's Xuzhou City was also taken by Lü Bu because Zhang Fei was drunk and mistaken.
After Liu Bei's death, although Wei Yan became the first general of the Shu Han Dynasty, his military strategy was very different from Zhuge Liang's, Wei Yan and Pang Tong were similar, they were willing to take risks for victory, but Zhuge Liang was cautious and did not like to take risks. The national strength of the Shu Han Dynasty was not as good as that of Cao Wei, and Zhuge Liang followed suit and used troops step by step, so that the opponent could easily guess his intention to use troops, and targeted defense, resulting in Zhuge Liang's several northern expeditions, all of which ended in failure. In this regard, Wei Yan was dissatisfied, and felt that Zhuge Liang was too careful, which affected the implementation of his strategy.
During Zhuge Liang's Sixth Northern Expedition, he fell seriously ill. At this time, they were facing Sima Yi, the famous commander of Cao Wei. Sima Yi's talent did not lose to Zhuge Liang, and Zhuge Liang was afraid that after his death, it would affect the morale of the Shu army, and Sima Yi took the opportunity to attack and defeat the Shu army, so he arranged for the Shu army to withdraw. However, when Zhuge Liang arranged the posthumous affairs, he was surrounded by Yang Yi, Jiang Wei and others, and there was no Wei Yan, and he also arranged for Wei Yan to break off.
After Zhuge Liang's death, Wei Yan did not want to retreat, he believed that the death of one person could not affect the overall situation of the Northern Expedition, but Yang Yi and others wanted to withdraw their troops. Wei Yan and Yang Yi originally had a contradiction, and this moment broke out completely, because Yang Yi was Zhuge Liang's chosen successor and occupied the moral high ground, which led to Wei Yan being charged with treason, abandoned by soldiers, and he was subsequently chased to death by the Shu Han general Ma Dai.
However, after Wei Yan was abandoned by his soldiers, he did not betray Shu Han and chose to surrender to Cao Wei, but fled to Hanzhong, but was chased and killed by Ma Dai, and then killed by Yang Yi. Wei Yan was a meritorious minister of the Shu Han Dynasty, and he was killed so easily that many people were indignant, so they placed the statues of Ma Dai and Yang Yi in front of Wei Yan's tomb, and let them kneel in front of Wei Yan's tomb to apologize to Wei Yan. It is said that Zhuge Liang arranged for Ma Dai to kill Wei Yan before his death, but in fact, this statement does not hold up, Wei Yan and Zhuge Liang have differences in tactics and strategy, but the two do not have a personal vendetta. At the same time, Zhuge Liang also attached great importance to Wei Yan, so he would not kill Wei Yan.
Zhuge Liang also had a certain responsibility for Wei Yan's death, and when he arranged the matter after his death, he should also call Wei Yan to his side, so as to alleviate the infighting between Wei Yan and Yang Yi, so that Wei Yan did not dare to disobey, but unfortunately Zhuge Liang did not do this, but Zhuge Liang did not have the heart to kill Wei Yan. Coupled with the fact that Zhuge Liang had a high status in the hearts of the Shu Han emperors, they could not let Zhuge Liang's statue kneel in front of Wei Yan's tomb.
The third person kneeling at Wei Yan's current time was probably Liu Yan. Liu Yan and Wei Yan have contradictions, Liu Yan is a literati, often talk about it, in Wei Yan's view, he is a soldier on paper, there is no practical talent, the two often disagree, Wei Yan quite despises Liu Yan, so the contradiction between the two is very deep. Coupled with the fact that Liu Yan was killed for slandering Liu Chan, it is likely that the third person kneeling in front of Wei Yan's tomb was Liu Yan, another enemy of Wei Yan.