As we all know about Zhuge Liang, he devoted all his efforts to Shuhan in his life. From a young, handsome, eloquent young man when he first came out of the mountains, he later became exhausted and exhausted. In the end, he was overworked and died of illness on the way to the Northern Expedition. , makes people feel emotional, and his loyalty and wisdom have become a representative and symbol, and a spirit that we praise. At that time, Liu Bei even entrusted him with the loneliness at the end, entrusting the entire country to him.
But, you know what? Before Liu Bei died, there was not only Zhuge Liang, but also another person, Li Yan. Moreover, although Liu Bei said to Zhuge Liang that his son could not take power himself, he handed over the general power to Li Yan, and from Li Yan’s actions and performance after that, he and Zhuge Liang seemed to cooperate quite poorly. Well, then why did Liu Bei hand over such great power to him as generals?
First, let’s take a look at the interaction between Li Yan and Zhuge Liang after Liu Bei’s death.
When Zhuge Liang was in Hanzhong, he was preparing for the Northern Expedition, but he had to have someone to guard the place, so he asked Li Yan to come, but Li Yan was unwilling. Re-division, forming Bazhou, he will manage, this move makes people feel doubtful.
Then in the eighth year of Jianxing, the Cao army from the north attacked and approached Hanzhong in three ways, so Zhuge Liang asked Li Yan to defend, and Li Yan shied away and said that Sima Yi had lured him into surrender. Jiangzhou immediately lost it. Zhuge Liang had to let his son guard Jiangzhou, and then ordered him to be the hussar general, and he just passed.
A year later, Zhuge Liang marched into Qishan, and Li Yan was responsible for the delivery of food and grass. At that time, because the road was relatively rough and difficult to walk, he asked Zhuge Liang to retreat first. But on the other hand, he went to the emperor and said that the food was sufficient, and he did not know what the prime minister meant by retreating. Later, it was Zhuge Liang who showed Li Yan’s letter to Liu Shan, which explained it clearly, so he used this to impeach Li Yan, and the emperor demoted him to an ordinary person and exiled him.
Judging from these few things, this Li Yan is completely opposed to Zhuge Liang. Why did Liu Bei let him hold the power? There may be several reasons for this.
The first is the issue of personal ability and loyalty. In the early days, when Li Yan was on his own, whenever there was a rebellion of the local people, he didn’t need to ask Liu Bei for instructions at all. He could take the initiative to quell the rebellion just by leading a little bit of his subordinates. In terms of talent and learning, he has participated in the formulation of Shuhan laws, which shows that his ability to lead troops to fight and administrative management has made great achievements. However, Li Yan was the one who took the initiative to surrender to Liu Bei in the early days. It can be said that over the years, he has withstood the test and made Liu Bei completely convinced of him.
The second is the issue of balance of power. Li Yan has a characteristic that he is a bit insistent, which often makes people feel bad, but for Liu Bei, it is the best candidate to balance the power between him and Zhuge Liang. He will not completely He obeyed Zhuge Liang’s command, and it proved to be exactly like that. In this way, Zhuge Liang’s power is prevented from being dominated by no one to contend with.
In the final analysis, Liu Bei was still afraid that Zhuge Liang would follow the old path of Cao Cao and coerce Liu Shan to become a minister of power, and it would be much better if he added someone here to deal with it.